Song of Sorrows and Fate: A Dark Fantasy Romance (The Broken Kingdoms Book 9)
Song of Sorrows and Fate: Chapter 33

The Cursed King. His mortal Queen of Choice. I counted the first familiar faces on my fingers, subtly, at my side where no one would notice.

The Shadow Queen. Gods, I hated that ring on her finger. The damn thing took a particularly brutal death for Calista to set it on its path. The Shadow King. He seemed as bothered with all this chatter as me.

There was Calista’s Sun Prince. I respected him the most. He’d been like Annon had been—a brother. Even locked in madness, I knew through the bond with Calista that the Sun Prince protected her.

Next to him was his consort. The pyre fae.

I narrowed my eyes. There was something burning from Tor. A nudge, a path unseen. With Calista near, I could damn near see when significant paths of fate might fall into place. And I felt something with the pyre fae. His life could possibly change. Soon.

The dreary part of these senses were that I did not know if it was a change for good or ill.

My gaze swept over to the far side of the table where Niklas bent beside the first Night Folk king to be tangled in one of Calista’s paths. Arvad. The father of one of the final fated royals.

Arvad abandoned his chair, followed by two other men, and swept from the hall with the Falkyn.

I hoped they found a way to heal Lilianna. She had played a grand role in the steps that brought my mate back to me.

Perhaps, the notion of speaking with them sent my head spinning, but I would always honor them. I would always value them for the dangerous roles they played in this tale. The way they aided Calista on her own path without even knowing they did so.

My attention went to the head of the table. The Raven Queen. She’d been a princess when last I saw her as a boy. She’d always been kind to me. We had spoken some when I was still her brother’s ward.

I doubted she’d recall it. Curses had a way of tangling thoughts into confusing memories.

Upon a glance at the final seat at the table, my chest cramped. Instead of no one taking note of my secret assessment, I was met with the burn of dark, golden eyes, folded arms, and a general sense of annoyance.

The Golden King looked like he might want to toss the drinking horn in front of him at my head.

Calista led us into the room. Under Ari’s scrutiny, I hung back, half-drenched in the shadows of the alcoves and doorways. While the others embraced Calista, inspecting her for dreary wounds, my blood turned to ice when he rose from his seat and crossed the dim hall.

Ari said nothing for a moment, merely kept his arms folded over his chest, and faced the room, shoulder to shoulder with me.

Then, “I’m ready now.”

I didn’t know how to respond, so I said nothing.

“Whenever you are,” he went on. “I’m ready.”

Cautiously, I turned to face him. “For?”

“Oh, for us to discuss the lovely bond we share. Or did you think me so dense that I wouldn’t realize you are Wraith—the man who walked me through a damn fae sleep. If you thought such things, that’s rather foolish. You know me well enough to understand I am too impressively sharp not to notice.”

“I do not recall much sharpness, but I recall an aggravating tongue.”

Where I hoped to offend enough that he might leave so I could hide the trepidation in my stance, my tone, my damn face, the Golden King failed me. He was neither offended, nor keen on my disquiet. Well, if he was, he did not let it stop him.

Ari laughed. “Such a somber sod you are. Why do you not speak to me? After all that happened in that sleep, I face you here, yet you say nothing.”

I stared at my hands. “Dream walking is not the same as the waking world.”

Ari’s face softened. “Where have you been, Silas?”

“You recall my name?”

“Do I recall your name?” Ari didn’t look at me with the fear of some. He didn’t even pay mind to the hint of the scar on my face. “You are the man who saved me. You brought me back to my wife, to a daughter. To life. I would be lost if not for you.”

“I revealed a few truths.”

“Ah. Another modest hero, I see. Someday you bleeding fools will learn to boast your strengths and feats instead of claiming them as menial tasks. Let us not diminish what you have done, what I know you did.”

“And what did I do?” My eyes narrowed.

“I know you fought to replace me again when Davorin overcame me in that sleep. I don’t know how, but you were distressed when he appeared. I’m certain it was you who found a way to keep us reeling, to keep him away from me long enough to survive it. So, yes. I remember your name. Though, I do like Wraith. It’s rather intimidating, don’t you think?”

As they often did, words failed me.

I closed my eyes when Ari placed a palm on my shoulder. “Where have you been?”

“Here,” was all I could say.

“With the hidden Rave?”

“With silence.”

He hesitated. I didn’t want pity, but when I looked, it wasn’t there. Only understanding, perhaps a touch of sympathy was written on his features, but not pity. “I see. Not really, but I’m sure I will see soon enough. I’m guessing you haven’t had much company all this time, though.”

Gods, I almost smiled. Like an instinct. “A few ghosts.”

“Explains why such a crowd seems to frighten you more than battle. Since this is the case, I’ll make you an offer: should you have something to say, but do not wish to speak, then you tell me. As you know, well and good, I am marvelous at speaking for others. Over others. Around others. Really, anything you ask of me, I’m sure my tongue and voice can handle it.”

Ari winked, clapped a hand on my shoulder, then returned to his seat beside Saga.

By now, all eyes were on us. Most followed Ari as he traipsed with all the arrogance I remembered of the man, then like one head, gazes landed on me.

“I’ll just say it,” Calista said, waving her hands. “That way none of you sods will be so brazen like this fool—” She opened a palm to Ari.

“Check your words, Cal,” Ari said. “I’m no fool. Merely the boldest of us all.”

“Or the greatest pest.”

“It is a possibility, I suppose.”

She snorted. “Before you all start to bother him, this is Silas—my father’s ward. Yes, he is the man from Ari’s fae sleep. Yes, he is my Whisper. Yes, he is the first bond that everyone so vaguely put out there—”

“I knew it.” Valen slapped the table and pointed a finger at Ari. “Fifteen silver shim, you bastard.”

“When the hells did we even make such a gamble, My King?” Ari looked affronted.

“At the docks when we left Gunnar’s vows. Kase, tell him.”

“I recall the bargain included a day of Ari not speaking,” said the Shadow King.

“Then your ears would bleed from longing,” Ari snapped back. “But it doesn’t matter, King Valen has made this up in his head.”

Valen balked. “We said the ward was connected to Cal.”

“Exactly. We said. Truth be told, I said. You all followed. If anyone is to win such a gamble, it is me.” Ari leaned against Saga until she wrapped her arms around his shoulders from behind, her palms on his chest. With a nod and wave, he said, “Carry on.”

Valen leaned closer to his own wife. “He’s acting too much like the king he was when we first met.”

Ari cocked his head. “Magnificent?”

“Annoying.”

Ari grinned like he’d, at last, won the game.

How did Calista keep up with them all when they spoke like this?

“Go on, Cal.” Sol Ferus seemed to be the calmer voice of reason. “What’s happened here?”

“As I said.” Calista glanced over her shoulder. “Silas is . . . well, he’s mine. He’s part of me, my power and his are one. We brought you here because . . . once the first bond was restored, the song that broke us apart was ended. The world returned to the beginning. I didn’t know it would happen, but I wanted you all safe.”

“We saw the beacon,” the choice queen—Elise—said gently. “You did lead us here.”

“Eryka.” Saga glanced to a pale woman who was half asleep on the shoulder of a lithe-looking man. A woman with a scar much like mine carved down her face. Only she did not hide it.

She fluttered her misty eyes, looking to the Raven Queen.

“You keep saying that same thing,” said Saga. “Back to the beginning.”

“Stars speak when they speak,” the fae woman returned.

“We’ve heard it a great deal too,” Calista offered, then paused for a moment. “And the tale was always meant to return to the first bond that began it. I’ve been . . . well, I’ve . . .”

Her voice kept trailing off.

I am terrified. Her words were a poisonous dart to my chest.

Unease was heavy on her shoulders, the way they slumped, the way her spine curved, it was clear. There wasn’t a moment of thought or hesitation. It was as though my feet moved on their own accord, with a strange desperation to ease her burden more than I cared for my own.

I touched the back of her arm. Calista jolted, but the smile was damn near instantaneous. It brightened the room, chased away the night.

She let out a long breath and leaned into my side.

“I don’t know how to say it,” she admitted. “In truth, I’m still wrapping it all up in my mind, but . . . I am your storytellers. From the beginning, it has been me. I’ve been on this path, searching for my heart bond since the world shattered.”

I squeezed her arm with what I hoped was something reassuring.

Sol rose from his seat. “What do you mean, you are our storytellers?”

She licked her lips and held his gaze, unwavering. “I mean, I met you before those cells in Ravenspire, Lump. I saw you as a small boy, a little heartbroken that you had a new tiny brother.” She chuckled and cast a look toward Valen Ferus. She drifted to the Shadow King and Queen. “I mean, I was there when a queen’s ring was lost to her enemies.”

The Shadow Queen’s mouth parted, but whether it was stun, or confusion, she didn’t speak.

“And you.” Calista looked to Ari. “I was there when a boy needed rescuing after slaughter, so he could free the heart of a beloved aunt who had been lost to me. So he could rise to his destiny as the fated Golden King.”

Perhaps, for the first time in our acquaintance, Ari Sekundär did not speak.

“That is what I mean, Lump. I’ve always been there.” Calista looked to Elise Ferus. “That is what I meant, Kind Heart, when we met in that tomb, and I spoke of storytellers before me.”

“Cal,” Elise said, a catch to her voice. “You told me those storytellers were killed.”

With a jerky sort of nod, Calista forced a quivering smile. “And they were.”

“Bleeding gods.” Sol’s eyes went wide. “Live and live again. That was the curse your father cast. You cannot die.”

“I assure you, I can,” she said, rubbing a hand over her slender throat. “I have. A few times, as it turns out.”

“And you didn’t know?” Saga rose from the table like Sol, but approached Calista, taking her hands in hers. “You didn’t remember?”

“Not until the final moments.” She flicked her gaze back to me and took my hand. “That is when I would replace those whispers in the dark. When the song of fate would take over and finish the tale.”

“You both have been dying over and over.”

I clenched my eyes. The blood, the pain, the fear, watching it over and over again was a plague in my mind I feared I would never escape. No matter how much I touched her, kissed her, held her, it would always be there.

Calista’s voice shook. “Silas did not fade. As a cruel gift of the Norns for what my father had done, he was left to finish the tales, and wait for it to begin again. He was left to . . . guide me back. Annon was cursed to walk with me. Makes a bit of sense now, doesn’t it, how he told me we’d said goodbye before.”

“Cal.” Saga stole her from my grip. I wasn’t particularly pleased, but stepped back to let her embrace Calista. “I don’t understand the purpose of it.”

“Same purpose as your curse, so that ugly sod out there couldn’t replace me. Hard to track the bloodline of House Ode if it does not have a true existence.”

“Bleeding hells.” Sol sat back in his seat again. “You were Greta. Is that what you mean?”

Valen scrubbed his face. “You were the enchantress.”

Calista looked away as if ashamed. “We had to do things, you understand, don’t you? We had to cast the words of your heart song. None of them were simple or kind or easy. Fate was punishing us for manipulating the whole bleeding world. To replace our way back, we would have to fight. Your curse wasn’t only to keep you alive and safe from that wretched Ice King; I knew it was the way for you to replace my Kind Heart.”

“Calista, if you think we are angry, you’re wrong.” Valen took hold of his wife’s hand and kissed two missing fingertips. “I would not change the path that has brought us here. It is pain-ridden, filled with loss, but our lands did grow stronger. We are stronger. None of us would give up our families for a bit of comfort, right?”

“Some of us would not be here,” said the son of the Night Folk princess—Gunnar, if I recalled it correctly. He took his star seer’s hand tightly.

“Speak for yourself. I could’ve done without the separation from Tor,” Sol said, but there was a lightness in his tone as he returned to his chair and placed a hand on his consort’s leg. “I’m simply saying, the curse of madness was quite disconcerting, little bird.”

Calista let out a wet chuckle. “Apologies, Lump. You always were the clever prince.”

“Debatable,” Valen muttered.

“Had to be something with your mind to satisfy that old Ice King.”

“So you were there,” the Shadow Queen said, holding up the silvery glass ring. “Those legends of the first and second families of memory workers. You were there.”

“They were losing,” Calista said. “The first family. I said the words, Silas sang the song, and it set the ring on a bloody path back to the proper heir. Without the song, the ring might’ve been lost. Perhaps, never restored, and the hatred from our wretched battle lord would’ve consumed a fated gift of devotion. I am sorry your folk were killed, your majs and your dajs, in order to reach the end.”

At that, Calista cast a hesitant look toward Ari who had hardly budged.

“I wish I could’ve stopped what happened, Ari,” she admitted. “That sod is cruel, and I think he sensed your importance; he knew the importance your maj and daj played in the court of House Ode. He took his revenge on them.”

The smith’s daughter. The cartographer. I was there that day when House Sekundär found its song. I hated showing the truth to him, yet was glad Ari got to see his folk again.

“You sent the rogue Night Folk to free me,” Ari said, voice low.

Calista nodded. “We did. It was the final death before I ended up in the cells of Castle Ravenspire, restored to my true name.”

Ari dragged a hand through his hair. “I always wondered how they found me in the damn nick of time.” He gave Calista a small grin. “Now, I know.”

Saga sat beside her husband again, gently twirling his hair around her fingers until the tension seemed to fade from his shoulders.

“To replace my way back,” Calista said, hugging her middle, “the gifts of fate needed to be restored to the new paths Silas and I sang on that horrid night we found Saga. The ones you all saw that have brought us together.”

“All right,” the Shadow King said. “Well, now what? What happens now that we are back to the beginning?”

Calista slipped her fingers into my hand. “The curse is done, the tale is ended. Now . . . we face this end at the mercy of new fates, new paths.”

“So should you fall in battle . . .” Sol began.

“I wake in the Otherworld, Lump,” Calista admitted. “The same as all of you, so don’t bleeding fall.”

“Maj will want to know this,” Valen said, looking at his brother and sister. “She began our tale, she was the one who arranged for Etta to sleep under our curses.”

The Shadow Queen rose. “May we see it, Cal?”

“Take it.” Calista tapped her head. “But then we all must rest. We won’t have peace for long, and we all know it.”

As if summoned, one of the fae warriors entered the hall while the queen took hold of Calista’s memories. They gave the report. Sea fae were claiming the shores, led by the darkness of the battle lord. He told the royals it would be a matter of time before they attempted to take Hus Rose once the pyre burned out between us.

“Their Rave are still in position,” said the warrior. “Archers are trained on their rising camps. There are two Western spell casters securing the wards around the gates. Should we do the same with Elixists and any fae from the isles?”

“Hells, why are you all looking at me?” Calista said when those at the long table faced her.

Elise grinned. “You are queen here, Calista. We all have a say now. So what say you?”

Calista gave me a strained look. “I say we’d be wise to protect our gates. For now, we keep Davorin out, but we replace a way to sneak up behind him. There is a tale here. A way to end this, I can feel it. We simply need to replace the path.”