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

Until the last Rave.

A haunting memory of Riot Ode demanding the same spilled through me like a poison I couldn’t escape.

Riot Ode said that command, and he never left the battlefield.

I flicked the latch off the sheath of the blade on my hip. A strong seax. I’d cared for it all this time. A true Rave blade. A dagger paired with it remained at Hus Rose, but this would serve well enough now.

It had kept me company, and I knew, somehow I bleeding knew, a day would come when I would raise it in battle. With the emptiness of my existence, I had little else to fret about. I’d nearly grown obsessive caring for the blade, growing accustomed to the hilt, the weight.

The sword would be strong. It’d serve us well.

Calista looked to my movements, watching with a stoic expression as I unsheathed the blade. She swallowed thickly; I could see the movement of it in her throat, and I slowly took out a dueling pair of knives. Good for throwing and quick movements. Both of which she’d developed into strengths.

Another horn blared into the dawn. The Rave archers shouted from the walls. I watched as the igniter leveled a torch against the arrows, setting them ablaze.

Commands roared from several of the higher ranked captains on the walls. They shouted at their warriors, much like Olaf shouted commands to the whole of the Rave. Arrow points aimed toward the fading starlight. Pale blue burned against the last stars fighting for presence in the sky.

Now, the peace of the dawn burned in anger and fire.

Shouts from the approaching ships grew louder. Strange commands floated to us across the thrashing seas, a few were hums and ethereal songs. With their singing, the sea thrashed more. A thought flooded my head, spilling to my chest, as though some connection drew my seidr toward the sea.

“Calista,” I whispered. “Listen to them, can you sense it?”

She closed her eyes for a few breaths before they snapped open. “There is power in their song.”

“Their magic—it hails from their voice. Like ours.”

She grinned with a perfect touch of violence. “Then I suppose we ought to aim our blades at their throats.”

I spun the sword in my hand. A new determination to slit as many throats as I could thrummed through me with every beat of my heart.

“Olaf!” Calista shouted. “Take their tongues and their ability to sing.”

The captain arched a brow, then grinned. “As you say.”

He roared the commands down the line of Rave. The archers altered their positions. Instead of raining fiery arrows on the ships, they would hold. They would aim at the actual sea folk to rid them of their power.

“Sing us a song,” the seer, Forbi, said with a light playfulness in her tone. She practically danced about with her sisters, casting more rune spells that ignited emerald fire across the shore.

Calista stepped into the center of the Row. I followed, taking hold of her hand. Her skin was flushed as if flames boiled in her veins. It sparked heat in my blood, a need to release some burst of power. The same always took hold when our seidr connected into one fierce song.

“I have words,” Calista murmured. “Sing with me?”

“Always.”

Calista turned into me. We dropped our blades and laced our hands together, brows touching.

“A tale of old, returns anew.

Brought forth by bonds that bind the few.

Love of choice. Devotion of heart.

Honor and passion brought the start.

In dawn’s soft light, a path is growing.

To bring about a gift so cunning.

In realms of darkness, the plan is spun.

To end a game long ago begun.

Find each place for which to rise.

As gifts of fate greet darkness on the tides.”

Her voice was soft, yet strong. I held her close as each word drew out more melodic sounds. My voice joined with hers. Low, deep, and dark. It intertwined with her words in a tune not heard before, but one that was silk over the tongue. It was a harmony that burned in my throat until my body trembled against the sting.

With each word our seidr tangled, almost vibrant enough I could make out the threads spinning tightly into a knotted rope of a path.

A new tale. We were singing paths that had never been seen before. Our power could twist fate, but it did not bring guarantees. We were merely opening a way to give us a chance, to puzzle out the words, to find out steps, and make our plans.

Should we succeed, then the power of a fated path was brilliantly fierce.

Should we succeed, there was chance even a fae as strong as Davorin could never come close to overtaking us.

Calista slumped against me when her words ended. My tune faded off, and the burn throbbed in my chest as seidr took hold of the new song, and pulsed it into the bleeding soil, into the damn universe, to make it so.

“Gods, I feel like I might topple over.”

I encircled her waist with my arms, keeping her upright. “Deep songs are taxing, but look.”

Calista lifted her gaze to the shore. Subtle, but there was a glimmer of brilliant light. Like chains between the Rave warriors, seidr flowed through them, bolstering them, granting strength.

“Is that us?”

“It’s seidr. Your daj used to do the same during battle.”

Olaf’s laughter drew my attention. “Quite reminiscent of Riot Ode.”

“See,” I said. “His song would bolster his warriors, alter the hearts and desires of his enemies. I don’t think we’ll suddenly see those ships turn around, but our song is strengthening our folk. Like the king kept his folk safer and sturdier on the battlefield, so will this.”

“I don’t need to write it anymore, right?” she asked softly.

I placed a hand on the side of her face. “Ink and flame served as a tether between us once. But we’re together now. Our voices will burn the words into the unseen fate of this world. Together, we are stronger than any bit of ink or flame ever was.”

Her chin quivered and she looked to the sea. “Yet we’ve not seen anyone from the other kingdoms. I’m not so certain we did much good.”

True enough, I’d expected the royals from other kingdoms to be there, yet we stood alone. Still, the burn from the seidr just now was forceful enough I fought the urge to double over. The last time I’d felt such a surge of power, we’d shattered a world. I had to hope it would aid us now.

I lifted my sword from the ground and handed Calista her knives. “We don’t know what fate has in store. What I do know is I will fight with you—to the end if needed—on this day. That is what I can do right now.”

Calista gave me a smile, soft but powerful. She spun one of her knives, then faced the shore. I didn’t need to ask her plans. I knew. In the same step, we rushed toward the line of Rave warriors together.

The thwang of bowstrings rose over the commands of Rave officers. Fiery arrows sliced through the morning light. From the edges of the newly fashioned fortress, warriors shouted as the flames in the sky acted like a beacon leading us forward.

The flood of Rave shields and blades created a formidable barrier along the shore. Still, a fleet of ships barreled through the dark waves. Shouts and hisses spat back at us when the arrows met their marks.

A few bodies toppled into the tides as fire from the arrows devoured the flesh of their spines. Tides frothed with iridescent fins, and hauntingly lovely voices filled the air.

There was a tug at my gut, a need to follow the voice. Slight, perhaps, for me, but more than one Rave lowered his shield; more than one man staggered forward to the sea, as though caught on a hook and lured into the tides.

“Hold your bleeding positions,” Calista shouted. “What the hells is wrong with you? It’s shrieking!”

“They cannot stop,” I said, gritting my teeth against the sensual pull.

Blood rushed in a heady desire, and my bleeding pants tightened. Hells, I wanted to drop my sword—a most inconvenient time—and press Calista’s lithe body against a wall until I stretched and filled her. Until her screams breathed against my neck again.

I shook my head, desperate to focus.

“Damn sirens,” a Rave near to us roared. “Archers, keep your bleeding heads and aim at those tides. Silence them!”

A siren’s call.

Calista narrowed her eyes at me. “You like that sound, do you? Well, cover your damn ears, Silas.”

“Don’t be jealous, Little Rose. My needy thoughts are of you.”

“Ah, how flattering.”

I obeyed her word and covered my ears against the sweet song. “Forgive me, but it’s truly impossible to ignore.”

“Well, they sound wretchedly odious if you must know the truth. An awful voice, really.”

“Until one of their male sea singers returns. Tell me if you find it so simple.”

Calista puffed out her lips and rushed for the line of struggling warriors.

“Keep your heads,” she shouted. “Fill your ears with bleeding mud, you sods!”

Shouts riled more creatures of the tides and smaller skiffs and boats, carrying more sea folk. The larger ships had wild sails that cracked and snapped in the sea winds. Folk with blades tight between their teeth climbed on the ropes on the rails, a few started to dangle over the sides, ready to pounce on the land.

The smaller rows of sea folk met rune fire from Forbi and one of her spell casts. The fae screamed when bits of the fire licked up their damp arms, scorching their flesh in deep, pungent wounds.

Deeper in the surf, a fae with stringy and dark hair emerged from the waves. His skin was a soft color, almost bronze in the light, and there was a touch of red to his eyes. A blue scarf covered his head and kept his hair out of his eyes, and his ears were pierced in the lobes all the way to the sharp point of his fae ears.

It seemed, for a moment, that his hellish eyes found me in the tangle of warriors.

He grinned and opened his arms wide. A low, rumbling voice filtered down the row of sea fae in the surf. More voices joined. Beautiful in their own way, but their beauty was a poison, a blight that would destroy this land.

In the next moment, waves churned in heavy, violent barriers, taller than the shield wall of the Rave. As though the water answered to their voices alone, the song of the sea fae lifted the water over their heads in a massive, curling wave.

“Get back!” Calista screamed.

Olaf echoed the command. I sprinted to Calista’s side, tugging on her arm, drawing her away from the sea wall.

Water crashed over the line of Rave. It devoured Forbi’s spell cast. It pummeled a hole through our defenses in one strike.

The sea flowed down Raven Row, striking me at the ankles. Sea fae cheered and roared their advances. The ships seemed to catch the winds at the exact moment. Bleeding gods, they kept coming. More thrashing tides, more skiffs, sloops, and multiple-mast ships rose from the dark current of the Chasm.

“Silas.” Calista’s eyes were wide with fear. “Why is our song failing?”

I didn’t know. Seidr was meant to be strong in these moments. King Riot always used his voice to shield his armies except . . . except when Davorin fought against it.

“He’s here,” I said softly. “Somewhere. His glamour will be focused on corrupting the hearts of the Rave. Even if they do not realize it, their hearts will falter and the seidr will not be as strong. The darkness of hate always digs into the light of the heart.”

Calista’s eyes scanned the shore. “I see no sign of him.”

Nor did I. An invisible foe. A power unseen was one we could not fight.

“Little Rose,” I said, voice low, grip tight on the hilt of my blade. I kept my focus ahead. I watched as sea fae tumbled off the sides of their ships and spilled into the water, fierce on the attack. “I need to tell you, whatever happens here—I have loved you all my life.”

“Gods, I hate that. I mean, I love it, but I hate that you’re saying it because you think we’re going to meet the Otherworld.”

“Better to say it than get there without telling you.”

She snorted. It was rough and wet, like she battled a lump in her throat. “I love you, Silas. You’re my Whisper, my comfort in the darkness. I suppose if we meet the gods today, we can cause all manner of havoc there.”

A grin teased my mouth.

Blades and roars lifted from the onslaught of sea fae. The heavy metals of their strangely curved swords collided with the sleek iron and steel of Rave blades. Our warriors were vicious, and held a potent glamour of their own. Some were illusionists and twisted the sea fae with their tricks of the eye. They’d cast grand holes in the ground, drawing a pause in the assault long enough for archers to fill the bellies of the sea folk with their arrows.

Other warriors held abilities that were closer to the Night Folk or the Raven Queen. They could tangle moss off the stones into taut ropes, tripping the fae at their ankles. There, they’d rise with a blade in their spines.

Most Rave were common fae with mere connections to the earth and its gifts. They could compel thoughts, but only briefly, and normally not when their focus was on the battle.

But battle was where the Rave’s strengths truly were revealed. Perhaps they felt the weakening of our song and strengthened, instead, their boldness in the fight.

The strikes of their swords held purpose and aim. They cut at the crooks of necks. Sword points filled the spaces between ribs, slicing into lungs and hearts. The Rave kicked at tender knees, then another would thrust his sword through the backs of throats.

Olaf shouted positions, yet it seemed wherever the captain tried to place his Rave, they were attacked by more fae from the depths.

With each blow, and each failed attempt to draw them back, it seemed as though sea folk were lying in wait and knew just where to bleeding strike. Sea fae were menacing, almost endless, and they knew the blade much like the Rave.

Sea fae weapons were different. Curved swords that looked damn near rusted or made of rough-cut bone that sliced through the wall of warriors.

My muscles ached from clenching, but I held fast to Calista’s side as a few slippery fae, damp and sodden, shoved through the Rave. They rushed at the warriors lined at the fortress walls.

They aimed for us.

Calista ducked a strike from a bulky fae. She rammed the point of her knife in his thigh while she was tucked low.

A man with pasty skin and gold rings in his ears lunged at me. His sword struck the edge of mine. True to my word, I was no trained Rave. I knew a few maneuvers from my time as a Rave youth in Riot Ode’s court. My skill with the blade, fair or horrid, came from practice in the darkness of my solitude.

No mistake, it was sloppy and disjointed against the fae. His blade caught my arm; the sick slice of steel in flesh turned my stomach. I pulled back, not wasting time to inspect the wound, and jabbed my sword into his middle.

The fae dodged. He spun quickly and lobbed a downward strike for my neck.

I narrowly avoided the blow but managed to snag the point of my sword against his hipbone.

“Earth fae,” he hissed and hurried back to realign his steps. “You don’t stand a chance. So few numbers against the dark one? Against the whole of the Ever?”

My lips curled. “That dark one you follow so willingly, did he tell you how a few children nearly sent him to the Otherworld?”

For a moment, a bit of confusion flashed through the bright crimson eyes of the fae. He sneered in the next breath. “I suppose I’ll have to gnaw on a few of those young ones to make sure it never happens again.”

He sliced his blade against mine again. Calista’s shriek pieced my heart. Beside me she backstepped swiftly, blood on her lip. The fae against her was swift. But so was she. One knife struck the man’s shoulder, the other his belly.

She let out a furious cry as she ripped it free and finished the bastard with a rough thrust to the soft point of his throat where his voice would be. He went silent.

The sea fae in front of me nicked my thigh. I kicked his ankle and shoved him back. Calista sprinted for us and in the next move had one knife rammed into his ribs.

The sea fae roared his pain and spat at her face, stumbling away. “You keep your bitches here? Weak.”

“Well, this bitch just stabbed you,” she said, giving him a cruel wink.

Blood boiled in my brain. I didn’t think. The movements came damn near rote. In one hand, I twisted the sword point down and shoved it deep through the fae’s back until the sharp point emerged through his lower belly.

He gulped through a fountain of blood spilling over his lips. His body slammed against my spine when I wrenched the blade free. I kicked him off once he slumped forward and watched the blood pool beneath his corpse.

Calista’s shoulders heaved. Her eyes burned in a new kind of rage. But a shadow crossed her features when she took in the attack. More ships. More fae.

We were fighting a losing battle.

I held out my hand, ready to face the end with her at my side. I didn’t know why our song did not work. I didn’t know why fate had abandoned us. Perhaps it was punishment for what we unraveled so long ago, the fate we had manipulated.

I suppose it didn’t matter anymore. So long as I left this world for the next with her beside me, I would accept our destiny to love endlessly in the great hall of the gods.