The Stolen Crown

Book 4: The Ever Seas

by LJ Andrews

Genres: Fantasy; Romantic Fantasy; General Fiction; Romance; Fantasy Romance; New Adult Romance

Synopsis

Love and duty are thrown to the treacherous deep sea in the next Ever Seas book from bestselling author and TikTok sensation LJ Andrews.

She is the life of the party. He is the villain you never wish to meet alone.

Tait Heartwalker may be the cousin of the Ever King, but royally good company he is not. He’s ill-tempered and unapproachable, sharpened by the hard responsibilities of life and loyalty. But to the dismay of Mira Sekundär, princess of the glamour fae, he’s also intoxicating to look at.

Despite doing their best to avoid each other, fate has other plans when an otherworldly storm shipwrecks Tait and Mira far beyond the boundaries of the Ever Kingdom. They are forced to break through the thorny barriers between them and work together to find their way home. One wrong step and they’ll never return alive…

Yet as their feelings deepen, a new threat rises from the waters. And this enemy is so dangerous, even the history books tried to forget their existence.

The Stolen Crown can be read as a standalone set in the Ever Seas world.

Release date: October 6, 2026

Publisher: Ace

Print pages: 512

Sample

1

The Heartwalker

The Ever King was going to die.

A slow, hopefully rather painful death. My queen would need to forgive me for slaughtering her mate.

"King says there's no need to respond," said Swordeater, a curious sea fae who could literally devour steel. He cupped an herb smoke as he lit the tip, utterly oblivious to my scowl. When he pulled in a long draw, Swordeater finally met my glare. "Merely said to send word when we set sail."

"I can read, you ass." One fist curled around the rough parchment Erik bleeding Bloodsinger had sent from the Ever, the home to which I very much desired to return.

In my other hand, I kept flicking open the face cover of a battered pocket watch. A gift from Lady Narza, the strongest sea witch within the House of Mists.

The watch was curious, a normal time-teller in most cases. But if the risk of danger rose, then the hands spun more swiftly, hinting time for safety was running short. If a true threat to the Ever King's life rose-or to the one I gave my fiercest loyalty-the hands would point straight.

Mere months ago, we battled for the throne of the Ever Kingdom against Larsson Bonekeeper, Erik's unknown half brother. Throughout the fighting, the hands on the clock face ticked to wherever my cousin stood in proximity to me, not spinning wildly, merely aiming at the one whose life was at the greatest risk.

Only after Erik landed the killing blow did the hands tick normally again.

No doubt, the Lady of Witches gifted me the watch since Narza knew my loyalty to my cousin-her grandson-would never falter, never belong to anyone else.

Until today.

No mistake, if Erik stood beside me, the hands of the small watch would be stiff and aimed directly at the Ever King, just as they had during battle, signaling his demise was imminent.

The hands ticked gently, telling the chime as though nothing was amiss. Seemed the magic of the sea witches believed Erik was safe. For now.

This was not what I agreed to after leaving the celebration of new vows in the alver kingdom.

Sea and earth fae alike had gone to witness a bond ceremony between Jonas Eriksson, a prince of the earth realms, and Skadi, the new elven queen. Strange how much had changed in the months since tentative peace built between the Ever and earth realms. Never did I think I'd be drinking ale with earth folk. Certainly not at vows where blades were nowhere to be seen.

By order of the Ever King, after the celebration I was directed to continue being the escort to an infuriating creature.

Not only did I sail the woman from the alver vows to her kingdom, now I was to wait and bring her to my queen for another damn visit, unharmed and unbothered. Once the task was complete, I would be free to return to my own self-imposed seclusion.

I was not meant to remain more than a damn day and night in the earth realms, particularly not in the knolls of the glamour fae.

But Erik changed everything.

Sweat slickened my palms. Tension knotted in my chest. Unbidden, I rolled one of my numerous silver rings around one finger.

"You ought to know, there be something-"

I held up a hand, silencing Swordeater until I soothed the tumult in my skull. When plans shifted, my aggravating mind careened a little out of control and it took moments, at times days, to feel right again.

A weakness I mentioned to no one. How would it suit the crew if they thought me so spineless that a simple change in itinerary sent my thoughts spinning? Like the thick stitches keeping their captain so neatly knitted had come undone.

I opened my eyes in time to realize Swordeater was reaching a hand out to strike my shoulder. The haze of instinct filled my skull and spurred my next moves.

I had the knife I kept sheathed across my chest leveled at the man's throat in the next breath. "I would think twice before laying a hand on me."

The sea gray of Swordeater's eyes darkened, but he raised both palms in a show of goodwill. "I just be wanting to finish making me report."

I pulled back the edge of the knife. "Then you will wait until I am ready to hear it."

I thought Swordeater might've muttered something like "Be a dead bastard" in my silence. I hardly cared.

Pricks of phantom pain from a potential strike already coated my skin and left me wanting to retch. I'd learned to mask my fierce urge to recoil from the touches of others over the turns.

With the knife sheathed again, I shook out my palms, cracking my neck side to side.

My cousin's order kept me here in the glamour kingdom for a duration of time that currently had no end. No doubt, Erik found it amusing, keeping me here as long as my royal charge desired.

My fingers curled into fists at my sides, thoughts of her spinning behind my eyes. A princess whose people likely despised me the most.

The king and queen of this land were, after all, the voices who once banished me after the war between our folk.

Perhaps I could not entirely blame the Ever King for altering his directive. I hadn't even let on to my cousin how desperately I clung to routine. Controlled plans meant controlled outcomes. No surprises. No pain.

Control meant no one would get the drop on me. Never again.

A difficult way to live since the seas of the Ever were never without shifts in agendas. Tides could change. Storms would arrive. And the crew would be forced to alter course. Such things I could handle fine enough; it was the way of the untamed sea.

Idleness and unknowns, those were the moments when darkness thickened in my thoughts.

"Heartwalker, you might be wanting to know-"

"Gods, man." I spun on Swordeater. "Our king has changed our agenda. Give me a bleeding moment to see his commands are able to be met. Supplies must be counted, unless you'd prefer to eat thistles instead of hardtack and rum."

Before he could respond, I set to pacing and promptly lit my own paper smoke.

With a long pull on the end, my breathing slowed. My mind felt a bit calmer.

Sea wind brushed across the deck of the Sea Void, warm and heavy with rich scents of blossoms and sweets sold at the shoreline market. The vessel was smaller than the king's ship, but it still towered over the longships and sloops docked beside us.

I peered over the rail as though studying the landscape might proffer a threat we could not ignore, one that would force us to meet the winds whether the glamour princess desired to stay or not.

Trees towered over paths with roots that broke the soil like great serpents, mosses of all shades-yellow, red, and brilliant green-speckled every boulder, every bit of bark, every stone. Here, narrow creeks cut through knolls and forests like dozens of blades had carved through the kingdom, bleeding out the water.

Glamour fae lands were whimsical, coated in lavender and velvet blooms, gilded pests with iridescent wings that glimmered in the night, and a constant flow of a honeysuckle breeze.

I missed the Ever Seas. But I'd take the tangles of trees and glossy leaves of the glamour fae kingdom over the chilled lands of the Night Folk fae of my queen, or the gloomy realms of the thieving alver clans.

I'd never admit to her that I didn't despise her kingdom.

Mira of House Sekundär.

Where the princess laughed and caroused, I preferred solitude and silence. The woman tolerated Sea Folk. No mistake, she played a convincing game of befriending a few souls from the Ever, but there was a memory I could not shake.

A violence, a viciousness lived in the soul of the playful princess.

Damn her and her false comradery. Damn her for taking up any space in my thoughts at all.

Not only was her house responsible for banishing me, but the king and queen of the glamour fae were the ones to land the killing blow that ended the war. My father stirred the vitriol and rage against the earth fae, enough to convince many in the Ever that war was inevitable. But there had also been a dark earth fae who lived in the Ever for turns. A man who manipulated and inspired the worst pieces of folk to bleed through.

Harald Songtaker, my father, joined with the dark fae and brought battles to these shores. Only when the dark fae lost his head beneath the sword of the glamour fae did fighting cease.

Both Harald and the dark fae were haunts of my past. Likely, they were haunts of Mira's too.

Why the killing blow came from her house, I didn't know. But it left me suspicious that out of any earth fae realm, the glamour folk likely despised sea fae the most.

I did not trust the princess.

I did not care for her.

And I despised how much all my disinterest somehow drew her to my mind, a slow-burning ember that stung just behind my eyes.

"Dammit, yer not even countin' our supplies!" Swordeater stepped in front of me, halting my steps. "So, you'll stop sulkin' and you'll listen to me, you bastard."

Tension pulsed in my jaw. "Bleeding gods, fine. Speak what you must speak!"

Swordeater was a burly sort but still jolted a bit when my lips curled, flashing the two slightly elongated points of my teeth, a trait most common in royal bloodlines of the Ever, much like the red in my eyes.

"I just be thinking you ought to know the royal lovey you've been commanded to oversee, well, there be reports Filib be huntin' her here."

My shoulders stiffened. "Filib? The sea singer?"

"Aye. One of the men thought they might've seen the blasted singer." Swordeater puffed a bit of smoke in my face. "Seen him goin' straight after a wanderin' earth fae princess. Now, if you be wantin' to save your neck from Bloodsinger, it'd suit you to be getting after her, says I."

"You're certain it was the princess?"

"Ye seem to think I don't know the lass. A little thing with a bit of a bite to those words she speaks all day. That one."

Gods curse this day. I let out a rough hiss through my teeth. "Why in the name of all the damn seas did you not say something sooner?"

Swordeater huffed. "Bleeding tried to, didn't I?"

I let out a grunt of frustration and hurried to the gangplank of the ship, Swordeater's chuckles at my back.

"Hurry on now, Heartwalker. Don't want any earth fae royal blood on our hands. It'll fall on your shoulders if we be going back to war. Hurry on. Hurry on."

I quickened my step, only drawing out more hacking laughs from the sod at my back.

As much as I had my reasons for desiring an immeasurable distance from Mira Sekundär, I could not shake the horrid truth that if someone had harmed her, their blood was about to spill.

2

The Illusionist

My back pressed against the damp bark of a willow. Fine dark soil crusted the bottoms of my boots from the riverbank. Mist kissed my cheeks, but I kept the woolen hood of the cowl off my long braid, the chill soothing the flush of heat in my skin.

One more read to ensure I had not misunderstood, then I crumpled the parchment. Made from kelp weed, the surface was damp and slick and smelled of wet straw. I grimaced and cursed the Ever King once more when a fetid residue was left behind on my palm.

"Gods. That bastard." Erik Bloodsinger knew how much I detested the strange sea parchment. I shook out my hand, drops of pungent mossy water flinging into the river.

"Oh, don't be sending me on with such a reply," pleaded a voice like satin, smooth and delicate.

"Apologies, Vanna. I'd not dream of forcing you to relay such a message to your unsavory king."

Eerily pale eyes like bulbous orbs peered over the bank of the river. The merwoman's long, spindly fingers dug into ember blossom roots, a water flora in our realms that sprouted vibrant red petals in the shape of a barb. When dried, the petals served as excellent kindling.

Almost as though she could not help herself, Vanna plucked a root and slowly slid the pulpy end onto her tongue. Her needlelike teeth gnawed at the fibers, while she never took her eyes off me.

Merfolk tended to fill the coves, rivers, and lakes of the southernmost fae isles due to the blooms. They found the flavors of my kingdom invigorating. To the glamour fae-my folk-they were gritty and tasted of mold.

"What was written that has you in such duress, Lady?" Vanna asked.

"What has me in such duress, you ask? Well, I shall tell you. I had grand plans to visit dearest Livia, as you know, in the coming days. But, alas, there is to be a celebration in my court. Naturally, I sent word to Livie that I'd be slightly delayed. And her ill-tempered mate has now informed me that his odious cousin will also be remaining until, and I quote, 'I am prepared to set sail, for he does not wish his tenderhearted queen to fret over the well-being of her beloved'-yes, he used 'beloved,' which is greatly unlike him-'fellow royal.'

"In other words, Vanna, Erik Bloodsinger does not think anyone else on his crew is competent enough to escort me to the Ever. Highly offensive, don't you think? All the more reason I'm convinced Bloodsinger is doing this because he knows I cannot stand his damn cousin."

"Oi, that's a great many words, earth fae. Apologies, but what is the trouble? I don't understand your disquiet. It's not like Heartwalker is here at your side now."

"The problem is I am not a little who requires a sea fae escort to keep watch over me in my own kingdom. This is a game to your king." I waved the smelly parchment in my hand a bit furiously. "He has no command here, no authority."

"Aye," Vanna agreed. "But his cousin be under his authority. He'll be needing to remain."

"Well, Hearttalker can sit his ass on his horrible ship until I am ready to set sail. No need to be near each other until that very moment."

Vanna's eyes flashed. "I think you be meaning Heartwalker."

I huffed and folded my arms over my chest, glancing toward the shadows of the trees. I meant exactly what I said. Why I continued to speak the wrong title to Tait Heartwalker, I didn't know. He was a damn sod with a thick head, and the more I spoke my assigned name out loud, the more bruised my own heart became.