Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1)

by Callie Hart

“Fuck! Fisher, I want...I want you...” I panted.

That was a terrible idea. I should not have let him do that. I should not have kissed him back. I shouldn't have rubbed myself against his cock like that. I shouldn't have moaned. I definitely shouldn't have told him that I wanted him. For the love of all the gods in all the heavens, why had I said that? I was going to throw up.

me. It was her sword, splintering into a thousand

shards, the quivering steel needles shooting through the air and hitting the wall above Ren's head so hard that they drove an inch into the pitted stonework.

“We have a fucking Alchemist?” “She's mine,” Fisher said.

“Swift. Earlier. Back in the war room. You were trading that cake back and forth with him for ages.” “It wasn’t cake.” “I don’t care what it was. Just stop sharing food with him.” There was a dangerous edge to his voice. One that dared me to challenge this order.

“Because I fucking said so.”

“My, my. So worked up already? You're slick as hell. What do you taste like, mm? Are you going to scream for me like a good girl when I have you ride my face?”

“I can't wait to hear what kind of sounds you make when I thrust into you for the first time,” he purred. “I'm going to make you pant for me, Little Osha. And when we're done, I'll close my eyes and replay the sound of you moaning in my head every time I stroke myself to completion.”

“Don't worry. It'll fade. Probably,”

“I did not ask for a tattoo, Fisher,” I hissed. “I definitely didn't ask for a bird to be permanently inked right above my fucking boob. You need to take it back.”

“I was cleansed. When I was fourteen. They do it to about seventy percent of the girls in my ward.”

“What do you mean…cleansed?”

“I mean…they sterilize us,”

“Because she is moonlight. The mist that shrouds the mountains. The bite of electricity in the air

before a storm. The smoke that rolls across a battlefield before the killing starts. You have no idea what she is. What she could be. You should call her Majesty.”

“He went back to Cahlish.” Lorreth sank his teeth into another slice of apple. “What?” “Said he was going to see Te Léna.” Te Léna? The sweet healer had taken such excellent care of me after the vampire attack, but I hadn't thought much about her since. Only, this was the second time Fisher had gone to see her recently, and neither time he'd been injured. Gods, what the hell was wrong with me? This realm was paused on the brink of total destruction, and I was angry and plenty afraid of what that might mean for me and everyone else in Yvelia...but I was also

jealous. And that? That made me feel pathetic. I swallowed the questions I wanted to ask Lorreth—Are they together, Te Léna and Fisher? Does he like her? Do they have history?—

“Impossible. He's an Oath Bound Fae.”

“And we can’t lie.”

“Because...” He cast another wary look around, shifting awkwardly in his seat. “It's a sex thing. If a male drinks from someone, it'll make his dick harder than it's ever been in his life. It makes you euphoric. Both of you. While you're fucking.”

“Yeah. Oh,” he said. “But it's a slippery slope. If we bite someone, we can still lose ourselves to it. It takes an immeasurable force of will not to keep drinking. It's...not

something that's spoken about in pol...

“If you use the oath you tricked me into to force me from this room right now, I will never forgive you. I will find a way to make your life absolutely fucking miserable. In fact, while we’re here and having such a lovely conversation about this, you’re never going to compel me against my will again. Do you hear me? Do you understand?”

Every warrior in Innìr will smell me on you, Fisher's voice rumbled in my mind. I'm going to make you hoarse from screaming my fucking name. I'm going to mark you in every way imaginable, so that everyone knows you're fucking mine. Holy shit! He... Was that... I couldn't...

“I was wrong, y’know. You are a good thief.” “What have I stolen?” But he smiled a small, sad smile, slowly shaking his head. “Sleep a little. The water will stay warm. I'll be back as soon as I've spoken to Ren.”

We know who she is, the quicksilver hissed. She is the dawn. She is the moon. She is the sky. She is oxygen in our lungs.

“I want you to leave Fisher,” I

“Yes. Leave him. His body. I want you to come out of him. I’ll strike a deal with you—”

“Then swear, Little Osha, and I’ll trust you.”

This was the kind of male I wanted to be with. “I swear it.”

“WELL, HE CAN'T HAVE HER!”

“You can kick and scream all you like,” he said. “But he wants the Alchemist, Fisher. If he has to burn down all of Yvelia

to claim her, you know perfectly well that he'll do it.”

When one of his lords bites a victim, they can drink and sate their thirst without killing. If they bite the same human a number of times, eventually they become enthralled—” “There. That word. What does that mean?” “The victim becomes bound to the vampire who bit them,”

“Mindlessly devoted to their needs. They'll feed and fuck their master without a single thought for themselves. Inevitably,

“Well, look at you. The jumped-up little Alchemist, sitting in pride of place at the family table. You'd better move before the others arrive, or you're gonna find yourself very embarrassed.” I was sitting where I always sat now, to the right of Fisher's chair. But the way Danya sneered at me made me think I'd made a very grave social error.

“That seat is reserved for the lady of the house, you stupid girl. Etiquette dictates that only Fisher's wife is permitted to sit there. It's a position of high honor meant for a Fae female born into one of the old houses, and you're just sprawled out there like you own the damn seat. It's offensive that he even lets a human sit at the same table as him. But this...” She waved at me with her remaining hand. “This is just too much. Like I said. You should move.”

“I don't want to go back to Zilvaren anymore. Not forever, anyway. I want to go home, get Hayden and Elroy, and then bring them back here to Yyvelia.”

“Yes, a good secret. Very good. You want to stay. You want to save him. You must. You must.”

“Once upon a time, that was the case. Back when true mating bonds existed. Unions between true mates were blessed with marks from the Fates. That’s where the tradition of inking our hands originated from. But there’s no such thing as true mates anymore. When the gods left Yvelia, certain elements of our magic either died or waned over time. The

God Swords, for example. They were very slowly cut off from the source of the magic they channeled. Our ability to form mating bonds also died out over thousands of years, until it disappeared altogether.”

“Tragic?” “The lovers in those stories always suffered terribly. One of them always died. They were beautiful tales, but they ended with heartbreak.”

“I am not weak, Fisher! I’m not like those butterflies, pathetic, hatching and dying in the cold—” “Not you! Me!” He thumped himself in his chest, suddenly furious. “My weakness! My vulnerability! I've known for centuries that you were coming. That you were just going to show up one day and change everything. You're the chink in my armor, Saeris. The soft spot where the knife slides in. You are the thing that Malcolm will hurt to hurt me, and I couldn't...couldn't fucking bear it!”

That’s what Oshellith means in Old Fae, Saeris. Most Sacred.”

“How did you know? That I was coming? You said that you knew.”

“I was told. A long time ago. By my mother. She was an oracle. I didn't believe her, but then, when I was taken ttt—”

“She wrote about you,” he whispered. “My mother. Pages and pages. She knew that she’d die soon, and so she wrote me a book. ‘A mother is always there for her son,’ she told me. ‘It doesn’t matter that

he grows and steps into his power. Even the strongest warrior’s heart can break. His soul can still be crushed. Since I won’t be able to comfort you when the challenges before you feel too great, take this book and keep it as a guide. Above all, know this. There will be times when the world seeks to destroy you, Kingfisher. But you are stronger than you can ever know. You will not falter. And you will not face it all alone.’”

“She said, when I needed you