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“Humans are usually weak, fickle creatures, but I'll admit, I admire this one's loyalty. She values her family over everything else. There's something to be said for that.”
“He's right on that, at least,” Ren chimed in. “There are no written accounts of the Alchemist's processes. If there was, the elders might have had some luck understanding their abilities.
You have the distinct pleasure of being the only living human in all of Yvelia. You are not safe here.”
We drained you by the million before the blood curse was lifted. This was long before our time, of course, but the Fae line still bears the marks of its past. We might not need blood to maintain our immortality anymore, but by the gods, do we still have the teeth for it. Our dirty little secret. Our awful, horrible shame—”
“You’re my brother,” Everlayne hissed.
“Being completely cut off from civilization and summarily forgotten about has a way of changing you after a while.”
“An Oshellith is a type of butterfly,”
“Who's Clements?” “The King's Royal archivist.
The quicksilver pools are pathways that connect different realms.
Alchemists used to forge quicksilver into weaponry for Fae warriors. Harron had no business touching that weapon, let alone claiming it.”
The quicksilver will push any living creature beyond the boundaries of sanity.”
“My mother gave me this pendant, this relic,” he clarified, “when I was eleven. The night before we left for the Winter Palace.
To cut a very long and boring story short, I was forced to travel a pathway without it once. The quicksilver took me, just as it takes everyone. A healer managed to draw most of it from me once I made it back to the Winter Palace, but I was left with a few...lasting reminders. Most Fae only wore their relics when they traveled from one realm to the next. But wearing mine is the only thing that calms the noise in my head. Without it, the line between what’s real and what isn’t blurs very quickly.”
Alchemy, it turned out, was a form of magic. Forgotten, long-dead, old magic that was as much a myth to the Fae of Yvelia as they were to the people of Zilvaren.
been three branches of Alchemists—Fae who sought to discover the path to immortality, Fae who sought to create and invent by transmuting various metals and ores, and lastly, Fae who sought to cure illness and disease.
Humans and Fae were different in many ways, but sarcasm was universal.
“Elroy swears that a man will lie about the size of his cock every time a woman asks him.” Kingfisher stilled. “Are you asking me how big my cock is, Osha?”
“I don’t care how big it is. I care about the way you answer.”
Canines bared, he leaned in so close that barely an inch separated the tips of our noses. And he snarled, “Hell.”
I tensed when I saw the tiny ball of silver liquid rolling around in the well of my palm. Quicksilver. Not much. Little more than the size of a pinkie fingernail. But quicksilver all the same. And it was in a liquid state.
“I have to say, I was expecting that to go differently,” he mused. And then I punched him square in the mouth.
My mother was married to a Southern lord before she married my father. She had Fisher with her first husband. When Fisher was ten, the king sent his father on a mission to Zilvaren. He never returned.
That’s when the gateways were stilled. The king said that Finran, Fisher’s father, was responsible for the quicksilver stilling and declared him a traitor to the Fae—”
By all accounts, she was surprised, given that she'd never even met the king, but Belikon made it clear that marrying him was the only way for her to prove that she wasn’t a traitor to the crown, too. Plus, Finran had been very wealthy, and Belikon needed money to pay for the conflict breaking out with Sanasroth.
He still insists that when our mother did fall pregnant with me a long time later, it was Fisher's fault that she wasn't strong enough to produce another male heir.
“You could at least say hello before you start eye-fucking me.”
“What do you know about Fae anatomy, Osha?” he whispered.
“I don't hate your kind. I'm just disappointed by how breakable you are. If I held you down and fucked you the way I'm imagining fucking you right now, I doubt that you’d survive it.”
“That your body is betraying you in other ways. That I can smell you, Little Osha, and I'm thinking about drinking the sweet nectar you're making for me straight from the fucking cup.”
His lips felt incredible. They parted for me, and I could feel his smile against my mouth as his tongue met mine. He kissed me back. His hands stayed right where they were, where he'd promised he'd keep them, but his grip grew tighter, his fingers digging into my hips as he plunged his tongue into my mouth, tasting and probing with every sweep.
I hated this male. Hated him with every fiber of my being. But curse me, I wanted him just as bad. Grabbing his hair, I wound it tight around my fingers, clenching my hand into a fist. Kingfisher's head rocked back, a low, rumbling groan issuing from his throat. I nipped and tugged at his bottom lip, sighing into his mouth, and the huge male went utterly still beneath me.
“I didn't say I minded. But for next time, that's where the line is. You want to cross it, I'll happily join you on the other side. Just don't say I didn't warn you.”
“Really? Because I believe you're wearing my ring, and I don't remember fucking giving it to you.”
“You are going to stay here, and you are going to figure out how to create relics for us. You're going to figure out how to manipulate the quicksilver if it's the last thing you do.”
'I go, and I try to get your brother. You help me and assist me in any way I ask you to, and you do as you’re told. You agree to this pact?' to which you replied, “Yes, gods, I agree! Just get on with it!”
“You fucking tricked me!” “No,” he said bluntly. “I taught you a valuable lesson that will serve you well for the rest of your very short human life in this realm. Always pay attention to the fine print. The devil's in the details. Now go.”
“I'll happily kiss all of your aches and pains better for you once we strike camp. I've been told my mouth has healing properties. Especially when administered between a pair of thighs.”
He took precautions and warded his lands so that neither Belikon nor any of his supporters could cross into them. He was powerful, and his wards were strong. They remain as solid as ever. Belikon can travel to the borders of Cahlish, but he can’t enter. As long as I live and carry on my father’s line, he never will.”
To me, Kingfisher was a surly, foul-mouthed bastard who I wouldn't piss on even if he was on fire. To everyone inside this tavern, he was a living fucking god.
The first time Belikon forced him to travel without a relic, the silver infected him so badly that I thought we'd lost him altogether. His mind was so fractured. Let's just say, it took a long time for him to recover. The healers did their best, but the piece that remains in his eye torments him night and day.
“That you make this promise to me exactly. Verbatim. Word for word. I swear I will release you and allow you and Carrion to return to Zilvaren the moment you have made enough relics for my people.”
Archer's
“Not a faerie. A fire sprite.”
“Shadow gates are of this realm. They can only be used within this realm. Quicksilver is not of this realm. Therefore, it can be used within this realm, but also within or to other realms as well.
“I have fifteen thousand warriors, Little Osha. To have enough relics for my people, I need fifteen thousand relics. When you're done with all of these rings, I'll release you from your oath and take you to the closest quicksilver pool so you can leave. Until then...”
I’m the thing that puts the fear of the gods into the monsters who would eat you bones and all.”
“Mm. You’re right. I don’t think you will invite me. When the time comes, I think you’ll beg—”
“If I were evil and using your oath for my own purposes, I'd order you onto your knees for me,” he said, cutting me off. “I'd order you to part your legs for me. I'd order you to suck and fuck me until you passed out from exhaustion. Is that what you want, Little Osha?”
“That is Ammontraíeth,” Ren said, emerging from the shadow gate, leading his horse behind him. “The seat of the enemy.”
His lips crashed down onto mine. For a brief moment, I didn't react. I'd slipped into a daydream. This was a fantasy. It wasn't...it wasn't real.
