Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1)

by Callie Hart

I knew a liar when I saw one, and the man sitting opposite me was a seasoned professional.

“I’m not beautiful. I’m filthy, and I’m tired, and my voice is full of sarcasm and annoyance, so let’s just get on with this, shall we?”

“Even filthy and tired, you’re still beautiful.”

Do you know much about metalwork, Captain? I do. It’s under the most unbearable conditions that the sharpest, most dangerous weapons are forged. And we are dangerous, Captain. She’s turned us all into weapons. That is why she won’t suffer my people to live.”

He towered over me, taking up so much room, invading my space, blotting out the damn light. He was all I could see. All I could smell. He was cold morning air, and smoke, and fresh-turned earth,

Kingfisher kicking in my bedroom door, me thrown over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes and wailing like a banshee. Nor had she expected his ultra-foul temper, his split bottom lip, or the thin line of blood trickling down his chin. She’d squawked when he’d thrown me unceremoniously down onto my bed and snarled, “Bad human,” at me.

“Careful, human. We Fae have an excellent sense of smell. You’d be amazed what we can scent floating on the air.”

“You’re making it worse.

“I’m also a fan of aggressive foreplay. It’ll be a fun reminder.”

“You could at least say hello before you start eye-fucking me.”

I hadn’t seen many beautiful things in my short life. But, of all the beautiful things I had seen, Fisher was the most beautiful of all.

“If you want it, come here and touch it,” he rumbled. Holy. Fucking. Gods.

His hand at the small of my back went nowhere, though. He wasn’t using it to hold me in place. It was just a point of contact, and the heat of that contact between us felt like it was scorching me through my shirt.

His mouth. Gods, his fucking mouth. I needed to look away. I had to.

“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.”

“No, you’re not. You should be, but you’re not. That’s one of the things I like most about you.”

“You can pull away at any time. Looks to me like you’re choosing to stay. It also looks like you’re having to stop yourself from touching me. You want to touch me the way I’m touching you, don’t you? To feel the weight of me beneath your palms. The heat of me…”

“Are you going to make me say 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.”

“Because you’re intrigued. Because you’re bored. Because you’re super fucking aroused right now, and you want to follow through on whatever little fantasies are playing out in your head.”

I hated this male. Hated him with every fiber of my being. But curse me, I wanted him just as bad.

“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.”

Fisher was death incarnate, and he was coming right for me.

You did lie. You lied with your body. With your mouth. You crawled up into my lap, and kissed me, and rubbed yourself all over me, and used the opportunity to take something from me.”

“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.”

“Are you thinking about running? Gods, I hope so. I’ll give you a head start if you like. It’s been an age since I’ve hunted anything.”

“There’s every way,” Fisher rumbled, his eyes darkening. “I’d know the smell of you anywhere. On anyone. I’d know it blind and in the dark. Across a fucking sea. I’d be able to scent you

Fuck me. That smile. Slightly open-mouthed, flashing the smallest hint of pointed teeth. I had to be so, so careful around that smile. It would wreck me if I let it. “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?”

“If I compelled you to do it, you’d be innocent. Your actions wouldn’t be your fault. You wouldn’t have to face the fact that you wanted me.”

Fisher would need a sizable space to house his fucking ego, after all.

But… I couldn’t fucking breathe around him, and I knew what his hands felt like on my body now. For

“You asked for this. When you’re sore from coming so hard and you can’t recall your own name, remember that, Little Osha.”

“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?”

“When you take all of me, remember to breathe.”

“I can’t wait to hear what kind of sounds you make when I thrust into you for the first time,”

“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 mysel...

“No arguments, Osha. I’ve driven myself half-crazy wondering what you look like. I need to fucking see. Put me out of my misery.”

“You smell so, so fucking good,” he said thickly. “Back in the forge at the palace, I caught a hint of this. I knew then I had to taste you. This smell has been haunting my fucking dreams. I haven’t been able to think straight for remembering the scent of your need.”

“I don’t want a mouthful of soap and perfume. I want to taste you.”

“Oh, no, Little Osha. You’re gonna be looking right at me for this,” Fisher said. “Look.”

“Hold on tight, then. I hope you’re not afraid of the dark.”

But you couldn’t hate something without caring about it just a little, too.

“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.

“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?”

“I am not fucking around, Fisher. If you have any respect for me, if you care about me even the tiniest, most minuscule amount, you will never, ever compel me again. Do you understand?”

“I don’t want bright and happy,” he whispered roughly. “I want real.

And look where we were. He was lying in my arms, immobile and vulnerable in every sense of the word. Laid bare. I could be a little vulnerable, too.

He snarled as he ripped his arm out from underneath my shirt and closed his hand around my throat.