Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1)

by Callie Hart

This bastard would shit himself if he realized he had the Saeris Fane in his grasp.

Oh, and, Saeris?” The guy just didn’t know when to quit. I spun around, scowling at him. “What!” “Even filthy and tired, you’re still beautiful.”

“Wonderful. All right, then. I’d say we were ready. Brace yourself. It’s time to meet the king.”

Mind made up, I finally broke into that jog and caught up with the group. The three Fae were passing one of the many sets of alcoves occupied by statues of the gods. Everlayne bowed and touched her head to them as she hurried by. Ren grumbled, giving them a cursory nod. Kingfisher stuck out a hand and flipped all seven of them off as he stormed by.

“I knew it wasn’t warded.” “How?” “Because I’m magic.” “What about you is magic?” “Everything,” he said, entering the room. “My looks. My sword skills. My personality—” “Your personality is trash.”

“Madra?” Everlayne pursed her lips. “I suppose I know as much as anyone here. She was young when she ascended to the Zilvaren throne. Bloodthirsty and hungry for power.” “But how can she be so old if she’s human? How has she managed to reign for over a thousand years? And how could she have closed all of the pathways with that sword if she wasn’t an Alchemist?” “We don’t know how she did it, but yes, Madra should have died centuries ago.

“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.” A slow, terrifying smirk spread across his face. “It’s big enough to make you scream and then some.” “See.” I jabbed a finger at him. “You’re not going to be honest.” He looked around the forge, feigning confusion. “I’m sorry, I’m not sure that I understand your meaning.” “Ask a man how big his dick is, and he’ll show you that he’s full of shit.” “Maybe. But I’m not a man. I’m a Fae male.” He paused. “And maybe I’m just well-endowed.”

“We have similar internal organs, though we do possess a few that humans do not.” Extra internal organs? That was intriguing. “We’re bigger. Taller, of course,” he continued. I arched an eyebrow at that. “Of course.” “Our hearts are bigger by ratio.” I couldn’t help it. I looked up. “Really?” He nodded. “Mm-hmm.” “Wow. Weird.” “Our eyesight is far superior to yours. Our… sense of smell,” he said, his eyes lowering, traveling down my body.

“Our Fae hearts rarely betray us. We’re calm creatures. But you, Osha? You’re a ball of chaos. Your heart betrays you at every turn.” Quickly, he placed his hand on my chest, right between my breasts. I didn’t have time to react to the contact; he began tapping out the rhythm of my heart against my sternum. “Thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum, thrum. Fast. Erratic, like a hummingbird. I hear it bouncing around all over the place when you look at me. Did you know that?”

“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.”

“Lying is pointless with your heart betraying you so loudly.”

“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.”

“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.”

There is no way you can still smell me on him.” “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.

Fuck me with your fingers. Choke me. Hold me down and ride me until I scream. Fisher made an animal, desperate noise into the crook of my neck as if he could read my mind and knew all of the filthy things I wanted him to do to me.

“How long have you known I was here?” He smiled sadly. “I always know where you are, Little Osha.”

“What’s with the plant?” Ren asked. Carrion shrugged. “I don’t know, I liked the look of it. It was the only green thing for a mile amongst all that white. I figured it deserved an easy life if it had made it this far growing out of a snowbank. Plus, my tent was so bare. It needed a little cheering up.”

“If it were up to me, we wouldn’t spend another night without each other again.”

“I accepted the bond. Earlier. When I was inside you. When my soul was wrapped around yours.” He was so calm. Not a hint of uncertainty or nerves at all. Meanwhile, I felt like I was about to pass out. “You accepted it,” I said. “I did.” “How?” “It’s easy. You make the decision. You claim the bond. The bond claims you.”

“I’ll be grateful for every second that I can say that I belong to you, Saeris Fane. Eighty years or eighteen hours. It doesn’t matter to me. It’ll still be the highest honor of my life.

“I’m in love with you, Saeris Fane,”

“You were supposed to have been born Fae, in the same realm as your Kingfisher. So I separated you. Hundreds of years before you were born, I shifted the events around your birth. Moved the pieces on the board and placed you far away, in a realm that should never have come into contact with his. But I watched as the boughs of the universe grew against their nature and aligned in such a way that you would still meet. I foresaw then that no matter how the boughs and branches of this tree were manipulated, you and he would always collide. There was nothing I could do to stop it.”

I realized with no small amount of horror that I knew her face. I had seen it a hundred times, sketched into the pages of my mother’s notebooks. I knew who she was supposed to be to me—the one my mother had told me would come. My counterweight. The female I would love and scourge the worlds for. And she was beautiful. Breathtakingly so.

“For better or for worse, I get the feeling that you’re about to turn everything upside down.”