More on this book
Community
Kindle Notes & Highlights
He’s an Oath Bound Fae.” “And?” “And we can’t lie.”
“When we turn twenty-one, we kneel before the Firinn Stone and make our decision. Every one of us. We have a choice. Bleed on the stone and make our vow. To always be truthful. To always be bound by our word, no matter what it costs us.” “Or?” “Or we choose the Lawless path. A Lawless Fae may lie. They may cheat. They may steal. Useful tools in many situations, I’ll admit. But they come with a price that Kingfisher—and the rest of us, I might add—was not willing to pay.” I arched an eyebrow at him. “And that was?” He shrugged nonchalantly, as if the answer were obvious. “Our honor.”
“What did you even think he’d lied about?” It came back to me at once. My thinly veiled “how big is your cock?” question. And Fisher’s slow, arrogant smile. “Big enough to make you scream and then some…” Turned out he’d been telling the truth about that, I realized with a healthy dose of annoyance. Fuck.
Lol
“Yes, our canines work just fine. The same as a vampire’s would. But blood drinking is very taboo. No, it’s worse than taboo. It’s scandalous.”
“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.”
“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.
I was a traveling singer once, if you can believe that.”
“What… did he do?” Lorreth tossed his head back and laughed. “Something I’m sure I’ve given him innumerable reasons to regret since. He made me his brother. By blood. He gave me a part of his soul.”
“It’s an ancient rite,” Lorreth said. “One very few know how to perform anymore. But Fisher’s father had almost died once, and his friend had used it to save him.
He bonded a small part of himself to the scrap of life that was clinging on inside me, and that was that.
“Good question. If I die first, the piece of Fisher’s soul returns to him. He becomes whole again. Everybody has a big party. The end. But if he dies first, he’s condemned to wait here for me to die before he can move on. He’d be trapped here, in a non-corporeal state, unable to touch anything or anyone.
“Take Saoirse, Queen of the Lìssian Fae, for example. Her mother, who was queen before her, saved her life when she was a child.
Truth is, I plan on dying first, anyway. But if the fates guide the stars in a different direction and our better angels claim him first, I won’t permit a single breath into my body beyond the last one Kingfisher takes. By my own hand, I’ll make sure the piece of soul he loaned to me finds its way back to him. And if the fates consider it just, and I’ve done enough to earn a place at his side, I’ll go quietly and happily with my brother into whatever lies beyond.”
Wow!
“You’re wearing my shirt,” he said eventually.
“This,” he said, rubbing at the back of his neck, “is Ballard. It’s… I came here once or twice when I was little. It’s just a small village. Tonight’s one of their feast days. They’re celebrating the longest night of the year.”
Feels like a date
“A child is vulnerable. Weaker than an adult. Too liable to be picked off by predators. Our offspring actually age twice as fast as human children. We’re fully grown by twenty-one or twenty-two. That’s when the aging process slows down dramatically.”
“I think this little group might be wondering if the Lord of Cahlish is in the market for a Lady of Cahlish,” I said teasingly.
A hundred and ten years. I left them for a hundred and ten years. Ren and the others did everything they could to stem the tide. It’s not their fault. I was supposed to be here to protect them. I failed them. So I don’t deserve to be called Lord of Cahlish. I am lord of nothing.”
“I don’t hate you,” he rushed out. He exhaled as if the admission had cost him dearly. “But there are things you don’t understand. Things that make it impossible for me—”
Wendy,”
The sound of Fisher’s genuine laughter was rarer than water had ever been back in Zilvaren; it almost brought tears to my eyes to hear it.
Smiling has been pretty hard of late.” His Adam’s apple bobbed. “It is getting easier, though.”
Aww
“Those words you said back there. Why did you say them?” he demanded. I’d said them out loud? Damn. “I don’t know. I really don’t. It came out of nowhere. I was sitting there, listening to you say something about smiling, and then bam. It was all I could hear. Annorath mor. Annorath mor. Annorath m—”
“It’s better if you don’t ask. I can’t tell you anyway, so just… don’t.”
“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?” He licked his lips, eyes burning into me. Even though I was upside down in his field of vision, he must have been able to make out the fury on my face because his eyelids shuttered, and he gave a small nod. “I… understand.”
I ran my hands along his shoulders, working my thumbs into his taut muscles as I had been for the past hour. I wasn’t surprised when the ink beneath his skin drew closer to the places where our skin met. I watched it climb my fingers, forming shapes, and then runes and delicate designs as they inched upward. There was every chance they’d still be there in the morning, but I couldn’t bring myself to care right now.
“I don’t want bright and happy,” he whispered roughly. “I want real.”
Ours was the first house they quarantined. More followed, though. A week later, Madra had the whole ward placed on lockdown. No in or out. They said the ward was stricken with a plague.”
Because it was a good way to stomp out rebellion!
The skills my mother’s rebel friends had taught me ended up keeping us alive.
“My mother was killed, too,” he whispered thickly. “We have that in common, Little Osha.”
Fuck it. I didn’t want the door to close.
Danya said something in Old Fae and spat on the ground, still cradling the smoking stump at the end of her right arm. But fuck Danya. Danya was the worst.
Lol very true!
“I regret to inform you that I am still happily mated and married, Carrion Swift. And my husband isn’t the type to share.” “Is he handsome?” Carrion arched his eyebrow suggestively. “I do love a husband-and-wife team. Maybe he’ll let me join you both if he…”
Lol
“She said, when I needed you most, you’d come blazing into my life like a meteorite, riding on a wave of chaos that would turn my whole world upside down. That you’d shine so brilliantly that you’d light up hell itself and guide me out of the darkness. She had no idea what your name would be. Just that you’d have dark hair, and a beautiful smile. And that I’d love you with a fierceness despite myself.”
“She said she felt like she knew you. That you and she were friends, even though a thousand years stood between you. She… she drew you.” Fisher’s voice grew tighter as he fought to speak. Balancing on the edge of tears, he forced himself to laugh instead of cry. “And she captured you almost perfectly, too.”
“In all of her drawings of you, your ears were like mine. You were Fae.
Maybe she is!!
“My mother never said anything about a mating bond. They haven’t existed for so long. The thought never even crossed my mind. But when I found you lying in that pool of blood, I felt it, like a band snapping into place. I smelled it on you, too.
“Historically, Marks like that come at a cost. They’re the kind of Marks that people will want to write stories about. And not happy ones.”
“I did read that, if marks appeared, a waiting period could be initiated, though. Where either party could choose to accept or reject a bond. I initiated the waiting period for us back in Ballard.”
“I was looking for a way to save you.”
“Lorreth said he’d die himself before he let that happen. Are you really going to cut his life short, too?”
“Where are you going, Saeris?” he called after me. “To sleep. And in the morning, I’m going to the library, and I’m going to research how to save Everlayne and you. Because I don’t just throw my hands up and accept defeat when things get hard. I’m honestly shocked to learn that you do.”
“The last of the witches abandoned Yvelia a hundred years ago,” Lorreth said. “No one’s seen a member of the Balquhidder Clan in twice as long.
“Fantastic. So we don’t just need a witch. We need the most powerful witch of all time,”
“I don’t suppose you’d let me come?” Carrion asked. “I’ve always wanted to see a witch in real life.” “No,” Fisher said blandly. “I would not. You’ll only try and fuck one of them, and we’re trying to petition them for help, not spark a war with them because you can’t keep your cock in your pants.” Lorreth pretended to swallow down vomit. “Urgh. He would not try and fuck a witch.” “No, he’s right,” Carrion said with a sigh. “I would. Y’know. Just to say that I’d done it.”
“I’ve actually never met Everlayne,” Carrion chipped in. “But I’m still coming. Solidarity and all that.”
Lol
“And you?” he said to Carrion. “You’re ready for that?” “Sure. Why not. I’m too pretty to die old, anyway.”
“If it were up to me, we wouldn’t spend another night without each other again.”
When I get you out of these clothes, you’re in trouble, he snarled in my head. I’m going to fuck you so hard you won’t be able to sit down for a week. Fisher!
Lol
Your scent drives me crazy, Fisher rumbled. You’re like a fucking drug. You light me up.
