Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1)

by Callie Hart

“Nobody will ever fuck you the way I’m about to fuck you, Saeris Fane. I’m about to introduce you to all seven gods. When you meet them, don’t forget to tell them I’m the one you worship on your knees.”

Jaw. On. The. Floor.

“Gods alive, you’re so pretty with your mouth wrapped around me like that.”

“My lips to kiss. My mouth to fuck.”

watched, unable to tear my gaze from him, and an array of new tattoos bloomed like black flowers across his skin. They climbed up the side of his throat. Fresh runes chained his collarbone, interlocking and bold. The design on his neck looked like feathers at first, and—yes, they were feathers. The outstretched wings of a majestic bird, flashing metallic blue and green, fanned around either side of his neck, unique and stunning.

“That was just the beginning, Saeris.” He bumped my nose with the end of his. “Didn’t think I’d be done with you that easily, did you?”

“I accepted the bond. Earlier. When I was inside you. When my soul was wrapped around yours.”

“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,” he whispered quietly into my hair. “And I’m already half-mad, anyway. What’s a little complicated thrown into the mix?” “I—” “Please, for the love of the gods, don’t say anything. Just let me have my fantasy. Just for tonight.”

And you, Osha. I release you from your oath. You know how to make the relics now. A selfish part of me wants to beg you to make as many as you can so that my friends and their families can escape Yvelia before this realm falls. But I understand if you need to go. Find Hayden and Elroy. Help your friends. Then go exploring. There are countless realms out there, waiting to be found. Make one of them yours. I’ve never been one to trust in the gods, but I choose to believe that all things come from the same place when life begins. I have hope that they return to the same place when it ends. I’ll be waiting for you there, Saeris Fane. F

So Kingfisher had gone to Gillethrye to save Everlayne and everyone else he cared about. And he had gone there alone and unarmed.

And here, he says in the letter that he wants you to be ready for Everlayne when he sends her through a gate back to Cahlish. That she’ll try and use it to get back to Malcolm. Which means that the gate isn’t one-way. If Everlayne can use it to come here—” “Then we can also use it to go there!”

Ren got to his feet, letting out a long exhale. “I could kiss you, Carrion Swift.” Carrion seemed taken aback by this. And then somewhat interested. After thinking for a second, he said, “I wouldn’t be opposed. But maybe later. First, Saeris has work to do, and I plan on giving her a hand.”

“Have you heard about the fire at the circus?” I paused for dramatic effect. “It was in tents. Get it? In tents.”

Lol

It asked for a joke.

A husband turns to his wife one day and says, ‘Y’know, I bet you can’t think of something to tell me that will make me both happy and sad at the same time.’ The wife doesn’t even need to think about it. She turns to her husband and says, ‘Your cock is way bigger than your brother’s.’” The quicksilver, which hadn’t made a peep over my joke, started to chuckle.

Lol it likes Carrion’s joke

More jokes. Give us more jokes… I glowered at the sword, unable to comprehend its bad taste. If ever there was a weapon so perfectly suited to its owner, it was this one. Carrion delighted in telling it the filthiest jokes imaginable.

What the Quicksilver asks for matches who the wielder of the sword is

“It looks like a Simon.” “Simon?” “Yeah. Simon. Don’t blame me. That’s what it looks—” He stopped talking and listened. “See. It likes the name. It wants to be Simon.”

Lol the silliness name for a sword!

The cure for the blood curse was lost over a thousand years ago, and that only helped the Fae who had been cursed, not turned.

Turned vampires need to die before they transition, and witch magic can’t affect the dead. There’s a chance Malcolm’s venom will kill Layne before she can be healed, even if she is frozen by Iseabail’s magic.”

“I don’t trust her. The witch,” he clarified before I could ask who he was referring to. “Dragon lovers. They’re the reason we’re in this mess in the first place. If it weren’t for them, there wouldn’t even be any vampires.”

Witches connected to dragons?! And they MADE the vampires??

“My people have been persecuted my whole life thanks to those vicious rumors. We proved centuries ago that we had nothing to do with the curse that afflicted your kind. The Balquhidder Clan was one of the five families charged by your dead King Daianthus with finding a cure for the Fae curse. We were instrumental in breaking it.

“You know damned well what my name is,” Lorreth rumbled. “We’ve met before, Witch.” “Oh?” Iseabail shot Lorreth a feline smirk. “Really? I must have forgotten.”

The redhead looked as if she enjoyed watching the warrior squirm. You could have cut the mounting tension in the room with a knife.

Is this aggressive foreplay?! 😏

“Saeris! Wait! The water!”

On no! A distraction so the vampires could come through the water maybe

Below: a shimmering and vast pool of black silk. No. Not silk. Water. A lake.

Oh, the water!

“Carrion Swift, if you don’t wake up right now, I’m going to tell all of your asshole friends back in the Third that you were a shitty lay.” Lorreth dealt another blow to his solar plexus. “I mean it!” I cried.

When he was done puking, Carrion flopped onto his back and fixed me with narrowed eyes. “You wouldn’t… fucking… dare.”

“Widow’s Bane.

The sky over Gillethrye was raining ash.

The building, if it could even be called that, was some kind of megastructure. Hundreds of thousands of people sat in the stands, roaring at the top of their lungs.

This wasn’t just an amphitheater. It was a slaughterhouse. And we were standing on the killing floor.

“What are they screaming?” Carrion breathed. Lorreth answered in a horrified tone. “Release us.” Release us! Release us! Release us! I heard it now, as if the words had been translated in my mind. Hundreds of thousands of people, begging to be released.

“Actually, this is only the first circle of hell, Lorreth of the Broken Spires. But I’d be very happy to introduce you to all five.”

Hell?!!!

The captain of Madra’s guard, Harron,

Ah we’ve come full circle

What power could Harron have over these monsters?

Harron’s vortex wasn’t right. It felt like a perversion of nature,

HE WAS the first thing I saw. Always. My heart and my soul knew exactly where to find him.

There, sitting in the center of the dais, was Malcolm.

To the right of the dais sat Belikon. To the left… Madra.

“This place is a graveyard. The air itself is full of death. The ground beneath us is bones and ash. Your magic cannot reach you here.”

“You should have at least let them try, Brother. I was looking forward to seeing the look on their faces when they realized how much trouble they were in.” Brother? But… how could Belikon be her brother?

And now that our Triumvirate is reunited, all three of us are more powerful than we’ve been in an age.”

Triumvirate

“We haven’t been at war, you fool. I’ve simply been feeding my brother’s army.”

Shit!

“I release you from your oath to us, Kingfisher, Bane of Gillethrye. Now, go on. Tell your friends all about the deal you struck with us all those years ago.”

Belikon proposed a deal. He found a coin. One used only in Gillethrye. The smallest denomination of currency the Fae had here. He said if the coin hit the ground and landed leaf-side up, Malcolm would call off his horde and leave the city without hurting another living thing. But if the coin hit the ground and landed fish-side up, he would take the city as his own and destroy it, and I would have to leave those still alive to their deaths and meet him on the field of battle at a later date.”

While the coin toss was being decided, he wasn’t allowed to harm me or my brother. Not a hair on either of our pretty heads. And, until the outcome of the coin toss had been decided, he wasn’t allowed to speak of the deal or of the fact that Malcolm and I were brothers. And he agreed.

“I tossed the coin…” he said. “And I caught it!” Malcolm held his glass aloft, toasting himself. “The coin never hit the ground,” I whispered.

It trapped Fisher in the bargain!

barricaded it and trapped everyone inside. Malcolm’s horde had either bitten or killed everyone. They were transitioning right before our eyes. Gillethrye was home to nearly two hundred thousand High Fae and Lesser Fae. If they were allowed to join Malcolm’s horde, they would have swallowed the entire realm. So I gave the order. I did what had to be done.”

“Well, I created the most diabolically lethal labyrinth I could conjure in my mind, dear sister,” Malcolm said, as if this should have been obvious. “I hid Belikon’s coin at its center, and then I created this colosseum around it and filled the stands with the perpetually burning bodies of all the creatures our poor little bleeding heart here had wanted to save. All he had to do to end their suffering was find the coin and make it fall to the ground. Obviously, it would be too late to save the Fae from death, but at least it would end their suffering. And then,” he added with a dramatic flourish, “he would be free to seek his vengeance by calling me out onto the battlefield.”

spat. “It might not be today, but oh, I am coming to find you, Madra. Fear the shadows, bitch. I’m made of them. One night soon, I’ll climb out of one and slit your fucking throat.”

That’s a promise!