Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1)

by Callie Hart

Black shadows spilled from Fisher’s fingers. Smoke roiled up the table legs and swept across the tabletop like morning mist rolling across a field. It swallowed our food, the wicker basket, everything. With a crash, the table flipped, toppling to the floor, and then Fisher was on his feet, lifting me out of my chair, lifting me from the ground… crossing the tent. My back slammed up against something solid and hard—a bookcase?—but it wasn’t the shock of the pain that ripped the air from my lungs. It was Fisher’s mouth.

“Fuck.” He snarled the guttural curse into the crook of my neck, at the same time driving his hips upward so that I felt… oh, gods.

“Yes! Yes, of course. He hasn’t…” My cheeks flared red hot. “He didn’t do anything wrong.” “Of course not. I know him. Fisher would never…” He tiptoed around what he wanted to say, ushering me inside the tent. Delicately, he said, “I can smell you as well as him, Saeris. I wasn’t worried that he’d hurt you. I was asking if you were okay. There’s a difference.”

“But what the fuck’s going on?” Carrion demanded. “Sanasroth. The enemy’s at the riverbank. The ice must be broken so that the dead cannot cross.”

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

“Gods and fucking martyrs. Holy fucking shit. That’s right. Come. Show me how pretty you are when you fall apart.”

“There’s also the plant life. Poisonous thorns and carnivorous flower buds. If those don’t kill you, they’ll sure as hell leave a mark. And then, of course,” Fisher noted, his eyes darkening, “there’s Malcolm.” He didn’t say “the vampires.” He said “Malcolm,” as if the pale figure with the silver hair I’d seen on the other side of the riverbank was solely responsible for the death and destruction his horde left in its wake. “His hatred alone would wipe the world clean of life if it were given free rein.”

“On the wrong side of the Darn, baying for the blood of their own fucking children,” he said bitterly. “Or else they’ve abandoned their homes and moved away, where they won’t have the entire Sanasrothian horde kicking down their front doors in the middle of the night. 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.”

“The quicksilver pushed those words into my mind when you forced me to hold it back at the Winter Palace. What do they mean?” I asked, stepping toward him.

“My mother was killed, too,” he whispered thickly. “We have that in common, Little Osha.” I wanted to ask him what he meant by that, but he had already fallen asleep.

Fuck me with your fingers. Choke me. Hold me down and ride me until I scream.

I’ll make you beg, Little Osha. I’ll fill every one of those pretty little holes. I’ll fuck you so hard, you’ll never want another male ever again.

“I’m Saeris. I’m an Alchemist. I—” We know who she is, the quicksilver hissed. She is the dawn. She is the moon. She is the sky. She is oxygen in our lungs.

“Leave him?” the quicksilver asked in a quizzical voice. “Yes. Leave him. His body. I want you to come out of him. I’ll strike a deal with you—” “We cannot leave him. We are him.” A multitude of voices layered over each other—an echoing chorus of voices, delivering news that I didn’t want to hear. “He is Fae. You are… you’re…” I didn’t have a clue what it was. Not really. What the hell was I supposed to tell it? I had to keep things simple. “You’re quicksilver. You’re not supposed to bind with living creatures.” “We bind with all kinds of weapons.” “Fisher isn’t a weapon! He’s… he’s a living, breathing…” “Weapon,” the quicksilver said. “The best. We are him. He is us. We cannot leave. We will die.” “You’ll die? Or Kingfisher?” “All of us,” the quicksilver emphasized. “We are one thing. One weapon.”

“We were forged hundreds of years ago. We cannot be unmade.” “You’re hurting him.” Even in my head, my voice seemed to crack with emotion. “He’s suffering because of you.” The quicksilver was quiet. I could sense it, thinking about this. But not for long. “We are him. He is us. We all suffer, Alchemist. There is nothing to be done.” “So you’re just going to keep pushing him until he cracks? Until he dies? If you kill him, what then?” “Then we do as all dying things do. We return to the dirt, and the sea, and the sky. We sleep. We evolve. We change. We transcend.” “You’re stealing his life from him,” I spat. “You have no right—” “We gave him his life. A boy. Just a boy. He was young when he entered our pool. He should not have survived it. But he was strong, and the grand halls of the universe rang aloud with his purpose. We permitted him to live so that he might fulfill that purpose. We bound ourselves to him that he might survive.” “And… there’s no other way? For him to live without…” “This die was cast centuries ago. We accepted our fate, Alchemist. All of us did.” I heard the implication in the quicksilver’s words. It wanted me to understand that Fisher had agreed to this somehow. That he’d allowed the quicksilver to bind with him and had known what it would mean. But I couldn’t make my peace with that. Why would he have struck a bargain that would eventually cost him his mind? My eyes stung behind my eyelids. I couldn’t accept it. Wouldn’t. There had to be a way to con...

“You’re not angry?” His mouth tugged up into the smallest, saddest smile. Closing his eyes, he sighed. “Of course not. How can I be angry? You wanted to help. But now you know. It’s not just inside of me. It’s a part of me. Without it, I’ll die anyway. So, it’s—”

Aghast, the female took him in, standing there behind me, his hands on my body. “You can’t be serious, Fisher. We all know you’ve fucked her. The whole camp can smell it on the two of you. But she’s a human—” “And?” Ren dumped everything he was carrying down onto the ground with a snarl. “She’s honorable and brave, not to mention the most powerful Alchemist ever documented. She disarmed you in half a fucking second if you recall. Who the fuck are you to say she and Fisher don’t belong together?”

“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.”

“And what about us?” I asked. “We can’t just sit here. I need to do something.” Fisher

“Did you hear that?” he said. “What?” “That smoking hot blonde said I was pretty.” “Gods alive, Carrion. Do not tell me you have a thing for Danya. She’s fucking awful.” “Eh.” He shot me a rakish grin. “I love a girl with a sharp tongue and a bad attitude. Kinda makes my dick hard.”

“Gods, you’re incorrigible.” He waggled his eyebrows. “But then I realized that it was you. He didn’t want me smelling like you.” I refrained from commenting. I had suspected that was why Fisher had made Carrion take that bath, but I’d never said it out loud. Not even to give him shit. I didn’t know how it made

I don’t want to go back to Zilvaren anymore. Not forever, anyway. I want to go home, get Hayden and Elroy, and then bring them back here to Yvelia.

Yes, a good secret. Very good. You want to stay. You want to save him. You must. You must. I frowned, watching the quicksilver closely as it vibrated next to the ring in the bowl of the crucible. Save him? I thought. Hayden? Yes, I want to bring him here. Not the brother. The Kingggfisshhherrrr, the quicksilver buzzed. Save him. Save the gates. Save Yvelia. “I just love it when you disappear into tense conversations with creepy portal metal,” Carrion quipped, hoisting himself up to sit on the bench. “It’s fascinating watching you do all of those facial gymnastics.” “Just a moment, Carrion,” I whispered. Then to the quicksilver, I said, What do you mean, save Kingfisher? He’s here. He’s okay. I watched the quicksilver roll over the ring, enveloping its surface, coating it, sinking inside it. It said, We are token. Key. Relic. Shield. The words overlapped like layers of cloth, one on top of the other, but I still heard each one perfectly. Seal us with blood, Alchemist, the relic demanded.

and leaned against the wall by the doorway in that practiced, careless way of his. “You look stunning this evening, Te Léna. You’re literally the only good thing about being back here.” She laughed. “Aside from the running hot water, you mean? And the soft feather beds? And the endless supply of delicious hot food?” “No. I hate every single one of those things,” he said theatrically. “You remain the only bright star in a sea of darkness here. Tell me you’ve changed your mind about having dinner with me.”

“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…”

tattoos before. Would you mind showing them to me?” “You sound weird,” Carrion said. “And I’m trying to help her forget the tattoos, not make a big deal out of them. Gods, you sure know how to ruin a guy’s chance of getting laid.” Te

“Weakness. Vulnerability.” “I am not weak, Fisher! I’m not like those butterflies, pathetic, hatching and dying in the cold—” “Not you! Me!” He thumped himself in his chest, suddenly furious. “My weakness! My vulnerability! I’ve known for centuries that you were coming. That you were just going to show up one day and change everything. You’re the chink in my armor, Saeris. The soft spot where the knife slides in. You are the thing that Malcolm will hurt in order to hurt me, and I couldn’t… couldn’t fucking bear it!”

“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. And when I saw…” He sucked in a deep breath. Sat up a little straighter. “When I felt Solace calling to me and I stepped into that pool, I saw that you were human, and I knew in an instant how easily this place would destroy you. So I made the decision to leave you there. But I couldn’t leave you, could I?” he continued. “Your stomach was torn wide open. You were dying. I had no choice but to bring you back. So I decided to be awful to you, so you’d fucking hate me and want nothing to do with me.”

“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. And I… I was so fucking angry.” He clenched his jaw. “Angry that the fates had sealed us that way, when no one else in living memory had been affected by a bond. Angry that it had happened before either of us had even had a chance to get to know each other. I had no idea the marks would show up like that. Without any fucking warning. Without us being married, or even… even… deciding for ourselves that we wanted to be together.

things. I hear things. And it’s getting worse.” He hooked his pendant around his finger, closing his hand around it. “This won’t help for much longer—” “I can make you another relic. I just made one—” “This isn’t just a relic, Saeris. It’s warded with spellwork, too. My mother went to the witches and had it, along with a number of other items, made for me before she died. Things she knew I’d need. But this thing inside me is getting stronger. There isn’t a spell in existence strong enough to keep it at bay forever. Soon enough, the pendant won’t work at all, and I’ll be lost. But you don’t need to worry. I refuse to bond you to me with that on the horizon. I won’t accept it. I won’t have you chained to me when things get really bad.”

And Lorreth is smart. He isn’t going to accept that you’re abandoning Yvelia and you won’t be coming back.” “He’s going to have to, isn’t he?” “Like hell he will.” I headed for the door. “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.”

“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.”

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

again. Brother. I still didn’t fully understand, but some pieces of this puzzle were snapping into place. Belikon had refused to send supplies and food down to Irrín. He’d embargoed silver—the only thing capable of permanently killing Malcolm’s kind—and had refused to send any of it south. And why would he waste supplies on warriors he didn’t intend to survive? Why would he arm warriors with deadly weapons if he didn’t actually want them to kill their enemy?

“Hadn’t you better give your plaything a break, Malcolm?” Madra purred. She eyed Fisher with keen interest. “Be a shame if he died before he could play your little game. I’d love to see if he b...

“You know, it does bring me such joy to be reunited, the three of us. You’ve missed much, Madra. We’ve been having a wonderful time. Especially lately. The fall of Gillethrye was a sight to behold, wasn’t it, Brother?”

The Fae of Gillethrye have spoken.” He turned back to Fisher. Slapping his hands down on his shoulders, the king gave Fisher a rough shake. “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.”

a little cruel, but…” “You’ve always had such an affinity for turning cruelty into an art form, Brother,” Madra simpered.

“I play back,” Fisher 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.”

“I don’t like you, human. Something about you smells… off.” “That’s probably the weird… moss… these water sprites rubbed… all over me…” Carrion croaked. “It had a strange… funk… to it.”

Carrion was deathly pale, but he grinned up at Malcolm like a lunatic. “You really should have let me finish introducing myself earlier. It’s rude to interrupt people.” Malcolm let go of him, shoving him away. Miraculously, Carrion managed to stay on his feet. “My name is Carrion Swift. But there was a time when I was known as Carrion Daianthus. Firstborn son to Rurik and Amelia Daianthus.”

marks. Pointing at the runes on my index and middle fingers, he named them one at a time. “Earth. Air. Fire. Water. Salt. Brimstone. Quicksilver. The full gamut. More power than any Alchemist I’ve ever encountered. You are capable of restoring me to my power and a lot more besides.”

The roots you see, growing down into the earth, into the quicksilver, are the anchors of fate.”

consequences. When she had predicted me rushing into her son’s life, she had seen me with sloped ears and canines like her son. It turned out she hadn’t been wrong after all. I should have been born Fae. The God of Chaos had simply interfered.

Wow

“Tell them that. As far as the vampire court is concerned, you’re to be coronated. In two days’ time, you officially become the new queen of Sanasroth.”