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Even as I spoke, I knew I was lying. It did mean something. Sometimes, objects shook around me. Objects made of iron, tin, or gold.
Carrion Swift: the most notorious gambler, cheat, and smuggler in the entire city. He was also uncommonly good in bed—the only man in Zilvaren who’d ever made me scream his name out of pleasure rather than frustration.
um? ew?
A river of blood—bright blue—spilled down the steel.
“You can take him back with you in a week. Since he knows so much about the quicksilver, he’ll stay here and help Rusarius deal with the girl first. The second she’s capable of waking the pool by herself, Kingfisher will once again be banished from this court.”
“Stop bickering.” A thrill of energy rocketed up my spine at these two words. Kingfisher’s voice was rough and pained, but it was also electricity. It made every hair on my body stand to attention.
“You’re my brother,” Everlayne hissed.
“My mother gave me this pendant, this relic,” he clarified, “when I was eleven. The night before we left for the Winter Palace. She knew I’d have need of it. Later, when I came of age and joined Belikon’s army, I was called upon to travel between Yvelia and the other realms because my pendant was one of the most powerful. To cut a very long and boring story short, I was forced to travel a pathway without it once. The quicksilver took me, just as it takes everyone. A healer managed to draw most of it from me once I made it back to the Winter Palace, but I was left with a few...lasting
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“A ribbon of energy, I suppose. If you take a sword like Solace and plunge it into the quicksilver, it severs that energy in a way that paralyzes it. Until Solace was removed, every entrance to the pathway became frozen. There were members of this court on scouting parties, exploring new pathways that had only recently opened up when Madra cut the cord. Friends. Family members. They became trapped wherever they were. They haven’t been seen since.”
“It’s big enough to make you scream and then some.”
“Maybe the issue is that you asked me a question about my cock like a hungry little bitch in heat and didn’t ask me something that mattered.”
He was cold morning air, and smoke, and fresh-turned earth, and a thousand other complex scents I didn’t even have names for.
“Fuck—you—”
“There you go again. Hungry, needy little bitch in heat, begging to be fucked…” he taunted.
She hadn’t banked on 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.
“Let me guess. Your mother had an affair because the king’s a vile monster, and she ended up pregnant by someone else?” Everlayne—Layne—sighed. “No. My mother was married to a Southern lord before she married my father. She had Fisher with her first husband. When Fisher was ten, the king sent his father on a mission to Zilvaren. He never returned. That’s when the gateways were stilled. The king said that Finran, Fisher’s father, was responsible for the quicksilver stilling and declared him a traitor to the Fae—”
“According to the king, everything’s always Fisher’s fault. But our mother’s death wasn’t because of him. It was because of me.”
“Admittedly, I do enjoy when a female kneels for me, but in this particular case…”
“You like it?” he purred. “I figured some extra protection was in order this morning since you’re now given to hurling yourself at me like some kind of rabid feline.”
After seeing how nice your rooms were yesterday, I figured I’d come and eat breakfast here.
“All right. Fine. Have it your way.” He turned back to the crucible, waving his hand. At the same moment, there was a rush of cool air underneath my skirt accompanied by a frightened yap, and a large wicker cage appeared on the far end of the workbench. Inside the cage: a bowl filled with water, a small pile of what looked like chicken bones, and, of course, the fox.
I wasn’t about to lie to myself; I wanted to know about every single one of them—what
Gods, he was a sight to behold. Every line of him was art. With his full mouth, and the faint shadow of stubble marking his jaw, his fascinating eyes, and all of his midnight-black hair, it was hard not to look at him and ache. I had grown up in a pit of misery, where people died more often than they lived. 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.
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.”
“I wouldn’t fuck you—if you were the last living—”
“It’s beating fast because I’m afraid,” I snapped. “Of me?” Kingfisher huffed a blast of laughter down his nose. “No, you’re not. You should be, but you’re not. That’s one of the things I like most about you.”
“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.”
“Aren’t you curious? Don’t you want to know what I taste like?”
“If you try to punch me again, I’ll tie your hands behind your fucking back,” he promised.
“Or you could kiss me.
“Find out.”
His lips felt incredible. They parted for me, and I could feel his smile against my mouth as his tongue met mine.
He kissed me back.
I hated this male. Hated him with every fiber of my being. But curse me, I wanted him just as bad.
no.
noooo
“I tracked your bloodline. It led me right to him. I asked him who he was. He said he was Hayden Fane. Ergo, I brought you Hayden Fane.”
His blood said he was Hayden.
“The quicksilver closes the gap. With it, we can travel to the realms that orbit those stars.”
“You’re sure he’s not your brother.”
Tall, reedy, thin-limbed beings with bark-like skin and wisps of thin, flowing white hair. Small, hairless things with charcoal-colored skin and slitted amber eyes, teeth as sharp as needles. Two males with shaggy, furred legs and cloven feet sat at the bar, long, ridged horns protruding from their brows and sweeping down their backs. Creatures with bulbous noses and green skin, and creatures with flowing, thick auburn hair that streamed out around their heads caught on an invisible breeze.
Onyx, who had stuck to my side like he was my shadow since we’d entered the tavern, shot under the table.
He took precautions and warded his lands so that neither Belikon nor any of his supporters could cross into them.
Solace was your father’s blade?
As for your sword, Nimerelle has been corrupted for years,” Ren seethed.
To me, Kingfisher was a surly, foul-mouthed bastard who I wouldn’t piss on even if he was on fire. To everyone inside this tavern, he was a living fucking god.
“He used to be kinder,” Ren whispered. “But the quicksilver inside of him… It makes it difficult for him to think straight. It wears on him. It’s exhausting for him, shutting out the voices. It’s made him hard.” There was so much sadness in his voice as he spoke.
“That’s right. But I wasn’t just covered in your blood, was I? I was wearing another of your… perfumes.”
MOTHERFUCKER
“You keep saying that. I’m still not convinced that it’s the truth. Either way, your brother wasn’t where you said he’d be. And when I reached your ward, I detected your scent from three miles away—” “Just stop talking, Fisher.” “—plastered all over that boy.” He gave me a cruel smirk. “Pheromones are signal flares to our noses, Little Osha. I was rushing, so I didn’t differentiate between blood and sex at the time. But when I walked into that room earlier, and your friend Carrion mentioned your little obsession with him—” “Shut. The fuck. Up.” “It became very clear what had happened. He still
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“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—”
