Quicksilver (Fae & Alchemy, #1)

by Callie Hart

“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.”

I promised to let Fisher go if only he gave me a taste. I promised to wipe Gillethrye from his memory, so he’d forget all about this place and what had happened here… if only he fed from me just once. I wanted to know the bliss that would come at the points of his teeth.

Our Kingfisher? Our Kingfisher? This sick piece of shit couldn’t claim any part of my mate. Fisher was mine.

“Only the gods are eternal,” I told him. And I cut off Malcolm’s head.

Could he feel how weak I was right now? I could tell that his shoulder was injured. I could feel his exhaustion. I didn’t understand this connection between us, but it had grown stronger since I’d accepted my marks and acknowledged him as my mate.

“I don’t give a shit! I’ve lived plenty, Tal. She’s barely lived at all. I’m fucking giving it to her.”

Tal was second only to Malcolm in power. He hid it from the king so he wouldn’t kill him. He can turn you.

“You wouldn’t be. You’d be like him.”

“She consents.”

The mountain that weathers all storms,

He is the storm. You are the peace that must come after it. Tell me, do you believe in the fates, Alchemist?

Do not drift too far from the shore, Saeris Fane. Come back now. Come back.

You stand before a door. Your hand is poised to knock. Are you ready to walk through it? Will you leave this place and see what lies beyond in the next?

A shadow falls across Yvelia. It will alter all it touches. You would rather remain here, knowing that suffering and hardship loom on the horizon? That sacrifices will need to be made?

As you wish. Then we call in our favor, Saeris Fane. Will you honor your word and grant us our favor?

These voices were female. Young and playful. The first who had spoken made a dismissive sound and said, “Well, it looks dead.” I opened my eyes and saw bright blue sky.

“I’m—” I cleared my throat. “Sorry. Tell you what what’s like?” “Sex,” the other girl said, tilting her chin.

“With that male. Our father’s champion.”

“Which one of us do you worship more fervently?” The twin on the right asked. “Bal?” She gestured to herself. “Or Mithin?” She gestured to her counterpart.

They were gods?

I had a feeling that it was his voice I had been speaking to for a long time now.

Facing the god, I angled my jaw and met his cool, blue eyes. I had expected some terrible visage. A hideous, twisted face with madness in its gaze, but no. If he’d been human, I would have judged him in his middle years. His face was lightly lined and had a kindness and wisdom that took me by surprise.

“Zareth. God of Chaos.”

I’ve spent a great deal of time watching the threads of the universe, waiting for one such as you,”

“There is a rot spreading throughout my domain, Saeris,” he said. “Realms that are infected with that rot have to be summarily destroyed to protect the rest of the tree and prevent that rot from spreading. Do you understand?”

“There are millions of you out there. Even in your realm, even in the city you once called your home, there are hundreds of elemental magic wielders who can command the quicksilver. But when I consulted the fates long ago, I was very intrigued when I saw you, Saeris Fane. Not just you. Kingfisher, too. I saw an axis in the flow of things. A burning knot in the tapestry of all that would come to be. When I focused and saw the strength of the bond that connected the two of you together, I admit I attempted to sway the fates.”

“You were supposed to have been born Fae, in the same realm as your Kingfisher. So I separated you.

There was nothing I could do to stop it.”

“In nature, there is a counterweight to everything, child. Light has darkness. Life has death. Joy has sorrow. And good has evil. That law applies, no matter which realm you exist in,”

Every possible future where the two of you are together ends with the vast majority of this tree dying. None of us can foresee any other way.”

“You and Kingfisher fought at each other’s side, and you were God-Bound.”

“These oaths mark you as my ward. They protect both you and Fisher from the unwanted attentions of my brothers and my sister.”

“They would rather kill Fisher and roll the dice on...

“For them, I’m willing to take a chance. If you truly accept Fisher as your mate, then you must agree for the thread of your life to be severed from the tapestry of the universe. Once you do, none of us may affect your future. We won’t be able to see you at all, nor will my brothers and my sister be able to interfere with timelines or events that affect you, either. You’ll be on your own.”

“Do you want your mate to die?” “No, of course not!” “Then this is how you save him.”

“By transforming you into something that has never been seen before,” he answered cryptically. “The universe cannot focus on that which it does not recognize.”

“The best of luck to you, then, Saeris. Give Kingfisher my best.” And then he shoved me into the quicksilver.

“As far as we can tell, you’re a half-vampire, half-Fae. Something none of us have ever seen before. As of now, we’re not sure which traits you’ve adopted from the Fae and which you’ve adopted from the vampires. All our healers are sure of is that you’re no longer human.”

“I placed a memory block around what happened next. Transitioning is hard. And, well, it is in a sire’s power to suppress those memories, if—”

“There are two kinds of forever, Alchemist. One is heaven. The other is hell. It doesn’t matter what I do. Make sure you choose your version of immortality wisely.”

blinked, trying to force this version of Carrion Swift to make sense in my head. Still the same artfully messy copper-brown hair. Still the same blue eyes and that roguish grin. But also the sloped ears. And the pointed canines. And he was so tall.

“You didn’t tell me that you were heir to a fucking Fae throne!”

“So, Fisher’s father took you to Zilvaren when you were little to save you from Belikon. He glamored your ears and your canines so you wouldn’t stand out. He brought a bag of books along with you, so you could learn about your heritage and return when the time was right. And… some woman saved you?”

Fisher’s father had been the one to secret the true heir to the throne out of Yvelia.

Madra had fled through the quicksilver immediately. Belikon had put up a prodigious fight, but the second Lorreth’s angel breath had torn out of Avisiéth, he, too, had fled like a fucking coward.

“No, he said that your father’s blood was used to create the blood curse that allowed Malcolm to become a vampire, and that a vampire can’t drink from the living members of the bloodline that created them, nor can they enthrall them.

“Are you going to tell me about my parents, or are you going to start undressing each other? Because I can leave. I don’t have to, but I can,” Carrion said.

“Human, Fae, or vampire. It doesn’t matter how long you live, Saeris; you will always be most sacred to me.”

I was the ward of a god, and not just any old god.

“Te Léna found a way to dampen the quicksilver’s effects. I’ve been seeing her for months, trying to get it under control, but her sessions were growing less and less effective. And then Iseabail said that she could help. Those two make a pretty good team. Te Léna helped to quiet the quicksilver, and Iseabail’s been teasing it out of me. I’ll have to have a million sessions. It’ll take a long time, but it should work.”