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Rumors are next-door neighbors to gossip, and gossip always breaks bread with lies.
“Ahh. Saeris. A pretty name. A Fae name.
Long hair is a sign of high-born status for Fae women. Others will be jealous of your dark coloring, too. Dark hair is a royal trait amongst the Yvelian Fae.”
“She must have a drop of Fae blood,” a deep voice murmured. “Enough to stop Solace from burning off her hands. But not enough to matter.”
Not to mention the fact that there are still rumors floating around that the Daianthus heir is in Zilvaren somewhere.
“Osha for short. They hatch, live, and die all in one day. The cold kills them very fast.
when I reached your ward, I detected your scent from three miles away—”
“We have a fucking Alchemist?” “She’s mine,” Fisher said.
Just don’t share food with that prick. It’s bad enough that you insist on sharing air with him.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine the terror of being fully drained by one of Malcolm’s princes and knowing that I was doomed to come back as one of those things.
“I can’t have children, Fisher. I was cleansed when I was fourteen.” I expected to see relief on his face. But instead, his face drained of color. “What the fuck did you just say to me?”
He came and stood very close to me, his head bowed over mine, nostrils flaring. “What do you mean… cleansed?” “I mean… they sterilize us,” I whispered.
“Because she is moonlight. The mist that shrouds the mountains. The bite of electricity in the air before a storm. The smoke that rolls across a battlefield before the killing starts. You have no idea what she is. What she could be. You should call her Majesty.”
“That makes you the most powerful Alchemist ever recorded,” Lorreth supplied.
“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.”
We will be forged anew. When you have upheld your end of our bargain, we will taste the blood of the one who would carry us. If they are honorable, we will consider allowing the old magics to flow through us again.
By righteous hands, deliverance of the unrighteous dead.
“It’s fucking outrageous that he can sing, too.” Carrion had woken up and was stood to my right, arms folded across his chest, balefully regarding Lorreth. “That was nice, though. Messed up, but nice.”
We accept the song as tribute. The bargain is fulfilled. An accord is struck.
We have considered, the quicksilver intoned, the first to bleed upon our blade.
“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.
Ren laid a steadying hand on my shoulder. “And if you should find soul sundered from flesh, order a drink for us at the first tavern you come across in the afterlife. We’ll settle the tab when we get there.”
“I don’t know. I just—” The rest of the sentence was cut short when a plume of black smoke swept me up off the ground, and suddenly I was in Fisher’s arms.
“She’s been kicking ass, Brother. She wields Solace almost as well as your father did.”
For the first time in a thousand years, a god sword had found an Yvelian worthy and granted him magic to defend his people.
If Malcolm permits her to drink from him, and she actually does it, then she’ll return and become something like Malcolm’s Lords. If she refuses to drink from Malcolm, or he refuses his blood to her, then she’ll die and return as a feeder.”
“Our Alchemist faced the enemy tonight and stood her ground bravely. We have among us a newly blooded warrior.”
“I give you my blood in thanks, Saeris Fane.”
“That seat is reserved for the lady of the house, you stupid girl. Etiquette dictates that only Fisher’s wife is permitted to sit there. It’s a position of high honor meant for a Fae female born into one of the old houses,
I hadn’t heard Fisher come through the gate. I felt his presence, though—a pleasant warmth in the back of my mind. The scent of the forest enveloped me as strong, tattooed hands rested on top of my shoulders.
“Once upon a time, that was the case. Back when true mating bonds existed. Unions between true mates were blessed with marks from the Fates. That’s where the tradition of inking our hands originated from.
“They called it a God Binding. A blessing from the gods themselves.
Protecting them while they live is considered a sacred rite that many die in order to perform. That’s what Oshellith means in Old Fae, Saeris. Most Sacred.”
“All names hold power in this place. Every name means something. We have true names that we don’t share with anyone.
“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.”
Centuries ago, a mother had looked into her son’s future, seeking comfort, to assure herself that he would live a good life. And she had seen the pain and suffering the fates had in store for her boy, and then she had seen me and known that he would be okay. The weight of that…
In the past, one party always got the mating marks first. When the other party accepted the bond, sometimes Marks showed up on their bodies, too.
“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.
“You spayed my mate when she was a fucking child,” he seethed. “For that alone, I’ll make your undying existence an unending agony.
“My name is Carrion Swift. But there was a time when I was known as Carrion Daianthus. Firstborn son to Rurik and Amelia Daianthus.”
“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
“You were supposed to have been born Fae, in the same realm as your Kingfisher. So I separated you. Hundreds of years before you were born, I shifted the events around your birth.
“Human, Fae, or vampire. It doesn’t matter how long you live, Saeris; you will always be most sacred to me.”
