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“Don’t you know? There isn’t much I wouldn’t sacrifice to make you happy, Osha. A little healing magic is the least of it.”
Reality seemed to warp and snap back into place whenever I saw them. In the end, I was just as Fisher’s mother had drawn me.
“I don’t know a single person stupid enough to hit on a newly bonded female, let alone a God-Bound female. But to do it right in front of her mate? In front of him?” he added, jerking his chin toward the last male leaning against the wall by the door.
He had no idea who I was or what I was capable of and, therefore, had no clue what heinous crimes I would commit to ensure my mate’s safety.
If she couldn’t find the information we so desperately needed in the Sanasrothian libraries…
“If they procreate, I’m banishing them from Cahlish. A combination of the two of them would probably tear open some sort of hell gate and suck the entire estate through it.”
“You know I would marry you,” he rushed out. “You must know that I want to.”
“A Fae wedding ceremony is extremely sacred. It is the greatest commitment two lovers can undertake in Yvelia. Not because they swear to love and honor each other for all their days. Not because they give each other their hearts, either. It’s sacred because they give each other their names. Their true names. And I can give you everything else, Osha. But I can’t give you that.”
“I don’t know it,” he whispered. “I’ve never known it. We usually receive our true names on our fourteenth birthdays, and my mother—” He blinked. “Well, she died before I turned fourteen. And my father was already gone. So…”
“I love you, Fisher.” It was the first time I’d said it. “I love you, and nothing else matters beyond that. Wherever you are, I’ll beg the gods and all the fates to let me be there, too,” I whispered.
Like there was any realm or reality in which I didn’t love him, but he was praying that I might. He was out of his godscursed mind. “I love you, Fisher. Of course I do. Always. Forever.”
“I despise the gods, Saeris. I’m Oath Bound by this land and the blood of kings. I swore I would never offer up a word of gratitude to them again, but you have made a liar of me. You’re a gift that cannot be ignored. My heart…” He swallowed, giving a tiny shake of his head. “I’ve killed more people than I can count. I lost the parts of myself that knew how to feel anything other than pain and sorrow centuries ago. But for better or worse, you have brought me back to life.”
“You taste like the end of the fucking world,” he purred. “Just kill me and be done with it. Nothing will ever be better than this.”
“Sm-small,” she wheezed. “But thick. Blue. There is a butterfly…” “A butterfly? On the cover?”
“It’s hidden,” she rasped, “among the stars.”
“They told you. About the rot,” she said in a clear voice. “They told you it would come. It’s here, now. You must find the book in order to stop it. Without it, the decay will spread until it swallows this realm and millions more with it. I have seen it, Saeris. Find the book. Stop the spread. It’s the only way.”
“Thank you. Make sure he knows how much I loved him, Saeris,” she said. “At the end, make sure he knows that I’d do it all again.”
“An Alchemist must seal her runes,” she rasped. “You are a well that runs deep. When you were marked with your runes, their magic began pouring into you. It flows and it flows. It will not… stop…”
“The Blood Court is an archaic place. Its members are like insects trapped in amber. Nothing changes here. We are predictable in our cruelty. Predictable in our violence. It’s change that is feared most in a place like this. They aren’t worried about you, per se. More… what you represent.”
All libraries contained magic. Even libraries that didn’t specialize in such things. Because what was a book, if not a portal into another realm, another time, another life even.
“Aren’t we just the same? Made from the same material as the sea and the dirt and the sky? Folded from the scraps of the gods and entrusted with a spark of magic that makes us real?”
“I think it took a curious mind to combine the ingredients it took to make us, too. But that’s all. Where any kind of life exists, magic proliferates, Saeris. We create all the wonders of this realm just by being present to witness them, and it’s always magic that lights the way. That is what I believe.”
The pages didn’t listen. They flew through the air and tumbled one over the other, gathering into a ball. Before my eyes, they organized themselves into a single, ordered pile… and then they were a book. Navy blue cloth cover. Thick.
A tiny silver butterfly was stamped in foil on the front cover.
For you, gods blessed. Thank you for loving my boy. —E
Find it. But do not tell him about it. I mean it. It’s important. He can’t know about the book. Only you. Do you understand?
You know, she used to love coming to this forge, too!” He brightened as if he had just remembered this fact. “She knew nothing about metalwork or the workings of a forge, but she would come and sit in that chair, yes, that one, the one next to yours, and she would say that she was visiting with a
friend. I never understood what she meant, but… but!” He held a stubby index finger in the air, and I noticed for the very first time that Archer only had three fingers, plus his thumb.
“IT’S CALLED BRIMSTONE. It isn’t like our blood, exactly. It is what keeps a fire sprite alive, though,” Lorreth said.
“Anything I ask of you, I give freely and willingly in return. Always. I promise.”
“May she be the last monarch this court sees!” Tal shouted, snatching a glass up from a passing thrall’s tray. “May she overcome all, for the glory of this holy court. May she usher in a new era and a new beginning for the people of Sanasroth! To Queen Saeris!”
“Who… are you?” Crave choked. “Only… half-gods may wield shadows.”
Khydan drew in a deep breath, ignoring the male’s question. “I’ve come for a dragon, as is my right. Summon our father. Tell him I’ve come to make a trade.”
