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Emotions painted the blood. Happiness. Anger. Sorrow. Lust. Each gave off its own energy.
Humans were not good at taming their feelings. They felt everything so rudely, right out in the open, with no awareness of how their reactions might affect those with finer senses.
he could have his reasons, so long as none of them involved him harboring any sort of hope that Saeris was going to confess her undying love for him. That wasn’t happening.
“Just shut up and run!” “What—what are you doing?” he panted. “What do you think I’m doing?” I snarled. “I’m saving the fucking fox!”
He must have been tired and ready to give up, but he was still coming. For her. And I was not about to let that little fox die.
“You maimed them at best,” I snapped. “And the day you save me on a battlefield, I’ll put on a dress and dance a fucking jig.”
“I am no child. My name is Saeris Fane, and I am your queen.”
He glanced at me out of the corner of his eye, and the primal hunger I saw there landed like a physical blow. He was barely in control of himself. If I touched him— “Don’t even think about it, or I’ll take you right here,” he panted. Holy. Fucking. Gods.
“You’re going to polish that blade away into nothing if you’re not careful,” Ren said, taking a seat next to him. “It gets sulky if I don’t clean it every night.” Lorreth’s tone bore a hint of exasperation. He grinned at us both in greeting. “The damned thing has mood swings worse than a Faeling whose balls are about to drop.” Ren laughed, nodding up at me. “Funny you mention balls. Ask him how his are.”
“She isn’t my girlfriend. She’s my mate,” Fisher said quite amicably. “And if any part of your body, literally any part of it, comes into contact with hers, then I will remove it.” Carrion thought about this. “What about if she’s hanging off a cliff by one hand and can’t hold on much longer? Can I touch her then?” “Where am I in this unlikely scenario?” “Probably dead.” Fisher just gave him a tight smile. “If I’m dead, then—” “Urgh! You’re ridiculous, both of you! I’d rather poke a dismembered head than bear witness to this. Just stop already!” I shoved them aside and crossed the chamber
It’s hard to concentrate on camp logistics when I can smell you across the room, though, Osha. I was going to die of embarrassment. You cannot. Across the room, I caught the flash of wickedly sharp canine as a suggestive smile parted Fisher’s lips. Be under no illusion, Little Osha. You are all I can smell.
“I heard from Lorreth that you got yourself a new sex tattoo at your coronation. Can I see it?”
We can’t get married because I don’t have a true name to trade.”
“There are too many pricked ears in this godscursed manor,” he groaned. “They aren’t going to like what they hear over the next few hours.”
“Do I smell the same?” I whispered. Fisher cradled the back of my head in his hand, supporting its weight as he pulled back and looked down at me. “Yes,” he said roughly. And then, in the same breath, “No. Before, you smelled like fresh crushed leaves and the mountain air before a cold snap. A subtle hint of spices and citrus, and fire smoke.” I stared at his mouth, watching him speak, mesmerized. “And… now?” “Now, those scents are amplified a thousandfold. You smell like excitement. You smell like laughter. And peace. And love.”
“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.” Fuck!
“Come now, Osha. Where else would an acolyte kneel to worship but at the altar of his god?”
I’m just a male, he answered in an agonized tone. I’ve never worked a miracle in my life. What gives you… the impression I’d be able to start… working them now?
rim of my iris cackled with delight as Swift let out a panicked yelp and grabbed hold of my leather backplate, almost unbalancing both of us and sending us back into the pool. The Smart Mouth is not so smart now, it purred. The Smart Mouth sounds stupid.
The smuggler was standing frozen in the middle of the hall with his hands outstretched, knees bent, ass sticking out like he’d shit himself.
“His holy name is Joshin. Lord of the Desert. King of the Dark Dream.”
“Then tell me, Joshin. You filled me with enough venom to take down three horses… but do you scent any fear on me? Do you think I am afraid to face my demons? I’ve faced them before. I know them all by name. I’ve conquered them and bent them to my will more times than the sun has risen over Yvelia in my lifetime. I’ll face your nightmares if I have to, and I will still be the most frightening thing prowling around in the dark.”
“Go on,” he said. “Ask.” It was beneath me to pretend that I didn’t know what he was talking about. So I asked. “Are you in love with her?” He let his head drop, laughing quietly as he pulled out a chair at the table and sank down heavily in it. Stretching his legs out in front of himself, he rested his hands on his stomach, one on top of the other, and looked up to meet my gaze. “No,” he said simply. And then, immediately, “Yes?” Heat flared up inside me, making my throat close. “It’s not a simple thing, Fisher. She’s… well…” “Spectacular,” I whispered.
“I’m not arrogant. I’m fucking proud. I hear how your pulse quickens when you touch my body, and it makes me feel fucking invincible. You can hear my pulse do the same when I touch you, can’t you?”
Thank the gods, I chanted in my head. Thank the fucking gods. Don’t thank them, came Fisher’s low, resonant reply. Thank me. I’m the one who’s about to make you scream.
“Sweet fucking mercy,” he panted. “Kill me. Sit on my face and ride my tongue until I fucking die. I can’t take it anymore.”
“The Winter Palace remembers,” Orious said, shaking his head. “That’s right. Your kind were dangerous. No power that vast should have ever been gifted to one group of people. My king discovered how to limit your magic a long time ago. Our traditions have lasted far longer than your kind did. Every soldier in the king’s army is equipped with a null blade on the day they complete their training. Good luck fending off five of those, Alchemist.”
“No, mistress. You don’t understand. That ornament is how Kingfisher got his name! Lady Edina saw it in a market in Ballard when she was pregnant with the master. She wasn’t usually taken by things like that. She didn’t own many knickknacks, but she said she had to have it. She was so taken by it that on his first birthday, she announced people should call her son Kingfisher. She set that ornament there herself, on that shelf, when the master was just a Faeling. She didn’t like anyone to touch it.” “Okay, Archer. It’s okay,” I said, laughing a little at his anxious rambling. “The ornament’s
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His name?
“My soul is on the winds,” I panted. “You’re carrying it away.”
“Every part. I love all of you.” He blew a dark curl out of his eyes. “I’d spend the fortunes of the universe to protect you. I’d drain the seas dry. Fell every tree. I would sacrifice the sun from the fucking sky and surrender the stars, too, if I could. But those things aren’t mine to give. All I have is my life. It isn’t much, but I’d spend it and consider the price small if it meant keeping you safe.”
Carrion squinted at Fisher, hand in the air. “Is it weird, knowing that people’s balls retract up into their bodies whenever you’re around?” He made a cupping motion of something being sucked upward.
“In Ammontraíeth, is it considered incest if you sleep with your maker? ’Cause it sounds to me like someone was fucking Daddy.”
THE FOX SMELLED like wild winter and frost-bitten mornings. I held him tightly under one arm, humming a lullaby that my mother had sung to me as an infant quietly under my breath. Not to the fox. I wasn’t humming to the fox. That would have been weird. I just liked the song, and I had a feeling he did, too. There was nothing wrong with that.
“You have seen so little of your kingdom. You do not know it, but it does know you. It knows your blood.
his blood will be key!
Carrion hit the corner wall of the courtyard, a winded “Guh!” coming out of him as he tried to right himself. Behind him, the vines choking the crumbling brickwork suddenly bloomed, a thousand tiny white flowers exploding open and wilting right before my eyes. Dried petals rained down on the smuggler, landing in his hair as he shoved away from the wall.
his blood can heal the rot of his land!
Fucking Zovena. I was going to ash her one of these days and wear her fangs as fucking earrings.
“Well. I’ve impaled quite a few people on the end of my sword,” he said conspiratorially. “And I’ve lost count of how many battles I’ve fought in.”
The windows were fogged up with condensation, probably due to the extraordinary number of potted plants he’d managed to cram inside the room. The place resembled… well, I didn’t know what it resembled, actually. I’d never seen anything like it before.
Carrion and the plants. his blood and the plants! hes figuring out he can heal the land .
“Why do you have all of these books here, anyway?” I muttered. “You can read in the library.” “Not naked, I can’t.” “You shouldn’t be reading these naked. It’s not sanitary—” “Relax. I’m joking. I’m reading them here because I don’t want to get in anyone’s way. And besides. It’s private. I’m researching.”
We set off immediately to warn everyone here, but we lost another twenty-three warriors to the rot along the way. It’s moving fast now. Way faster than before.” “And it’ll reach Cahlish in how long?” Fisher asked. Danya shook her head. “Twelve hours? Sixteen max.” “Gods a-fucking-live.” Fisher hissed between his teeth.
“I had no idea a place like this could exist.” He swallowed. Looked at me at last. “Who am I supposed to be here, Saeris?” “Who were you in Zilvaren?” I countered. “I don’t know. I just… I always thought you would tell me what I needed to do. Who I needed to be. You were always there, so strong. You always had a plan.”
My heart hurts so much for him!
The rune is my name. It does not grant you magic, the same way other runes do. The ability my rune grants you is complicated. It allows you to… undo. Or maybe…” It pulled a strange face that I could not decipher. “Break?” it offered. I had ice water for blood. I was going to throw up. “And if I don’t want this rune? If I don’t want your name inked into my skin? What then?”
Will she have to break her bond with Fischer?
“I shouldn’t tell you this, since you seem blissfully unaware of the power you hold over me, but… I will give you whatever you want, Saeris Fane. Always. No matter what it costs me.”
Renfis. Now Fisher was gone?
The King has them ?
“I sentenced him to life imprisonment, of course. Here, in an oubliette.”
“You might assume that you are surrounded by trees right now, but you would be wrong. These are no ordinary trees. They were once a clan of dryads. Self-righteous and arrogant as they were, they took it upon themselves to stand up to one of the northern witch clans. No one really remembers why. That doesn’t matter. What matters is that they lost their feud and suffered the consequences forthwith. The witches cursed the dryads and turned them into these prisons. They were damned to find no solace or comfort in the daylight that they worshipped and instead were doomed to feed only on the
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all that sun like in Zev. we're they from there ?
“until I have seen you bow before the Firinn Stone and you have rendered yourself Oath Bound into my service. You will accept this without complaint, and after you have proven yourself to me… become my tool to wield, eventually, in a couple thousand years, I may set him free. This is the only way he lives, girl,” Belikon sneered. “Make your peace with it.”
can she break the oath with the rune she was given ?
Rise, Khydan Graystar Finvarra, in honor of the name you were given at birth! Rise up and fight!
You’re fucked, Kingfisher. Or should I say Khydan? Let us see if I recall it correctly, shall I? Khydan Graystar Finvarra, I command you to draw this sword from my chest and use it to kill your pretty little mate!”
