Brimstone (Fae & Alchemy, #2)

by Callie Hart

“There’s only one way to learn how to endure pain the way I have. You have to suffer through it. Again, and again, and again. It galvanizes you. Tempers you like steel. But I wouldn’t wish the kind of pain I’ve lived through on anyone. I’ve borne it because I had to and for no other reason. Feel the pain you’ve been given, Carrion. Don’t be fool enough to ask for more. It’s a curse I would spare you from, believe me.”

“The most unique, most beautiful creature in the entire realm, on her knees in front of me, looking up at me like she’s feeling feral and might just like to fuck me? Yes,” he said, “I’d say I’m feeling pretty pleased with myself.”

When he pulled my shirt over my head and then leaned into me, he wrapped my braided hair around his good fist and pulled my head back so that my mouth tipped up to meet his. “If you think a broken hand is going to stop me from fucking you properly, Osha, then please…” He spoke against my mouth, his lips brushing mine, his breath fanning over my face. “Let me disabuse you of that notion.”

JFC

Thank the gods,

Thank the fucking gods.

Don’t than...

Thank me. I’m the one who’s about to ma...

“You’ve existed in my mother’s drawings for most of my life, but you were never real to me before. I didn’t believe…”

“I had no idea what you would mean to me. I had no idea what I would do to keep you safe. When I close my eyes, you are all I fucking see, Saeris Fane. I could be dead in the ground five thousand years and the frosts could have taken my bones, and still no other male will ever have loved another female the way that I love you.”

I want you on all fours for me, Saeris. Crawling…

“Are you aching for me, Osha?”

“Kill me. Sit on my face and ride my tongue until I fucking die. I can’t take it anymore.”

“All right. Fine. I’ll drink from you, Saeris. But not out of any love I have for the gods. I’ll do it to make you come on my tongue and my fingers. I’ll do it to make you scream.”

He looked exhausted. Ready to give up. He nodded, breathing deep, indicating that he could stand on his own, but rather than letting him go, I pulled him into a hug.

Carrion immediately tried to pull away, but I hugged him tighter—too tight, maybe—refusing to let him go. He sagged, burying a single, choked cry into my chest, and that was all I heard out of him. His body rocked with silent sobs for a minute, and I held him. And then he stopped, and it was over.

“Come on. Let’s get the fuck out of here.”

carrion. my baby. my heart. i understand you.

“It’s very simple, Fisher. If you treat me like I’m the court jester, I’ll be the court jester. If I’m the laughingstock, or the drunk, or the idiot, then you’re not thinking about who I really am, are you. I survived here for over a thousand years. Do you really think I’d have been able to do that if I couldn’t pull myself out of a fucking hole? If at any point, you underestimate me…”

“Then I’d say that was your mistake rather than mine. Wouldn’t you?”

HEY SIRI PLAY THAT GUY BY TYLER THE CREATOR BC SWIFT IS HIM

“Here they come,” Carrion called. “I hope you have a fucking plan.”

I’d had one: Put the bastards down as quickly and quietly as possible. Try not to cause a scene. But I wasn’t liking that plan very much anymore.

Because boy oh fucking boy, was I going to cause ...

I didn’t need a god sword for this. I only ...

When I drew on my power and set it free, I didn’t make shadows. I made knives.

I stopped running and brought it forth. It slammed out of me in a tide of glittering black sand and shadow so overwhelming that it swallowed the street we were standing in. And then the ward. And then the entire city. My magic encompassed all Zilvaren. For the first time in history, the shining banner in the north fell into darkness.

I KNOW THATS FCKN RIGHT

“The quicksilver is greedy. You give it whatever it desires. Songs. Jokes. Memories,” it said. “Your mate wishes you to create many thousands of these relics, and yet you bargain for each one that you make. You shave off a piece of yourself for each one. Tell me, how will you know exactly what it is that you’ve forgotten, what you’ve lost, when your mind is riddled full of holes?”

I am an Alchemist.

My name is Saeris Fane—

Your name is ruination,

Blight. Curse worker. You do not des...

I...

There are others more worthy.

None of them stand before you now!

I had been told every single day in Zilvaren that I was worthless, that my life meant nothing, that I didn’t deserve to live. Madra’s disdain for my people ran so deep that even the residents of the...

Well, I wouldn’t believe that. Not. Any. More. “I stand before you.” I spoke out loud this time, no ...

“I am an advisor. My remit is broad. I attend to matters on behalf of the king that are… beneath him.”

The implication was clear: Whatever had brought this anemic-looking fucker through the quicksilver today wasn’t important enough to bring Belikon here himself. I wasn’t important enough. I nodded to myself. “Ahhh, right. Where I come from, we call those bootlickers.”

bitch 😂

“My king wishes his beloved daughter returned to him. He misses her dearly. It wounds his heart to know she is unwell and far from his loving care.”

“And?”

“Kingfisher. In shackles. A public execu—” I drew Solace. The air hummed with crackling power as ...

“Your obsidian palace is full of rats, Saeris. They whisper in the dark. They tell tales of how the new queen of the Blood Court cannot wield her weapon. Of how Saeris Fane cannot contain her power. Runes unsealed and—”

I twisted the sword and showed the fucker the flat of the blade. Coincidentally, the movement also showed him the back of my hand. Which was still covered in a mass of runes, yes… but now, at the center of my shield, a single, bold, circular rune bisected with an arrow-like shape glowed brilliant blue.

The smug smile died on Orious’s lips. “Fuck,” he whispe...

A door had unlocked within me. Behind it, a vast knowledge waited there for me. It belonged to me, as I now belonged to the quicksilver. I only had to think now, and the fabric of reality shifted. Placing both hands around Solace’s hilt, I imagined the sword becoming two. When I drew my hands apart, I knew that the god sword would be reformed, brand new, brilliant and shining. And so it was.

The short swords were beautiful. Old Fae ran along the edges of both honed blades, engraved in winding script.

“Wherever we go, we go together.”

“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.”

“There it is,” I whispered.

“What?”

“The way that you love me. Some would say that is...

“Some would say that,” he agreed. “But they would be wrong....