Brimstone (Fae & Alchemy, #2)

by Callie Hart

The name resonated in my chest, triggering something fundamental, deep within the foundations of my soul. I knew the name. Knew it like I knew the sky was blue and which way was up. It was a part of me—had always been a part of me—and now it had settled on me like a perfectly tailored cloak. The command that came along with my name set my soul alight, but it was darkness and vengeance that poured out of me as I obeyed it. My magic thrummed, soaring up from the well of power faster than it ever had before. Glittering and furious, it slammed out of me in every direction, obliterating the cage that held me.

“She used your true name… in front of me. She armed me with the most powerful tool I could have hoped for. 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!”

I swung the blade, spinning at the same time, and plunged it back into Belikon’s chest. I drove the sword through him with both hands, slamming Nimerelle down so hard that she went straight through the sorry excuse for a male, pushing him back down to his knees and pinning him to the frozen ground.

“A rune for undoing. For breaking.” She cut him with a bloodletting smile. “Did you really think I would be stupid enough to speak my mate’s true name in front of you without protecting him first? You’re out of your addled fucking mind. I couldn’t command the oath he spoke to you and render it moot. But with this, I could undo it. And after I’d spoken his name and told him to be free, what do you think I did then, Belikon?”

“Yes. I undid the magic that binds it. No one can use it against him now. No one will ever control him again.” “You poor… deluded thing.” The king bared bloodstained teeth. “You are simple if you believe that. So long as… you or your friends exist, there will always be leverage to control him.”

Orious had been a second away from slitting Saeris’s throat… but then there was Onyx. The little fox raced out of the shadows and launched himself at the seneschal’s face.

The fox had saved Saeris. He had already done enough. Saeris sank the dagger I’d gifted her into Orious’s side, burying the Fae steel deep.

The weapon—a null blade, carved an arc through the air, its wicked edge seeking flesh. And it found it. It just didn’t belong to Saeris. Onyx let out an agonized yelp, dropping to the ground, and Orious let out a victorious whoop. The fox had darted in front of the blade, ruining his opportunity to end Saeris, but from the gleeful grin on his face, the seneschal didn’t care.

Saeris’s response was instant and ruthless. She buried her face in the seneschal’s neck, and she ripped out his fucking throat.

“I would try, I promise I would. But it’s too late, Osha. He’s already gone.” Onyx had taken one last stuttering breath while she’d been crying. He’d shivered and let out a trembling sigh, and then he’d gone.

I'm bawling my eyes out.

“That cursed fox. It plagued us day and night while we waited for you, Alchemist,” Belikon croaked. “We thought it nothing more… than a feral beast, trying to steal food. It bit three of my men. It took… Orious’s finger… last night. It harried the camp at all hours, yelping… and… scratching at… the tree.”

I’d been carrying Onyx in my arms when I’d entered the shadow gate to leave Cahlish. I had inadvertently brought him here with me… and he’d never left me.

Bitch I'm crashing out.

In all my years alive and traveling this realm, I had never encountered anything so mighty and brave as this little fox with the heart of a wolf.

I am in so much pain.

I stood before the male who caused my father’s death. Who had tormented me even from my youth. Who had murdered my mother. Who had stolen an entire court and sacrificed its people for sport. A male I was no longer Oath Bound to.

“You know the moment you pull out this iron, you’re doomed, don’t you? Once I have access to my magic again, I’ll call my guards. You can only get so far. I will follow you wherever you go, and I will end you both.”

I’d been afraid of him as a Faeling. I had hidden from him in the palace whenever I could. But over the years, especially after I came out of the quicksilver with silver-rimmed eyes, I began to understand the truth. That even though I was just a child and he was a male who had claimed an entire kingdom, Belikon was actually afraid of me.

There was still one place that he couldn’t follow me, and it just so happened that we had to go there anyway. It was the only way, if we were going to stop this rot. I’d refused the plan out of hand at first, but we didn’t have that luxury anymore.

She cut clean through Belikon De Barra’s neck and severed his head from his body in one fell swoop.

He wasn’t dead. Whatever dark magic ran through his veins would save him from this end. I knew that, but being beheaded would sure as hell make it harder for him to call on his men and come chasing after us.

“We believe that animals are too pure for this life. They are all ascended beings who live in the after. Everything is perfect there. No pain or misfortune or heartbreak. But sometimes, they peer beyond the veil between this life and the next, and they see us here in the depths of our suffering, and they choose someone. One soul they want to help over any other. They come to us as… dear friends”—he cleared his throat—“when we need them most. You needed Onyx when you first got here, Saeris. He saw that perhaps, and he came.

Fisher leaned against me and shared in my grief. His hand, so much bigger than mine, remained on top of Onyx’s head as shooting stars traced banners of light overhead.

One of the runes on the back of my hand was shimmering. It hadn’t flared before. Not when I’d used it on Taladaius. Not when I’d used it to undo the magic that gave Fisher’s name power, either. But… was I imagining it? Was there a faint blue glowing line, slowly tracing the outline of the Hazrax’s rune?

Ajun Sky. I knew why they called it that now: This luminescent city had been built among the clouds.

“Our agreement gives me leave to watch you at my leisure, Saeris Fane. It does not give you leave to summon me and ask questions.”

“I will not come again. I am here now to make this very clear to you. I am not your subject. You do not command me—” “Please. Just one question! I’ll never call upon you again, I swear it.”

“If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t have invaded my dream of Cahlish. You wouldn’t have told me that I needed to change my favor.”

I care about my fox. Is he still here? Right now. I need to know if he’s already…” Sometimes, words were steep hills, so fucking hard to summit. “If he’s already gone, then I’ll leave him in peace. But if he’s still here…”

“If it means so much to you, then I will answer your question. But in return for a question of my own.”

“What does it feel like… to lose something that you love so dearly?”

“It feels like trying to make sand flow backward in an hourglass. It feels like being surrounded by people and being the only one who can’t find the air in the room. It’s drowning on dry land. It’s the hollow ache of something that you know, from that moment on, will always be missing. It is a pain so acute and incurable that poets, pirates, and politicians alike die from it. And it never ends.”

“The fox’s soul is still with you. It is currently sitting at your feet. It seems that the beast hasn’t realized that it’s dead yet. It follows you like a little lost shadow. Does that make you feel better?”

“Belikon and Madra were afraid of the Alchemists. They were afraid, because the people who came before me were capable of things they would never be able to do. The Alchemists sought perfect knowledge, and they possessed remarkable control over elemental magic. But they also chased immortality. I don’t want to make anyone immortal. But if I’m capable of healing myself from awful burns and a hole in my chest, then I can heal a tiny fox.”

I kept on drawing my magic to me, regardless, the words Taladaius had spoken to me once in his office at the Fool’s Paradise playing on a loop inside my head. The fact that your hands are healed now, after the damage I just witnessed, implies that you also have regenerative magic. Physical magic. Power over the body. At some point, you might be able to heal others with your abilities… “No amount of magic can cheat death,” the Hazrax said, in a pitying tone.

“You want to undo death?” it said disbelievingly. “I do.”

“Such blind faith?” “In her? Yes,” Fisher answered. “And if she dies while trying to accomplish this fool’s errand?” I felt my mate’s shrug. “It is her life to spend. Her decision. I will respect it.”

“Look at me, child,” the Hazrax ordered. “All magic has its limits. If you proceed any further, you will shatter the rune I gave you. You will not be able to use it to save anyone else. You will not be able to use it to free your other friends from their oaths, as you freed your mate.”

AHHH. Noting as this might come back up again.

It kept on hurting as my palms swelled with light and poured into Onyx’s broken and bloody body.

I’d opened a door, and death stood on the other side of it. If I didn’t push it back and succeed in my goal, he would step through and claim me instead.

I was locked in a tug-of-war, funneling my magic into a bottomless vessel that did not want to be filled—

Death rattled the door handle. I could feel it. He was coming for Onyx a second time. I acted quickly, plucking up a small kernel of the energy I had discovered, and I pushed it up, past my bond with Fisher, past the empty reserve where my magic should have been, into my body, into the raw Alchimeran shield that was smoking on the back of my hand… and then into the little white fox. The world trembled in response, a shock wave rocking the snowy slope, and out of nowhere a grim white dawn broke over the sawtoothed mountain range of Ajun, casting back the dark.

Stargazers, also known as kingfishers, can be found in abundance from the Gilarian Mountains all the way down to the coastal cities of Marinth, Bodish, and Inishtar. Many individuals among the Fae, selkies, elemental sprites, and satyr populations consider the stargazer a symbol of hope.

I heard a chittering squeal and a small white fox was leaping into my arms. He was alive. Alive!

“You accomplished something that’s never been done before.” “And will never be done again,” I added, glancing down at my shield. The Hazrax’s rune hadn’t just faded. It was gone.

I’d saved him. I’d done it. But the cost…

Yes I'm afraid.

The Hazrax was gone. But farther down the hillside, the dark outline of guards with bows and swords in hand could be seen, scrambling toward us with startling speed.

“You should have told us you were coming,” he said, with that warm, lilting accent of his. “It’s a point of pride for the people of Ajun that these gates should always open to you, brother.” Renfis.

Salvos of magic, blue and green, burst harmlessly against invisible wards that protected the city from attack. Even the arrows and hurled spears crashed into the boundary magic and were deflected, shooting off in other directions or splintering to shards upon impact.

The tall struts of iron remained unmolested, though. Belikon’s guards were still Fae, after all. They wouldn’t touch the gate.

Far greater forces have tried and failed to bully their way into Ajun Sky. There’s only one way in or out, and Belikon has no friends here. No one in their right minds will just let him in.”

“The Gilarians listened, thank the gods. They were already making preparations when I left them. I was almost at the border of the forest. I would have reached Ballard inside a day at the rate I was traveling, but the second I hit the foothills of the Shallow Mountains, I felt a searing, burning sensation in my chest. It knocked the air right out of me, and I fell from my horse. Thought I was being attacked. I figured I’d triggered some kind of ward, but…” He shook his head. “I ripped off my chest plate and tore my shirt open, and there it was.”