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“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.”
He was the making of me and my ruin.
“Irrellieth ka tintar shey an mé correshan dow.”
“I said, ‘I’m going to drown myself between your thighs.’ Or something close to that. There’s no word for what I’m trying to say in High Fae. Correshan means lethal bliss. Death by pleasure, perhaps. Old Fae was a far more descriptive language.”
“The good comes with the bad. The pleasure comes with the pain. I’m going to make this hurt so good for you, Osha. Are you ready?”
Our bodies formed a bridge to heaven, and both of us ascended.
“I do have a connection with Fisher, yes. And yes, I can sense where he is. It… just isn’t the same. The connection I share with him feels like a deep well. Calm and peaceful.” “And what does the connection with Tal feel like?” I gritted my teeth, reaching the bottom of the stairs. I turned right. “A leash.”
I didn’t know precisely what had gone on between her and Tal, but I knew enough. She was the reason he had come here and given himself over to Malcolm. He had loved her, and she had abandoned him somehow.
“In Ammontraíeth, is it considered incest if you sleep with your maker? ’Cause it sounds to me like someone was fucking Daddy
The Lord flinched under the weight of the command. She saw me as a little girl, wandering blind and scared in a dark forest. She had forgotten who she was talking to—impressive, given she was the one on her knees.
Zovena needed to know that, no matter how badly she wished otherwise, I was her better and I was not to be fucked with.
I’m not your brother anymore. I am something so low and reviled that I cannot even settle on a name for myself. Monster. Devil. Murderer. None comes close enough to explain the evil that crawls in my veins. I—” “You are my brother. And it doesn’t matter.”
“One of these days, I’m going to stop feeling like I’m on the back foot, here,” Carrion grumbled. “Why are you blushing, Saeris? You do not blush.
“It’s an element, really. Brimstone. A kind of magic all on its own. It gives the fire sprites life.” “And it kills the rot,” Carrion said. “Yes. It looks that way.”
We can’t use the brimstone, Osha.
“I was just very… very worried. Humans are difficult to keep alive in a place like this. I…” Even now, confessing this made my voice catch. “I didn’t want to lose you.”
When Saeris turned her blue eyes on me, I didn’t have a choice. I was laid bare before her.
It would have crushed your spirit if I had sheltered you from this world. Your choices had to be your own. I saw that in the end. I see it now, too. Every day. You have a right to walk the road that stretches out before you. I will not rob you of your path by insisting I carry you.”
“You’re a wildfire, Saeris Fane. There’s no controlling you
“And what if there comes a day when all of this becomes too much, and I want to be carried? At least for a little while?” “Then it would be my honor and a privilege to do so, Saeris. Never doubt that. Whenever you need me to catch you, I am here, ready and willing. I’ll face the Blood Court for you, if you want me to. I’ll face Belikon, and Madra, and anyone or anything that wishes to do you harm.”
“You’ll have to face the sun for me, too, in that case,” she mused. “Gladly.” “And I will become your shadow.” I held on to her a little tighter, needing to feel her close. “You should know, Saeris… I am my father’s son. My strength has always been my shadows.”
I slipped into every other ward in Zilvaren, and I robbed, and I stole, and I bartered and traded, just to make sure that you were comfortable and your belly was full. And then you have the audacity to turn around and accuse me of the most heinous thing I can possibly think of, because I made life too fucking easy for you while everyone around us had to suffer.” “Saeris—” “Shut up, Hayden. Just shut the fuck up.” “No. Your hand,” he whispered. “There’s something wrong with your hand.”
You will have to unlock a door within yourself that will be hard to close thereafter. I will not—cannot—lie to you. You will change if you choose to walk down this path. But with the brimstone rune sealed to you, there is a chance you will be able to use it to help save Yvelia from the veil I see descending upon it. If you decide to reject this rune, there are still other courses of action that can be taken to fend off the darkness, but the odds of those plans working are slight in comparison. In fairness to you, I will first explain how you can reject your brimstone rune…
You will read things that will prevent you from facing the challenges in front of you for fear of the ones ahead, to the ruin of us all.
else. And I want you just as badly as you want me. Always. I walk around this hellhole with the head of my cock tucked into my waistband so that these leeches don’t get the wrong idea.”
“Your body is mine for the next three minutes. Surrender.
“Do you love me?” “What! That… isn’t fair.” “Do you?” “Yes! Of course I love you.” I grinned wolfishly at her reflection. “A part of loving me is yielding sometimes.” “You want my obedience?”
“Anything I ask of you, I give freely and willingly in return. Always. I promise.”
“You know I can hear you in there. Sinners, I’ll be waiting at the end of the hall.”
“I’m going to make you come now. And for the rest of the night, anyone who comes within five feet of you will scent the orgasm I’m about to give to you.”
This female, who shone brighter than the suns of her home and mine combined, was my mate, and every single member of this court would be reminded of that fact.
“Watch my hand,” I breathed. “Watch me fucking you with my fingers. See how pretty your pussy looks like this, cupped in my palm. Do you see?”
“Don’t say I never give you flowers, Osha.”
“Behold! Saeris Fane, first of her name. Scion of no one. Rise for your queen!” he bellowed.
“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!”
Calm as the center of a storm, she was. Brutal. Cruel. Lethal. Even I wouldn’t have fucked with her in this moment, resting her feet on the back of a female whom most of this court was afraid of. I would have fucked her, though. I desperately, desperately wanted to do that. There was something deeply arousing about my mate owning her power. Turning to Ibanwae, Saeris plucked a piece of lint from her skirts. “You were saying?” “Keeper of Pain,” the female said, eyes glittering, voice a little shaky. “I would like to be the Keeper of Pain.”
“You seem to confuse the dynamic between us, Zovena. I am your master. I could command you to sit at my feet, and you would bow, knowing death chased the edge of my blade. You mistake my patience for weakness. For tolerance. But test me further, and you will discover the limit of that patience.”
It must have been raw indeed to find herself out in the cold, standing in the shadow of the female who had killed him.
“The Hazrax is not a member of this court. It has not sworn fealty to Sanasroth or a single vampire here, and yet it has been a Lord of Midnight for many centuries.”
“I accept you as my sworn male,” I told him. “I accept your loyalty and your service. In return, I offer you the protection of my house. I name you Lord of Midnight.”
“Dancing is like fighting, Osha. It’s also like fucking. And I pride myself on my skills in both of those arenas.”
The world could be ending and my love for this male would outstrip my fear. Sometimes, I felt like I would burst open from how overwhelming that feeling was.
You’re allowed to stop baring your teeth at the world and take a breath. Because I’ve got you.”
The vast majority of Sanasroth’s high bloods were gone. They had accepted their true death, rather than return to what they once were. But we’d had a plan, damn it, and Tal had gone and made his own plan without telling any of us.
“You have to let me go. I can’t stay,” he whispered. “Hypocrite.”
“You are blameless. Whatever horrors you committed were forced upon you. Malcolm knew how much it would tear you up inside.” Tal closed his eyes, more tears cutting tracks down his cheeks, his features crumpling. “You have to let me…” he whispered. “You’ll forgive yourself,”
Iseabail’s defiant expression collapsed in the face of the healer’s accusation, but she maintained her stiff-backed posture, chin held high regardless. “I’m sorry, Te Léna. I enjoyed spending time with you and learning from you, truly I did. I wanted to help you find Ren as well, but I needed a reason to stay here at Cahlish. I had to be close for the spell to work.”
“Ahh. I get it now,” Carrion said. “You’re the one who cast the spell that killed the high bloods. You gave Tal those vials to cure the Blood Court!”
they were freed from the Blood Court’s control, weren’t they?” “Yes,” she said. “Any of them could have attacked us.” “Yes.” “And it was your blood the thralls dripped into their glasses, wasn’t it?” “Yes. Tal brought them to the river, and I marked them with sigils. When they cut themselves, I bled through their veins. A simple transference spell, really. My blood—” “Your blood is a curse to all vampires. It kills them unless they take the antidote that your clan created.” “Yes.”
“I had to. If he’d known that the high bloods might be able to hurt you or Saeris, he would never have agreed to the plan. And I feel bad for lying to him. I do. I would accept whatever punishment he saw fit for my crimes if he’d chosen to be reborn, but—”
