Brimstone (Fae & Alchemy, #2)

by Callie Hart

“Will you stop already? Listen. I was just looking out… my window, and… I saw something—” “It’s called a sunset, Swift. If you want to live to see more of them, I can always escort you back to Cahlish. You can appreciate the sunrise and the sunset from there.”

“Dare I ask, once again, why you insist on hanging around Ammontraíeth like a bad smell?” I clipped out. “This place is a nightmare.” Carrion answered distractedly, “Oh, y’know. I have my reasons.” And 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.

“What do you think I’m doing?” I snarled. “I’m saving the fucking fox!”

Carrion groaned as he slid down from Bill. “And you? Are you out of your godscursed mind?” Lorreth hissed. He squinted at the smuggler as if he could actually see the stupid on him.

“And the day you save me on a battlefield, I’ll put on a dress and dance a fucking jig.”

The universe could end and Carrion Swift wouldn’t have run out of questions.

“Never doubt your powers, sweet one,” she’d told me. “Each one of them is a gift. Each one will prove exactly enough when you have need of it. Have faith in yourself. You will always be enough.”

“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.”

“Oh no,” I muttered softly. “I still think he’d made a great hat.”

“Well, I suppose if no one else is going to say it, then I will. You look downright fuckable, Saeris Fane.”

Carrion

“Are you out of your mind?” he asked. “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?”

Tal

alive at the sound of my voice. “Hmm?” “Stop.” His nostrils flared, his jaw working. “I can’t help it if he doesn’t want to live.”

“She doesn’t need a garrote,” Taladaius objected. “It isn’t a garrote. It’s a belt,” Fisher replied amicably. In my head, he said, It’s a garrote.

Most couples flirted by making eyes at each other or complimenting each other’s outfits. We did it by discussing how best to murder our enemies.

“Your father was felled by his own hubris. He was too arrogant. He believed himself invincible, and I had the pleasure of showing him otherwise. A god sword will make worm food out of any of us, no matter who wields it. But, regardless,” I called in a clear voice. “I am no child. My name is Saeris Fane, and I am your queen.”

You can own your fantasies with me, Little Osha. There is nothing in this realm or the next that I won’t give to you if you desire it. All you ever need do is ask.

“Do you like having fingernails, Carrion?” he asked politely. “I—” Carrion gaped. “I do, actually.” “I thought so.” My mate said nothing more. Carrion quirked an eyebrow, pulling a face, widening his eyes as he looked at me out of the corner of his eye. “All right, then. I take it that means that I should not attempt to touch your girlfriend?”

“Come now, Osha. Where else would an acolyte kneel to worship but at the altar of his god?”

“What kind of grown male bypasses bacon and goes straight for the pastries? You’re not right in the head.”

But it was useless, glancing over a shoulder and wishing to change the past. That was the pastime of fools and politicians. A warrior couldn’t afford such luxuries.

“Fine. But I swear to the gods, if you talk the entire time, I will kill you and leave your carcass for the crows, Carrion Swift.”

“That wasn’t very polite,” I grumbled. “Oh, damn. I didn’t realize we were doing this to be polite. Sorry. Let me fix that.” He snapped his bare heels together, adopting a stiff-backed stance. With his chin lifted, he peered down his nose at me and fixed me with an imperious stare. “I challenge you to a duel, Saeris Fane. Would you please stab me with that shiny sword of yours? It would be such an honor.” “Fuck you, Lorreth.”

Saeris and Lorreth

“You sound disappointed.” He shrugged, offering me a hand as I got back to my feet. “I mean, who doesn’t love a blood-soaked orgy?” “Can’t say I’ve ever participated in one.” He shrugged. “Not missing much, honestly. They get… sticky.”

“Go fuck yourself, tick. The only way you’re getting at my blood is if you drain it from me yourself.”

“Come now, Anterrin. A hand for a hand is hardly like for like. Yours will grow back,” Taladaius argued. “In a month or more! How am I supposed to do anything like this?” He waved his dismembered hand in the air. Against all good judgment that I knew he possessed, Lorreth laughed. “When it grows back all tiny like, at least it’ll be in better proportion when you wrap it around your cock.”

Lorreth had called his god sword Avisiéth. A fine, strong name for a sword. Carrion had called his Simon. Maybe that name meant something impressive in Zilvaren, but as far as I had been able to glean thus far, it did not.

I threw him out of the window. Howling, dry wind ripped at my clothes as I launched out of the damned thing after him. “Fuck you, Fisher!” Even hurtling toward the ground at a rate of knots, the smuggler still didn’t shut up.

Carrion and Fisher

The next few minutes were very annoying. I had Swift’s ass in my face for at least thirty seconds, which were thirty seconds I would have to remember to blot from my memory once all of this was done. Then I had to help push him out of the fucking hole. And then I had to jump up and grab the sides of the hatch and pull myself up anyway because he couldn’t find anything long enough to lower down and pull me up. Useless.

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.

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.”

I’ll face your nightmares if I have to, and I will still be the most frightening thing prowling around in the dark.”

“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…” His eyes were wide and full of awe. “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.”

“Normally, I’m all for a solid argument in the name of fun, but over the past few days I’ve been stung by a million scorpions, been chased repeatedly, and had to kill a ravening lunatic, and I just watched a woman who cared for me and protected me go up in flames. So now… we are fucking done.”

Carrion

“Tell me, Elroy. How many promises have you made to Saeris and then broken?” The human’s eyelids shuttered. “None.” “Me either. And I plan on keeping it that way. Make no mistake. I will burn worlds to keep my word to her, old man. There isn’t a single person in this realm or any other that I wouldn’t sacrifice to make sure I don’t let her down.

“Oh, y’know. ‘I am so in love with Kingfisher. Kingfisher is so handsome. Look at his ass in those pants—’”

“It’s okay, Osha. Many women have appreciated my posterior in a pair of leathers. I don’t let it go to my head.” I flicked the top of his pointed ear, and the Bane of Gillethrye yelped like a startled dog.

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.”

This thing between us, it was love, yes. But it was obsession, too. He was the making of me and my ruin.

Tell me,” I said, before she could reply. “In Ammontraíeth, is it considered incest if you sleep with your maker? ’Cause it sounds to me like someone was fucking Daddy.”

Saeris to Zovena

“Dreams are just vapor and smoke,” I said. “They mean nothing unless you’re willing to live them.

“It’s commendable that you’re trying to protect my modesty, Saeris, but Carrion’s right. I have none. I really don’t care if he’s checking out my ass. Unfortunately for you, Swift, my sexuality doesn’t lean in your direction.” “That’s okay. The thing about leaning is that it’s very unstable. The ground could shift, and you find yourself leaning in a completely different direction at any moment. I, myself, have experienced all kinds of leanings.” Tal smiled a little dubiously at him. “You’ll be the first to know if the ground shifts beneath my feet.”

For you, gods blessed. Thank you for loving my boy. —E

“There’s no point telling me not to worry,” I replied. “He’s my brother.” “I wasn’t going to.” Fisher lifted his leathers over his head, settling his chest protector in place. He had the straps fastened over his ribs in no time. “There’s every reason to be worried. The future’s very uncertain for your brother. It’s uncertain for all of us.” The floorboards creaked as he crossed the bedroom and came to stand before me. “But we’re going to figure it out together, Osha. We’ll get through all of this and have a far better idea of what the lay of the land looks like in time, too.” I smiled up at him sadly. “I actually did want you to tell me not to worry,” I admitted. “Can you rephrase all of that for me, please?”

“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.”

I need you. Words I had never thought I’d hear from him. Fisher had been nothing short of vile to me when he’d brought me through the quicksilver into this realm. He had been cold and aggressive, and I had hated him with ninety-nine percent of my heart. But the one percent? That had already been his. And now all of it was his, and he was holding on to me like I was the only thing that mattered in his entire fucking universe.

“You’re going to help me, then?” “No, I’m going to find out what it is you’re up to so I can gauge whether I need to put a stop to it. And then I’m going to decide whether I’ll help you.” “You are so untrusting,” he muttered. “Whatever. I need you to come with me.”

“You just love flirting with danger, don’t you?” “Ahh, you know me.” He winked at me suggestively. “I’ll flirt with most things, given half a chance.”

“You would return a gift? And such a powerful one, too? You’ll be grateful for it soon enough, believe me. You should already be grateful for it. It saved your friend’s life last night.” What did it want, a fucking thank-you card?

“We don’t torture people,” she said, her tone full of ice. “Carrion tortures me daily,” I muttered.

“My name is Carrion,” he said. “Nice to meet you all. I really like your horns.” There were historians among the crowd. Someone would record this moment—the day the satyr community received the Daianthus heir—and when they documented the first thing their Forgotten King had said to them, it would be this: I really like your horns.