Brimstone (Fae & Alchemy, #2)

by Callie Hart

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.”

“Then it stands to reason that I should, too. I’m the heir to the Yvelian throne. If there have been developments that affect Yvelia, I should absolutely be present while they’re discussed.” “Do you have any experience with warfare?” Fisher demanded. “No, not really.” “Any experience whatsoever with necromancy?” “No.” “The walking dead?” “No.” “Blood curses?” “What do you think?” “Then you’re no use to us. Leave.” Taladaius entered through the heavy double

“After the show you put on yesterday, Fisher,” he said, “he’ll probably be kidnapped and sold into slavery if he leaves this room alone.” “And we don’t want that to happen?” Fisher said, as if he were getting his facts straight. “Fisher.” This little back-and-forth feud they had going on was becoming borderline infuriating.

Carrion rolled his eyes. He huffed as he made his way across the council chamber and reached out for my wrist— Kingfisher was suddenly there, angled in front of me. Surprisingly, his expression was blank. “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?” “Oh, sinners,” Lorreth muttered under his breath. “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

“Okay. I’ll go find him,” she said, shrugging. “No! No, uh… don’t do that.” He hadn’t said as much, but I had a sneaking suspicion that Carrion had gone in search of more than a bath. The water sprites he had befriended recently apparently spent most of their time down in the baths, and I didn’t want Danya walking in on him in a compromising situation with any—or all—of them. Why, I didn’t know. Carrion and Danya together would be the kind of living hell that I had no desire to experience firsthand—but he was my friend, and friends watched each other’s backs. “He’ll be here any moment, and I… I wanted to ask you about your new hairstyle. What prompted the dramatic cut?” She stared at me blankly. “A burning corpse set me on fire.” Gods a-fucking-live. Perfect. “Oh. Okay. I thought it was some new, edgy form of self-expression.” “The length of a warrior’s hair is directly related to their skill in battle. Mine was longer than Ren’s and Lorreth’s put together. I would never have cut it to look… edgy.” Whew. I was not getting anywhere here.

“If they procreate, I’m banishing them from Cahlish. A combination of the two of them would probably tear open some sort of hell gate and suck the entire estate through it.” “I heard that,” Carrion said, cheerfully shoving a piece of roasted carrot into his mouth. “You were supposed to. Don’t get any ideas,” Fisher grumbled. “You’re not allowed to fuck a member of the Lupo Proelia.” Danya lounged back into her seat, eyeing Carrion with a predatory glint in her eye that made me a little afraid for him. “And what about me? Can a member of the Lupo Proelia fuck a newly anointed member of the Fae?”

“I’m surprised you didn’t liken me to the smell of melting sugar, then. Or the warmth of the sun. Or…” It was so hard to breathe properly when he was staring at me like this. “You forget that I’m a winter creature, Saeris,” Fisher murmured. “I don’t crave the attention of the sun. The snowcapped mountains, the forest, the frozen river… those places are my home. You are home.”

“Fuck you, Fisher!”

“Apologies, madam. We had a little argument with gravity. Looks like gravity won.”

Lorreth was with Carrion in the training hall, attempting to whip him into shape, and without the warrior

“Bullshit. He would never do that.” The male was angry, yes, but otherwise appeared unconcerned that he was being dangled precariously over the side of the building. “The only reason he would do that was if she was…” Lorreth dipped his head, eyebrows up again. He made a ‘go on. You’re almost there. Finish the thought,’ kind of motion with his free hand. Foley’s eyes darted to me, going wide. “No.” He shook his head. “That’s not true.”

“No. Fucking. Way!” Carrion did not sound impressed. I splayed my fingers and peered through them to find him standing in the doorway, shirtless, rubbing a dry cloth at the raised welts that dotted his chest and his sides. “You look like you have the pox,” I told him. “What? What kind of pox?” “The kind you get from doing dumb stuff with your dick.” He looked horror-stricken.

Carrion threw the cloth he was holding onto the table beside him. “The injustice! You dream of your girlfriend, you’re healed by her, get laid, and wake up brand-spanking-new. Meanwhile, I dream that I’d been turned into a goat, and I wake up with a mouth drier than the glass flats, covered in suspect pox marks!” “She isn’t my girlfriend, Carrion.” He gave me a pointed, very unimpressed look. “Your relationship status with Saeris Fane was the least important thing I just said, Kingfisher.”

“Go on, then,” he said coldly, gesturing to the wall. “Tell me what you see when you look at all of this.” I thought for a moment, long and hard, staring down at his drawing of the Winter Palace. At the top of the turrets, he had drawn banners unfurled and waving on the wind. Not De Barra banners. Daianthus banners. “I see a male longing for a place and a people he has never known,” I said simply. “That’s all.” I gave him the drawing as I passed him, leaving his room. “You should keep hold of that, Carrion,” I told him. “Bring it home with you.”

“How can you tell? Besides the way you, uh…” He waved a hand around me, gesturing in my vague direction. “Smell.” “There’s other… physical evidence,” I said, staring straight ahead. Gods, this was fucking awkward. “Okay, okay. I’m gonna take your word for it. I think I have enough information.” He cocked his head to one side. “Are you sure it was him?” “What do you mean, am I sure it was him? Yes, it was him. I think I know what my mate looks like, Lorreth.” A sneaky little smile hovered over his lips. “Wanna hit me yet?” he asked. “Yes. I do, actually. You know what? Fine. Let’s go train.”

“It must be cleansing day,” he answered. “Once a month, they come and round up the marked girls who’ve turned fourteen. Seven out of every ten. They’ll sedate them and take them up to the palace.” My blood ran cold. Cleansing day.

“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. No. That plan was no longer viable. Because boy oh fucking boy, was I going to cause a fucking scene. I didn’t need a god sword for this. I only needed my rage.

My magic should have been gone. The source of my power felt so far away, and yet there it was, ready to answer my call. I had just used a prodigious amount of magic back in the square, and yet, when I ran my fingertips along the surface of it, I found a mind-bending well of energy waiting for me. 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.

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.

Carrion rubbed the back of his neck awkwardly. “No, it’s fine. Swift’s only one syllable. Daianthus is three. It’d be a mouthful for you guys to spit out when you’re yelling at me. I wouldn’t want to inconvenience anyone.” “Carrion.”

Grinning wickedly over her shoulder, I slowly slid my fingers into my mouth. I sucked them clean, winking at her in the mirror. “Don’t say I never give you flowers, Osha.”

“My name is Foley Briarstone, and I have come to be of service to my queen.” But his dubious expression said something else entirely. I hope you know what you’re doing, half-breed.

“Sit down, Carrion.” A smile slowly began to spread across his face. “You want me to stay. You missed me.” “If you don’t take that knife out of your mouth and sit down, I’m going to personally smash that plant pot over your head,” Saeris muttered in a flat tone. “Okaaaay. All right. I am sitting.”

A voice, calling out from the space between worlds. “Hello, Dog.”

“Zilvaren,” I said breathlessly. “The city, fashioned after the shape of a wheel. The walls form the wards, but they aren’t spokes. The whole thing…” My head was spinning. “It’s a sigil. This entire time, Madra has been using the city itself to siphon the magic of its inhabitants. Zilvaren is the biggest piece of spellwork ever created.”

The king dropped me, tottering back, eyes locked on the sword buried in his stomach and the glowing point of the other protruding from his chest.

“An Oath Bound Fae male cannot walk away from the promises he makes,” I said. “On pain of death, they must obey.”

“Unless…” I said under my breath. The wording was important. I had to get it right. “What do you mean, unless?” “Names hold meaning in this place. There is no power in this realm or any other that can supersede an order given using someone’s true name. A true name can undo oaths. It can open doors.”

I steeled myself and spoke in a loud, steady voice, for all the realm to hear. This was a tricky maneuver. One that had to pay off. I crossed my fingers and prayed. “Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate, I hereby call you by your true name. I declare all oaths you have sworn null and void. Rise, Khydan Graystar Finvarra, in honor of the name you were given at birth! Rise up and fight!”

“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.”

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

Fisher spoke with resolve. “He isn’t just a fox. He’s family. And if Saeris says she’s going to save him, then she’s going to.” “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.”

“I’ve come for a dragon, as is my right. Summon our father. Tell him I’ve come to make a trade.”