Brimstone (Fae & Alchemy, #2)

by Callie Hart

She always has been. When other people are full of the kind of fire that burns inside her, it eats them alive. It hollows them out until there’s nothing left inside them but the fire. They burn everyone around them with it, until all that remains is scorched earth. But not Saeris. Her fire keeps others warm in the cold dark. ...

“Every year that I live, it seems the magnitude of my loss eclipses the last. So yes. I love Saeris Fane, because she’s electric, and fierce, and loyal, and being around her brings the world back into focus. But I’m not in love with her, Fisher. I tried. But my heart was just too full of sorrow to make room for her.”

“I’m not arrogant. I’m fucking proud. I hear how your pulse quickens when you touch my body, and it makes me feel fucking invincible.

“I could spend the rest of eternity right here and die happy,” he rumbled. “I could fuck you and feast on you until the ages turned and the suns all died and burned out in the skies, and I still wouldn’t have had enough of you.”

“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 laid my hands flat against his chest, my fingers splayed wide, as if I could reach inside of him and take hold of his very soul. If I could have, I would never have let go.

“To fall asleep within a dream is to commune with the gods.”

Everlayne was in love with Taladaius once. They were betrothed. And the night before they were due to be married, Tal fled the Winter Palace, against his father’s wishes and his king’s command, and he knelt at the feet of Sanasroth’s throne.”

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.”

an arrow bisecting a circle? This is one of the most important Alchemical symbols.”

“The quicksilver’s sentient. It pulls power to it. It makes sense that this rune is hurting you the most.

“Alchimeran shield?” “Yes. This,” he said impatiently, tapping the back of my hand. “This is your shield. All Alchemists had them.”

Salt. Quicksilver. Brimstone. The uses for all three are varied and wide. Combined, they…

rather than letting him go, I pulled him into a hug. Saeris wasn’t here. But if she was, this is what she would have done for him. 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.

I see avenues. Pathways. Light. I see… possibilities

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.

“Don’t tell anyone about the Fae. Don’t talk to Carrion about the Fae. Don’t tell anyone about any magic users I came across. Things like that.” “And who made you promise to observe these rules?” “My father,” he said. “And his father made him promise. I’m a forge master, warrior. The son of forge masters. The Swift family wasn’t the only bloodline that was charged with a task they handed down through the generations. Gracia and her lot watched over the boy. Me and mine were given a different job to do.”

I am an Alchemist.

You are a pretender, the voice accused. My name is Saeris Fane— Your name is ruination, the voice snorted. Blight. Curse worker. You do not deserve to live.

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 Third had started to believe that they didn’t matter. Well, I wouldn’t believe that. Not. Any. More.

“I won’t sacrifice him

Every Alchemist must have something they are afraid to lose.

I was crying. When I brushed my tears away, my fingers came away coated in silver.

This pathway is clear, the speaker declared. Receive this gift all in fear and trembling. In the end, it will be your end.

We’ve been adding to it for years. Every time a piece of metal laced with quicksilver came across the threshold of our forge, we refined it. Pulled it out of the weapon or piece of jewelry and set it aside. Until recently, this was all just individual pieces of metal. Separate. But when Saeris was taken, the metal turned to liquid. That’s when it fused together and became this.” He gestured to the massive body of quicksilver. “I knew Saeris had something to do with it. The girl never could resist touching weapons that didn’t belong to her. I figured she’d pulled the sword, and—” “You knew about the sword?”

the quicksilver. Gods, I hated it. But I loved it, too. I had to. It had given me Saeris.

Kingfisher. His name had replaced my heartbeat.

My prince of shadows. I had been born into the light, but my salvation had been waiting for me in the dark.

He was a creature of violence—it was his creed. But he was also this, too. When he loved, it was with everything he had.

“When I look at you, I feel as though I’m peering into a mirror,” he said quietly. “I can speak into your mind, but it’s still a mystery to me. I feel as if I should already know your every thought.”

“Every part. 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.”

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

“Some would say that,” he agreed. “But they would be wrong. It’s my strength

I felt Fisher laugh rather than heard it.

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

“I like the warmth of it,” he said. “It… reminds me.” Of what it was like to live.

“She has a tendency to make things feel better.” I laughed, a little chagrined by the admission. “Even when they’re not

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

the knife was full of hate. It wanted to cause harm.

In most cases, the power is too great. The Alchemist will need to surrender… My heart pounded. I plucked another sheet of paper from the air. … often painful. Historically, it was recommended that a counterbalance be used as a kind of Alchemical overflow mechanism…

The birds had been here for centuries. Longer than anyone could remember… And all along, they had been the pages of a book.

the bond that binds you both will be strongest if she places this book into your hands.

Now give her back the book.

Stupid though it might seem, I wanted to be worthy of him in her eyes.

“IT’S CALLED BRIMSTONE. It isn’t like our blood, exactly. It is what keeps a fire sprite alive, though,”

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’ll have to face the sun for me, too, in that case,” she mused. “Gladly.” “And I will become your shadow.”

My strength has always been my shadows.”

The Alchemists were often corrupted by their powers. Their fates were ruled by their strength of will, but also by the heritage of their blood.

I was going to do more than make her shake. I was going to make her fucking tremble. I was going to make her weak for me.