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thighs. “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
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
much. It was safe to love him back because, no matter what, he was never going to let
panties. “Sweet fucking mercy,” he panted. “Kill me. Sit on my face and ride my tongue until I fucking die. I can’t take it anymore.”
“To fall asleep within a dream is to commune with the
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.
mar—” Carrion saw my face. Carrion stopped talking. He smirked, as if he knew how close he’d come to losing his
“Witchcraft. A fell witch would do terrible things to lay their hands on a strand of your hair. There’s no saying what they would be able to accomplish with it.
Below the drawing were the words THE BUTCHER OF ZILVAREN. They had to get a little more creative when coining villainous names for me. There were only so many places I could butcher.
“I do not know something. I know everything, Saeris Fane. But it is not my part to reveal truths that must be discovered.”
“Twelve hundred and twenty-three.” Elroy’s whisper echoed off the walls.
Every Alchemist must have something they are afraid to lose.
This pathway is clear, the speaker declared. Receive this gift all in fear and trembling. In the end, it will be your end.
“You are the only thing that keeps my moral compass pointing north, Little Osha,”
“Erromar means mercy,” he said, in a reverent voice. “Selanir means honor.”
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.
“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.
“Don’t you concern yourself with Simon,” he said. “I know exactly where my god sword is, thank you very much.”
a long time ago, a high percentage of Faelings didn’t survive their first year of life, and naming them felt like an invitation for ill luck to visit them. If Death didn’t know the name of a child, then how could he possibly find it and carry it away?
Should the wine be laced with newborns’ blood or adolescent virgins’ blood? (I had answered definitively that the wine should not be laced with any blood, and that anyone found bleeding newborns would be chained to a post and left outside to greet the dawn.)
the very worst thing you could do with Carrion is let him suspect even for a second that you didn’t want him around. You would never be rid of him if you did that.
“You were always the Daianthus heir, Carrion. You were trapped in a realm you didn’t belong in.”
From Ajun to Western Dow, people dream that one day the Daianthus heir will return, and the cruelty they suffer at present will come to an end.”
Your ancestors made their fair share of mistakes, but they always fought to correct themselves when they veered from the path. And they always put their people first. I know, in my heart, that you will do the same, Master Swift. After all, it’s in your blood.”
The burns would hurt, the scars would be ugly, but we weren’t going to leave our friend to die out in the snow.
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.”
I am breaking all the laws of the universe with this gambit, but for it to work, you cannot skip ahead in this book.
Each entry in this book had been written in service of a specific moment to come. For any of this to bear fruit, the dominoes must fall in order.
The Alchemists hadn’t just channeled quicksilver. In some cases, they had become so intertwined with it that they merged with it altogether to become silver-eyed heralds of the gods.
You can be many things. You can wear your leathers and fight every day of the year. I would never ask you not to. But sometimes, if you wanted to… you’re allowed to soften, Saeris. You’re allowed to stop baring your teeth at the world and take a breath. Because I’ve got you.”
How nice it would be to retreat inside my own head and block out the world, knowing that someone else was making the decisions and dealing with the repercussions.
“Imagine loving Kingfisher. Imagine not being able to stop yourself. And then imagine that he couldn’t give a fuck about you, and he took pleasure in hurting you every opportunity that he got. And then imagine selling your soul to the devil so that you could follow him into hell.”
“One thousand… and sixty-three years, five months… three days…” His voice tapered to a whisper. “That’s how long it’s been since I felt the sun on my face, Saeris.
For the first time in Yvelian history, a god sword had entrusted itself into the hands of someone it wasn’t bonded to.
There is no power in this realm or any other that can supersede an order given using someone’s true name.
“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!”
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.
“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.
The pantheon of undergods and the dragons they breed there call it Diaxis. But personally… I’ve always called it hell.”
“I’ve come for a dragon, as is my right. Summon our father. Tell him I’ve come to make a trade.”
