Brimstone (Fae & Alchemy, #2)

by Callie Hart

“You have saved me from what… I have… become,” he wheezed. There was gratitude in his eyes. Relief. I leaned in as he desiccated, making sure he heard each word as he sank into his final death. “I don’t do it for you. I do it for those you have feasted on. Enjoy hell, tick.” Whatever hope of salvation he thought he might find with me faded from his eyes. “They’re going to… destroy her, you know? It has already… been seen. This court will… fall… with her inside it.” His lips twisted, either a grin of relief or a sneer of contempt, I couldn’t tell.

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

He’d left the safety of Cahlish. For her. He’d climbed the mountain. For her. He’d snuck through Irrín and crossed the river. For her. And now he was being chased across the dead fields of Sanasroth by a horde of feeders. He must have been tired and ready to give up, but he was still coming. For her. And I was not about to let that little fox die.

Onyx is such a good boy...and possibly something more?

“Aren’t you going to ask where I learned how to do that?” the smuggler yelled. “No,” I snapped. “Lorreth showed me!”

Lmao

I knew the hard defiance she wore on her like a shield, but I hadn’t met her grief yet. It was an unwelcome stranger I wanted to banish as soon as possible; its presence in the room made my chest ache.

I wouldn’t have answered her before. I wouldn’t have been able to lie, and so I would have kept my mouth shut. So much had happened now, though. So much had changed between us. The truth slipped out with ease. “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.”

Swoon !

Now, God Bindings marked her hands and her wrists. They were wrapped around my wrists, too. We were of one another, bound to one another, in a way that felt strange and thrilling.

My cheekbones were rounder now, my lips fuller. Hips, breasts, ass: I’d had all three before, but now I really had them.

We love a thick Queen

In the end, I was just as Fisher’s mother had drawn me.

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

By the large window, the last rays of sunlight burnished Taladaius’s silver hair and limned his features in gold. I could sense his emotions now. I was connected to him in a way that I didn’t enjoy. Sometimes, as dusk was falling, I would feel him wake on the other side of the palace, and his sadness would steal my breath away.

“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. I tried not to laugh.

Lmao

He took one of his own daggers from the sheath at his waist, then dropped down to one knee in front of me. He looked up, his eyes locking with mine again, burning with a myriad of emotions as he slowly… carefully… parted the material of the dress along the slit to expose my bare thigh. Taladaius threw his hands in the air. “There’s no time for this!” “Oh, I don’t know. I think we might be able to spare a minute,” Carrion said.

Im dying lmao

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.

Goals?

As we walked past him and out of the chamber, Taladaius advised, “You should leave Nimerelle here. They’ll see you carrying a weapon as an act of aggression.” “Good.” My mate’s expression went dark with the promise of violence. “It is.”

Yasss

“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.”

Yasssss

I waited for Kingfisher to say something, but no response came. Glancing over to where he stood on my right, I found that he was yawning.

I cant even lol

“Do you think I can smoke in here?” I jumped out of my skin at the sound of Carrion’s voice.

had risen to my feet. And my heart had stopped beating. It hadn’t taken long to master the trick. Taladaius had known that his counterparts would take offense over the issue, and so he had taught me how to paralyze the muscle in my chest.

Well shit

Martyrs only knew how they could tell that I hadn’t fed, but it was true. I hadn’t wanted to. Hadn’t needed to.

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.

“It’s done! She has fed!” Ereth faced the masses with both hands raised in the air like some prophesying messiah. “She is leashed by the blood. Bound to it, as we all are. There can be no question of her commitment to our people now.”

Suddenly, crushingly, the Hall of Tears had become beautiful.

Even before he’d transitioned, Tal had been able to manipulate most liquids. All liquids, in fact, apart from quicksilver. Blood was a liquid… and right now, he was boiling the blood in the high bloods’ veins.

Ok Tal!!

God-Bound unions often ended in death. But Saeris had already died once, and I’d done way more than my fair share of dying back in the maze. As far as I was concerned, Death had taken his due from us. I had to see the marks as a blessing.

Oh gods i hope so

“From this point forth, whenever you are in my presence, this is how you will greet me: on your knees! All subjects of the Blood Court of Sanasroth are forbidden from harming, hindering, or killing me, my mate, or any of my friends. Additionally, from this moment onward, no feeder enthralled to a high blood of this court may be used for the purposes of war, malice, or mayhem. I have spoken. It is done!”

Yes Queen!

she’s basically untouchable. She doesn’t need protecting. They have to follow the edicts. They can’t hurt her. They can’t hurt you. And not only that, but she decommissioned the fucking horde, Fisher.”

He was right. What he was saying made sense. So why, then, did this niggling, sick feeling persist in my stomach?

Ugh i dont like that

He should have become a feeder. Malcolm was the only one of his kind capable of creating other vampires with their personalities and minds intact. At least, that was what we’d believed at the time. We’d thought it was a miracle. Years later, I discovered the truth: that Taladaius had been there that night, overseeing the assault on the mountain.

Whaaaat

“It’s been hundreds of years. Close to an age. We knew him once, but Foley’s been a vampire longer than he was Fae at this point. Who’s to say he is anything like the person we once fought alongside?”

Is Foley gonna be the bad guy this book?

“If he is in there somewhere, who’s to say he has any interest in helping Saeris?” Lorreth said. “He has no connection to her. No reason to show her any loyalty at all.” “Other than her being my mate?”

Now , Fisher....

Belikon burned all the Alchemists’ texts when he seized the crown.

Rude

I tried to pull my shadows back, but I couldn’t. The feeders drank them in and held on tight to them. A metallic black sheen swirled at the center of their chests, roiling amid the white energy they had taken from Renfis.

“They fed on our magic,” he whispered. It was so much worse than being bitten.

Wtffff

Nimerelle screamed. I heard it in my mind, deafening and full of pain. Nimerelle shook so violently that the vibrations traveled all the way up my arms and rattled my teeth. The feeder didn’t even notice that I’d run it through. It came on, teeth snapping, pulling itself along the blade so that it could get to me.

Ok im scared

I snapped the arrow and drove the splintered shaft into the feeder’s eye, but even that didn’t slow it.

I couldn’t use magic or my sword on it, but I was still faster.

Then wtf can you use?…fire maybe?

Fear whispered in my ear, or maybe it was the remnants of the quicksilver… It won’t work. Won’t work, won’t work…

I hope its not the quicksilver cuz theyd be fucked

It didn’t flail or flee. It just crouched there, burning. Time slowed as the feeder pivoted and turned, sailing through the air and landing on the warrior who had set it alight.

NO!!

As soon as the feeder’s head was cleaved from its shoulders, I was dragged back from the flaming corpse by a multitude of hands. The sky overhead swam with streaks of light. The ground ran thick with churned mud and stinking ichor. A thousand knives sank deep into my chest as I was thrown backward into the Darn.

Um excuse me?!

I feel connected to them, like… the magic they took has tied me to them. I can feel them tugging on it, trying to siphon off more.

Uh oh

was numb to the core. “How many did we lose?” “A hundred and fourteen,” Lorreth answered.

I looked to him, startled, but before I could say anything he quieted my worry. It’s okay. We both felt off, but we slept a while and Te Léna worked on us. We’re fine now.

Is this a lie? How??

He gave me the faintest look of reproval, as if I should already know the answer to this. I can run drills with you, Osha. I can raise a sword to you and pull my blows. I can show you footwork and teach you about warcraft. What I cannot do is attack you like it’s real. And that’s what you need, if you truly want to learn how to fight with a sword. The stakes must be genuine for you to learn how to think and react under pressure. And I will never come at you with everything I’ve got. You are my mate. I’m in love with you. I couldn’t do that even if I wanted to. Which… he added softly, I do not.

So I’d made relics out of a chain kindly supplied by Taladaius, a signet ring belonging to Lorreth, and a small charm of one of the gods that Fisher attached to a collar for Onyx, and that had been that.

Lorreth’s grin fell when Iseabail, the auburn-haired witch, stepped forward to greet me. He muttered something about treacherous blood, and when she reached out to take my hand in hers, he made a sound of disgust and retracted his arm, stalking away to take his seat at the dining table.

they're gonna end up angry fucking lol

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.”

lmfaooo

For my own part, I’m glad you didn’t die because an Alchemist is a rare thing.” She quickly cast her eyes to the floor, dipping her head in a perfunctory display of deference. “If you’ll excuse me.”

“No other will ever claim this seat.” He said it matter-of-factly, drawing out the chair in question, gesturing for me to sit down. “From now on, you are Lady of Cahlish.”

“Smells like you worked hard for that appetite,” Danya drawled, spearing a piece of fish onto her fork. Now that I looked at her, she wasn’t breathing through her mouth. Strangely enough, she seemed to be the only one who was inhaling deeply through her nose. Gross. She leaned across the table, angling her torso in Carrion’s direction. “From the smell of you, you must be ravenous.”

Lmao i LOVE this