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“You’ve… ruined the velvet,” he croaked. It was true; the god sword’s blade had rent a three-inch-long hole in his black velvet waistcoat. I gave him an apologetic shrug. “Annoying by-product of killing,” I said with a sigh.
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.
“I am no child. My name is Saeris Fane, and I am your queen.”
When I turned to Carrion, about to ask him to repeat himself, I saw that the idiot had a cigarillo in his mouth and was fishing around in his pocket for his flint box.
But having faith was like trying to remember a language I had once known as a child. No, it was worse. It was like trying to run with broken legs. My legs could not carry me right now, and so I was dragging myself along on my hands and knees, the word faith a boot on the back of my neck, shoving me down into the dirt.
“I heard from Lorreth that you got yourself a new sex tattoo at your coronation. Can I see it?” Merciful saints and sinners. He’d been in the room three seconds, and I already wanted to kill him.
“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 don’t crave the attention of the sun. The snowcapped mountains, the forest, the frozen river…
those places are my home. You are home.”
“Don’t worry, Fane. We’ll have a big birthday party just as soon as people stop dying all over the place.”
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.
“Because, no matter what.…” Lorreth said under his breath. “A wolf never becomes a leech,” the vampire finished. Lorreth stood in front of him, an array of emotions fighting for control of his features. “Hello, Foley. It’s been too long. I can’t tell you how good it is to see you, brother.”
Ahh, fuck this. I wasn’t being eaten by another demon. Not this time,
“Hate to be… a bother,” Carrion wheezed. “But if you’re not in a position to… save me right… now, then… could you possibly kill me instead? This… really sucks.” Gods, how was he still talking? I couldn’t even think.
“Where there is light, there is always darkness, shadow weaver. To kill a queen, you will need to visit the darkest of all places. You will need to strike a deal far more costly than this one if you hope to succeed. And the beast who lies in wait for you there will not be so easy to trick as me. She will eat you whole, shadow weaver!” Joshin roared as I held the flickering torch to its body. “She will tear away your soul and feed on it for decades!”
“All right. I’ll start calling you Lord Cahlish, then, shall I?” “Not if you want to keep your fucking tongue,” I growled. Carrion straightened, looking up at the ceiling as he thought about this. “Umm. Yeah, I kinda need my tongue.” He took a deep breath and then sighed it back out. “People do seem to like it.”
“Do you ever wake up sometimes… and think… ‘Gods, wouldn’t it be nice if I hadn’t just gone toe-to-toe with a scorpion demon from hell?’” Carrion croaked.
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 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.”
“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.”
“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.
I spent a full second feeling sorry for Carrion, knowing how uncomfortable he must be, but then I remembered how annoying he was, and my pity went away.
I could smell it, trailing like a ribbon behind him as he wove through the bustling crowds: something like sunlight, a little like home. But different.
“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.”
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.
“In Ammontraíeth, is it considered incest if you sleep with your maker? ’Cause it sounds to me like someone was fucking Daddy.” “Bitch!” Zovena’s serene façade disintegrated, revealing the depths of her hatred at last.
But trying to get a read on the null blade made me feel like I was falling headfirst down a dark hole every time I turned my mind toward it. The sensation was unsettling, to say the least, and left me feeling unbalanced and nauseous.
Is that shit brimstone??
He hadn’t experienced anything like the null blade before, either. The fact that they couldn’t be shattered with a god sword was extra concerning to everyone, as well. In the recorded histories of Yvelia, no weapon had ever withstood a direct strike from an Alchimeran blade.
The monster threw back its head and unleashed an unholy shriek that sounded more like ecstasy than pain. Muscles bulged along its back, multiplying, its biceps doubling in size. It was responding to the blade somehow. Growing. Becoming stronger.
“IT’S CALLED BRIMSTONE. It isn’t like our blood, exactly. It is what keeps a fire sprite alive, though,” Lorreth said.
When Saeris turned her blue eyes on me, I didn’t have a choice. I was laid bare before her. I was brought to my godscursed knees.
I know you, Saeris Fane. Even as a fragile human, you were strong. Independent. It would have crushed your spirit if I had sheltered you from this world. Your choices had to be your own. I saw that in the end. I see it now, too. Every day. 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.”
Fucking Zovena. I was going to ash her one of these days and wear her fangs as fucking earrings.
“Dancing is like fighting, Osha. It’s also like fucking. And I pride myself on my skills in both of those arenas.”
“I shouldn’t tell you this, since you seem blissfully unaware of the power you hold over me, but… I will give you whatever you want, Saeris Fane. Always. No matter what it costs me.”
Saeris’s smile made something profound inside me thrum. The echoes of fate and all the universe vibrated behind my breastbone, promising… what? I wasn’t like my mother. I hadn’t been blessed with visions of the future. I was just going to have to live my life and find out.
“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.”
