THE COIN WEIGHED next to nothing. I clenched my fist around it and fought to wrench my hand free. Malcolm was strong, though. His fingers dug into my wrist, his sharp nails breaking the skin.
Malcolm’s breath reeked of death. “Interfering in the plans of immortals is never advisable, Saeris Fane. Especially when they’ve expended so much time and effort into those plans. Open your hand.”
“No! Enough is enough. Fisher has suffered enough. These people have suffered enough. This deal you made is over!”
“Not yet, it isn’t.” The vampire king spun me around, and my breath caught. His skin was melting from his bones, sloughing away in wet, fibrous slabs from his cheeks and his neck. The smell that came off him was putrid—the stench of rotting meat left out in the sun for too long. Even his eyeballs were shrunken and desiccated in their sockets. Whatever Carrion was, whatever Carrion had done, he had dealt Malcolm a tremendous blow. The king was still stronger than I was, though, and the pain in my ribs had become realm-shattering. I breathed in shallow sips, each more excruciating than the last.
“I’m very intrigued by you.” Malcolm’s ruined smile would haunt me from this life into the next. “An Alchemist, after so many years. I wasn’t surprised to learn that Madra tried to kill you all off centuries ago. She was always so afraid of your kind. I suppose it would have been impossible to track all of you down, though. It’s notoriously difficult to detect magic in half-blood Fae. She probably allowed one or two of them to slip through her fingers. They must have hidden in her city and started families and bred.
Our Fae blood must have been diluted over the centuries, reduced to less than a whisper in a bloodline. But then you come along. I have to say, I’m impressed. A genetic throwback with your kind of power is inconceivable. Y’know, there was a time when I worked very closely with your kind.” He considered me. “It was a very talented Alchemist who discovered the key to my blood gift. She was remarkable in many ways. Deeply disappointing in others. Perhaps I should keep you alive once this is all done. I seem to be in need of another miracle, thanks to that bastard Daianthus wretch.”
“I won’t help you,” I spat. “I can’t. I can only work with the quicksilver.”
Malcolm clucked his tongue—a wet, disgusting sound. “Little girl, your ignorance is shocking.” He threw me. It was so easy for him. Just a casual flick of his wrist, and he hurled me against the wall. I hit the obsidian hard, the breath rushing out of me. A burst of white light flared behind my eyelids as I sank to the ground.
Do not lose consciousness, Saeris. If you pass out now, you’re dead.
That didn’t sound like my voice. It sounded like Fisher’s. So clear. So loud. So close…
Malcolm hooked the toe of his boot underneath Solace’s hilt and kicked the sword out of my hand. He stooped low beside me, and, with cold fingers, he prized open my fist and took the coin I’d fought so hard to find. It burned his skin, but only for a second. He dropped it into a little leather pouch and attached it to the belt at his waist, then he flipped my hand over, running an ice-cold finger over my marks. Pointing at the runes on my index and middle fingers, he named them one at a time. “Earth. Air. Fire. Water. Salt. Brimstone. Quicksilver. The full gamut. More power than any Alchemist I’ve ever encountered. You are capable of restoring me to my power and a lot more besides.”
“Just kill me and have done with it. I won’t help you,” I groaned.
“Really?” The vampire cocked his head to one side. He tapped the intricate, interlocking rune on the back of my right hand. I tried to pull my hand away, but he shook his head, tutting disapprovingly. “Speaking of impressive marks, I haven’t seen the likes of this before, either. Such pretty artwork. It seems as though you’ve landed yourself a mate. I wonder who it could be.”
“Fuck you,” I spat.
“I’ve spent a lot of time with Fisher over the years. He’s quite something to look at, so you’ll believe me when I tell you that I noticed his new marks immediately. But I didn’t need to see ink on skin to know you were his, did I? I scented you on him the second he showed up here, demanding I let his sister go. I scented your body on him.” He forced out the words as if they left a foul taste in his mouth. “But the scent of your blood was much stronger. I couldn’t believe it. That he’d fed from you,” he sneered. “He wore that silver plate at his throat every day he was trapped here in this labyrinth. A gift from his mother, I believe. Pure silver imbued with some particularly nasty magic. I couldn’t have torn it off him if I’d tried. Edina always was such a thorn in my side. I promised to let Fisher go if only he gave me a taste. I promised to wipe Gillethrye from his memory, so he’d forget all about this place and what had happened here…if only he fed from me just once. I wanted to know the bliss that would come at the points of his teeth. But he denied me. He chose to stay and suffer. And then you. A pathetic, weak human? His mate? It’s offensive.”
“Sorry.” It was scary how rattly my lungs felt when I spoke. “He’s just not into the undead.”
“You have no idea how miserable the rest of your short existence will be, girl,” the vampire hissed. “Fisher will be mine, one way or another. You will help me heal. You’ll help me build an unstoppable army that will sweep across all of Yvelia. And he will give himself to—”
I lunged. The blade strapped to my thigh wasn’t as impressive as Solace, but it was sharp, and in the end, that’s all that mattered. I plunged the dagger into Malcolm’s throat, screaming through the pain in my chest. The vampire’s eyes went wide, his pupils contracting to vertical slits.
“You…stupid…”
I twisted the dagger as I yanked it free, growling with the effort. A flap of Malcolm’s flesh came away with the blade, and smoke and blood gushed like a geyser from the wound. The vampire king’s blood wasn’t black ichor like that of his feeders. It was arterial—darkest crimson, but still red. Incandescent with rage, Malcolm clutched a hand to his neck and roared. He didn’t need a weapon to kill me. His hands were enough. With a rabid snarl, he slammed his fist into my stomach and drove it upwards.
Hold on, Saeris. I’m coming!
It was Fisher’s voice. Crystal clear and perfect. He was coming for me.
He would be too late.
A ripple of cold shock rocked my body. There was no pain. Not right away. It crept in at the edges of my awareness like a morning frost stealing over a windowpane.
And then it shattered me.
I was dying. Malcolm made sure of that. His glee was sickening as he pulled his blood-soaked hand from my stomach. “They say abdomen wounds are the worst way to go.” His voice was a wet rasp. I’d done some serious damage with that blow to his neck, but his head was still attached, more was the pity. “I think I’ll leave you just like this. You’ll last long enough for him to find you that way. I love our Kingfisher the most when his heart is breaking.”
Our Kingfisher? Our Kingfisher? This sick piece of shit couldn’t claim any part of my mate. Fisher was mine. “I’m going to kill you,” I groaned. “It’ll be the last thing I do, but it’ll be worth it.”
Malcolm laughed. “Please, girl. Die with some dignity. You can’t kill me. I’m eternal.” When he lowered his hand from his neck, I could see that his throat was already healing. It was slow progress, the fibers of his muscle reattaching one by one. But he would heal. That wasn’t important anymore. I hadn’t fooled myself into thinking that I would end him with the dagger. I’d just wanted to distract him a little.
Malcolm’s smile fell when I lifted the little leather pouch he’d placed the coin inside. The very same one I’d unhooked from his belt while he’d torn a hole in my stomach. He held out his hand, his eyes widening a touch. “Give that to me,” he demanded. “Give it to me, and I might still save you. There’s time.”
It was my turn to laugh now. My mouth filled with blood, my body seizing from the agony that tore through me, but it was worth it. “Does it really matter that much to you? That he has to stay here and suffer? That you get to keep all of these people here, burning and in pain for the rest of time? Is your soul really that black and twisted?”
Malcom shrugged apologetically. “I don’t have a soul, girl.” And he pounced. I couldn’t stop him from snatching the pouch from me and darting away, of course. I didn’t even try. What little energy I had left, I was saving. The vampire’s eyes were bright with victory. That brightness dimmed when he opened the pouch and found nothing inside. His gaze snapped up
to me, his jaw falling open.
The little coin hummed happily in my hand as I held it up for him to see. “What was Belikon’s deal again? Leaves or fishes?”
“Don’t!” Malcolm cried. “DON’T!”
I flipped the coin. Not high. I wouldn’t give him the chance to grab it out of the air the way he’d done when Belikon had flipped it. The little coin flashed brilliantly as it spun. It didn’t matter which side it landed on anymore. Only that it landed. The ground shook when the shining silver struck the obsidian.
There was a moment of stillness, and the ruins of Gillethrye held its breath.
“Stupid little bitch. What have you done?” Malcolm whispered.
And then it hit. A fearsome wind slammed into the labyrinth. It came from nowhere, screaming through the passageways that had trapped Fisher for decades. It rose up and out of the labyrinth, tearing along the stands of the amphitheater.
Annorath mor! Annorath mor! Annorath mor!
It whipped up the cries of the tortured souls, and as the wind passed by them, they turned to pillars of ash and were swept away in its howling wake. Hundreds of thousands of Higher and Lesser Fae, finally allowed to pass, their pain coming to an end.
Malcolm stared up at the stands in dismay. “No. This isn’t…my children. They were to be my army. You…you took them from me!” He rounded on me, but I wasn’t where he’d left me. I was on my feet, hunched and losing blood, standing right beside him. And I had Solace in my hands.
“Only the gods are eternal,” I told him. And I cut off Malcolm’s head.
 |
I was flung backward.
I wasn’t getting up again.
Malcolm’s head burst into blue flames before it even hit the ground. His body was engulfed quickly after. A blast of light tore out of Solace and ripped up into the clouds, illuminating them. It rebounded seconds later,
crashing back down to the ground in forks of blue-tinged energy that fractured the obsidian and set fire to the amphitheater. More filaments of power snapped from the end of the sword, but I was too weak to lift Solace again. I had no need to anymore. Malcolm was dead. There was no coming back for him now. The energy sparking from the sword that Fisher’s father had once owned—energy that hadn’t risen in over a thousand years— crackled and eventually went out.
Saeris! Saeris!
Fisher was shouting in my mind. Blearily, I closed my eyes, letting out a shaky breath. It’s fine. I’ll be okay. Madra—
“The coward disappeared into the quicksilver as soon as the wind hit.” “And…Belikon?”
“Lorreth’s dealing with him. And Carrion. Their swords are channeling again. Where are you?”
That was a great question. I had no idea how to direct him. “I’m…by the demon. Morthil.” That information wasn’t very useful to him, though. The walls had moved so much after we’d left the spider demon’s corpse. There was no chance Fisher would find me from that information alone.
Could he feel how weak I was right now? I could tell that his shoulder was injured. I could feel his exhaustion. I didn’t understand this connection between us, but it had grown stronger since I’d accepted my marks and acknowledged him as my mate. I knew that he was running. I also knew that he was afraid.
“Don’t worry,” he said. “I’m coming.”
I must have blacked out. When I came to, a figure stood over me, and it wasn’t Fisher. Panic surged as I reached for Solace, but my arms were numb. My legs… my whole body was numb. I couldn’t move. I caught sight of silver hair and despair swelled within me. Had he survived? How? It couldn’t be. But the hair was too short to be Malcolm’s. It was Taladaius, the vampire who had held Everlayne on the bank of the Darn.
“It’s okay, Saeris. You’re going to be all right.” Fisher dropped down beside him, his face smeared with soot, ash, and blood. His dark hair, damp with sweat, curled around his ears.
I opened my mouth, but no words came out. Thankfully, I had other ways to communicate with him. When Te Léna said that one of the mates marked with a god binding always died, I didn’t think it would happen this quickly.
“You’re not going to die.” Fisher brushed my hair out of my face, his hands trembling.
“I’m afraid she is,” Taladaius said gravely. “It’ll happen soon, no matter what. The damage to her stomach and chest cavity is too severe.”
Fisher’s mouth tightened into a thin line. He raked a hand through his filthy hair, screwing his eyes shut.
“If we don’t act, she’ll pass in the next few minutes,” Taladaius said with unexpected gentleness.
“I’ll give her part of my soul,” Fisher said.
“You can’t. You already gave too much to Lorreth. You’ll decline immediately if you try—”
“I don’t give a damn! I’ve lived enough, Tal. She’s barely lived at all. I’m giving it to her.” Sniffling, he leaned forward on his knees and pressed his palms against my mangled belly.
“No, Fisher.”
Devastation twisted his features. Jade eyes, brimming with panic, locked onto mine. I have to, he said silently. “I’m not letting you die.”
“You’re not breaking your promise to me,” I countered. “You swore you’d never take away my free will again. That’s exactly what you’ll be doing if you heal me and die in the process. I don’t want your soul.”
“I can handle breaking a promise if it means you live,” he said aloud.
“You said in your letter that we’d have time after this life. That there was more for us.”
“There will be.” He nodded, as if he thought he was reassuring me.
That he would be waiting for me no matter what. But he’d misunderstood.
“There won’t. I told you I’d never forgive you if you forced me into something I didn’t want to do again. Never is a long time, Fisher. If you sacrifice yourself for me, I’ll reject our bond in this life and the next.”
I hated how desolate he looked. But I meant it. Fisher had spent his entire adult life sacrificing himself for others. I would rather die than let him sacrifice himself for me.
“We’re running out of time,” Taladaius said. “There’s another way, and you know it.”
“No,” Fisher snapped.
Malcolm’s silver-haired second huffed in frustration. “When will you learn that stubbornness never serves you? Let me help!”
Fisher stared down at me, the quicksilver in his eye swirling frantically. “I—”
“What is he talking about?”
“Fisher, if you want me to act, it has to be now.”
“Fisher! What does he mean?”
My beautiful, dark-haired mate swallowed thickly. Tal was second only to Malcolm in power. He hid it from the king so he wouldn’t kill him. He can turn you.”
My mind was so fuzzy. I couldn’t process what he was saying. Taladaius wanted to turn me? I don’t…I can’t be a feeder, Fisher. Please.”
Fisher shook his head. “You wouldn’t be. You’d be like him.”
I wouldn’t die?
“No.”
Would I have to feed? “We don’t know.”
“Fisher, she’s fading. I have seconds…” I heard Taladaius speak, but he sounded as if he were underwater.
A deep, dark blanket was settling over me. It was so warm and comfortable. It made the pain in my stomach melt away.
“Tell me she fucking consents!” Taladaius yelled. The world faded away.
Fisher’s voice was the last thing I heard. “She consents.”
