Page 123 of Brimstone

29

FORTUNES OF THE UNIVERSE

SAERIS

HAYDEN WAS HERE.

Really here, in Yvelia.

He lay in the bed, crisp white sheets drawn up underneath his chin, his bright blond curls messy against the feather pillow underneath his head. Beneath his eyelids, I watched his eyes shuttle left, right, left, right, imagining what he could be dreaming about.

Onyx sniffed my brother’s face and whined, giving his cheek a cursory lick. He hadn’t even met Hayden properly, and yet he seemed anxious for him to wake up.

I was anxious for that, too. The last time I’d seen Hayden had not been pleasant.

“I didn’t realize I was such a burden,”he’d said.

“Well, you are, Hayden. Your entire fucking life, that’s all you’ve been. Now leave me alone. Don’t follow. Do not come looking for me. GO!”

I’d screamed at him. It had been out of fear. I’d wanted to hurt him, to make him run, so that he wouldn’t follow me into the horror that I knew awaited me up at the palace, but it washard tounspeak words sometimes. Especially when there was a grain of truth in them.

“Carrion slept for less than a day when he came through the quicksilver for the first time. But he was Fae beneath that glamor of his. It could be a while before your brother wakes up, Saeris.” Te Léna pressed the back of her hand to Hayden’s forehead, pursing her lips together. No doubt her magic was flowing into Hayden, checking his body for injury or malady.

We couldn’t keep Hayden at Ammontraíeth. He wouldn’t have been safe, and there were no healers there who knew anything about human physiology. The decision had been made, risky as it was, to use the gate to hop from the Blood Court back to Cahlish, and so it had been done—the work of moments.

It had been only days since I’d been here, but everything felt different suddenly.Ifelt different.

“Where’s Kingfisher?” Te Léna asked. Her soft, warm voice broke apart my thoughts.

“He and Carrion managed to secure the silver we need. Two big bags of it. They went to take it to the armory. Fisher said he’d find me in his rooms as soon as he was done.”

The healer smiled gently, rubbing the top of my arm in a comforting up and down motion. “You should go, then. Physically, Hayden is fine. It’s just a big shift, moving from one plane of existence into another. He won’t wake for a while yet.”

I was already arguing. “I should be here—”

“You should be in bed. You look exhausted.” Te Léna’s hairstyle was new. It was tightly braided to her scalp, the ends, which were halfway down her back, decorated with bright orange beads. As always, she looked beautiful. “I’ll stay with him. If he wakes up, I’ll come and get you, I promise.”

Gods and martyrs, Hayden was going to be almost as disappointed as Carrion had been over the fact that Te Léna wasmated and married. I sighed, knowing how pointless it was to push back against her once she’d decided something.

Themomenthe wakes up?” I asked.

She nodded. “I’ll make sure he’s comfortable first, and then I’ll find you.”

“All right. I’ll go. But only because Iamtired.” More tired than I had ever been in my life. I could barely keep my eyes open. Channeling the amount of power I’d used back in the tomb was a massive drain on my energy supplies, both magical and physiological. I probably wasn’t going to struggle to sleep ever again.

My hand was on the doorknob when Te Léna called after me. She sat at Hayden’s bedside, holding his hand, with the morning light gilding her bronze skin. “I’m sorry I couldn’t help you. I can’t quite explain it. I . . .” She puffed out her cheeks and then let them deflate. “It isn’t an issue that I’ve ever encountered before.”

She had tried to heal me when we’d first arrived at Cahlish, but her magic had felt like water, beading and rolling off my skin. It hadn’t felt wrong per se. Just . . . strange. I still had a gash on my arm, as well as a cut on my thigh, but both were already knitting closed on their own.

“It’s okay, I promise. They were just scratches.” I shot her a tired smile.

Upstairs in Fisher’s rooms, Archer was busy organizing a bath. Three other fire sprites lugged smooth, round stones from a metal bin by the fireplace and held them in their hands, heating them before lowering them into a tub by the window that was full of water. Steam rose from the water, the stones hissing as they drew them back out of the bathwater and reheated them again. Another fire sprite was busy cleaning off the nightstands and the desk, sorting through the scraps ofpaper and other bits and pieces I had been dumping there after emptying out my pockets.

Fisher’s friend squawked when he saw me. “No, no, no! Oh no. Apologies, my lady. We’ve been too slow. The room was supposed to be clean by the time you got here. Your bath was supposed to be poured!”

“It’s okay, Archer. Please don’t worry—”

“No.” He shook his head vehemently, and a tiny ember flew off him and began to smolder on the rug. I stepped on it before he noticed and got even more upset. “There’s a way things are supposed to be done, my lady. You aren’t even supposed to see us unless we’re serving dinner.”