Page 13 of Brimstone

My blood stopped pumping. Everything inside me stilled. I’d never realized that I could hear the rushing of my blood if I tried to, but I could. And now that it sat dormant in my veins, my inner world felt off kilter. It was like breathing under water; I shouldn’t have been able to do it.

“So she canchoosewhen to be like us, then,” Zovena muttered under her breath. “But that does not make her one of us.”

“If she drinks, she will be.” Algat pushed, apparently dissatisfied that I hadn’t answered to the issue. “This whole court knows that you haven’t fed since you awoke from the Midnight Kiss, girl. Drink from someone, and all will be well. We’ll place the circlet upon your head and then drown ourselves in wine until sunrise, celebrating you as our new queen if you do.”

“And if I don’t?”

Taladaius was halfway across the platform, moving toward me. “Saeris.”

“Listen to him,” Zovena sneered. “Saeris.He calls her by her name! And why wouldn’t he? He made her. She’s beholden tohim. He pushes her forward as his puppet, for him to controlfrom the shadows. If you accept her, then on your heads be it. But know you are accepting a proxy. Know who you’retrulybowing and scraping to when you swear fealty.”

There were traveling theater companies back in Zilvaren who would have committed murder to secure Zovena as one of their lead players; the female was really beginning to annoy me. Thankfully, Taladaius seemed immune to her dramatics. “You don’t have to do anything, Saeris. It isn’t law.”

“It isn’t law because it’s never needed to be,” Zovena hissed. “The ruler of the vampire court should be avampire. Feeding on the blood of the living should be the greatest pleasure imaginable to our regent. They should enact their basest nature without any need for convincing.”

For all his preparations over the past couple of days, Taladaius hadn’t seen this coming. Maybe he should have. It made sense that these monsters would want reassurances. I was an interloper taking up residence inside their palace. I was half Fae. It was only natural that they were wary of me. Martyrs only knew how they could tell that I hadn’t fed, but it was true. I hadn’t wanted to. Hadn’tneededto.

“My sisters are right, Highness,” Ereth interjected. “If you’d accept a coronation gift from us, maybe it would set our minds at ease. A beautiful young woman to sip from, perhaps?” His pit-black eyes flitted to Kingfisher. “Or . . . perhaps there is a simpler solution to this quandary?”

“No,” I snapped. “If it isn’t mandated, then do not seek to make a spectacle of me.”

Amid all of this, the Hazrax’s head turned from left to right, observing the scene as it unfolded. It said nothing, its odd gills flaring. With its hands clasped together inside the sleeves of its bone-white robe, it took everything in without saying a word. It shifted its body to face me now, though, turning its attention on me . . . and my mate. Kingfisher had stepped forward and turnedhis back on the gathering—an unimaginable show of disrespect. But I knew Fisher, and he didn’t give a shit about disrespecting the Sanasrothian court. He wanted to look me in the eyes when he spoke to me.

“Just do it, Osha.”

“What?”

“Bite me. Drink. Swallow twice and be done with it. They pursue this to undermine you because they’re sure you won’t do it. But fuck them. This is easy. We take care of this, and we get to leave this room.” In my head, he said,We can go back to Cahlish. Back to Ren, and Lorreth, and Layne.

“He has a point,” Carrion said.

“You shouldn’t even be here, Swift,” Fisher growled irritably. “Keep your opinions to yourself.”

The eyes of a thousand vampires bored into me as I peered around Fisher’s side and looked out at the amassed court. What would they do if I still refused? Many of them had died with magic in their veins. It had corrupted and turned black along with their blood. Some of themwerepowerful. The only thing keeping any of them from tearing us apart was the Law of Ascension and Taladaius’s edict. But laws were broken all the time, and I did not want to diehere, of all places.

Gods.

I took a deep breath.

“All right. I’ll drink from you,” I whispered.

Ereth clapped his hands together, overjoyed. “Wonderful!” He’d heard me, naturally. “Wonderful, wonderful!”

A growl of displeasure issued from the back of Fisher’s throat, but his gaze remained fixed on me, never wavering. He began unfastening the leather straps that held his right bracer in place, undoing the armor. “Block them out. Don’t pay them any attention. It’s just you and me, okay?”

I thanked the gods, the stars, and all four winds because, for once in his life, Carrion Swift kept his mouth shut. If he had made some quip about the fact thathewas standing there, standing right next to us, he probably would have lost his front teeth.

I focused on my mate, determined not to fumble this. We had one shot. A single chance at turning the tides in this war. If our play had to be this, then so be it. I would keep a steady hand, but gods alive, it would be hard.This . . . isn’t how I imagined this, I thought to Fisher.

As he slipped his bracer free, his eyes found mine, burning with intensity. A slow, intrigued smile kicked up the corner of his mouth.Oh? So you’ve been imagining this, then, have you, Little Osha?

My blood lit on fire in my veins. The suggestive tone in his voice in my head would have made even the girls who worked at Kala’s blush.No.It was too late, though. My cheeks were glowing, and Fisher was chuckling under his breath, rolling back his sleeve.

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.

Now was not the time. It sure as hells wasn’t the place.

But . . . Holy gods.