Page 16 of Brimstone

In a beat, the sword was gone.

I hurled her with all my might.

The honed metal cut through the air, spinning end over end, arcing at the last minute and slicing straight through Ereth’s torso on a diagonal, cleaving him in two.

Nimerelle landed point-first, juddering, the blade burying five inches deep into the obsidian dais.

Thunk.

Thunk.

Ereth’s body was much less graceful whenhestruck the floor. His insides were black, his organs necrotic, the ichor that oozed out of him thick and stinking of tar. Death had perched on this monster’s shoulder for so long that he wasn’t going to waste much time claiming his prize now. Nimerellewasa god sword,after all—laced with silver and the magic of the gods. I might not have decapitated Ereth, but the bastard was lying in two pieces on the ground. The blow would kill him.

To my left, three high bloods wearing black tabards with bloodred dragons depicted on them writhed on the steps. They’d come to their leader’s aid, it seemed, only to be felled by someoneelse’shand. Taladaius stood at the base of the dais, hand outstretched, expression blank as he unleashed his magic upon the vampires. There was a reason the previous king of this court had made Tal his second in command. He never flaunted his magic, but the male was powerful. Even before he’d transitioned, Tal had been able to manipulate most liquids. All liquids, in fact, apart from quicksilver.Bloodwas a liquid . . . and right now, he was boiling the blood in the high bloods’ veins.

Steam poured from their open mouths, their screams silent as they died, and Tal observed their passing with a look of expertly crafted boredom. Scandalized mutters went up throughout the hall—to use such taboo magic against members of his own court was rare indeed, but not unheard of. Rumor had it Malcolm enjoyed watching his subjects smoke whenever they stepped out of line. Saeris hadn’t ordered Tal to act, though. He’d acted of his own volition. There would be consequences, to be sure, but that was none of my concern.

Saeris was behind me.

It only took a second to scan her for injuries. She appeared to be unharmed, but I didn’t trust my own eyes. I needed to hear her say it.Are you okay?I demanded.

Yes. I—I’m fine.

My relief was absolute.Stay there, then. Wait for me. No one else is getting up these steps.Amid the screams of horror and panic that erupted throughout the hall, I slowly stepped down from the dais to the platform, toward where the two separate pieces of Ereth’s broken body lay.

“I bet you’re regrettingthat,” I snarled.

Thin black liquid bubbled out of the Lord’s mouth, spackling his lips and his chin. “She is . . . anathema. Cursed,” he choked out. “The g-gods denounce . . . her.”

“Really?” I crouched down next to him. “Is that so?” I was still missing my bracer. I raised my right hand to show him what my armor and Saeris’s gloves had been hiding from view: the extensive tattoos that marked us—and our union—as divinely bound. Ereth had been Fae once. He knew the stories. He had certainly heard tales of couples who were God-Bound. His eyes went wide when he saw the ink circling my wrists. Ink that had formed in the maze, when Saeris had been pulled through the quicksilver and into the realm of the gods themselves. “They haven’t denounced her. They have safeguarded her.” And maybe that wasn’t true. 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. Ihadto see the marks as a blessing.

Laughter burbled up out of Ereth, the sound a wet rattle. “You f-fool. W-we havedifferentgods.”

And then he was gone.

Between breaths, the monster’s body crumpled to ash.

An enraged scream pierced the air, and there was Zovena, charging not toward me, but toward the sword still embedded in the center of the five-point star mosaic that decorated the platform.

I rose to my feet, baring my teeth. “Touch it, Zovena. Go on, I fuckingdareyou.”

The bitch stopped dead in her tracks, but not because common sense had claimed her; a streak of silver rippled across my vision, and Tal was there, tackling the female vampire to the ground.

“Stop!”

Saeris’s shout crashed through the Hall of Tears, and at her command, the remaining Lords, Tal and Zovena, and the high blood vampires rioting in their seats juststopped.

“I am ruler of this court, and Iwillbe heard!” She stood at the edge of the dais, beautiful and terrible as a storm, the air rippling and distorting around her. I wasn’t a member of the Sanasrothian Court, but even my ears rang with her authority. It brought a number of the other high born vampires in the front benches to their knees. “From this point forth, whenever you are in my presence, this is how you will greet me: on yourknees! 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!”

A shock wave of power blasted through the hall, pulling at people’s clothes and causing them to shield their eyes.

Saeris had delivered her own edicts. The first laws of a new monarch, passed with force. The first steps of our plan were in place.

The vampires of Sanasroth had no choice but to obey.

“Shedosedyou? In front of the whole Sanasrothian Court?”

I trudged through the mud, shaking my head at the amusement in Renfis’s voice. He was enjoying this way too much. “I think you’re missing the point. I killed a Lord of Midnight. The coronation celebrations were called off. I had to leave Ammontraíeth before a riot broke out.”