Page 167 of Brimstone

A red-haired female in a royal blue dress slumped to her knees, blood gushing from her mouth as she went down and sprawled out, convulsing on the obsidian floor.

Wide-eyed, Fisher took in the scene in disbelief. “What in all the gods’ names is this?” he whispered. “Was this . . . was this what was in the journal?”

“No! No, it told me to name Foley as Lord! There was nothing in there aboutthis!”

Left and right, high bloods started vomiting blood, staining their fine clothes red. Male and female alike, they went down, trembling, fingers grasping, bloody eyes rolling back into their heads.

Soon, most of the vampires in the hall were writhing on the ground. And in the midst of them all stood Taladaius, towering over them like some silver-haired harbinger of death. “Brothers and sisters!” he cried. “Your judgment has come for you at last!”

“What thefuck?” Fisher hissed.

“Your gluttony is your undoing! Welcome to your final death. But who amIto deny you one last chance at redemption? The thralls you have sipped so greedily upon this evening are passing through the hall with glass vials. Take a vial and swallow its contents, and you will undergo a painful transformation. No, not a transformation. You will bereborn, back into life, back into your Fae bodies, where you will face the horrors of what you allowed yourselves to become! Refuse the vials, and you join the other demons in hell with me posthaste!”

“What the fuck has he done?” Fisher stalked toward the Lord, stepping over the bodies of the toppled high bloods as he went. I was right behind him, my mind spiraling at the scene unfolding before us.

“Tal! Tal, are you out of your mind?” Fisher grabbed the Lord and shook him. “Whatisthis?”

“This is what should have been done a long time ago. They were never going tochange, Fisher,” he said. “They’re incapable of it. Evil through and through. And I wasn’t about to put this on your shoulders. I wasn’t going to do it to you, either, Saeris.” His eyes searched for mine.“Imade the hard choice so that neither of you would have to. This was my final act as a Lord of Midnight. Now I’ll go pay for the sinsIhave committed.”

We should have noticed the wineglass in his hand. We should have stopped him from throwing back the viscous red blood inside. We watched in horror as Tal swallowed—whatever was in the glass was a far greater dose than had been delivered to the other high bloods. There was no delay for him. Blood welled in his eyes and trickled from his nose as it immediately took effect.

“Tell Everlayne . . . I’m . . . sorry,” he said.

He fell to the ground and started to shake.

40

JUDGMENT

SAERIS

BLACK.

Stinking.

Foul.

The blood on the ground was an inch deep and slippery as hell. I barely kept my feet beneath me as I raced for a thrall who was stooping down and pressing something to a female high blood’s lips. The female’s eyes flashed with silent recrimination as she batted his hand away, rejecting the salvation he offered her, even as she drowned in the putrid blood she had stolen.

“Here, give it to me!” I held out my hand, waiting for the thrall to pass me a vial from the leather bag it was carrying, but the thrall shook his head. “Not for him,” he said. “He told us not to.”

“I don’t give afuckwhat he told you.” I snatched the bag and turned back to where Tal was on the ground, kicking and shaking . . . but Foley was already there, jamming his fingers between Taladaius’s teeth.

“Fair . . . turn around,” he gritted out. “I told him I didn’t want to come back as a vampire. Well, nowhedoesn’t get a choice. He’s coming back Fae whether . . . he likes it . . . ornot!”

Taladaius didnotlike it. He raged and he spat, but in the end, Foley forced the clear contents of one of the vials down his neck and massaged his throat until he swallowed.

The vampire stopped vomiting, then . . . but the blood was replaced by an awful white foam that frothed up from his mouth, forming a bubbling pool on the ground. I couldn’t decide what was worse.

There were others lying on the bloody floor, foaming at the mouth. Not as many as I might have thought. One in eight high bloods? No, less. One intenhad made the choice to live and face the consequences of their years in Ammontraíeth.

Foley stood, panting as he watched Tal shiver on the ground.

“How areyouall right?” I asked him.

“He told me not to drink the wine. I thought he was warning me about the blood in it. I could already smell it. I—I wasn’t going to drink, anyway.”

“He made sure none of the thralls gave us wine with blood in it,” I added, rubbing my forehead. “He—fuck,thisis why he wanted to disavow me!” I closed my eyes, shaking my head. “It’salllinked. The blood, I mean.Malcolm’sblood turned these high bloods. It must be some kind of magic.”