Page 180 of Brimstone

“Indeed. You will have to work for most of your runes, but some of them may come as gifts. And this one was gifted just in the nick of time, wouldn’t you agree?”

“What does it do? What does it mean? I can’t find a translation for it anywhere.”

“And you won’t. It is blasphemy to record such things on paper, King Killer. The rune is my name. It does not grant you magic, the same way other runes do. Theabilitymy rune grants you is complicated. It allows you to . . .undo. Or maybe . . .” It pulled a strange face that I could not decipher.“Break?”it offered.

I had ice water for blood. I was going to throw up. “And if I don’t want this rune? If I don’t want yournameinked into my skin? What then?”

The Hazrax plucked at its robes then slid its absurdly long hands into sleeves. “You would return a gift? And such a powerful one, too? You’ll be grateful for it soon enough, believe me. You shouldalreadybe grateful for it. It saved your friend’s life last night.”

What did it want, a fucking thank-you card? “I don’t want to oweyouanything,” I told it.

“The ability was freely given,” the Hazrax said. “No debt has been incurred. It is a silent rune, already sealed to your soul. It will act as a grounding rod for the runes you already have, and the ones that are yet to come, too. For a while, anyway. It will buy you some time while you work on sealing that brimstone mark.”

“Why? Why would you give it?” If the rune was everything the creature claimed it to be, then it was a valuable boon indeed. But I’d learned the hard way that nothing was free in Yvelia. There was always a price, and usually a hefty one at that. It made no sense that this thing, whatever it was, would just give me access to powerful magic. It made no sense that it could gift it to me in the first place.

“Think of it as an apology,” it said. “For what is to come. I have seen through the eyes of your oracle, and your future is not an easy one. There are those who would consider me partially to blame for that.”

“What have you seen? For the love of the gods, whatelseis coming?” The Hazrax seemed to blur for a second, its outline smudging black and gray against the overcast world behind it. I blinked, and the creature was solid again.

“No more questions,” it said. “I must give you the second part of my gift and then depart.”

The Hazrax drifted forward, extending its hand to me. Gold glinted in its waxy palm. When it flipped its hand over, a ring dropped at my feet: the ring of office that marked it as a Lordof Midnight. A large polished ruby flashed at the ring’s center, winking in the fading light.

“Give it to the apostate with the golden smile,” the Hazrax ordered. “He will need it.”

I stared at the ring first, then up at the ungodly-looking thing that loomed over me, my mind racing too fast for a proper thought to take shape. “People call you the Hazrax. But that’s not the name inked into my skin now, is it?”

“Clever child. It is not.”

“You’re never going to tell me what you are, are you?”

The Hazrax smiled its needle smile. “Why would I when you’re so close to piecing it all together, King Killer? You’vealmostfigured it out.”

43

DARK SPOTS

KINGFISHER

“I’M SORRY. I’VEdone my best, but I don’t see him anywhere. I’ve scoured the entire realm, and he’s nowhere to be found. But you know as well as I do, Fisher, this realm is full of dark spots. Just because I can’t find him doesn’t mean he’s not there. It just means that his blood is being shielded from me somehow.”

“You’re saying this is intentional, then? That someone has taken him and is hiding him?”

Iseabail was out of her room.

I hadn’t wanted to let her out, but what other choice did I have?

She’d refused to be questioned while under lock and key like some sort of prisoner . . . even though that waspreciselywhat she was. I couldn’t have kept her in there forever, anyway, since half of the estate had already disappeared through the monstrous shadow gate I’d opened on the slope leading down to the forest. The other half were patiently waiting their turn to pass through and evacuate Cahlish. Soon enough, I would have to sendherthrough, along with all the others . . . apart from Ren,because Ren was still fucking missing.

For now, we were in the drawing room. My father had used it as a study once upon a time, though I had no recollection of that.

“Quicksilver pools. Sprite colonies. The black markets in Dow and on Tarran Ross. There are so many locations that are either warded from external magic or contain so much powerful magic that they drown out all other energy. Scrying isn’t—”

“Yes, Iknowscrying isn’t fucking perfect.” The floorboards creaked as I paced in front of the window, dragging my hands through my hair. “Try again,” I demanded. Then, out of sheer force of habit, coupled with a pinch of desperation, I added,“Please.”

Lorreth, who had been standing by the door glowering sullenly at the witch for the past half an hour, shot me a filthy look that implied I had just personally betrayed him. “We should just throw her in the jail down in the basement and let the rot take her,” he said.

Iseabail had endangered Saeris. She’d also used Tal in the most horrific way, and we’dallnearly died as a result. She was probably my least favorite person in a two-hundred-mile radius right now, but I still wasn’t going to lock her up in a cell and let the rot infect her. That was a fate worse than death, and I just didn’t have it in me.