Page 182 of Brimstone

Saeris shot the warrior a baleful glance as she crossed the room and offered her hand to the witch, helping her to her feet. “Have you found Ren?” She posed the question to all three of us as one.

“No,” Iseabail answered. “I’ve tried every which way I can think of, but he’s nowhere thatmyspellwork can detect.”

“All right, then. If you’re certain he’s not on his way here, then we’ll have to regroup and pick this up later. I just ran into Danya as I was coming back into the house. She says the rot is here.”

Black vines snaked over the blanket of snow that covered the lawns. Wherever the rot touched, the snow melted, already softened by the rain, and the ground was momentarily exposed—blades of grass, still green thanks to my father’s wards, saw thelight for the first time in centuries, only to wilt, turn brittle, and break seconds later. The necrotic spread crept forward before my eyes, its progress startlingly efficient as it made for the house.

The last remaining unit of warriors moved quickly through the shadow gate. Only two hundred fighters waited in rank and file to be transported. The warriors who had already gone through had carried large trunks with them, full of the family rings and other items of jewelry and that I’d once tasked Saeris to turn into relics. The last of the warriors carried the silver that we’d brought back from Zilvaren. Their breath clouded the air, their laughter nervous as they watched the hellish tide come in. Swords, daggers, staffs, bows, and arrows: They were armed to the teeth, and magic danced at their fingertips, but still, they were not equipped to face this foe.

“As fast as you can!” I called. “When you’re through, wait at the campsite! Do not go down into the village. The satyrs aren’t expecting us. The last time this many fighting Fae showed up on their doorstep, a bloody battle ensued. Let’s not give them the wrong impression!”

I was met with curiosity and uncertainty as the troops stepped single file through the lucent smoke and shadow. Down to the last one of them, they knew me. I had led them once. Been their commander. I had charged with them up the steep slope of victory and fallen back with them in retreat. Every horror I had ever asked them to face, I’d made damned sureIhad faced it first . . . and then I’dleftthem. None of them had known why. None had known where I’d gone. Thanks to Tal, Renfis had known. Everlayne, too. But they’d been Oath Bound not to tell anyone where I was. They hadn’t been able to explain to these fighters that I hadnotabandoned them willingly. They knew the truth now—the details of Gillethrye and what had taken place there had spread through Irrín quickly enough after we’d facedMalcolm in the maze. But a hundred years was a long time, and trust was lost far quicker than that.

Renfis was their leader now.Renshould have been the one urging them through the shadow gate toward safety, but he was missing, and I was an unreliable substitute.

The rain had stopped a little while ago. It was almost dusk, and the clouds were low and dense enough that Saeris could stand to be outside. She wore a heavy woolen cloak with the hood drawn up to shield her from the last of the day’s light. As she crossed the snowy slope toward me, Onyx trotting close on her heels, I was once again struck by how strange butnormalit was to have her here, to have her as my mate. She wasn’t what I’d expected. She was so much more. She really had come blazing into my life like a comet, and now she was changing everything.

Shewas different, too. The past few weeks had changed her. There was a lithe confidence to her as she approached, her boots crunching in the snow. She’d always looked good in her fighting leathers, but now theybelongedon her. My chest tightened with unspeakable pride when I saw her black tresses now hung in war braids beneath her hood.Faewar braids. She had become a part of this world—a part ofme—and I wouldn’t have had it any other way.

Her eyes flashed daggers at me when she pitched up at my side, and I braced for the shit-kicking I was about to receive. “Wedon’ttorture people,” she said, her tone full of ice.

“Carrion tortures me daily,” I muttered.

“If we torture people, then we’re likethem,” she said, ignoring me.

“And if we capture an enemy warrior and they have information we need?” I asked.

She gave me a dry, displeased, sidelong look from the depths of her hood.

I held up my hands. “All right. Okay. We don’t torture people.”

“I think we should send Iseabail back to Nevercross. We might need to call on the witches again. We won’t be able to do that if we’re holding one of them hostage.”

Decisive. Strategic. I knew Saeris could be both, but I liked seeing this side of her right now. She was making plans, working to stay one step ahead, and that cheered me no end. I nodded, setting my eyes on the fading horizon, trying not to look at the black infection that was slithering ever closer toward my family home. “You’re right. As soon as everyone’s through the gate, I’ll make sure she finds her way back to clan lands.”

“And in the morning, I’d like to go back to Ammontraíeth. All those people—”

“Aren’t your responsibility,” I told her gently. “Not if you don’t want them to be. There is no Blood Court anymore, Saeris.”

“But there’s still Ammontraíeth. There’s stillSanasroth. And we have no idea if the horde is where I commanded them to stay. What if they’ve broken free and are tearing through the palace right now, draining all the people who chose to come back?”

I worked my jaw, not wanting to answer. That scenario had crossed my mind, too, and my initial response had not been very generous.

Did their renewed Fae status undo all the terrible crimes they’d committed over the centuries? Thank fuck it wasn’t up to me to make that call.

“Most of those people didn’tchooseto become high bloods,” Saeris said. She had no way of knowing what I was thinking. Not even with the connection we shared as mates. I supposed it made sense that she was also contemplating the question of their guilt. “Malcolm murdered most of them. They might have been kind people before. Good. And despite your frown, I don’t thinkyou’d leave them there to be eaten by feeders. Just on the off chance that they’re not assholes.”

“On the off chance that they’re not assholes.Gods.” I laughed mirthlessly at that, and the laughter turned into a sigh. An uncomfortable realization had struck while she’d been talking. What if these were the people from Gillethrye? The ones I hadn’t been able to save. The ones I had ordered to be burned when Malcolm’s feeders had scaled the walls of the city and torn through its streets, leaving death and decay in their wake.

What if Ihadbeen able to save them? Saeris wanted the same opportunity, and I wasn’t about to deny her that. I wouldn’t sentence her to endure the same kind of regret that gnawed on my soul every day. “We won’t take Tal with us,” I said abruptly. “I doubt he’s up to it. And anyway, after everything he went through there, I think it’s best if he never has to step foot in Ammontraíeth again.”

Saeris’s eyes went wide. “Wait. So you agree, then? We can go back?” Her surprise was endearing. I wrapped my arm around her and pressed a kiss to her temple through her hood.

“I shouldn’t tell you this, since you seem blissfully unaware of the power you hold over me, but . . . I will give you whatever you want, Saeris Fane. Always. No matterwhatit costs me.”

It wasn’t a promise, but it was the truth, and I would honor it. Somehow, even though the rot was on the verge of eating Cahlish and my last lingering connection to my family, I managed to smile. I suspected the smile was lopsided, but still. “I’m yours to command, Queen Saeris,” I whispered into her hair.

There was no eye roll at the title this time. Before, she’d ruled over a court of monsters. There was a slim chance that the remnants of her court might be redeemable after the events of the Evenlight Ball, and Saeris’s attitude toward her people had done a drastic one-eighty as a result. Not because she cravedpower or wealth but because she sawhopein a situation and wanted to help.