Page 2 of Brimstone

The sun?

Fire?

Fire wasn’t such an easy thing to come by in this place. A vampire would go up like a pile of dry kindling if it encountered flame. The hearths burned with evenlight in Ammontraíeth. The torches in the walls, too. This piteous bastard probably wouldn’t have even been able to find a match here. And who would have wanted such a final death, anyway? It wasn’t an easy way to go. So painful. So dramatic.

The ash was better.

It was a mercy.

“You have saved me from what . . . I have . . . become,” he wheezed. There was gratitude in his eyes. Relief.

I leaned in as he desiccated, making sure he heard each word as he sank into his final death. “I don’t do it for you. I do it for those you have feasted on. Enjoy hell, tick.”

Whatever hope of salvation he thought he might find with me faded from his eyes. “They’re going to . . .destroyher, you know? It has already . . . been seen. This court will . . . fall . . . with her inside it.” His lips twisted, either a grin of relief or a sneer of contempt, I couldn’t tell.

“Saeris is safe,” I snapped. “I won’t let anything happen to her.”

But the vampire just laughed. Rasping, hacking barks of laughter. His chin ashed. His cheeks went next. His voice splintered and cracked as his throat went. By the time his canines came loose from his skull and fell from his mouth, he wasn’t laughing anymore.

The vampire collapsed, a vampire no more. His teeth hit the floor—plink, plink!—and bounced away, down the stairs that led farther into the bowels of Ammontraíeth.

Plink . . .

Plink . . .

Plink . . .

The Black Palace was immense. I’d lost count of how many high bloods I’d dispatched since I’d been here. At first, there had been at least one or two of Malcolm’s children lying in wait for me down each dark obsidian corridor, drawn by the heat of my blood. However, the members of the Blood Court had soon realized they were no match for the god sword or the male who was wielding it. They were sleeping now, but soon they would wake. And then, they wouldhideif they knew what was good for them.

“Ahh! There . . . you are!”

The redheaded figure stood at the bottom of the stairs, panting and out of breath. He glanced down, cocking an eyebrow at the teeth that had come to a stop at his feet, though he didn’t mention them. He turned his attention to me. “You need . . . to come. Quickly.”

“You shouldn’t be outside of your quarters, Carrion.”

Sound traveled strangely here. The air was thick. It hummed with an inaudible tone that buzzed against the skin. My words were blunted, but they carried well enough for the smuggler to hear. He let out an exasperated gasp, running up the steps, but I was already walking away, back the way I had come.

“I would . . .loveto be tucked away in my rooms right now, but . . . dusk’s falling. The palace is waking up.”

“Exactly.”

“Will youstopalready? Listen. I was just looking out . . . my window, and . . . I saw something—”

“It’s called a sunset, Swift. If you want to live to see more of them, I can always escort you back to Cahlish. You can appreciate the sunriseandthe sunset from there.” I could live in hope. I’d offered repeatedly to take the smuggler away from Ammontraíeth—away from Irrín, too—but the male was growing increasingly stubborn.

“An enticing offer, but I’m good, thanks.” He had sprinted up the steps to reach me and was now on my heels, keeping pace.

“Dare I ask, once again,whyyou insist on hanging around Ammontraíeth like a bad smell?” I clipped out. “This place is a nightmare.”

Carrion answered distractedly, “Oh, y’know. I have my reasons.”

And he couldhavehis reasons, so long as none of them involved him harboring any sort of hope that Saeris was going to confess her undying love for him.Thatwasn’t happening.

“Fisher, gods alive! Just fucking slow down, will you? This is important!”

I huffed out a tortured breath, turning to face him. “Is itactuallyimportant, or do you justthinkit is?” Carrion thought all kinds of ridiculous things mattered when they did not.

His eyebrows hiked up as he scowled at me. “I don’t know. Do you consider your mate’s happiness important?”