Page 200 of Brimstone

I didn’t waste my breath admonishing the asshole this time. There was nowhere else to look! There was . . .

No. Wait. There! On the bookshelf.

I’d seen it before. When I’d found Archer in here, drawing me a bath. His friends had been helping. One of them had been looking at the items sitting on the shelf in front of the books. Lady Edina’s favorite thing in the world . . .

I ran across the room and picked up the tiny ceramic figurine of the kingfisher bird.

Its left wing was chipped. Its blue and orange glaze was a little faded, thanks to the many years it had sat on this shelf, but otherwise it was perfect. I saw what had been placed underneath the figurine immediately: a small, crumpled piece of paper.

The same crumpled piece of paper I’d dumped on my nightstand a week ago, along with all the other bits and pieces I’d been carrying in my pockets.

But it wasn’t a crumpled piece of paper.

It was afoldedpiece of paper . . . artfully crafted into the shape of a stargazer.

It was thefirstlittle bird. The one that had lost its magic and fallen to the ground when it had left the library.

The missing page from Edina’s journal, not torn out, because it had never been boundin. I’d had it here all along!

“Ten seconds, Saeris!” the Hazrax warned.

My hands trembled as I unfolded the bird and frantically began to read.

The words ran together, Edina’s neat handwriting swimming on the paper as I tried to process the information she had written there.

“Five seconds!” There was genuine concern in the Hazrax’s voice.

I looked up from the paper, suddenly covered in a nervous sweat, and spoke as quickly as I could. “I’ve changed my mind, watcher! I beg you for my favor. I need you to transport me to the Wicker Wood!”

47

UNLESS . . .

SAERIS

I DIDN’T HAVEa choice.

Edina’s message had told me exactly where I could find my mate and had given me the tools to save, him, too. What ithadn’tgiven me was the means to reach him in time. That part, she had said, was up to me. So I’d done what I’d had to. A full year with the Hazrax looking over my shoulder, in exchange for a one-way ticket to the Wicker Wood.

I’d held the page bearing Edina’s instructions as tightly as I could in my hands when the Hazrax had told me to brace myself, but three seconds later, when I awoke on my back in the snow, it was no longer there. It didn’t matter. The information I needed was seared into my memory now. The chances of forgetting what I’d read were absolute zero.

Fog billowed on my breath. Overhead, the bare branches of the trees scraped at the night sky like twisted fingers. The sky was clear for once, and the stars stippled the heavens in a breathtaking display. The Hazrax’s robed form appeared suddenly in my field of vision, making me jump. Its eyes shone reflectively in the dark, as if they were brushed with silver.

I waited for it to make some kind of cryptic remark, or at least tell me to hurry, but it said nothing. I got to my feet. “Well, since you seem to know so much about all of this, which way do I need to go?”

The Hazrax didn’t make a peep.

I shivered against the cold as I got to my feet and brushed myself off. “Seriously?Now?After all the interfering, you’re going back towatching?”

The creature just looked at me. I took its silence as a very annoying yes. “All right. Fine. I don’t need you anyway.”

I didn’t. I could feel Fisher now. In a roundabout way. What I could actually feel was thetinythread of quicksilver that was still trapped in his eye. It was a negligible amount—barely enough to be worth mentioning. Before I’d sealed my quicksilver rune, I probably wouldn’t have been able to sense it. Now, that tiny sliver of metal stood out like a flickering flame in a sea of darkness.

He was here, and Iwasgoing to find him.

The Hazrax floated an inch above the ground, gliding along behind me as I set off into the woods. It cut a ghostly figure as we hurried through the trees . . . but no more ghostly than the shades themselves. Fisher had told me about them the last time I’d found myself in this wretched wood: the souls of the damned, condemned to haunt these woods, constantly reliving their gruesome deaths as punishment for their crimes. Fisher had offered to give me the Sight, so I could see the shades for myself. I had not-so-politely declined. But I was Fae now. I had the Sight whether I wanted it or not, and the visions that stalked me as I ran through the trees were downright horrific.

A female in a tattered gown, dragging a dead infant behind her through the snow.