Page 204 of Brimstone

“Me.”

I called the sword, and the sword came.

I sent up a fervent prayer as Nimerelle shot up from the stone at the foot of the tree and flew through the air . . .

Please don’t kill me. Please don’t kill me.Pleasedon’t fucking kill—

The sword slammed into my bare palm, and the Wicker Wood stood still as I closed my hand around the hilt of the mighty Nimerelle. A brief, unpleasant shock wave traveled up my arm, but then it was . . .gone.

There was no voice in my head. No chiding from the small thread of quicksilver it contained, nor from the gods who had made it, nor the warrior who possessed it. The faintest smell of juniper tickled the back of my nose. I heard distant, playful laughter on a breeze that wasn’t there. And then, simultaneously, the god sword in my left hand formed a pillar of blazing white . . . and the god sword in my right erupted with a wall of shadow and smoke.

For the first time in Yvelian history, a god sword had entrusted itself into the hands of someone it wasn’t bonded to. Because Kingfisher loved me. I had come here tosavehim . . . and that was good enough for his sword.

“Impossible,” Belikon whispered. But of course itwouldseem impossible to him. A heart ruled by hatred and fear could not experience miracles. You had to know love, joy, and trust for that, and those concepts were as foreign to him as the idea of Yvelia had been tomenot too long ago.

“He’s dead. The second you touch the dryad with either of those swords, he’sdead!” Belikon shouted.

“The swords aren’t for the dryad, Belikon.” I spun them end over end, trailing light and shadow. “They’re foryou.”

I’d experienced the male’s power back in the throne room of the Winter Palace. I’d felt like crawling out of my own skin. Again, I’d witnessed it in Gillethrye, when Fisher had run him through with Nimerelle and the male hadnotdied. His power snapped against my skin again now, as I prowled toward him. It tried to stop me in my tracks, but I wasn’t the same girl who’d stood there and watched him torment her mate. I had power of my own now, and it was just as formidable as this pretender king’s.

With every step I took toward him, overcoming the shield he’d thrown up around himself, Belikon’s eyes widened. “What do you hope to accomplish? You cannotkillme, girl.”

Killing him would be a win for Yvelia, but Ididknow that I wouldn’t accomplish that goal tonight. That was for another day, another time, and another hand to plunge the knife. All I had to do was keep him busy long enough to say the words . . .

“Orious, I’m done with this nonsense,” Belikon spat. “Tell the dryad to take him.”

Shit. Once that tree closed around Fisher, this was over. I had to act.Now.

Belikon’s seneschal darted toward the tree. He placed a hand on its trunk, and the whole thing shook at the contact.

I hurled Solace, throwing the sword like a spear. It struck Orious clean through the side, cleaving him straight through the chest. But the damage was already done. A groaning, cracking, creaking sound filled the air, and the open, festering trunk around Fisher’s shoulders and head began to close.

Belikon was in front of me.

He’d moved so fast.Toofast. I’d let my focus drift for a split second, and now I was going to pay.

The air rushed out of me as he punched me in the solar plexus. I should have flown back and slammed into the tree—thedryad—behind me, but I didn’t. I was anchored in place. Belikon had hold of mefrom the inside. He hadn’t just punched me. He’d punched through my breastbone, into my chest cavity . . . and now he had me by the heart. “This seems to be the source of our issues here. Such a problematic piece of meat. Could you survive without it, I wonder? Half-ling that you are, I still think you need yourheart, Saeris. Are you going to make me rip it out? Or will you start behaving so that I’ll let you keep it?”

I couldn’t answer. I could stop my heart from beating, but I definitely still needed it to stay inside my chest. Panic cinched tight around my chest, taking hold . . .

“Bend the knee, Saeris,” Belikon rumbled. His breath fanned over my face, foul and reeking of death.

Monster.

Murderer.

Villain.

I would rather die than chain myself to a demon like him. Blood spewed up and out of my mouth. It ran down my chin in a river and coated my tongue in metal. “I have . . . a message . . . for you,” I wheezed. “From . . . your dead . . . wife.”

It happened so quickly that anyone could have missed it, but not me.Isaw the bastard flinch. I choked on another mouthful of blood. “She told me . . . to tell you . . .never.” Quick as lightning, I called Solace back. At the same time, I drove Nimerelle into Belikon’s stomach and up, out of his back, mirroring the blow Fisher had dealt him back in Gillethrye.

The king dropped me, tottering back, eyes locked on the sword buried in his stomach and the glowing point of the other protruding from his chest. Funnels of shadow whipped around the male, spinning faster and faster, cocooning him in a lethal shroud. Cuts began to form all over his skin, crosshatched and bleeding, but they healed before they could fully form. Impaled upon the huge god swords and wreathed in smoke, he fell to his knees, but still he threw back his head and laughed. “Not enough,” he bellowed. “It’llneverbe enough!”

There was a fucking hole in my chest—abigone—but even as I took a staggering step toward the dryad, the wound was knitting closed. It should probably have killed me. If I had beenonlyFae, oronlyvampire, that might have been the case, but it seemed my Fae powers coupled with high blood powers had increased my healing capabilities exponentially. I didn’t understand it, but I’d take it. I would live long enough to finish what I’d started here, at least, and for now, that was all that mattered.

“An Oath Bound Fae male cannot walk away from the promises he makes,” I said. “On pain of death, they must obey.”