Page 212 of Brimstone

KNIGHT

SAERIS

Stargazers, also known as kingfishers, can be found in abundance from the Gilarian Mountains all the way down to the coastal cities of Marinth, Bodish, and Inishtar. Many individuals among the Fae, selkies, elemental sprites, and satyr populations consider the stargazer a symbol of hope.

—Excerpt fromFae Creatures of the Gilarian Mountains, a missing tome from the royal libraries of the Winter Palace

“PLEASE!PLEASE!”

The scream burned as it rose up my throat. My skin, too.

Everything hurt.

I was being jostled.

Carried.

Kingfisher was running.

“Hang on, Little Osha. Almost there,” he rumbled. The sky was wrung out, streaked pink, as if someone had taken a paintbrush and slashed over a warped canvas. I craned my head back, trying to remember where the hell we were—what the hell we weredoing—and the details of the last twenty-four hours suddenly came rushing back in with stunning clarity. A solemn,dark figure stood motionless, a hundred feet down the slope of the mountainside. The Hazrax watched us flee, the shape of it smudged around the edges, as if it were only half there.

My head was killing me.

I looked down at the snow as it whipped by beneath me. Fisher’s boots left deep indentations in the brilliant white carpet, and . . . and there were other impressions in the snow, too. Not quite as deep. Much smaller, and certainly not Fae.

They werepaw prints.

Lightning swept through me, clearing the haze in my head. “Put me down, Fisher!”

“No. You were unconscious,” he snarled.

“Please! I’m fine now, I swear!”

He wasn’t happy about it, but he slowed his run. He hadn’t managed to set me down before I heard a chittering squeal and a small white fox was leaping into my arms.

He was alive.

Alive!

Onyx squirmed so hard I nearly dropped him. Hescreamedwith excitement, his whole body wagging as he licked my chin and my cheeks. His tiny heart battered against his newly healed ribs, pure joy radiating from him as he turned and rained kisses down on Fisher, too.

“I know, little one. I know. We’re happy to see you, too,” he said, his voice rough.

I stared up at my mate in wonder. “It worked?” Could I trust this? Was it real?

Fisher nodded. “It worked. You did it.” His expression was breathtaking—pride and a dash of wonder thrown in for good measure. “You accomplished something that’s never been done before.”

“And will never be done again,” I added, glancing down at my shield. The Hazrax’s rune hadn’t just faded. It wasgone. Myother runes were raw, blood oozing from my mangled skin. Even the God Bindings spiraling around my wrist and up my arm were pulsing with pain, but the hurt could have been a thousand times worse and it would still have been worth it.

Onyx was alive. He whimpered, frantically rubbing his muzzle against my cheeks and butting my chin with the top of his head. I’d saved him. I’d done it. But the cost . . .

“You must think I’m crazy.” I didn’t even want to look at my mate . . . but when I did, I found no consternation or anger within the endless green of his striking eyes.

He laughed a little breathlessly. “Yes,” he agreed. “Youarecrazy. You came looking for me. You took on Belikon by yourselfandyou outsmarted him. And you made a costly sacrifice to save a friend,” he added. “Only a crazy person would have done all of that. ButIwould have made the same choices, Saeris. So I suppose we’re well suited.”

“Lo, visitors on the mountain!”

The cry boomed through the air. It echoed off the faces of the other mountains that crowded around the one on which we stood. Fisher and I turned as one, looking up the slope—