Page 62 of Brimstone

“What do you mean, danger?”

“Oh, yes. An Alchemist is adangerousthing. Has no one ever told you what you are? No one’s told you why Belikon and your precious Queen Madra both hunted down and murdered all your kind?”

“Algat.”Tal didn’t raise his voice this time, but he didn’t need to. The single word resonated around the library with the force of a thunderclap. Algat jumped, the wild light in her eyes sputtering out as she cowed, lowering her head away from the vampire. I felt it, too: a crushing force against the back of myneck that wanted me to bow, kneel, crawl for the male sitting at the end of the table. It was by sheer force of will alone that I didn’t drop to my knees. “Enough of the games,” Tal said. “She wants to understand who she is and what she’s capable of. She doesn’t need to be scared out of her mind along the way. You will help her find facts and nothing more—”

A wisp of shadow coalesced in the air before me, taking shape. The blur darkened, falling, and by the time it hit the surface of the reading table, it had become a cat. A black cat, to be precise, with glowing red eyes.

It fixed me with a leonine stare that reminded me of other, far larger cats I had encountered out in the dunes back home, and a thrill of panic chased up my spine.

“Where the fuck did that come from?” I breathed.

“Thatis Guru,” Algat said, disgruntled. The hold that Tal had exerted over her was broken now; she shot the other vampire a filthy glance as she shuffled down to the other end of the table and started aggressively petting the cat with a gnarled hand.

The catwasthere. She wasstrokingit.

“He keeps the rats andotherpests at bay,” she said meaningfully, again serving up another baleful glare for Taladaius. “I hear you have a white fox living in your chambers, King Killer. I wouldn’t let it out roaming, if I were you. Guru doesn’t like canines ofanypersuasion.”

I had made the decision to keep Onyx in my rooms for this very reason. I had no idea what kind of trouble he might find himself in at the Black Palace, and I didn’t intend on finding out, either. Guru seemed pleasant enough, but still. The cat threw back his head and squinted, enjoying the attention as Algat petted him, his tail flicking left and right.

Taladaius shuddered. “I have some other matters to attend to, Saeris,” he said, rising stiffly. “Algat will behave and makeherself available to you for as long as you want to stay here and conduct your research. Right, Algat?”

The female just sniffed.

My maker—hewasstill my maker, at least for now—made his exit, leaving me with the old female and the cat.

Algat had produced a saucer from her ratty skirts and was pouring a thin stream of milk from a ewer into it when I faced her again. “Do not think,” she said, “that just because that wraith commanded me to assist you, there will not be a cost associated with the labor, Your Highness.”

I huffed. “Wouldn’t dream of it. Iamyour queen, though. Doesn’t that count for anything?” There was something unsettling about the way the female moved, like a spider that scuttled too quickly. I didn’t like it.

Tucking a mat of unruly hair behind a flopping ear, the female tutted under her breath. “Even a queen must pay her debts, Your Highness.Especiallya queen.”

Guru ducked his head and delicately sniffed the saucer of milk. He yowled, sounding displeased, turning away from it and raising his hackles.

“And what will your help cost me tonight?” My tone was sharp, but I was tired of the old female. There wasn’t time for her to bepurposefullydifficult.

She grinned, as if she was plucking the thoughts right out of my head and didn’t care a jot about my impatience. “Come now. You haven’t ruled over this court for very long, it’s true. But you should know by now that the cost for most things isalwaysblood.”

The crimson marbled the white, blood swirling amid the milk.

Just five drops.

That’s all it had been. I’d watched each ruby teardrop tremble and fall from the pad of my index finger only half as intently as Guru, who had seemed poised to pounce and start lapping my blood straight from the puncture wound on my finger at any moment.

Now his pink tongue rasped at the contents of the saucer with fervor, a rattling, low-pitched purr working out of his throat while he drank.

“He likes the taste of you,” Algat observed, hands on her hips.

“That’sreallydisturbing.” We had cats back in Zilvaren. People kept them for the same reason Algat kept Guru in the library: They made excellent rat catchers. But cats did not make good pets, as far as I was concerned. They couldn’t be trusted. At least a dog was loyal enough to die in solidarity if its owner dropped down dead in their own home. I’d heard too many tales of cats eating their owners’ faces under those circumstances.

“Guru’s very discerning,” Algat observed, watching proudly as the feline cleared the saucer. “He won’t drink from just anyone.”

“I’m honored,” I said dryly.

Algatharrumphed. “You should be. Now. Books. I’m feeling very generous tonight. Five drops of blood equate to one whole book.”

“Wow. You’re right.Sogenerous.”

“Consider yourself lucky. Normally, I’d only relinquish a few pages. And they would have been in Alchimeran. I’m assuming you don’t read, write, or speak the language of your people?”