Page 69 of Brimstone

I huffed, rocking on my heels. “Am I supposed to be grateful that you think I’m pretty?”

He ignored the question. “What did you do to him?” he spat.

The change in direction sent my eyebrows skyrocketing upward. “Him? I didn’t do anything to him. Taladaius is fine. I’m guessing you’ve been lurking in the shadows since I got here. You must have watched him lea—”

“Not Tal. What did you do toKingfisher?”

I jerked, taking a step back. I hadn’t been expecting my mate’s name to come out of the vampire’s mouth. It would have been better to keep the surprise from my face, but it was too late for that now. The vampire had definitely registered my reaction. He narrowed his strange eyes at me, anger flaring in them as he strained forward against the silver chain that tied him to the chair.

“That’s right. Iknow,” he said. “You killed him, didn’t you.” An accusation, not a question.

I sized the vampire up. “Why the hell would you thinkthat?”

“That dagger you stabbed me with. I know it well. I know its owner even better, and he wouldn’t have been parted from it without a fight. So, either you killed him and took it, or someone else killed him, andtheygave it to you. Which is it?”

“First, Iamqueen of this court. I am not obliged to explain myself or my weaponry to the likes ofyou.” I spoke slowly, my words laced with sarcasm. “But aside from that fact, there’s obviously no possibility in your mind that the blade wasgivento me, of course. Because I’m unworthy, or because I’m female, or—”

“You’re avampire,” he hissed. “I can smell it on you.The blood.”

I cleared my throat, staring down at my boots as I considered how to word this next part. “I’m half vampire, yes. But the only blood I have tasted was given freely.By my mate.Maybe it’s the scent ofhisblood that you can smell on me.”

“I don’t care who you drank from, or if they—” He stopped speaking, his mouth open, still forming the shape of whatever word he had been about to speak. I saw the shock ripple over his features. “No. No, you’re not . . . That’s notpossible,” he whispered.

“Isn’t it?” My gloves were already ruined, the leather hanging in tatters. I took them off gingerly, trying to avoid the burns onmy palms. Once the gloves were gone, I slowly pushed up my sleeves, revealing the black scrolling inkwork that spread across the backs of my hands and up my forearms.

“What in the name of sin and salt isthat?” Algat had been watching our exchange with obvious amusement, but now her mirth fled her. She pointed a shaking finger at my hands. “Stupid female. It’s sacrilege to ink your skin with those kinds of marks.”

I didn’t have the energy to explain this to her. And she didn’t deserve my truth, anyway. I focused on the male with the cat eyes who seemed to care so much about Fisher’s well-being. “You broke a royal edict,” I said. “I made it law that no member of this court would be able to attack me or any of my friends, and yet you still did it. How?”

The male stared at me, dumbfounded, his eyes bouncing between my hands and my face. He couldn’t seem to believe what he was seeing.

“He broke your edict because he isn’t bound by it,” a voice said from the library’s entrance. It was Lorreth. He was out of breath and disheveled, his hair falling loose from his braids, his cheeks bright pink. He gave me a meaningful look as he entered the library—the kind of look that said Kingfisher would be hearing about this. His attention flitted to the yawning hole in the side of the library tower’s curved wall, and then to the restrained vampire, who was staring at Lorreth like he was hallucinating.

“That’s right, isn’t it? You aren’t obliged to follow the rules of this court, because you never swore fealty to it, did you?”

The vampire slowly shook his head. “No.” The word barely made a sound as it left his lips. Were thosetearsin his eyes?

“Because, no matter what. . . .” Lorreth said under his breath.

“A wolf never becomes a leech,” the vampire finished.

Lorreth stood in front of him, an array of emotions fighting for control of his features. “Hello, Foley. It’s been too long. I can’t tell you how good it is to see you, brother.”

17

THE DARK DOOR

KINGFISHER

THEY ROLLED INon a skittering black tide.

Up the steps. Over the walls. Crawling out of the stonework.

Hundreds of them. Thousands.

Vorath Shah threw back his head and laughed as they came. He knew they wouldn’t hurt him . . . but the same couldn’t be said for us.

The first prick came at the back of my neck. A trail of fire blazed up into my head, fireworks going off right between my eyes.