Page 93 of Brimstone

There was a defensive light in Carrion’s eyes when I faced him. He was always so easy. So unfazed by the chaos that surrounded him. Had there been a time when I’d caught him looking like this? Caught out? On the back foot? If there had been, I couldn’t remember. “Go on, then,” he said coldly, gesturing to the wall. “Tell me what you see when you look at all of this.”

I thought for a moment, long and hard, staring down at his drawing of the Winter Palace. At the top of the turrets, he had drawn banners unfurled and waving on the wind. Not De Barra banners.Daianthusbanners.

“I see a male longing for a place and a people he has never known,” I said simply. “That’s all.” I gave him the drawing as I passed him, leaving his room. “You should keep hold of that, Carrion,” I told him. “Bring it home with you.”

22

STARGAZER

SAERIS

THERE THEY WERE.

Two puncture wounds on the inside of my left thigh.

The cottage had been real.

I didn’t remember leaving the dream. I recalled eating the stew, talking some more with Fisher, and curling up in the blankets by the fire with Onyx. Things grew hazy after that. Fisher had said he was going to step outside to get some more wood for the fire. He had opened the cottage door, and stepped out into the night, and . . .

Ahh.

That’s when it had happened. He’d walked through the cottage door, and everything had gone black. I had woken up on the floor, lying on a stack of pillows with a blanket draped over me that hadn’t been there when I’d set my mind to go to sleep. My body had ached deliciously from the night’s adventures, and I had found the two small marks on the inside of my thigh, already half-healed but definitely stillthere.

It was still early, or late in the day, depending on how you looked at it. The shutters were drawn to keep out the fadingafternoon light as I hurried through the halls of Ammontraíeth, still wrestling on my clothes.

I was approaching the foot of the stairs that led up to the library when my name echoed down the hallway after me. “Saeris Fane! Where in all five hells do you think you’re going?”

Lorreth’s shirt was damp with sweat across his chest, his dark hair fully bound back for once as he jogged after me. “I think you’re forgetting something,” he said, when he reached my side.

“I’m sorry, but I think training might have to be postponed today, don’t you? My wildly dangerous magic might just need to take priority. Unless you don’t think anyone will mind if I blow up Ammontraíeth.”

Ipersonally wouldn’t mind.” Lorreth slapped his hands down on top of my shoulders and bodily turned me around. He gave me a shove, pushing me back in the direction I had just come from, away from the library. “The rest of this court is still sleeping, Saeris. No one else is awake, and that includes Foley. He won’t be able to help you for at least a couple of hours, which means—” He sniffed, and immediately took a step back.

I’d been waiting for him to notice. I had my explanation ready. “Something strange happened last night. I went to sleep like Foley told me to, and Fisher was there.”

“Okay.” He looked dubious. “We’ve all hadthosekinds of dreams before, Saeris. But—” He cleared his throat uncomfortably. “I don’t think I’ve ever heard of anyone waking up covered in their partner’s scent from adream.”

“It wasn’t a dream. Well, itwasa dream. But it was more than that.”

“How can you tell? Besides the way you, uh . . .” He waved a hand around me, gesturing in my vague direction.“Smell.”

“There’s other . . .physicalevidence,” I said, staring straight ahead. Gods, this was fucking awkward.

“Okay, okay. I’m gonna take your word for it. I think I have enough information.” He cocked his head to one side. “Are you sure it was him?”

“What do you mean,am I sure it was him?Yes, it was him. I think I know what my mate looks like, Lorreth.”

A sneaky little smile hovered over his lips. “Wanna hit me yet?” he asked.

“Yes. I do, actually. You know what?Fine.Let’s go train.”

The training room was cold. All of Ammontraíeth was cold, for that matter. When the people of a court were immune to temperature and an open fire might have them going up in flames, it was no great shock most rooms didn’t have fireplaces. It had been enough of a problem in my own personal chambers that I’d had a fireplace constructed—I was the queen, after all—but the vast, windowless obsidian box where Lorreth brought me to train was freezing. There was nothing on the walls. Nothing on the floor. A soft white light glowed from a recessed gap that ran around the perimeter of the ceiling, but other than that, there were no torches of evenlight flickering in the sconces. The room was featureless, the air oddly still, as if it had stagnated here for many years.

Lorreth tossed me a staff, and the sound of the wood hitting my palm made a dead, unnaturally flat sound that quieted as soon as I curled my fingers around the weapon. I considered the length of wood briefly. “No swords today?”

Lorreth shook his head. “A staff has its uses. You may find yourself without your sword one day. In a bar, for instance,” he said, waggling his eyebrows. “Your asshole friend might be having a bad day, and he might start a fight with two knucklehead leeches for no good reason. A tavern will alwayshave a broom, Saeris. A mop. Something with a long handle. It’s smart to know how to utilize the items you have around you, lest you need to come to a grumpy friend’s rescue.”

The context of his comments was loud and clear: He was feeling amitefoolish over what he had done at the Fool’s Paradise, and this was his roundabout way of letting me know he wasn’t feeling so great about it. Who was I to judge, though? I’d caused plenty of scenes at Kala’s whenever I’d had a shitty day, which wasmostdays in the Third.