Page 148 of Quicksilver

TALADAIUS

Ren and Fisherboth swore at the sight of her. Everlayne’s mouth was open, silent panic carved into her beautiful face. From this vantage point, where Yvelia and Sanasroth were closest, the river the narrowest, it was easy to make out her delicate features. Easy to see that she was terrified. A black hole yawned open behind Fisher. He was a split second away from launching through it, but Ren caught hold of him by the strap of his armor. “Don't be stupid! The gate won't open on that side of the river. Gods only knows where it'll spit you out!”

“All right, fine.” Fisher batted his hand away. “I'll swim across.”

Ren grabbed him with both hands this time, shaking him. “That's what they want. The second you're on the other side of this river you're fucked. You'll have no magic, and then what?”

“Then I'll rip out their fucking throats and make a pile of their rotting corpses,” Fisher snarled.

“She'll be dead before you've mown through ten of them. Can you live with that?”

“Of course not!”

“Thenthink.Why the hell do they have Layne over there? Why isn't shealreadyfucking dead?”

A good question. My stomach rolled as one of the vampires standing next to Everlayne ran a mangled tongue along her bare shoulder, keening as it drooled over her skin. It wanted to bite. Badly. But it held back. That many of them could have torn her apart in a flat second, but something was keeping them at bay. Another vampire flattened its nose against Everlayne’s arm, shuddering as it fought against its nature to feed.

Ren cried out, the sound strangled, and it looked like he would ignore his own words and charge blindly into the river. It was Layne's outstretched palm that stopped him.

“Don't! Just stay where you are!” she called.

“Are you hurt?” Fisher shouted.

His half-sister smiled sadly. “Only a little. I'll be fine, Fisher. Don't worry.” She looked so strange. Her pale skin was lit from within, giving off an ethereal glow. Her hair swirled around her as if she were underwater, and yet she wasn't wet. Her hair, her skin, her clothes—all dry. The rain came down harder than ever, but not a drop of it touched Everlayne. “

“Run for the river!” Ren shouted. “Swim! As soon as you're halfway, we can get you!”

She responded with a regretful shake of her head. “I'd never make it, Renfis. And anyway...I can't.”

“What do you mean, you can't?” The question was full of panic.

Sweet Everlayne. She'd been so nice to me back at the Winter Palace. I'd been too overwhelmed by my new surroundings to truly appreciate it, but she'd been a friend to me. Had looked out for me. And now she was in mortal peril, and there was nothing I could do to help her. Nothing any of us could do.

Fisher's jaw worked, a look of devastation on his face. He knew why she couldn't come. “Her neck,” he whispered. “Look at her neck.”

At the base of Layne's slender throat shone a thin band of gold. It was a fine thing. Pretty. It looked like it was engraved with some kind of pattern, though I couldn't make out the details of the design from here. Attached to the band of metal was a thin gold chain. As I noticed it hanging down in front of her, it snapped taut, and Everlayne jerked to her left, almost losing her balance.

Fisher hissed as the crowd of vampires parted, and a tall, handsome male with luminous skin and cropped blond hair came forward to stand beside her. Dressed in black pants and a tailored white shirt, he wasn't kitted out for war; his attire suggested that this little jaunt out into the rain had interrupted some kind of dinner party. Younger than Malcolm, he was a fraction taller, a fraction broader, and every bit as dangerous. I could feel his power—a sinking, penetrating cold, spilling across the river, leeching into my bones.

“Well met, Fisher!” the vampire called over the river. “I see you've managed to restore one of your precious swords. Congratulations. I'm sure that feels like quite a feather in the cap.”

As if Lorreth took the sarcasm in his voice personally, a flicker of angel's breath crackled through the air. Brighter than the lightning scoring the clouds, it burned my eyes as it crashed into an invisible barrier in the middle of the river and was instantly diverted, shooting harmlessly up into the air.

The vampire didn't even blink. From the way he smiled, he found the display highly entertaining. “Why don't you come over here and say hello to an old friend, Fisher. Your sister and I have a bottle of that red you like breathing back in the dining room. Why not join us for a glass?”

“Fuck you, Taladaius,” Fisher spat. “If you've hurt her—”

“Oh, please. You know me. I don't have the stomach for hurting the thingsyoucare about. My father, on the other hand...” He trailed off, looking thoughtfully at the chain in his hand. “He does enjoy adding to his collection. And since he recently lost his most vaunted prize, it only makes sense that he'd want to replace it. Come on, you must have expected something like this from him.”

Hatred boiled in Fisher’s eyes. But there was pain there, too. He spoke quietly this time, addressing Everlayne. I could hear him, but only just. “Malcolm bit you?” he asked, keeping his voice level.

I saw Everlayne's mouth move, but I wasn't blessed with Fisher's gifts. I couldn't cast my voice, and my human hearing was nowhere near as sharp as his, either. She spoke four or five words, and the tiny flicker of hope went out in Fisher's eyes. Ren saw his reaction and dropped down onto the snowbank, landing heavily on his knees, his legs refusing to support him anymore.

“So he's bitten her. She's not dead!” I stepped closer to Fisher, placing a hand on his shoulder. “Surely she'll be okay? If there's venom in her veins, Te Léna can heal her like she healed me.”

Ren shook his head. He stared at Layne, and she stared right back at him. Her shoulders shook, her chest hitching up and down unevenly. I considered it a small blessing that I couldn't hear her crying over the roar of the rain hitting the river. “She can't come home now,” Ren whispered in a broken voice. “She's his.”

I glanced between the males, my heart skipping beats left, right and center. “What do you mean, she'shis?”