Page 183 of Quicksilver

A ragged, wordless cry cut through the thick silence that hung over the labyrinth. Somewhere, Fisher, Lorreth, and Carrion were fighting for their lives, and I was wasting time.

I had to move.

Come on, Saeris. You can do this.I would have preferred the encouragement from Fisher, but I was sure he had his hands full right now, so I gave myself a pep talk instead.

I lifted my hand, and—

Oh.

My skin was stained black with ink. Runes upon runes upon runes. The God Bindings flared metallic blue around my wrists as if consolidating and becoming more real, somehow.

My whole body rushed with heat.

I'd said it out loud, hadn't I? I'd acknowledged that Fisher was my mate.

That was too big and too wild to comprehend right now.

Gingerly, I reached my inked hand into the demon's mouth.

Its teeth glistened, circular rows stacked on top of one another, growing smaller and smaller as they traveled down its throat. This close, I could see the serrations of each tooth. They were made for ripping and grinding through flesh.

Further.

I needed to reach further in.

My heart seized between beats.

The air froze in my lungs.

Further.

A little further still...

The demon's gullet was still warm, not to mention slimy. I grimaced as I plucked the coin from the back of its throat and closed my hand around it.

The demon twitched, and I panicked. Yanking my arm out of its mouth, I yelped, staggering back. And a hand closed around my wrist.

“You'd better give me that coin, girl,” a rough voice said.

It was Malcolm.

43

ANOTHER WAY

The coin weighednext to nothing. I clenched my fist around it and fought to wrench my hand free. Malcolm was strong, though. His fingers dug into my wrist, his sharp nails breaking the skin.

Malcolm's breath reeked of death. “Interfering in the plans of immortals is never advisable, Saeris Fane. Especially when they've expended so much time and effort into those plans. Open your hand.”

“No! Enough is enough. Fisher has suffered enough. These people have suffered enough. This deal you made is over!”

“Not yet, it isn't.” The vampire king spun me around, and my breath caught. His skin was melting from his bones, sloughing away in wet, fibrous slabs from his cheeks and his neck. The smell that came off him was putrid—the stench of rotting meat left out in the sun for too long. Even his eyeballs were shrunken and desiccated in their sockets. Whatever Carrion was, whatever Carrion had done, he had dealt Malcolm a tremendous blow. The king was still stronger than I was, though, and the pain in my ribs had become realm-shattering. I breathed in shallow sips, each more excruciating than the last.

“I'm very intrigued by you.” Malcolm's ruined smile would haunt me from this life into the next. “An Alchemist, after so many years. I wasn’t surprised to learn that Madra tried to kill you all off centuries ago. She was always so afraid of your kind. I suppose it would have been impossible to track all of you down, though. It’s notoriously difficult to detect magic in half-blood Fae. She probably allowed one or two of them to slip through her fingers. They must have hidden in her city and started families and bred. Our Fae blood must have been diluted over the centuries, reduced to less than a whisper in a bloodline. But then you come along. I have to say, I’m impressed. A genetic throwback with your kind of power is inconceivable. Y’know, therewasa time when I worked very closely with your kind.” He considered me. “It was a very talented Alchemist who discovered the key to my blood gift. She was remarkable in many ways. Deeply disappointing in others. Perhaps I should keep you alive once this is all done. I seem to be in need of another miracle, thanks to that bastard Daianthus wretch.”

“I won't help you,” I spat. “I can't. I can only work with the quicksilver.”

Malcolm clucked his tongue—a wet, disgusting sound. “Little girl, your ignorance is shocking.” He threw me. It was so easy for him. Just a casual flick of his wrist, and he hurled me against the wall. I hit the obsidian hard, the breath rushing out of me. A burst of white light flared behind my eyelids as I sank to the ground.