Page 109 of Brimstone
FOUNDATIONS
KINGFISHER
SCREAMS RANG OUTin the darkness.
Like a contagion, chaos was spreading throughout the city.
“Quickly! This way!”
Carrion led the charge. It had been the work of a second to give him the Sight so that he could guide us through my shadows. He was now one of only four people in existence who boasted that capability—a number I hadn’tplannedon increasing today, but necessity had required it.
Around us, crowds of people swarmed out of buildings, their panicked shouts filling the air as they stumbled around, searching for familiarity. Next to me, Hayden tripped on a lip in the cobbled street. I barely had time to catch him before he hit the ground face-first. Grabbing a fistful of his shirt, I wrenched him to the left. “Just keep running, Hayden. I’ve got you.”
“This way!” Carrion was a head and a half taller than anyone else on the street now. At some point during the assault in the square, I’d relinquished my hold on the glamor that had been hiding our true Fae nature. My canines were sharp in my mouth again. It felt good to be back in my own skin.
Like wraiths, we darted through the streets, careening around people as they stumbled blindly, calling out for their loved ones.
“Take this right,” Carrion hissed. “Here!”
Up ahead, a phalanx of guardians was proceeding down the tight street, keeping close formation. The pale green glow of the even-light torches they carried barely cut through the shadows. They shouldn’t have evenhadevenlight here. The burning heat rose up within me again—the same heat that had all but suffocated me back in the square, until I couldn’t fucking breathe around it. I wanted to kill the bastards for what they’d done to my mate. For what they’d done to her mother. For what they werestilldoing to this ward. My vengeance was incomplete. A heavy debt was still owed by the men who carried out Madra’s orders. It wouldn’t be settled until the streets of this city were piled high with their corpses and a mountain of golden armor blotted out the suns. But vengeance was going to have to wait.
We swung right, turning mere seconds before the guardians reached us.
“There. Up ahead. That wide building with the heavy wooden door! Go, go, go!” Carrion whispered.
I shoved Hayden toward the door first. He found the handle and turned it—but the door didn’t open.
“Gods alive. Move out of the way.” I would kick the fucking thing down if I had to.
“No, no. Wait!” Hayden held out a hand behind him, urging me back. “It sticks is all.” Leaning his shoulder against the wood, Saeris’s brother gave the door a firm nudge. “You just need to . . . finesse . . .” The door swung open.
He couldn’t see, but he knew where he was? There wasn’t time to processthatpiece of information. Exhaustion sank its claws into me. My shadows were dissipating. As I looked backover my shoulder, I saw that the air was clearing, swaths of black silk disintegrating right before my eyes.
Inside. Inside!the quicksilver urged. It was louder than it had been since Gillethrye.
Carrion’s eyes met mine, his worry matching my own. “After you.” He gestured for me to head inside. Hayden had already crossed the threshold and disappeared. Cursing under my breath, I slipped through the doorway. My shadows had already vanished here. The room was sweltering, a fire raging in a—
“Fuck!”Pain exploded between my shoulder blades. My head spun, my vision seesawing. I’d been struck with something hard. Somethingreallyfucking heavy. The air rushed out of my lungs, but I kept my feet beneath me. Just. “What in the fifth circle of hell?” I wheeled to face my attacker, ready to tear them limb from limb, but there was Carrion, blocking my path, standing in front of a grizzled old man brandishing a fire iron.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” Carrion held his hands up. “Don’t do anything rash. It was only a pat on the back.”
“I was aiming for his head,” the old man seethed. “I wasn’t expecting the bastard to be sotall.”
A pat on the back? A pat on the back didn’t leave a fucking bruise. I stepped forward, ready to forcibly remove Carrion if I had to, but the smuggler grabbed me by the shoulders. “Don’t hurt him, Fisher. For the love of the gods—”
“He tried to cave myskullin, Carrion.”
The human shoved Swift aside himself, pushing him out of the way. His hair had once been dark brown but most of it was salt-and-pepper now. Lines marked the man’s face. He was strong and broad, like a bull. Massive by human standards. A fire burned in his eyes as he squared up to me and snapped, “And what else should I have done, then?You’rethe one who broke intomyforge!”
Saeris had made Elroy sound pleasant to be around. She’d spoken of him fondly, but my first impressions of him were not particularly favorable. My back was throbbing, and I was developing a tension headache—an ailment thatwasn’tbeing eased by the glassmaker’s whisper-shouting.
“Hecannotbe here!” The old man hadn’t moved away from the door since we’d arrived. He really wanted us gone. “You can stay. Hayden can stay. Buthehas to go.”
Carrion wasn’t proving to be a great negotiator. “Calm down, Elroy. It’s going to be fine. We just need a place to lay low for a couple of hours until it all calms down out there.”
“I won’t say it again. I know who he is. I know what kind of trouble he has chasing on his heels.”
Hayden had been lurking by an array of heavy, well-used tools hanging on the wall. He stepped forward and spoke, reminding us all that he was in the room. “He says Saeris is alive, Elroy.”
