Page 174 of Brimstone
He shrugged. “Then you get old, and you die.”
“And you’d just—just—” I couldn’t even say it. He would do what he’d always done. He would help the people of Yvelia, and fight against the likes of Belikon and whoever else might posea threat to those he loved, and I would want him to. I wouldn’t want him to just give up because I was gone, but—
“I would gowithyou, Osha.” He spoke as if I were insane to think he would do anything else.
My heart squeezed tight as a fist in my chest. He was serious—I saw it in his eyes—and he wasn’t slightly fazed about the prospect. “I’m young in the eyes of this place,” he said. “And yes, there are plenty of things I still want to see and experience in this realm. But I wouldn’t want to see any of it withoutyou.”
“Fisher, it isn’t thatsimple.”
He crooked his head to one side. “Isn’t it?” he asked softly. “It seems very simple to me. Wouldn’t you want to come and spend the afterlife with me ifIdied?”
“Of course I would!”
“Then let my love be equal to yours.” He spoke with a tenderness that made tears prick my eyes.
“But what if thereisno afterlife?”
He smiled sadly, letting his head hang for a second. When he looked back at me, his expression was all affectionate frustration. “Then there isn’t,” he answered. “There is only nothing. And that willstillbe better than being here without you.”
“Stop. Stop talking.” I cuffed my eyes with the back of my hands. “You’re going to make me cry.”
“You’re already crying,” he whispered. “Come on. Come back up here. I need you.”
I need you.
Words I had never thought I’d hear from him. Fisher had been nothing short of vile to me when he’d brought me through the quicksilver into this realm. He had been cold and aggressive, and I had hated him with ninety-nine percent of my heart.
But the one percent? That had already been his. And nowallof it was his, and he was holding on to me like I was the only thing that mattered in his entire fucking universe.
Need still pulsed in the pit of my stomach, but it had shifted into something more now. Something deeper. I didn’t just want his body. I needed his mind and his soul. I needed for time to stand still so we could stay here, where nothing could disturb our peace, and we could justlive.
And in that moment, I would have been selfish. If we’d been able to stay in Ballard and lie in the grass and hold each other forever, I would have done it.
But all dreams had to come to an end.
I flinched, stomach rolling, as I made my way to the forge. The sun wasn’t fully up yet, but it was already wreaking havoc on my body. I shouldn’t have been awake. By all rights, I should have passed out about an hour ago, but I’d only just woken up. My body clock was upside down, and I didn’t even know where I was anymore.
“Hey. Where areyouheaded in such a hurry?” Carrion was coming the other way down the hallway. His hair was sticking up all over the place, and there was a stack of books in his hands. His shirt was unbelievably rumpled.
“You haven’t been to bed yet, have you?” I kept walking, which meant that, obviously, Carrion performed an about-face and started walking with me, back the way he’d come.
“I have not,” he confirmed.
“Aren’t you tired? How the hell are you running on so little sleep?”
Carrion waved off my concern. “Oh, y’know. Centuries of debauchery and general delinquency. Hey, seriously, where are you going? I could use your help with something.”
The last time Carrion had said this to me, he’d coerced me into helping break into one of Madra’s food stores. At least, that’s what he’dtoldme we were breaking into. The building in the Hub had turned out to be a haberdashery; Carrion had only wanted me to act as a distraction so he could steal a bolt of fabric that the owner had refused to sell him. I’d been chased through the city by two guardians and had spent nine hours hiding in a sweltering attic space as a result, and . . . anyway, the point was that nothing good ever happened when Carrion said he needed my help.
“Whatever it is, the answer’s no,” I told him.
“What? Oh, come on! There’s no need to be likethat, Fane.”
“I’m going to speak to Iseabail about what happened yesterday. I need to know more about what she did and how the cure affects people—”
“That sounds more like aFisherthing.”
Gods, he was exasperating. “It’s amething, Carrion.” I pointed at myself. “I’mthe half vampire. It wasmycourt that was affected.”
