Before Brimstone arrives, here’s your quick and spicy recap of Callie Hart’s Quicksilver, the first book in the Fae and Alchemy series — full of fae politics, vampire curses, and one very stubborn alchemist who can literally talk to metal.
Contents
The Mortal Beginning
We open in the desert city of Zilvaren, where water is rationed, metal is priceless, and survival is a full-time job.
Saeris Fane, a mortal thief with sharp instincts and a sharper tongue, steals a gauntlet in hopes of saving herself and her brother, Hayden. When she’s caught by a Guardian, she lies — claiming she’s from the plague-ridden Third Ward. Terrified, he lets her go.
Saeris flees to the forge of Elroy, the blacksmith who’s been a mentor and reluctant father figure. He warns her the gauntlet is trouble and to return it before the queen’s guards come searching. Naturally, Saeris ignores him.
After finding Hayden beaten from gambling debts owed to Carrion Swift — a smuggler, ex-lover, and general chaos gremlin — she tries to negotiate. Carrion flirts, warns her about the gauntlet, and vanishes, leaving Saeris to discover Hayden surrounded by guards.
To protect her brother, Saeris confesses to the theft. She’s arrested, dragged before Queen Madra, and tortured by Captain Harron. But when she pulls a lever embedded in the throne room floor, everything changes — the ground melts into liquid silver, and a fae warrior rises from it.
He kills Harron, slips a pendant around Saeris’s neck, and murmurs, “Don’t die.” Then everything goes dark.
The Fae Realm
When Saeris wakes, she’s no longer mortal-world adjacent — she’s in the icy fae kingdom of Yvelia, ruled by King Belikon, and tended by his daughter Everlayne and the stoic Renfis.
Her rescuer? The infamous Kingfisher — Belikon’s exiled step-son, the fae warrior humans call Death. He’s brooding, gorgeous, and definitely hiding a curse or three.
Belikon despises him but quickly realizes Saeris isn’t ordinary. She’s an Alchemist — able to hear and manipulate metal, something unseen for centuries. Belikon orders Kingfisher to train her so she can reopen the quicksilver portals that once linked their realms.
What follows is a mix of power struggles, banter, and chemistry hot enough to melt enchanted steel. Saeris tries to outsmart her new fae captors, even stealing Kingfisher’s ring to escape — but he catches her and strikes a blood oath: he’ll find her brother if she swears loyalty.
She agrees. Unfortunately, when he returns through the quicksilver, it’s not Hayden he’s carrying — it’s Carrion Swift.
And that’s when things get complicated.
The Alchemist Awakens
Bound to Kingfisher by blood and choice (and maybe fate), Saeris flees Yvelia with him, Carrion, and Renfis. They travel to Cahlish, Kingfisher’s warded estate — a refuge protected by old magic and heavy trauma.
Here, Saeris learns what it truly means to be an alchemist. She can communicate with metals, even coax them to sing. Her magic lets her forge weapons infused with quicksilver, and she starts creating enchanted blades for Kingfisher’s army.
The enemies-to-lovers tension officially combusts when the two finally give in — and Saeris wakes marked with glowing runes, proof they’re fated mates. Kingfisher tries to hide it, but the truth comes out: he’s infected with quicksilver, a poison slowly driving him mad. He wants to protect her by rejecting the bond; she’s determined to find a cure.
Meanwhile, the fae realm is unraveling. The vampire king Malcolm has kidnapped Everlayne and is raising an undead army across the border of Sanasroth.
The Labyrinth & Beyond
When Everlayne is kidnapped, Fisher goes after Malcolm alone — and Saeris refuses to let him face it without her. Along with Carrion and Lorreth, she follows him into Malcolm’s labyrinth, where the truth finally comes to light: Malcolm, Belikon, and Madra are siblings, and they’ve been working together for centuries to build an army of undead vampires.
They also discover what Fisher was doing during his centuries of absence — trapped in this same labyrinth, built by Malcolm as a twisted game. Hidden somewhere inside is a single enchanted coin capable of freeing the tortured souls of the undead fae Fisher once tried to save. He searched for it for years and never found it.
Malcolm strikes first, biting Carrion, only to be poisoned by his blood. Carrion reveals his true heritage — he’s heir to the first fae royal line, and his blood was used to create the curse that birthed the vampires. The poison weakens Malcolm long enough for Saeris to use her alchemical bond to locate the real coin — hidden inside the Morthil, a monstrous, spider-like creature that hunts by movement and respawns endlessly.
During the battle, Malcolm reveals that Saeris’s runes mean she can control all five alchemical metals, not just quicksilver. He wounds her fatally, but in one final act, she drops the coin, freeing the trapped souls, and decapitates Malcolm with Solace.
Meanwhile, Madra flees through a portal back to the mortal realm
Fisher reaches Saeris too late; she’s dying and refuses to let him give up part of his soul to save her. Instead, Taladius, a vampire lord, offers to turn her. Saeris hears the voice of the quicksilver asking if she wishes to remain in Yvelia — she says yes, and the magic pulls her under, taking her through a portal.
Saeris hears a voice — the quicksilver itself — asking if she wants to remain in Yvelia. She says yes, and it drags her through the labyrinth’s center and into another realm.
The Divine Realm & Saeris’s Transformation
Death isn’t the end. Saeris awakens in a divine limbo, greeted by the twin goddesses Bal and Mithin, and the God of Chaos, Zareth.
Zareth reveals that Saeris and Kingfisher are cosmic anomalies — their union could destroy the world. To restore balance, he offers Saeris a choice: fade from existence or be reborn as something entirely new.
She chooses rebirth.
Saeris returns to life transformed — half-fae, half-vampire, the first of her kind. When she awakens, she learns that she’s killed Malcolm and inherited his throne, becoming Queen of Sanasroth. Her mission now: to rule, restore balance, and save Kingfisher from the corruption consuming him.
📚 Fae & Alchemy Reading Kit
Want to dive back into Callie Hart’s world before Brimstone drops?
Quicksilver (Book 1)
Where it all begins — alchemy, fae & chaos.
Brimstone (Book 2 – Preorder)
Your next emotional crisis awaits.
*As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases.*
What to Expect in Brimstone
Callie Hart isn’t slowing down. Brimstone raises the stakes with Saeris trying to rule a court that wants her crown, Fisher and Carrion causing chaos back in Zilvaren, and a shadow creeping across the Fae realm.
Expect more politics, more tension, and a lot more emotional damage. The romance burns hotter, the gods get messier, and every choice feels like it could set the realms on fire — literally.
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