Page 44 of Empire of Death
I was naked and he still wore his trousers, but the second my head hit the pillow, I felt the fatigue like a fog. I could hear the fire gently crackle in the hearth on the other side of the room. Feel the heat from Callum’s body like my own personal flames. Sense all the muscles in my body relax as sleep gently rolled over me like an incoming tide.
I felt his hand slide into my hair and cup my cheek. Without opening my eyes, I moved my hand over his arm, wanting to feel his touch as he touched me, wanting to have as much of him as I could take.
Because I didn’t know how long this would last.
14
WRATH
I stood in the center of the clearing in Riviana Star and looked at the sea of stars in the night sky overhead. A coolness had settled into the forest, drops of dew reflecting the light of the moon where they clung to leaves. Crickets chirped into the night, and the fireflies cast their glow throughout. I heard a distant sound of frogs from somewhere in one of the nearby streams.
It reminded me of home. We used to sleep with the window open in the summertime to let the breeze cool down the small house. When the boys were young and up throughout the night, I would struggle to go back to sleep, so I would just listen to the night.
My sons had grown into men long ago and had their own children and grandchildren…and died far in the past. But I would forever be a father frozen in the icy depths of grief. I’d watched their lives from a distance, had partaken in all their major milestones, got to watch their smooth cheeks become pocked and wrinkled…but it wasn’t the same.
It wasn’t the same because they would never know how much I loved them.
How much I still loved them.
That I would think of them every day for eternity.
She appeared before me as I remained lost in my miserable thoughts. It took me a second to understand she stood before me, her fiery red hair blowing in an invisible breeze, a golden light surrounding her that cast a glow all around us. Fireflies immediately flocked to her like they mistook her for the sun.
Her emerald-colored eyes looked hard at my face, gauging me as friend or foe. “We both know you shouldn’t be here, Wrath, God of the Underworld. Our worlds are never meant to collide. A violation that the Covenant would interpret as treason.”
“You wouldn’t stand before me now if you feared me.”
“I fear no one, Wrath,” she said. “But you’re right, your intentions seem altruistic rather than malicious. What do you seek?”
“A favor.”
“A favor.” She felt the words on her tongue like she needed a moment to understand them.
“We’ve pondered the antidote to the cursed blades the Barbarians brought but are no closer to finding the answer than we were at the battle that took place here. It’s difficult to search for something that you don’t know you’re looking for. I ask you to impart your wisdom in this matter.”
“And what makes you think I have wisdom in this matter?”
“Because you’re the god of the living. Perhaps you know the substance that heals the destruction.”
Her bright eyes flicked back and forth between mine as her long gown moved in the breeze I couldn’t feel. “You’ve been lucky to meddle with the living as much as you already have and remain uncaught. But you’re pushing it, Callum.”
“I’m aware.”
“You know your punishment will be ejection or to become an eater.”
“I’m aware,” I repeated calmly. “But I fear we’ll never find the antidote at this rate. The dragons don’t have limitless amounts of energy to stabilize her father, and if war approaches and half their fleet of dragons is compromised keeping him alive, it could be disastrous.”
“You risk what you have left of your soul for her father?”
All the muscles in my chest tightened at the question. I’d been dead nearly four hundred years, but part of me felt alive when I was with her, when I simply thought of her. “Everything I have left…it’s all for her.” Talon was a great father who deserved to be reunited with the daughter he loved more than himself. And I didn’t want her to lose the unconditional love that could only be given by a parent.
“A different man would save this favor for something else.”
“Perhaps.” But without a clear direction or any true understanding of what we searched for, we were doomed. And my army and my strength might not be enough to prevent Lily from being wounded herself. I would be powerless to save her.
“You know we’re not supposed to interfere with the living?—”
“I committed treason when I saved your tree. If the Covenant ever discovers my part in this, I will be sent to the void and cease to exist.”
