Page 51 of Empire of Death
Paralyzed, all I could do was watch them together, feeling like an outsider who didn’t belong.
After a stretch of silence, my mother withdrew her touch from my brother. “Where’s your sister?”
“I thought she was right behind me.”
I knew I couldn’t linger there forever, behave like a ghost the way Callum did. I forced my feet forward and moved across the rug in the sitting room, and they heard the change in the thud of my boots when I hit the hardwood again.
They both turned to look at me when I stepped into the room. My mother’s eyes took me in differently, looking at me like shehadn’t seen me in years rather than weeks. It felt as if she could see the changes within me, the weight of responsibility that I carried, the mark on my heart from a god’s kiss.
I moved to the opposite side of the bed and looked down at my father’s face. Still sharp and regal, even comatose, he was a king without his armor and sword. But he was also feeble in that bed, the sheets tucked around his sides and his arms stretched down over the linen. He looked like he was in a wall-less coffin.
It hurt to look at him.
Really fucking hurt.
My mother wordlessly got up, grabbed a chair from the dining table, and placed it behind me. She gently ran her fingers down my hair in comfort before she moved back to where she’d been seated.
I adjusted my cape before I sat down, still weighed down by the armor and the blade across my back. I felt like I’d served in many battles during my time away, but it was only my heart that had truly been at war.
I stared at his hand, where it lay lifelessly on the bed, and reached for it. First, our fingers touched, and then I slid my hand farther into his. Just like when I’d been a little girl, his hand always felt enormous in mine. His skin was callused from years of wielding his blade, and it felt like sandpaper to the touch. “We’ll get you back, Dad.” I would defend this kingdom and bring my father back from the brink of death—one way or another.
His fingers suddenly moved in mine, a slight shift before they returned to their stillness. I wasn’t sure if it was an automaticresponse or if he actually felt me, but his head turned slightly and then he inhaled a sharp breath.
We all stilled as we watched him like he might open his eyes and sit upright.
Then he returned to his coma, his fingers limp in mine.
“That’s the most I’ve seen him move,” my mother said, more to herself than to us.
Khazmuda’s powerful voice suddenly entered my mind.He knows you’re there,Zunieth.
My heart gave a lurch in ecstasy and despair.He does?
For a brief moment, yes. Then his mind returned to a place where I can’t follow.
I should share that with my mother and brother, but I wanted to keep it to myself for some reason. I wondered if he reacted to me because he was still angry with me…or because he was afraid for me. Now he was in this permanent state of limbo without understanding that I was safer with the god of the underworld at my side—at least, my body was. My heart was a different matter.
The three of us sat together in silence for a long time, my hand still in his, my family reunited in our greatest moment of despair. I wanted to weep over his limp body, but I had to be strong for him and everyone else in this room. Everyone else in this kingdom.
My mother finally spoke. “Hawk, could you give your sister and me a moment, please?”
Dread dropped into my stomach like a stone in a bucket. What I feared was about to come to pass. I’d hoped my father’sdisposition would take the focus completely off me, but that seemed too good to be true.
Hawk silently left the room. His footsteps grew distant, and then the door opened and shut on the other side of the suite.
I wasn’t sure if I should let her interrogate me or if I should try to get ahead of it.
She stared at me, but unlike the way Dad had looked at me in the forest, her stare seemed kind. “I’ve heard tales of the mighty Death Queen as she defended Riviana Star and saved her king from execution.”
She came right out and said it, but not with ferocity. “He’s not my king, but my father.”
“Your father forbade you from traveling to that island to the west, but you’re as rebellious as he was at your age.”
“I didn’t go on purpose. I was shipwrecked.”
The softness in her eyes started to harden. “Lily, you told your father you didn’t want the crown, but then you visit the god of the underworld and ask him for mighty gifts?—”
“I didn’t ask him for anything. He granted me those powers freely.”
