Page 86 of Empire of Death
Ask him about the platinum. His voice sounded in my head because he didn’t appear beside me in the flesh. Maybe because he didn’t want me to see him standing there…during an awkward reunion.
“I’m searching for something called platinum. It’s an iridescent element, similar to steel but lighter in color, reflective like glass. It’s the antidote to the cursed gold that inflicts permanent wounds. Do you know where I can find it?”
He considered the question for a while before he answered. “No. We use a form of steel along with an obsidian alloy. It’s the reason our armor and blades are the color of darkest night. But I will ask everyone I can on your behalf.”
“Thank you.” Now there was nothing to do but leave. I didn’t have time to persuade a vampire king to come to my aid across the world. Even if Viper were the one in charge, I didn’t think it would have been possible either. It was an enormous request for someone who wasn’t even an ally, just someone who’d shared a bed with him for a couple weeks.
I gave a slight nod of my head to dismiss the conversation. “I’m glad you’re well, General.” I took a step back to leave, but he halted me in place.
“Lily.” He commanded me with his sudden change of tone, issuing an order like I was one of his soldiers.
I stilled, but my heart raced a million miles a minute, afraid of what he might say next, afraid that the topic would return to us rather than war.
“My bed has been full of an endless line of beautiful women. But none of them has ever meant anything to me.”
I held my breath, wishing I could dismiss Callum so he wouldn’t have to see this. If some bitch confessed her feelings for him in front of me, I’d have a hard time not punching her in the face. But Callum had always been far calmer than I was.
“But you did.”
27
LILY
I blinked, and I was back in my royal bedchambers. The windows were dark because the sun had set hours ago. A fire was already in the hearth as if the servants had prepared it for me when they’d brought my tray of dinner. They must have assumed I was in my bedroom when they delivered it.
Once my boots were on solid ground, I started to remove every piece of armor, feeling suffocated by the heaviness of it all. Anxiety was a foreign concept for me, but I’d had it a lot lately, and now it was the worst it’d ever been.
I removed my uniform too, stripping down to nothing but my underwear underneath. The warmth across my skin was welcome after feeling the biting cold of that icy place. Last time I was there, I was kept warm by the fire and the vampire who acted as my blanket.
I released my hair from the tight braid and let it flow, let the tension release from my scalp. My fingers ran through it as I turned to the fire.
Callum sat in the armchair in the corner in nothing but his trousers, just the way he used to appear in my villa…before my world went to shit. His stoic eyes were locked on my face.
I automatically swallowed, feeling a tide of guilt rise over my head instantaneously. I’d done nothing wrong, but I felt like I’d betrayed the man in my heart. “Look…” I stepped farther into the living room, feeling more unsure of myself than I ever had before. “I’m sorry about…you know.” I took a seat at the corner of the couch in front of the fire, my head down in shame.
“Why are you sorry?” he said calmly.
“It just…felt disrespectful.”
“You did nothing wrong,” he said. “And neither did he.”
My chin slowly rose to look at him, eyes flicking back and forth between his.
“I fell under your spell the first time I saw you.” He stared at me with his signature intensity, like nothing had changed between us, like he didn’t harbor any jealousy or resentment whatsoever. “He obviously did as well. Seems like an honorable man and a decent suitor for a queen.”
All the shame and guilt evaporated once his words settled in my mind, when I reexamined them in a split second to understand what he meant. “What’s that supposed to mean, Callum?”
His eyes didn’t flick away, but a tense silence ensued between us. “That he’s a fitting choice if those feelings are rekindled?—”
“Fuck.” I had to inhale another deep breath because I’d expelled everything in my lungs with a single word. “You.”
A hint of guilt swept across his eyes—a very small hint.
“You’re the one I want, and you fucking know it.”
Now he looked away, breaking eye contact between us.
“He’s a vampire I hooked up with for a couple weeks before my galleon sailed into the storm that forever changed my life. The storm that brought me to you.”
