Page 91 of Empire of Death
I can tell. Have you been able to speak to him?
Once. The only word he said before he slipped back under was…Lily.
It nearly brought tears to my eyes. “Oh, Dad…”
Hawk informed me there’s been no progress on the platinum. Do you report the same?
Unfortunately.
We’ll keep him alive,Zunieth. As long as it takes.
Even though war is coming?
No matter what comes our way, I vow to keep Talon Rothschild alive.
I found Hawk in the courtyard, standing near my old villa, looking out at the sea. “Do you have news?”
“I don’t,” he said without looking at me. “The dragons that scout the area have nothing to report.”
“That’s a good sign.”
“Unless we’re looking in the wrong place.”
“There are only so many routes they can take, Hawk.”
“Perhaps.” He stood in the shade of the large oak, looking out at the quiet sea far down below, sailboats floating over the short waves in search of their catch. “What happened with the vampires?” He turned his head to look at me.
“I pleaded my case. I don’t know if they’ll come.”
His eyes filled with a quick flash of disappointment, but then it was gone. “I knew it was a long shot.”
“They’re so far away and just finished their own war.”
“If it were me, I wouldn’t come.”
“I would.”
His eyes narrowed. “Why?”
“Because they’re good allies to have, regardless of how far away they are. Even though they’re vampires that seem peaceful, unlike the Barbarians. Do they see the Southern Isles the same way? I don’t know.”
“If you made true friends, they’ll want to help you.”
I looked away. “Wasn’t really a friend that I made.” I could tell that Callum wasn’t there because there was this emptiness in his absence. But even if he did listen, we’d already talked about Viper, and I’d made it abundantly clear that I didn’t want him. “More of a fling type of thing.”
Hawk didn’t make a face or act immaturely. We never discussed our private lives with each other, but these last few weeks had aged us by years, had built a relationship based on something deeper than our shared blood. “Did it mean more to him than it did to you, by chance?”
Viper didn’t fight for me to stay when I originally left his shores. He seemed sad but not distraught. But perhaps our time apart had changed his perspective, because he was far more forthright about the way he felt, even when I tried to cut him off so Callum wouldn’t have to witness it. “I think it did. But I sidestepped his interest, for obvious reasons.”
Hawk didn’t mention Callum. Or Wrath, the name by which he knew him.
“Hopefully he didn’t take that rejection too personally.”
“Didn’t seem that way.” A gorgeous man like that who commanded an entire army of vampires probably wasn’t easily offended.
He looked out at the sea and took a breath before he released it again. “I’m nervous, Lily.”
“I am too, Hawk.” I didn’t want to end up like Dad, watching my entire family burn before my eyes while I was powerless to stop it. “I am too.”
