Page 74 of Kiss of Death
“We will find a way.”
“I’ve never known this kind of fear.” His words barely escaped as a whisper. “All I can think about is her as a little girl…and the way I sobbed when I held her in my arms for the first time. I lost my daughter once…” His bottom lip started to tremble, and he dropped his chin. “I can’t—I can’t lose another. I won’t be able to go on…not for my wife…not for my son.”
She came closer to him, her hand cupping his cheek. “We will find a way.”
He grabbed on to her wrist and turned into her palm, sucking in a deep breath before holding it in place. Several beats passed before he released her hold and stepped away, his face a stone wall once more. He walked down the stone steps to the forest floor, his cape shifting and moving behind him, a king marching to battle.
Then I felt her turn her gaze on me, her stare calm but still penetrating all the same.
“I didn’t want this.” It was strange to interact with the people I’d observed at Lily’s side. I’d listened to a conversation between Lily and her aunt in the Northern Kingdoms, when Lily defended our love without hesitation.
“I know.” She continued to absorb me with her stare, like she could see all of me, every facet of my heart. See me with anobjectivity that Talon could never possess. “I believe the only man who loves Lily Rothschild as much as her father is you.”
21
CALLUM
We approached the Great Tree in the clearing within Riviana Star, the doorway to the afterlife a faded line on the trunk as it’d been decades since it was last opened. I’d never looked at it as a mortal, just as a god who could only be seen by my equal.
A breeze rushed through the canopy at the top of the trees, the blades of grass ruffled by the gust of air. Then the world went still, the fireflies hovering in place for a moment, the forest bowing to the god who ruled this place.
Then she appeared directly before me, tall as a man, with fiery red hair exactly the color of fire. It hovered around her comely face like she was a mermaid under the sea, her eyes a brilliant emerald.
The title of God of the Underworld had changed hands many times over the centuries. Corrupted by power and greed, they lost their way at some point. But Riviana had protected the Realm of Caelum…for as long as time.
Sometimes I felt mad about the endless centuries I’d lived, and then I realized she and I were not the same.
She only regarded me, like Talon wasn’t present.
“Callum Riverside, a mortal man once more. With blood that bleeds red, with eyes that grow weary with exhaustion. I can see that you’re bound by the constraints of human flesh—although I do not understand why.”
“Lily took my place in the underworld.” It killed me to say those words out loud, to know she was down there, just because she’d met me. That she was destined for power and peace, and now she was a servant to monsters. “Her father and I are here to get her back by whatever means necessary.”
Talon remained several steps behind me, observing the conversation in silence, either because it hurt him too deeply to speak…or because he just wanted to watch Riviana’s reaction to me.
Her brilliant and borderline angry eyes remained on me.
“I don’t understand why she did this,” I said. “Did you tell her what I asked you to convey?”
“What did you ask her to convey?” Talon stepped forward and interjected himself into the conversation.
I turned to look at him. “I asked her?—”
“I’m not talking to you.” His eyes were on Riviana, the only person in that clearing he trusted.
Riviana looked at me once more, silently asking for my permission.
I nodded.
When she turned to regard him, she floated. Floated across the grass until she stopped before him, tall as a statue, the height ofher hair making her even grander. “Lily Rothschild asked me to open the portal between our realms, which I refused. I told her it was too dangerous, and while that was true, I knew Callum Riverside wouldn’t want to risk destruction to the mortal world. So I traveled to the dead island, made a deal with Leviathan, and gained a brief audience with Callum.”
“What deal did you make with him?”
Her head cocked slightly, her eyebrow raised with a hint of disdain. “That is between us gods, not gossip for mortals.”
“I apologize for the intrusive question.”
“Because of Callum’s interference with the living, Riviana Star persevered, the Southern Isles prevailed, and Lily Rothschild survived. He sacrificed his soul for the woman he loves and was forced into a position of leadership that he detested, and despite his centuries of imprisonment, his soul remained intact because of the purity of his heart. At great personal risk, he betrayed his own kind and served his enemy.”
