Page 84 of Princess of Death

The presence changed, so potent in strength, but the masculinity I had detected was actually feminine energy…like the jasmine that had grown up the side of my home in Dambridge. Instead ofreaching for my sword to do battle, I focused my thoughts, trying to understand what I couldn’t see.

It took a moment, pulling the energy into myself and letting it simmer, before I realized it wasn’t Talon Rothschild who came to my shores, but the blood of Talon Rothschild. Not his son, Hawk Rothschild.

But his daughter, Lily.

I felt her mind with more distinction, felt a presence so fierce it felt more dragon than human. That kind of power was only felt from men, from kings or generals, but hers was indistinguishable from theirs. Without ever seeing her face, I knew I faced a queen of the Southern Isles, a woman who could rub salt in her wounds and laugh.Lily Rothschild. Even as I spoke her name in my mind, I felt her power reverberate back at me. Felt a woman stronger than most men who came to these shores.Come to me.

I faded from sight and watched.

She appeared at the top of the tilted galleon, wearing the same armor that her father wore as king. Black with the dragon crest in the center, accents of red on the chest plate. She wore no cape, and her sword was hooked around her back because she wielded a blade like a man.

And she was beautiful.

With dark hair like her mother, thick like a bounty of wheat, and eyes green like emeralds that dark creatures mined deep in the mountains, she was a sorcerer who could entrance her foes with a single look. She held herself with a strength that exceeded the weight of her armor, and she looked deep into my island, not with fear, but with only a hint of reservation.

Then she climbed to the bottom of the ship and proceeded forth, heading right for me without knowledge of where I stood.

I watched her pass through the trees that had been dead for so long they had hardened into stone. She glanced at the ornaments made of desiccated wood that hung from the trees, gifts from the demon occult that worshipped me and the underworld. I rejected their passage into the underworld, but they continued to revere me anyway.

Closer, she came, so close I could smell her.

Like a predator that waited for just the right moment to launch at their prey, I was still like the trees, quiet like the earth, afraid that she was powerful enough to discern my presence with just her intuition.

She came closer, almost brushing my shoulder with her cheek, and carried on.

I turned and watched her go, stared at the thick hair that reached down her back and covered the scabbard of her heavy blade. A dagger was tucked at her hip. Even through her armor, I could determine the definition of muscle plump under the flesh. But her strength didn’t undermine the feminine appeal of her body, the swell of her womanly tits, the hips that shook despite her controlled steps, the slender neckline that ached for a kiss.

I appeared before her, several feet away, so my presence wouldn’t tumble her to the ground.

She stilled but gave no gasp or outburst. Her features were soft, her eyes almond-shaped and brilliant, her lips shaped like a bow, her skin fair and iridescent as glass. But everything hardened when she looked upon me as a foe. Anyone else would havescreamed at the sight of me, the magic I obviously wielded, but not Lily Rothschild. “How do you know my name?”

I watched her soak in my features, pulling in the details to memorize my face and report back to her father. She was tall for a woman, but she was still a valley to my mountain. Nearly a foot taller than her and with a hundred pounds more of muscle that she couldn’t possibly battle even with that heavy blade, I would defeat her within seconds.

But I didn’t want to.

“Because I’m the God of the Underworld—and I know everything.”

Her eyes shifted back and forth between mine, sheathing her panic and choosing to toughen her resolve instead.

I felt the strain in my eyes as I gazed upon her, realizing I hadn’t blinked since I’d seen her countenance. There was no look long enough for me to understand what I saw, to understand there was such a woman who was equally as strong as she was beautiful, who possessed the presence to command a room without an order. Never in my life had I encountered such a woman. “Daughter of Talon Rothschild, King of Dragons and the Southern Isles, a man who doesn’t pay his debts.” I didn’t know her purpose in my lands, but whatever it might be, this was a mistake. “You shouldn’t have come here.”

“My ship got caught in a storm?—”

“And was blown off course far to the west and into my domain.” I should have assumed this was a mistake, because a woman so obviously intelligent wouldn’t have landed here otherwise. “Your father came here intentionally—and you mistakenly. But nonetheless, you’re here. And now you’re mine.” My wife andsons had been taken from me, my reputation burned to the ground, while Talon Rothschild had moved on with his life and had children of his own. And not just any daughter—but a daughter with a ferocity I would want my own to have.

“You’re the one who’s mistaken.” Her temper blazed hotter than the flames in the underworld. Her nostrils flared slightly like an angry bull about to charge me down. “Because I don’t belong to any man.”

I didn’t need to draw breath, but I did anyway, slapped by an invisible palm that made my skin burn. I hated her father, and I hated him more that he had raised a daughter who commanded my respect within the first minute of our meeting. “You’re arrogant—just like your father.”

“I take that as a compliment,” she snapped back.

I felt my eyes narrow as my respect deepened against my will. Alone, she faced a god—and she did so with a straight spine and sharp teeth. “If Talon Rothschild won’t honor the debt of my predecessor, then I will make him honor that debt—through you.”

“You won’t make me do a damn thing, asshole.”

I felt my body tighten when her words echoed in my mind. Men either kneeled before me—or fled. Not once had someone provoked my anger so aggressively. Not once had anyone looked upon me without fear.

But Lily Rothschild burned me to the ground.

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