Page 89 of Princess of Death

My father’s breathing had picked up noticeably, his eyes sharp and focused as he battled the pain that raged inside him. He eventually dipped his chin and looked at the ground for a moment before he raised his gaze once more.

My mother appeared behind my shoulder.

He stared at her, a silent conversation passing between the two of them.

“I don’t need your permission to serve my people.” I could take Zehemoth and fly away. I knew exactly where to go. “But I hope I earn your acceptance.”

My father continued to stare at my mother.

She finally gave a nod.

He turned his back on me. “Hawk will remain here with your mother. Don your battle armor, not the set we train in, and prepare to depart.”

My mother immediately hugged me, squeezed me tightly like this might be the last time. “Please be careful.”

I stilled as I felt her grip me like a viper, and then I reciprocated her affection. I could feel her fear, feel her terror. Letting me go was probably the hardest thing she’d ever done. “I will, Mom.”

“I love you.” She pulled away and cupped my cheeks.

“I love you too.”

“You’re your father’s daughter,” she said. “And I’m so proud of you.”

I retrieved my armor from the villa and began to fasten it together.

There were clips in the back I couldn’t reach, but Wrath appeared and snapped them into place. “You denied your father, so I imagine you’ll deny me as well.” He appeared before me, looking like a soldier in the beautiful blue fabric and the black steel that protected a body that was already impervious to injury.

“I won’t leave Riviana Star to its fate. The elves risked everything when they fought for the Southern Isles before my birth. I would never insult that sacrifice by abandoning them now, by convincing my father to let them fend for themselves. And what’s more, the Realm of Caelum is housed in the Great Tree. Perhaps that’s what the Barbarians seek, or it’s a mere coincidence they’ll discover later. Either way, they must be stopped.”

Wrath suddenly looked apathetic, defeated by my commitment to this cause. He took a moment, releasing a heavy sigh as he stared at one of the corners of the room. His gaze eventually came back to me as his eyes sharpened through the clouds that had fogged his vision. “Remember your footwork. The rest of your body will follow.” He seemed to have accepted my answer.

I moved into him and cupped his cheeks. “I have to go.”

His dark eyes settled on mine and stayed there. It wasn’t the intense stare he showed the other times we were alone together. This one was tinged with far more emotion. “I know you do.”

I rode Zehemoth across the Great Sea. An army of dragons took to the skies with my father in the lead on the back of Khazmuda. With the dragons flying as fast as they could go, it would take half a day to arrive outside the forest.

Hopefully that would be quick enough.

Wrath didn’t join me on the flight. Even if he had, I wouldn’t have been able to speak to him, not out loud with Zehemoth listening.

Where were you?

He wasn’t going to let this go, was he? “I was asleep.”

Don’t lie to me. I know how your mind feels when you’re asleep. You’re still present, just distant. You were absent. But where could you have gone to make your mind disappear, I do not know.

“It’s impossible for me to go that distance in the blink of an eye, Zehemoth.” I felt a pain in my chest at lying to him, but now wasn’t the time to tell him I was bedding the God of the Underworld. We were about to enter battle, a fight we wouldn’t be prepared for until we arrived. “We need to focus on what’s ahead of us right now.”

Zehemoth let the conversation drop, but I knew he would pick it up again at some point.Are you scared?

“Of course I am.” But you can’t be brave without being scared, right?

I wish I could enter the forest with you. But there are too many trees.

“I know.” It would be an easy fight if it were out in the open.

My father says we’ve been at peace a long time. I wonder who these people are. Where they come from. What they want.

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