Page 1 of Kiss of Death
1
LILY
When one day of silence turned into three, I really started to worry.
Callum and I had never been apart that long, not even when he was angry with me. If he were busy with his own burdens, he would at least stop for a minute and explain that to me so I wouldn’t worry. He wouldn’t willingly ignore me for three days like this, especially when we stood on the precipice of battle.
In Callum’s absence, I realized the depth of our connection because I had no one else to talk to. I was alone—and lonely. He was the person I shared everything with, the one person I could be myself with entirely. When I needed to cry, he caught my tears. When I needed to vent my frustration, he absorbed my flames.
And now, he was just gone.
It was early morning when I crossed to the other side of the castle and found my brother’s bedchambers. I knocked on the heavy door and took a step back to give him space…in case he had company.
I wished I’d had company last night.
“It’s open.”
I let myself inside.
He was seated in the sitting room, wearing nothing but his trousers and tousled hair. A tray in front of him held a steel pitcher of coffee and a mug, along with a basket of fruit. I hadn’t seen him shirtless since he was a boy and we would swim together in the pool at the bottom of the waterfall in the cliffs.
He was built like a bull, muscular and thick from training and carrying the weight of his armor constantly. Before Father had slipped beyond the veil, I’d thought of my brother as a petulant child, but now I realized he was a man.
“What is it, Lily?” he asked, his eyes tired like he’d only been awake for the last twenty minutes. He ran his fingers through his short hair then sank back into the armchair as if it was the end of the night rather than the beginning of the day.
I moved to the couch. “Are you okay? You seem irritated.”
He gave a slight shake of his head. “Just stressed. I hate sitting here waiting for the battle to begin. It just gives me more time to second-guess everything.”
“We’re as prepared as we can be.”
“And what if that’s not enough?” he asked as his eyes shifted to the cold fire. “Father used to criticize me constantly, but now, I would give anything to have him scrutinize my plans.”
“He used to tell me you would be a great general, so I don’t think he would have anything to criticize right now.”
He continued to stare at the fire. “I don’t know if we should move Dad to a secret location. Just in case they make it to the castle.”
“I’m not sure where that would be. It’s the highest point in the kingdom and difficult to reach without flight. And it’s the most fortified building in the Southern Isles. It would take many, many cannons to make it collapse.”
“But they’ll know exactly where he is.”
“Then we have to make sure they don’t reach the castle.”
He gave a nod before he turned back to me. “We’ve only made armor for a third of the dragons, and the forges have been running day and night. We’re running out of steel, so even if we had all the time in the world, it wouldn’t matter. Our resources grow thin.”
“If only half of them can fight because the other half have to keep our father alive, then that means more dragons will be protected than fewer, so that’s a win. We’ll let them decide who gets to wear the armor. It’ll be heavy, so some might not be used to the weight in flight.”
“I agree. Some of them may opt not to use it at all. That much steel is a hundred times heavier than a single rider.”
My eyes dropped to the stainless-steel pitcher of coffee, the lid closed to keep the contents warm. My heart suddenly felt heavier than the steel armor. “I haven’t seen Wrath in three days.”
Hawk said nothing for a moment. “Is that unusual?”
“Very.” I lifted my chin and looked at my brother head on. “He’s usually with me most of the time. He comes and goes often, but he’s still with me at least a third of the day. But three days of silence…has never happened before.”
My brother watched me with eyes so unlike mine, looking much more like my father with every passing year, and even more so now. “What does that mean?”
“I—I don’t know,” I said. “But I know he would never just abandon me.”
