Page 45 of Kiss of Death
“It was his idea to fuse the magic of the dragons together to keep you alive. He’s always put me and my family before himself. He had the opportunity to take my soul, and he didn’t. Vowed he would never take it.”
He stared at me with flared nostrils, his fingers tightening until his knuckles turned white.
“He made a deal long ago with Bahamut. Became his servant. And when Bahamut was killed, he was forced to take his place. He’s not a demon, and he even still has his soul. It’s tarnished with trauma and evil, but it’s still there. And I need you to help me get him out of there before it’s too late.”
“He painted you a picture of lies, but all you see are watercolors.”
“Dad, you aren’t listening to me.”
“Because your mind is poisoned with his deception.”
“If you would just listen to me without the lens of your own trauma and prejudice, you would understand the situation is drastically different.”
“Even if that’s true, he’s the god of the underworld. Do you know what that means, Lily?”
I stared.
“It means his sole purpose is to claim souls. As many as he can and in whatever way he can. He doesn’t love. He doesn’t care. And he doesn’t have a soul, despite what he told you. We need to be diligent because he will come for you.”
“If that were the case, he would have already taken my soul. The battle is over, the war is won. I don’t need further assistance, so why hasn’t he collected his debt?”
My father had nothing to say for once.
“Why hasn’t he?”
He still said nothing.
“I haven’t seen him in weeks. The last time I saw him…” He told me he loved me and made love to me like it was our wedding night. “It was before the battle. And then the battle came, and he wasn’t there. The power he granted me to raise the dead was also gone. But his strength, it’s stayed with me. I can still feel it now, my sword weightless in my hand, my armor made of feathers. I don’t know why he hasn’t come back to me.” My eyes started to water because the fear broke free of my chest. “But I’m worried about him. I’m so worried. Because he wouldn’t leave me alone during the battle. He wouldn’t just abandon me. And the strength I still have…it feels like a message. To tell me that he’s still here with me, even if he can’t come to me. But why…why can’t he come?” I looked my father in the face as I said all of this, but now I felt like I was talking to an empty room. Talking to myself. I felt a catharsis my body had needed for so long. “Why?”
It was the first time my father’s rage dimmed, but it only lasted a second. “The god of the underworld is the master of manipulation. He can take what he wants because he knows what to give first. I’m sorry that he’s hurt you so deeply, Lily.”
It was as if he hadn’t heard me at all. “If you knew him the way I knew him, you would understand.”
“And if you knew my experience with Bahamut and the underworld, you would understand.”
“Trust me, our experiences were very different.”
“I hope so, Lily. The only reassurance I have is that you’re still here. That the battle has been won, but you continue to stand before me. That is the only thing I will admit.”
“You can admit that truth but ignore everything else.”
It was the first time he broke eye contact, looking at the fire instead of me. He let the silence pass, let his anger swell then dip back to a state of calm. The silence seemed to stretch for minutes before he looked at me again. “I suspect this story isn’t over. And we need to be prepared to finish it.”
“What does that mean?”
“I’ve killed a god before—and I’ll kill one again.”
“Dad—”
“He preyed on you because he felt your blood in the sea the way a sailor feels the salt in the air. He brought you to his shores to seek a debt I didn’t pay. He put you through an elaborate scheme because he knew this tale would kill me. I wish I could go back in time and change the choice that I made to spare you from this, but if I did that…I would never have had you. I wouldn’t have your brother or your mother. I know this tale isn’t over. I know the final act is coming—and I’ll die before I let him take you.”
11
LILY
I returned to my old villa.
The second I walked inside, I felt Callum’s presence…except he wasn’t there. What I felt was his memory, felt his smell rather than actually sensed it in my nose, felt the love we’d built here like an eternal fire.
