Page 46 of Kiss of Death
I didn’t want to stay in the castle any longer. I was no longer the ruler of the Southern Isles, and while I understand my father’s anger, I didn’t want to be around him. Not until he would listen to me. He continued to react to his own memories and his own story instead of understanding mine was quite different.
He trusted me implicitly, trusted me to lead his kingdom after his downfall, but he didn’t trust my word, perception, or intuition. Didn’t trust me to know when love was real.
I was seated at my dining table with an open bottle of wine and an empty wineglass, staring at no one across from me. It used to be Callum, coming to me out of thin air, shirtless and in his trousers, staring at me so hard it was like we were already engaged in conversation.
Then a knock sounded on the door.
My eyes immediately flicked across the room, but I didn’t rise out of my chair. I didn’t want company, especially from my father, not if it was just going to be round two of the same battle.
“It’s me.” Hawk’s voice crossed through the door. “You alright?”
I would normally shoo him away, but our relationship had changed so much since Father had been indisposed and we’d had to fight for our kingdom together. Instead of just being my brother, he’d become…a friend. “It’s open,” I called across the room.
He opened the door and let himself inside, and it was one of the few times I’d seen him without his general’s uniform and armor. He was dressed casually, in dark trousers and an olive-green shirt. His eyes made contact with mine before he crossed the room and took the seat opposite me.
Wordlessly, I went into the kitchen and fetched him a wineglass before I filled it without asking if he actually wanted it.
I didn’t know if my brother even drank wine.
I refilled my own and set the bottle aside with a distinct thud before I took a drink. My arms folded back into their original position on the surface of the mahogany, my fingers hugging the bottom of my upper arms.
He stared at me for a while before he took a drink. “It’s good.”
“Is it?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. I don’t drink wine.”
I took another drink.
He examined me again, releasing a long sigh. “You okay?”
“Do I look okay, Hawk?” I asked as I looked at him dead in the eye.
“Dad asked me if I knew about Wrath. I told him the truth.”
“And?”
“I think he’s a little mad at me too now.”
“You did nothing wrong, and neither did I.”
“Maybe he expected me to protect you…but it didn’t seem like you needed to be protected.”
“We’d both be dead right now if it weren’t for him.”
His eyes dropped. “Yeah.”
“Did you tell him that?”
He was quiet for a while, staring at the surface of the table. “No.” Then his eyes lifted to look at me. “It wasn’t exactly a conversation. There were embers in his eyes when he asked what he wanted to know, and then he dismissed me like he was disowning me. He was so happy to see us when he woke up, and now it’s like that never happened.”
“All he has is my word. I wish that Wrath could speak to him directly, but he hasn’t come back and I’m afraid that he’ll never come back.” That the last conversation we would have was when we told each other we loved each other—and that was the end. It’d been weeks, and my heart had somehow managed to become more mangled in heartbreak.
“There’s no way to seek him out?”
“I’ve never been able to seek him out. He just comes to me.”
He was quiet for a while, ignoring the wine I’d poured him because he obviously didn’t care for it.
