Page 50 of Kiss of Death
Now I knew why Callum hadn’t come back.
Leviathan, God of the Underworld and King of the Dead.His lips didn’t move when he spoke. Instead, he spoke directly into my mind.Lily Rothschild, what do you seek?
Despite the heat from the torches, chill bumps formed on my arms. I tossed the burning torch aside, where it landed on the dead earth. “I wish to speak to Wrath.”
He’s been ejected into the void and, therefore, no more.
Despair splashed me in the face like a bucket of ice-cold water. Without the torch to grip, my fingers tightened into an uncontrollable fist. My expression hesitated, showing a flash of anguish that I tried to bottle inside.
His sick grin widened.
But then I remembered the strength Callum granted to me, the strength that had accompanied me for so long, I’d gotten used to it. It was still with me, still a part of me, and that meant he was still here. “I don’t believe you.”
His grin remained in place without hesitation.
“Callum!” I shouted for him, as if he’d somehow appear behind this creature. As if my voice would somehow cross the barrier between the mortal world and the underworld. As if he would somehow hear me, that he would know I understood he didn’t leave by choice. “Callum!”
The dead can’t hear the cries of the living?—
“I don’t take demons at their word.”
Now the smile disappeared, and he took a step toward me.
I held my ground and refused to move back, regardless of how close he came to me.
He continued to walk forward, his cape shifting behind him as he moved, and within a blink, he wasn’t a man anymore. He was the demon again, his clothing and armor gone, his skin the color and texture of warped rock.
I swallowed and reached for the hilt of my blade on my shoulder, gripping it tightly in preparation to remove it from the scabbard.
He stopped feet from me, looking at me with dark eyes as deep as eternal night. He had two rows of teeth on both his upper and lower jaw, the edges serrated for sinking into bone and slicing it apart. A heart was visible in the strange webbing of his flesh, the beat noticeable as his flesh vibrated in response to the pulse.Callum Riverside is thoroughly enjoying his promotion to an eater. Even though he’s no longer the king of the dead, the occult continues to worship his reign. His bed is filled with the women who have erased your memory.
I was not provoked this time. “You speak lies.”
Perhaps. But time passes differently below. A few weeks in the mortal world is nearly a year below. Perhaps Callum Riverside is dead. Perhaps he’s not. Perhaps he’s replaced you with a woman who looks exactly like you. You’ll never know…not unless you pay for it.
My hand continued to grip my sword, not trusting this demon when he stood so close to me. I regarded everything he said as a lie, except his final words.
Your soul for his—a fair price.
I finally released the hilt of the blade and brought my hand back to my side.
Leviathan flickered, and then he was a man once more, handsome in his appearance, strong in his muscular body.
A part of me wondered if Callum had lied to me and he was a demon too. He’d just never shown that side to him, knowing I wouldn’t be able to love him.
Do we have a deal, Lily Rothschild?
Callum’s handsome face came to mind, his hard stare that communicated the depth of his love without words. He would never take my soul, even when I offered it to save my father. And if he stood there at that very moment, he would beg me not to do it, not even for him. “No.”
His eyebrows furrowed slightly, his expression hardening in a slight look of confusion.He lost his position of power because of the sacrifices he made for you, and you turn your back on him.
Saying nothing was the hardest thing I’d ever done.
He’ll be pleased to hear that. Or I should say, I’ll be pleased to tell him.He disappeared in a blink, and in a rush of breeze that came from nowhere, all the torches around me were extinguished.
The only one that continued to burn was the one I’d brought with me.
Surrounded by the darkness and the cold, I started to shiver in my armor, the tears reaching the surface of my eyes quicker than blood rose to a fresh wound. My body trembled as the sobs shook my chest and made my bones crack. Anguish unlike anything I’d ever known ripped through me and snapped my spine in two. I tasted the salt on my lips, tasted the sting of despair.
