Page 60 of Kiss of Death
“The god of the underworld is forbidden from my lands, but he encroached under the banner of aid. He interfered with the living and changed the course of the future for a mortal he should only serve in payment, not love.”
I didn’t have to explain or petition her because she seemed to already understand.
“A new leader of the underworld has emerged, and I suspect I know exactly what you seek.”
She knew.
She said nothing more, stared at me as her hair slowly danced around her, a woman beautiful in her fierceness.
“You opened the portal to save my father. I ask you to do the same for Callum Riverside. I vouch for the quality of his heart, for the depth in his soul, for the goodness that deserves to see thesunlight and not the deepest depths of darkness. The Southern Isles would have fallen without his aid. I would have perished, as well as all the members of my family, without his intervention. Riviana Star would have been claimed by the Barbarians, and it wouldn’t have taken long for them to understand the significance of the tree. He’s the hero of this story—and I beg for your help.”
With a steely gaze, she stared me down like an enemy rather than a friend. An immortal being who must have guarded the Realm of Caelum since the beginning of time, her mind must work drastically differently than any living person, even someone as old as Aunt Eldinar. “Callum Riverside sacrificed everything for the woman he loves. You’re right to say that he doesn’t belong with the wicked in the underworld, those who lack the ability to love at all. His love for you is beautiful. I can see it like a bright aura that surrounds him. But I’m unable to honor your request, Lily.”
The disappointment stung harder than a bite from a wasp. “But he did so much?—”
“And I honored his sacrifice when he last came to me.”
“When he last came to you…?” It took me a moment to understand her reference. Then I remembered how he’d discovered the platinum, because he’d asked her where it was located. “The platinum.”
“When he asked for the cure to your father’s ailment, I warned him he should be selective in his requests—because I will not honor more than one. I told him to reserve it for himself. But he chose your father instead.”
“Callum…” My eyes smarted automatically, moved and destroyed by yet another sacrifice he made for me. “And this is the man my father refuses to help.” I blinked several times, forcing the tears back because I needed to focus on the task before me. Needed to get Callum back, not weep over his absence.
“Your father is not coldhearted. He’s pragmatic, protective?—”
“I don’t need pragmatic and protective. I need ferocity and loyalty.”
Riviana stared at me with those all-seeing eyes.
“I need his help, but he won’t help me.”
“The situations are very different, Lily. I opened the portal to help a mortal man. You ask us to take a former god from the Covenant. A man who not only gave his soul in exchange for a gift, but who served the underworld for hundreds of years.”
“I see no difference,” I said. “His heart is as pure as my father’s. Why does my father get a second chance, but Callum doesn’t?” Words that Callum had said to me came flooding back, and for the first time, I truly understood his perspective. “He’s made the same sacrifices. He’s done the same amount of good for the living. And his actions mean even more because he paid a bigger price. Please, Riviana, help me get him back. He deserves another chance.”
Her long stare returned, probing and intimate, reading me like I was words on parchment rather than a person whose feelings were trapped in a vault inside her heart. After what felt like an eternity, she gave her answer. “I’ve already intervened with the living enough. I cannot continue to meddle.”
“But you wouldn’t be intervening with the living—only the dead.”
“You don’t understand the dangers of such a provocation.”
“Callum understood the dangers of his actions, but he chose to make them anyway. You know I’m right. You know that he’s not like the rest of them. He’s a good man with a good heart who just made the wrong choice.”
“Perhaps. But he was of sound mind when he made it. And I know if we could ask him if he regretted that decision today, he would say no. I’m sorry, Lily.”
“Please.” I brought my hands together to plead. “I’ll do anything.”
“It’s not about payment. It’s about the risk to the mortal world—and the risk simply doesn’t outweigh the gain. It saddens me to know that his story ended this way. That he’s carried everyone’s burdens like his own. That he’s a man who lives for others instead of himself. But there’s nothing I can do?—”
“But there issomethingyou can do.”
“I believe that if I could speak to Callum about this, he would tell me to let him go. That he wouldn’t want to risk your life or everyone else’s life because of his choice. That’s the kind of man Callum Riverside is.”
The tears started to pound my cheeks like hail in a storm. Riviana was the only chance I had to get him back, and I wasn’t enough to convince her. Not without my father there to sway her in my direction. “Which is exactly why we should save him anyway.”
“My decision is final, Lily. I’m sorry.” Despite the ferocity in her gaze, there was a hint of sympathy in her expression, impossible to see but easy to feel. “Truly.”
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