Page 71 of Kiss of Death
Zehemoth landed beside his father, and I climbed down the dragon’s side before I approached Talon, who looked into the forest like he was recalling the last time he’d been there. It was before my time, but I knew the tale from Bahamut’s memories.
I was slightly taller than him, with more muscles packed on my bones and not just because his body had atrophied from months in a coma, but what he lacked, he made up for in sheer ferocity.
When he turned to look at me, he wore such an expression so malevolent, it was clear that he hated me more with every passing second, that there was no limit to his rage. The stare lasted for several hard moments, taking in my features like he wanted to cut out my eyes and slice off my mouth.
I accepted his hatred without protest because nothing could make me feel worse than I already did. I walked past him and headed toward the center of the island, the very island where I laid eyes upon Lily Rothschild for the first time…and it changed my existence forever.
We walked in silence for fifteen minutes before we approached the ring of torches.
I stopped, and he came to a stop beside me.
“Leviathan won’t make the trade.”
Talon turned his ferocious gaze on me, somehow looking similar to a dragon.
“But I will try anyway, so you know I don’t deceive you.” I stepped forward and crossed the line of torches, the fires immediately igniting and casting the clearing in a glow of flames. I stared at the skull carved from rock, stared at the bones that protruded from the sand, the remains of those who had come to me the last four hundred years.
Within the blink of an eye, Leviathan was there in his human form, wearing the most joyous grin I’d ever seen him wear. In my uniform and armor, a better god of the underworld than I had ever been, he approached me. “Lily Rothschild has already made herself right at home.” His grin widened.
I felt a sickness in my stomach that started to poison me. My body naturally wanted to shed tears for my heart’s loss, but despair was as nutritious as souls for a demon like Leviathan. So I held his stare with absolute indifference. “My soul for hers—and I will serve you in any way that you wish. Faithfully. Obediently. I will bend my spine until my nose touches the floor. I will greet you on my knees whenever I come into your presence. You can feed off my humiliation every day for the rest of eternity.”
The smile remained plastered over his face. “As tempting as that sounds, it’s an uneven trade. The soul of Lily Rothschild is more powerful than the dull shine in your chest. Her soul is the equivalent of a hundred kings—and it will make the Covenant more powerful than ever before.”
“Then name your price, and I will give you whatever you ask.”
“There is no price,” he said with a chuckle.
“Generations of kings run through my veins.” Talon entered the circle and stopped at my side. “The blood of victors and dragon-riders. A bloodline that hasn’t perished under attack or tyranny. My soul is blessed with the gift to fuse with dragons. I sired Lily Rothschild from my power, wisdom, and ferocity. My soul in exchange for hers—that’s an even price.”
I looked at Talon beside me, wearing the hard stare of a soldier rather than the broken look of a grieving father. She’d taken my place so I could be free, and he would take her place so she could be free as well. So, in the end, Talon Rothschild would be the one taking my place, and I didn’t want that either.
But it didn’t matter because I knew Leviathan wouldn’t take that deal either.
Leviathan looked at Talon beside me, his smile long gone. “You can’t offer payment with an existing debt. Your soul belongs in the underworld right beside hers. Perhaps I should take it…”
I pulled my blade out of my scabbard and gripped it by the hilt.
Leviathan glanced at me, and the mocking smile returned. “Four hundred years, you were one of us—and all it takes is a single woman to change your allegiance.”
“You never had my allegiance, Leviathan.”
The corner of his mouth cocked in a smile again. “Neither of you mediocre mortals is worth the priceless soul of Lily Rothschild.” He flickered and disappeared, and then the torches were extinguished immediately afterward.
Talon and I stood side by side, swallowed by the darkness.
I could hear him beside me, hear his breaths grow labored with despair and rage. Then he released a scream that rivaled the roar of his own dragon. “Ahhhhhhhh!” He turned on the spot and marched out of the ring of extinguished torches.
I followed him back to the beach, the sun about to lift over the horizon and cast the island in its morning light. The sky was still a deep blue, but the world was somewhat visible.
Talon stood there with his boots at the shore, a small wave moving up far enough to coat his shoes. He seemed to stare past both of the dragons that faced him, seething in silent anger.
I didn’t want to waste time on plans that wouldn’t work, not when Lily was down there in eternal suffering, but I knew Talonwould question my integrity if I refused to try to give up my soul for hers. If I’d thought that was possible, I would have done it the second the trade had been made.
And even if I had been successful, she might have just made the same trade again.
“We travel to Riviana Star and petition the God of Caelum to open the portal between the realms.”
“She’ll agree.”
