Page 84 of Kiss of Death
The sound of heavy footsteps.
Heavy footsteps packed with power and intention.
Inexplicably, I just knew it was him.
I looked at the other cells, picked one at random, and slipped inside before I pressed my back to the wall, hoping he wouldn’t check the other cells when he realized I’d gotten free.
The footsteps grew so loud I knew he was in the room with me, and then they went still.
I pictured him looking at the busted door and then the empty cell, unable to believe that I had managed to escape in the hours that he’d left me alone to attend to his other business. The silence continued for so long I wondered if I’d mistaken his identity, that it was a servant there to check on me.
But then I heard the most terrifying roar, more terrifying than Khazmuda’s, and it made the entire prison tremble. “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh!” Then his footsteps receded as he stepped out of the room. “Find her!”
I managed to sneak out of the castle and into the forest without being spotted, finally taking my first full breath once I was concealed by the thick trunks and the wild foliage. They would search these woods eventually, but hopefully, they were big enough to make it nearly impossible to find me.
I walked down the trail that Callum had shown me before and spotted the house we’d seen on our walk. It belonged to the occult, those who worshipped the god of the underworld, who wanted to be his courtesans, to serve him in whatever way he wished.
If he had a whole fan club, I wasn’t sure why he needed me.
In a world where everyone was dead and cursed, they were the only living beings that chose to be there. That made them both harmless…and absolutely crazy. But they were a congregation of only women, so it seemed like the safest place for me.
I could blend in, pretend to be one of them, and whenever Leviathan called for attention, I would just hide.
Or they could turn on me and hand me over to Leviathan.
But if they were mortals, even without my sword, I could easily overpower them. Even kill them if I needed to. It was the one place that Callum had shown me, so I knew this was where he would look when he came for me. It would be easier if I stayed closer to the castle, but I would be spotted too easily. My father had an easier time because Bahamut never wanted to make him his plaything.
I crossed the grass and approached the bonfire that burned in the center of the lawn. There were windows in the big house, all of them illuminated by the torches that burned inside. I wasn’t sure if I was daytime or nighttime for their circadian rhythms. Or if they didn’t sleep because they were members of the underworld.
The front door suddenly swung open, and a woman appeared in a midnight-black dress. Her long hair was thick like stalks ofwheat, and as it became illuminated in the firelight, it was clear that it was deep brown like mine.
Her eyes locked on mine with suspicion as she came down the stairs, watching me instead of her own step, but she still carried herself with an elegance that reminded me of Riviana.
She stopped a distance away and took in the sight of me with an expression that started off cold but then intensified to something else. She took a step closer to me, looked upon me, and then took another step, using extreme caution as she assessed my presence.
Then she came to a halt and didn’t come any closer, her eyes dropping to the crest on my chest plate, the dragon that flew over the kingdom below. Her eyes popped back to mine before they widened. “You’re a goddess.”
I was completely bewildered by her first choice of words, but I didn’t let my face react the way my mind did. I’d been called every name in the book, but goddess wasn’t one of them.
“Your power…I can feel it the way I feel the heat of these flames.”
Perhaps she wasn’t that crazy after all. “How?”
She took another step closer to me, a high slit in the side of her dress that exposed her black boots underneath. The top of her dress was covered by a maroon shawl. She was young, probably my age, and very beautiful. A twinge of jealousy struck me when I wondered if Callum had bedded her in the past. “We’re witches. And we can feel powers and forces at work that no one else can detect. I feel your immense power, felt it before I laid eyes upon your beautiful face. I assumed Leviathan had come to ask for our service, but now I realize it was his successor, Goddess of the Underworld.” Her hands came together, from the tips of herfingers to her palms, and then she slowly descended to her knees on the grass and closed her eyes. “I feel your power like the rays of sunshine on a winter afternoon.” Then she lowered herself completely to the ground, her hands touching the grass as she bowed to me.
The door opened, and another witch appeared, young and beautiful, and her eyes were wide at the sight below before she came down the stairs and joined the woman on the grass. Others followed suit, all bowing to me on the grass, one after another, until there were over a dozen.
Then they sat up together in unison, their palms pressed together, and in one voice, they said, “Goddess of the Underworld, we serve you faithfully.” Their faces were highlighted by the brightness of the flames, all wearing black attire with touches of maroon. “Your orders will be our command.”
24
CALLUM
The dragons carried us leagues across the sea, using their powerful wings to travel with the wind. Thankfully, the weather worked in our favor, allowing the dragons to glide in the draft and rest for longer periods of time.
Despite their fatigue, the dragons made the entire trip without stopping for sleep. They pushed themselves further than they ever had, for Lily’s sake. At the end of the second day, the snowy mountains finally appeared in view, the continent plagued by different serpent vampires.
We came for a landing in the snow, the clumsy descent of the dragons cushioned by the powder.
