Page 69 of Kiss of Death
“It’s too risky.” I said it to myself rather than to anyone out loud. Admonished her even though her spirit was somewhere I couldn’t reach.
Hawk nodded in agreement.
The double doors to the castle opened audibly, the weight of the wood so massive it took several men to turn them on their hinges.
Hawk’s stare immediately went to the doors. “He might kill you…”
I watched as her father came into view with her mother beside him, dressed in his normal clothing because he was probably still recovering from the wound that was being healed by the platinum. I assumed Lily had been successful in her endeavor if he wasn’t incapacitated in bed.
He rushed forward with Lily’s mother, but then he came to a dramatic halt when he understood the sight before him.
I averted my eyes, unable to watch, knowing no father should ever have to see this. I’d visited Tiberius and Darius until their time came. But when I knew the moment of their passing was close, I didn’t go back. Because no father should ever have to watch their child die.
“Lily.” He sprinted toward us, crossing the courtyard like he’d been stabbed with a cursed blade. He dropped to his knees without giving any indication of pain in his knees. “Zunieth.” He felt her face, checked her pulse just the way Hawk had, and the sobs he released were unlike anything I’d ever heard.
Calista dropped down beside him, but she was paralyzed with shock, her hands cupping her mouth in horror as she wept.
He cried the way Zehemoth did, all the bones in his chest shifting as his muscles spasmed in grief. His mouth flooded with cries that came out like howls from the dead. He started to blubber, started to shake, grabbing his daughter and pulling her into him in a hug, tears pouring down his handsome face. “My baby…”
I clenched my eyes shut, the devastation growing worse as I was forced to watch this.
“What happened?” he asked through his tears, addressing Hawk without looking at him.
Hawk hesitated, propped up on his knees with his head bowed. “Because you wouldn’t help her get Wrath back…and Riviana denied her request, she decided to take his place…knowing you would stop at nothing to get her back.”
Her father had trembled uncontrollably a moment ago, but then his entire body went still as he held her. He even stopped breathing, the rivers of tears running dry like a desert. He gently placed her back on the ground, and I prepared myself for the flames of rage that would burn me alive.
But he looked at Zehemoth with a stone-cold stare. “You knew.” He bent his knee then stood up. “You knew, and you took her there anyway.” Then he screamed, screamed so loud the castle seemed to tremble in its wake. “You knew and you didn’t stop it!” He moved past Hawk, grabbed the sword across his back by the hilt without even looking at it, and then came for Zehemoth. “I’ll skin every scale off your body!”
“Dad.”
Zehemoth backed away, giving his tearless sobs as he choked and coughed, grieving as hard for Lily as her own father.
“Dad, stop this.” Hawk grabbed him by the arm and tugged him back.
But Talon had a surge of inexplicable strength and shoved his own son to the ground then came for Zehemoth again.
“Rooooaaaaaarrrrrr!” The mighty roar of a dragon came from the skies overhead.
When I looked up, I saw another dragon with the same black scales, and I recognized him as Khazmuda’s, Talon’s mighty dragon and longtime companion.
Khazmuda dropped down from the sky and shoved Zehemoth aside, putting his body between Talon’s blade and his hatchling. A plume of smoke came from his angry nostrils as he stared Talon down as an enemy.
A long stare ensued between the two, a conversation passing between them no one could hear.
Khazmuda seemed to bring Talon back from the brink of destructive rage, because Talon lowered the blade at his side then dropped to his knees before he fell forward, his head in his hands on the stone, struggling to process the unbearable pain that consumed his mind, body, and soul.
Khazmuda stepped forward and lowered his snout to Talon’s back then closed his eyes. Then he made the same sounds Zehemoth had just made, tearless cries.
It fell silent, everyone mourning Lily as she lay on the ground, cold to the touch. I felt out of place among her family, who had loved her since she was born. She was the love of my life, the woman I loved at first sight, but I felt unworthy.
The minutes trickled by as everyone sobbed around Lily, her soul so far away that she couldn’t see how much she was loved.
Talon shakily rose to his feet, his strong shoulders drooping, his spine hunched like he didn’t have the strength to stand tall. He stared at Khazmuda for a long moment before he slowly turned his head and looked at me.
The look on his face…was worse than the sight of Lily on the ground.
The handsome features of his face were contorted in a mural of despair. His jaw trembled with the sobs he tried to suppress, andhis eyes blistered from the tears that continued to fall like rain. He breathed with his lips parted, heaved every few seconds like his body couldn’t get the air it needed to continue. His face was tinted the color of blood from the rage that pounded beneath the flesh, but he was paralyzed by the grief his body couldn’t reject.
