“The entire reason we’re in peril is because of you, Callum.”
His spine made a thud against the chair when he sat back.
“Everything that happened is because of you. All the people who died…the dragons who died…” The tears rushed into my eyes and dripped down my cheeks as the heartbreak consumed me. “Dragons I loved like family.”
He bowed his head again.
“All of it happened because of you.”
He closed his eyes.
“That was why you asked me not to go to Riviana Star with my father. Which meant my father would have been killed, the forest and everyone in it would have been lost, and then the Realm of Caelum possibly compromised.All because of you.”
He wouldn’t look at me again, and two tears dripped down his cheeks to his chin.
I didn’t want to hurt him, not even after he’d hurt me, but I didn’t give him any comfort whatsoever.
A heavy silence fell between us, both of us crying quietly and not looking at each other.
“What bothers me the most…” I sniffled. “My father warned me not to trust you, and when I asked for his help and he denied me, I said some horrible things to him. Words I can never take back. And he’s someone I love beyond words, the only man in my life who has loved me more than anyone else—including you. He lost his daughter, and I gave myself to the underworld.” I started to cry when I thought about the unimaginable pain I had caused him. “And it must have killed him.”
Callum remained quiet, tears silently dripping down his cheeks.
“And he was right…the entire time.”
He didn’t argue with me. Just let the words dangle between us.
No other words were spoken, like everything had been said. A single conversation had changed our entire lives. It had destroyed the beautiful life we’d barely gotten to enjoy. “I wish you’d never told me.” I’d found the love of my life and was excited about the life we would have together, the children we would make together… And now, it was just gone. “I thought I would never want kids. Don’t have a hint of maternal instinct. But I met you, and it was suddenly something I wanted. I thought I’d found a love I could only dream about…and it’s gone.”
“It’s not gone. The love we have is still real, Lily.”
“But it’s based on lies.”
He looked away again. “I’ll give you some time.” He sniffed then rose to his feet before he walked into the bedroom.
I sat there, utterly numb, next to the fireplace, the taste of the dinner long dead on my taste buds. Callum was still in the villa, but I felt utterly alone, as alone as I had before we met. A few moments later, he remerged, dressed, with a pack over his shoulder.
I didn’t know where he would go. I almost offered to return to the castle so he could stay here, but my entire body was unresponsive. My heart had been poisoned then stabbed by his knife. I’d lost all the blood in my body, lost the ability to move, fight, feel…
He wordlessly left the villa and closed the door behind him lightly.
I stared at the plate of dinner that he’d made, the tears starting to rush down my cheeks. “I wish you’d never told me.”
9
LILY
I left the dishes on the dining table and let the fire burn out. Eventually, I made it to the couch and cried on and off through the night, all the blankets pulled over me to keep warm since Callum wasn’t there to warm me with his skin or keep my fire going.
I had been devastated when my father had fallen. Devastated when dragons had dropped out of the skies. Devastated for myself when I’d reached the bottom of the funnel and was smothered by monsters.
But that despair was nothing compared to this.
I rotated through the different emotions, blazing anger, the sting of betrayal, unbearable loss…over and over. Doomed to repeat them nonstop, I cried until my ducts ran dry, and then once my body had rehydrated, I did it again.
A knock sounded on the door. “Lily, it’s your father.”
My responses were delayed in the clouds of depression. I stared at the empty wine bottles I’d drunk through the night on the coffee table and sat up, seeing the morning light come through the windows. It must have been dawn or shortly afterward.
