“Dragons don’t forget—and they don’t forgive.” He stared at our joined hands on the table. “You’re lucky to be loved so deeply by fearsome dragons that they would risk their lives to protect you and your father. I’m not worthy of that loss.”
“I—I want both.”
Both of his hands enveloped mine before he rested them against his lips, treasuring my touch like it would be the last time. There was no hint of tears in his gaze, just an endless look of resignation. He held my hand there for a long time as he listened to me cry. When I’d finally let the tears run dry, he gently returned my hand to the table. “Me too.”
18
TALON
Khazmuda wasn’t speaking to me right now, so I got a ride to Callum’s villa on the back of another dragon. It was late at night when I arrived, but the flickering light in the window from a lit hearth told me he was awake.
I knocked and waited.
He opened the door right away like he was close by. Dressed in nothing but his casual trousers, his torso and arms were thick like tree trunks. He no longer possessed the strength of a god, but he was still a mighty opponent. In hand-to-hand combat, I’d probably lose.
He wordlessly dropped into a chair at the dining table, a bottle of wine and two glasses on the surface, the other chair pushed out slightly like someone had been there recently.
Lily.
I moved to the wooden chair and felt the warmth from Lily’spresence—which meant she must have left within the last ten minutes. “She told you about the portal?”
He grabbed the bottle and poured as he gave a nod.
“Leviathan just came to me. Said if we don’t return Lily, they’ll open the portal.”
Callum didn’t drink from his glass. His eyes immediately shifted to mine instead.
“I don’t understand how my daughter can be this important.”
“She’s the most powerful soul they’ve ever had in the underworld. Its consumption would give them a burst of unimaginable energy and, therefore, power. It takes immense resources to open the portal, and if they go through with it, they’ll be deeply weakened by the souls they sacrificed to reach their goal. They’re taking a risk, hoping that everyone will panic, return Lily, and avoid that outcome altogether.”
“So you think it’s a bluff?”
“No. They’ll open the portal if they don’t get Lily. They’ll be in a drained state, but still more powerful than mortals. But it would be preferable if they just got Lily back and avoided all that. What did you tell Leviathan?”
“To fuck off.”
He gave a slight nod in agreement. “He needs to hear that more often.”
Something seemed different about him, and it wasn’t the news about the underworld. He seemed numb and empty but full of a deep level of despair. His fair face was as white assnow, as if all his blood had been drained from his body. “Lily was just here?”
“Yeah.” The second he heard her name, he took a drink, as if he needed to wash it down.
“Something happen?”
“She shared Khazmuda’s feelings, and we came to the agreement that it would never work between us.”
I didn’t react even in the most dire circumstances, but I felt my eyebrows shift up quickly when I heard what he said.
“It’d be a slow and painful death.”
I watched him take another drink, a big and powerful man reduced to pure nothingness. He should care more about the portal situation, but he didn’t seem to care about much since he’d lost the one thing he couldn’t live without. “I’ll work it out with Khazmuda. But for right now, we need to focus on this.”
He nodded in agreement but didn’t seem to care what I said.
“You can’t tell Lily what I’ve shared with you. Because if she knows she can put an end to this by returning to the underworld, she’ll do it.”
“I know,” he said. “So what’s the plan?”
