Something must have snapped inside him because he abruptly turned away and walked off, dismissing me when the conversation didn’t feel finished…or even started.
20
TALON
It was late into the evening when one of my guards knocked on my door. He said Queen Eldinar wished to speak to me in private. The fire in the study was started before I arrived, and because Queen Eldinar and I had been good friends for decades, I wore my casual clothes, trousers and a shirt that had a stain on the front where I’d spilled my scotch ten minutes ago.
She was already there when I arrived, dressed similarly but also covered in a pristine white robe that looked shiny and silky, like it was as soft as a rose petal. Her hair hung down her body in light curls, and she sat in one of the armchairs by the fire with her legs crossed.
It was one of the few times when the two of us were alone together, monarch to monarch.
I took a seat and slouched across from her, not needing to put up a front around her like I did with the public. Even with Lily and Hawk, I presented myself in a certain manner.Calista was the only other person to see me in the most intimate and carefree way.
She stared at me with her all-seeing eyes. “You look troubled.”
“My life was perfect until the day Lily set sail on that ship, and it’s been a disaster ever since.”
“It has,” she said in agreement.
“And now the underworld wants to steal my daughter, because she gave up her soul for a man she’s not even with anymore, while a vampire continues to sniff around her like a dog wanting to mark its territory.”
Her eyes softened in subtle compassion.
“But enough of my woes. Why do you seek this clandestine meeting?”
“I thought it was best we talk in private.”
My eyes searched her gaze, wanting her to share her motivations sooner rather than later.
“I know this isn’t what you want to hear, Talon, but it’s my duty to express it.”
“I’m listening.”
She was quiet for a long time, as if she needed to brace herself to speak her truth. “Riviana has communicated to me that they’ve amplified their resources and are destroying the barrier at a greater rate. We initially had weeks, but now we have days. If we don’t defeat them, there’s very little chance that Riviana will be able to vanquish them on her own. Thatmeans every mortal is at risk…and all of our loved ones who have passed on?—”
“I’m aware of the stakes. What’s your point?”
She stared at me again, drawing another breath before she spoke. “Lily is what they want. She’s the one who made the decision to take Callum’s place in the underworld. Perhaps we should consider giving them what they want.”
I heard every word she said, but I refused to believe what my mind told me. That one of my closest friends was encouraging me to give up my daughter. “What the fuck did you just say?”
“Talon, I know this isn’t easy to hear?—”
“Give up my daughter? You think that’s an option?”
“We would figure out a plan afterward, but for now, yes. We shouldn’t sacrifice everyone who lives now and everyone who’s ever lived for one person. I know it’s a horrible solution and one I don’t want to choose, but if it were me, I would make the sacrifice. And if it were you, you would make the sacrifice.”
“Of course I would,” I snapped back. “If they were willing to take me instead of her, the deal would be done. But that’s not our predicament.”
Despite my anger rolling like waves of lava, she remained calm. “Exactly.”
My eyes bored into hers, waiting for her to elaborate because I didn’t understand her point at all.
“That would be your decision. It would also be mine. But Lily doesn’t get a choice in the manner because you’ve concealed the truth from her.”
She and I had started off as enemies until we’d made unlikely friends, and through the decades, that friendship had solidified into a familial camaraderie. But now it was broken into pieces, irrevocably destroyed.
“She deserves the option.”
