“Nothing,” he said gently. “And you knew that.” He gave several slight nods, as if having a conversation with himself. He swallowed, looked away briefly, and then stared at me again.
“Can you tell me what happened?”
He quickly blinked, like my question provoked him involuntarily. “The Covenant realized I was interfering withthe mortal world on your behalf repeatedly—so they stripped me of my powers and promoted Leviathan.”
“How did they figure it out?”
The question prompted him to take a deep breath, a breath that made his entire chest rise. He held it for a beat before his chest deflated once again. “I don’t know.”
My intuition told me there was more to the story than he’d shared with me based on that breath he took, but I trusted him to tell me the truth, so I believed him without doubt. “And then what happened?”
“I asked them to at least let me explain to you what happened, say goodbye, but they wouldn’t allow it. I asked Leviathan to share the events of the mortal world and the battle, but he refused to tell me anything. So I was trapped there, not knowing whether you lived or not.”
“And they didn’t know that you’d gifted your strength to me?”
He shook his head. “They probably tried to remove it, but it remained adhered to you for some reason. I’m not sure if anyone, even the Covenant, can explain that.”
“But you knew I still had it.”
He nodded. “Yes, I could feel it. I kept that information to myself in the hope it would keep you alive, and I’m glad it did. I wish I could have been there with you, and I’m so sorry I wasn’t.”
“It’s okay, Callum. It wasn’t your choice.”
“But it still kills me, even knowing that you prevailed. To know how scared you must have been and to feel abandonedby the man who’d promised to protect you always. You were without your father, and you were also without me.”
“I still won, Callum.”
“But you had to seek aid from someone else, aid you wouldn’t have had to ask for otherwise.” He referred to Viper vaguely, and whatever personal feelings he had about that relationship, he kept hidden from me.
It gave me a surge of guilt that made me sever our locked gazes. “I’m sorry about the Viper situation.”
“You have no reason to be.”
“I know it must bother you.”
“It doesn’t bother me at all.”
My eyes moved back to his, seeing a man so confident in who he was and what he meant to me that he didn’t care. “How can that be?”
“Because if he didn’t love you, you might not be here right now.” He spoke without a hint of emotion, completely pragmatic and logical. “He’s made his disdain for me quite clear, but I understand his prejudice. I remain forever grateful, regardless.”
“If the situations were reversed…” I shook my head. “I’d lose my fucking mind.”
“I don’t think you would.”
“Then you don’t know me very well. I’m temperamental and passionate?—”
“And you know how deeply and irrevocably I love you,” he said simply. “So I know in my heart you would react the way I have. It’s impossible to feel insecure or doubtful in the love that we share. You took my place in the underworld for us to have a chance to be together, knowing full well what’s down there. So, no, I don’t care about Viper. He’s welcome to love you from a distance while I love you every night up close.”
His words stunned me into silence, their depth and maturity showing his age.
“I told you I would never want you to sacrifice your soul, and you did it anyway.” His eyes left my face as he reflected on the horrible time we’d spent apart. If he was angry, he seemed to be trying to bottle it up inside and corking it closed.
“It was the only way.”
He continued to look elsewhere. “You’ll never understand the agony that caused me, seeing your body float beside me to the underworld while I traveled to the light. Watching your family mourn over your dead body. Everything worked out in the end, but I was so angry with you.” His eyes eventually came back to me.
“I hope you don’t expect an apology—because I regret nothing.”
