Empire of Death (Death #6)

Chapter 1 Lily

LILY

My father sailed across the Great Sea in a black ship guarded by an armada—like he was already dead. Khazmuda flew above, gliding and circling because the ships couldn’t match his speed in the sky.

Zehemoth and I returned to the Southern Isles straightaway, his powerful wings bringing us across the sea in a single day. The cliffs in the sunrise came into view first, a majestic sight of power and elegance, the castle visible at the very top.

My heart was so weary, so heavy that my ribs could barely cradle it anymore. The battle had exhausted my body as well as my mind, but I continued to feel Wrath’s strength in my muscles, a two-hundred-and-fifty-pound behemoth stored inside my slender frame.

Zehemoth used his powerful wings to bring us up high, up toward the top of the cliff, before he leveled out. His wings straightened and caught the air, and he gently glided to the massive courtyard where my father and his ancestors had challenged their foes.

We landed with a thud, and I slid down Zehemoth’s side before I caught my balance and headed for the double doors to the castle, to relay the news to my mother and Hawk.

But the double doors opened far before I reached them, and my mother emerged in her queen’s uniform and armor, identical to what my father wore, just without the cape behind her.

Her chest plate allowed for the swell of her breasts, and it fit her petite waist tightly, nearly like a bodysuit.

Her gaze landed upon me with a sudden wave of relief.

She rushed forward, running at full speed until she made it to me, gripping me as tightly as my father did, and squeezed.

“Oh Lily…” She was shorter than me, so she couldn’t kiss me on the temple the way my father did, but she used to when I was younger.

I didn’t want to break her heart when she looked so relieved to see me, but I knew it was my duty to share the news. “Dad—”

“Khazmuda told me.” She cut me off with coldness, like she couldn’t bear to hear the tale again.

Her eyes immediately misted despite her effort to keep them bone-dry.

When she took a breath, it was so labored and painful, as if she’d just lost one of her limbs in battle.

“Inferno is going to deliver me to the ship so I can sail the rest of the way at his side. But I wanted to be here when you returned.” Her hands moved and she gripped mine.

“Khazmuda told me of your valor in battle, that you defended the Great Tree and saved Riviana Star from certain destruction—and saved your father’s life.

” She gripped me tighter, and that was when the mist overpowered her resistance.

“If your father could speak, I know his voice would tremble with pride.”

I knew my mom was utterly destroyed right now, but she put that aside to both comfort and praise me…

and I wasn’t sure how I’d gotten so lucky to have such incredible parents.

It didn’t seem like she knew about the army of the dead that I’d commanded, because I was certain she would have questioned me about it.

Khazmuda seemed to have left that out intentionally, probably because my mother could only handle one tragedy at a time.

“I know your father will rise again,” she said. “We will not stop until it’s so.”

I gave a slight nod, her promise not enough for me.

“In his absence, you will lead our kingdom. It’s what your father would want if he could speak.”

“But Mom, you’re queen—”

“And I’m stepping aside and handing the keys to you.

I’m in no place to lead and protect, not when my heart is on a ship in the middle of the Great Sea.

My place is at his side, my hand in his, working with the healers to find a way to close this cursed wound.

The time for peace is over. War has begun.

You’re your father’s champion, and I trust no one else to lead us through this darkness but you. ”

“Mom…” I swallowed, the burden of this responsibility suddenly so heavy, the bones in my spine started to crack from the weight on my shoulders. “I don’t know if I can do this—”

“You already did it, sweetheart. You protected Riviana Star from great evil.”

“But…” But it wasn’t me. It was because of the protection of a god who had interfered in a way he’d vowed he wouldn’t. He had given me the strength of a man twice my size and the command of the dead from the earth.

“I have no doubt that this is the way.” Her hands moved to my arms, and she gave them a gentle squeeze.

“That your father’s belief in you is not misplaced.

” She withdrew her touch, and then the ground trembled when another dragon landed in the courtyard behind me.

“I’ll return when your father’s ship arrives. ”

I almost asked her to stay, too afraid to do this on my own, but I nodded anyway.

She released me and stepped around me.

I turned to watch her go, watched her climb up Inferno’s straps to the saddle across his back like she did it every day, her brown hair flowing in the breeze, her blade across her back.

Then Inferno launched into the sky nearly vertical, but my mother gripped the horn and the reins like it was child’s play for her.

Inferno soared over the cliffs then released a mighty roar, an anguished cry for the fallen king. “Rooooaaaarrrrrrr.”

When they disappeared behind the grand height of the castle, I felt the drop in my stomach.

The painful solitude, the terror of loneliness, the sheer magnitude of responsibility that had been dropped on my shoulders like a wagon full of stone.

I’d been scared when our galleon had been caught in the storm, scared when I’d been taken prisoner by the Barbarians, but I’d never been as scared as I was that very moment.

“You can do this.”

I hadn’t felt him arrive, not when the bond between us had been masked by my unspoken turmoil. Perhaps he’d been there all along, visible to my sight, but all I could focus on was my mother and her tight grip.

“Xivin.”

I turned to see him standing a few feet away, dressed the way he’d been in battle in his black armor and dark-blue uniform with the two-handed blade hooked across his back, looking like a real king, while I felt minuscule in comparison.

“I’m scared.” He was the only person who knew my truth, who could carry my weakness and turn it into strength.

“I know.”

“I’ve never…never felt so alone.” My father was neither living nor dead, and my mother’s place was at his side.

The kingdom had fallen into my hands when I felt too young to hold it.

When my father spoke about stepping aside, it had always been under the banner of peace, when he was still there to guide me through the transition. Not like this.

“You’ve always been alone, Xivin.”

My eyes hardened on his face in confusion.

“When you sailed out of that storm. When you killed a man thrice your size and fought to save your crew. When you commandeered that little ship and sailed it on the raging seas for four days and three nights.”

I experienced a tightness as I held his gaze, feeling the freezing-cold water hit my face like shards of ice. Feeling the sudden roll of a ship that would turn a novice sailor’s stomach. Remembered everything I was desperate to forget.

“Another storm is coming on the horizon—and you will conquer it.”

“I only persevered in Riviana Star because I had the strength of a god and an army of the dead—”

“I could have granted those powers to anyone else, and they still would have been defeated. You were victorious because of your skill with the blade, because of the blistering rage you inherited from your father, because you’re smarter, faster, and better than those rats you chased away.

I believe in you, when I believe in no one.

” He stepped closer to me, his dark eyes piercing me with an intensity that no one else ever showed me.

With a mixture of love and pride and desperation, he somehow touched me when he was feet away.

“Your enemies will burn in the flames of your wrath, Queen Lily Rothschild.” His hand tightened into a fist, and he struck it against his chest. “The Death Queen.” He stepped closer to me, his closed fist at his chest. “I will serve you always as the eyes in the back of your head, the keeper of your secrets, the reminder of your worthiness—and the champion of your heart.”