Chapter 21 Lily
LILY
Callum transported me to Skull Island within the blink of an eye, saving me days of travel on the back of a dragon. My boots hit the beach, and I felt my weight sink into the grains of sand before I came to a stop.
“Wow, this is so much faster than flying,” I headed into the coastal city, back to The Mermaid’s Tale, and asked the bar maiden to speak with Jack. He’d probably be alarmed I was there because no one had reported any sightings of dragons overhead.
I ordered a pint while I waited, and then Callum appeared at the table with me.
He wasn’t in the chair across from me or beside me, but in the fourth chair with his back against the wall, looking out of place in an establishment like this.
He surveyed the room before he looked at me, and once his eyes settled there, they stayed in place.
I’d gotten used to his stares now, especially in public. I drank my ale as I waited, Callum’s eyes glued to the side of my face, an invisible but permanent fixture in my life. I always had a god over my shoulder, looking out for me.
Jack walked inside, grabbed himself an ale, and then dropped into the chair across from me. “Pirate Queen.” He clanked his tankard against mine. “Didn’t know you were here. There’s been no sighting of ship or dragon.”
“I have my ways.”
Jack stared like he wanted more, but he didn’t pry.
“The element I’ve been searching for, it’s known as platinum. It’s like steel but a lot brighter. Has a reflective, diamond-like quality. I need you to send a crew to find it. It’s of the utmost importance that I secure it.”
He gave a nod in understanding. “I think the more efficient way to search for it is to offer a reward. I’ll put a notice at the docks for all the pirates who come through these waters.
That way, you have eyes looking for it all over the world through the various trade routes.
I hate to ask for payment, but if you’re in a hurry, it’s the best way to go about it. ”
“That’s fine.”
“What amount will you offer?”
“Whatever is going to get them to race for it.”
“Alright, I’ll handle it,” he said. “I’ll send a note if I find anything.”
“Thank you. And be ready for war—because it’s coming.”
Instead of placing me in the courtyard outside the castle walls, Callum placed me directly inside the throne room, underneath the glass ceiling that showed the overcast sky above. Irregular drops of rain hit the window.
I looked at the empty throne, and the guards who were posted around it took a moment to understand that I was real, that I really had materialized out of nothing. Their eyes widened before their pupils dilated in fear, unable to explain what just happened.
“I’d like an audience with King Ithaca,” I said calmly.
The guards looked at one another, all of them turning to one another for a silent explanation. One even looked at the glass ceiling, like I’d shattered it and dropped through the broken glass without making a sound.
“Now, please.”
They probably weren’t supposed to abandon their posts, but since someone had to leave to carry the message, one of them finally walked out to notify the king. I stood there in silence, not nearly as irritated by the prospect of conversing with King Ithaca, given the circumstances.
Callum appeared beside me. “You have the strength of a god, the command of the dead, and now you can move about the world without any of the parameters of a mortal. Soon, they won’t call you Queen Lily Rothschild…but Goddess Lily Rothschild.”
I couldn’t say a word, so all I did was hold his stare, seeing the serious look in his eyes like he meant what he said. Despite everything he’d given me, I still didn’t feel powerful, but if an enemy had these same abilities, I’d be afraid to face them.
Moments later, the guard who’d left returned to the room and quickly took up his post. The commander was next, ferocity in his eyes solely directed at me. “How did you enter the castle grounds?”
King Ithaca came in behind him, giving me his signature look of disgust, like I was the spider beneath his boot. He must have received my letter, my rejection of his offer of aid in exchange for dragons.
“How did you enter the castle grounds?” the commander repeated as he marched up to me, getting in my personal space and stealing the breath meant for me. His clothes smelled of sweat, like he was on the last day of his rotation and hadn’t had a chance to bathe.
“Take a step back, Commander,” I said calmly as I looked up into his eyes. “Before I make you.”
“Answer the question—”
I shoved him hard in the chest, harder than I meant to because this overwhelming strength was still new to me, and he flew back until he hit the floor. He even skidded a foot or two. When he came to a stop, he looked up at me like he didn’t know how to make sense of what had just happened.
King Ithaca said nothing, but his tempered expression showed his embarrassment that a woman like me could put his commander flat on his ass.
He stepped around him and came to me, like distracting me from where he sat on the floor would erase what had just happened.
“I hope you’ve reconsidered my proposition.
” His hands came together behind his back, wearing his armor covered in elaborate ornamentation that seemed like an unnecessary display of wealth, not power.
“No. I’ve come to share news. The Barbarians sail upon the Empire Colonies’ lands as I speak. They intend to conquer your lands and then use your forces to take the Southern Isles next. They’re a few days away, give or take.”
King Ithaca gave no reaction to that, choosing to absorb it in silence instead. “How do you know this?”
“Because I do,” I said. “I’ve prepared to launch my fleet to come to your aid—despite the fact that you wouldn’t come to mine.” The satisfaction was like salt in the wound, to be the bigger person in a situation where I didn’t have to be.
He must have read the smugness in my eyes because he said, “I don’t need your aid, Queen Lily Rothschild. So you can keep your fleet exactly where it is.”
Icy alarm shot up my spine when I had a chance to absorb his words into my flesh. “I give you my aid freely—and you deny it?”
“Freely is a strong word.” His cruel gaze flicked back and forth between mine.
“You don’t offer aid to help the Empire Colonies.
You offer it in the hope you’ll defeat your enemy on my doorstep.
You’re an opportunist, and you see an opportunity.
You pretend to be high and mighty when you’re moving your own pieces across the board.
If you were honest about that, I might actually respect you. And that’s an iffy might.”
“Then would you rather I leave you to your fate?” I asked incredulously. “Watch from afar as the Empire Colonies fall to their invaders? Then move in my fleet when they’re too exhausted to put up a good fight and take all the pieces on the board?”
He smirked slightly. “Go home, Your Majesty. I’m sorry you’ve come all this way for nothing.”
Callum spoke from beside me. “He seeks an alliance with the Barbarians, and then he’ll come for the Southern Isles alongside them.”
The second I heard those words, everything snapped into place.
My hand tightened into a fist because I wanted to knock his teeth out for the below-the-belt treachery.
“You haven’t met these assholes. They won’t be interested in an alliance.
They’ll behead you and the rest of your family, take your kingdom, and then come for mine. ”
“Perhaps.”
“No, there’s no perhaps,” I insisted. “That’s what will happen. I’m not trying to manipulate you. I’m trying to enlighten you. I don’t care for your rulership, but the Empire Colonies are home to good people who don’t deserve whatever brutality these scumbags will inflict on them. Listen to me.”
“I would never listen to a woman. Or, in your case, a girl.” He took a step back.
“Return home, Lily Rothschild. I will sail for your kingdom with the Barbarians, and I will take your dragons for myself while your body rots in the sea…along with the rest of your kin.” He turned his back on me like he wasn’t afraid of my blade piercing his spine.
His commander had gotten to his feet, and he withdrew his blade in anticipation of battle.
“Xivin, behind you.”
The soldiers who guarded the other side of the room started to converge on me.
“Take her,” King Ithaca said. “She’ll be our bargaining chips with the Barbarians.”
I unsheathed my blade when the commander came for me. He kept his sword up as a shield because his goal was to take me alive rather than cut off my arm. Three men came from behind me, and one grabbed me by the cape and tugged me back.
It all happened fast, but I was so furious at this insufferable man that I moved my two-handed blade as if it weighed less than a dagger and sliced through the commander’s armor on his chest like it was made of butter.
He immediately toppled back, blood pouring from the cracks in his armor.
He couldn’t get a word out because his mouth started to bubble with blood that poured from his esophagus.
I spun around and took on the others, moving so fast that my own mind couldn’t keep up with my body, meeting their flimsy blades like they were made of wood.
I shattered one in half then rammed my shoulders into another, sending him skidding across the tile floor.
“Xivin.”
I fought the others who came for me, me against five men, but they were no match for the god-like powers that surged in my veins. I handled them like this was a sparring match and they were going easy on me because I was still learning.
“Xivin, behind you.”