Chapter 25 Wrath
WRATH
Due to the bond of debt, I felt his call through the ether. Felt him command me as a servant when I was a god to be revered. It was an altercation I wanted to avoid because I already knew the outcome.
My treachery had been exposed.
But I obeyed the call and appeared before him, standing in the same throne room where King Ithaca had once ruled. It was clean now, not a sign of blood from the massacre that had taken place in here after I pulled Lily away.
Kennt stood before me in the black and maroon uniform of his kingdom, his golden mask left somewhere else. His face was exposed, the deep scar along his eyebrow where a hook had sunk deep into his flesh before it was tugged. Angry eyes bored into mine like he’d put me on my knees too if he could.
“Seems we have the same taste in women.”
“You see her as a victim. I see her as an equal. Our taste is not the same.” I didn’t deny my motivations or emotions.
Not when my allegiances were as clear as a shallow cove on a tropical beach.
Not when they were as transparent as a cloudless sky.
I wasn’t loyal to the Covenant or the people of the mortal world.
I was loyal to a person—Lily Lena Rothschild.
A sick smirk moved across his mouth. “Didn’t realize the god of the underworld was capable of love.”
“I’m capable of many things, Kennt. What do you want?”
“What do I want?” His hand moved to his chest in mock offense.
“You’ve been plotting against me this entire time, and then ask what do I want?
You told her about the cannons, and you told her our plans to come here.
And not only did you give her the ability to command the dead and give her the strength of a god, but you gave her every ability you have—like the ability to appear unseen.
Lily Lena Rothschild is no mortal foe—but a goddess. ”
“I make deals with many people, even those who are enemies.”
“Yes, but did you take her soul in exchange for those gifts?” He took a step toward me like he wanted to put his blade to my neck, even though it would never leave a mark.
I didn’t lie, but I didn’t confess the truth either. “All of my arrangements are confidential.”
“Her body, that was the price.”
“She’s not a whore, Kennt.”
“Then what did you take?”
My eyes shifted back and forth between his. “I didn’t come here to be interrogated.”
“She does not get greater gifts without the same price. That’s unfair, and you know it.”
“I’m the god of the underworld. It’s my business to be fair.”
His head tilted slightly as he read my gaze. “So you admit it.”
“I admit this conversation has bored me. If there’s nothing else, I have other matters—”
“There is something else.”
My expression remained sharp and stoic, but my impatience started to grow.
“It’s only fair that you give me more since she’s paying less.” He cocked his head the other way, anger in his eyes but an arrogant smile on his lips. “Destroy all the platinum in the world, and we’re even.”
I thought I couldn’t feel more disgust for this man, but I was wrong.
“With my army of vampires and my fleet of golden ships with cannons, I will destroy the Southern Isles. Your clandestine lover will be my wife, and I will put children in her belly and watch her cry as she pushes them out. Those dragons will be my dragons, and not just every kingdom in our proximity will fall to my regime, but every regime in the known world. King Ithaca informed me that King Talon Rothschild is gravely injured…but still alive. I need to make sure he never recovers.”
“Why?”
“The men I’ve conquered have told me many tales of Talon Rothschild. They revered him far more than their own king, which is understandable because King Ithaca was a treasonous swine. An entire army of dragons is loyal to him. I need him to be dead if I want them to be loyal to me.”
“They will be loyal to Talon Rothschild forever—dead or alive.”
“We’ll see,” he said with a smile. “So destroy the platinum. That way, there’s no chance he makes it. Might even be dead before I get there.”
“I’ve already made you vampires.”
“And you made Lily Rothschild a god—not the same.”
“That’s the most I’m willing to give you.”
He took another step closer to me. “I don’t believe that’s true.”
I stared him down, unafraid of this Barbarian mortal.
“Because if you don’t…” He moved until he was directly before me, arms crossed over his chest as he looked slightly up at me.
“I’ll tell the Covenant of your flagrant preference for a mortal, the way you’ve consistently interfered with the living to further her agenda, how your loyalty to her has compromised your position. ”
I didn’t react to the threat because I already knew it was coming.
“Destroy the platinum—or they’ll destroy you.”
“I don’t know where it is.”
“I do.” He cocked his head to the side. “Take me with you. I want to watch you wipe its existence from this earth. It will never be used for weapons or ornamentation again. And there will never be a cure for our blades.”
“What’s to stop the Southern Isles from replicating your blades? They could mortally wound you.”
“Can’t be done,” he said arrogantly.
“They can steal your weapons and use them against you.”
“I would love it if Lily came that close to me.” He stepped even closer to me, like we were the ones who faced each other on a battlefield.
“I know what they’ll do to you, Wrath. Eject you to the void where you’ll cease to exist forevermore.
” He continued to gloat, to believe he had me cornered, my mouth eating straight out of his palm.
But it was the easiest choice I’d ever made. “No.”
He stepped back, and both of his eyebrows lifted. “You think I’m bluffing.”
“Trust me, I know you aren’t.”
“Then you must be lying. Because no god would ever give up his powers and his life for the father of a mortal woman. A woman he’ll fuck a few times before she moves on with someone who can give her children.” He winked. “Someone like me…perhaps.”
“I won’t change my answer. Tell my superiors about my nefarious behavior. If you don’t, they’ll discover it some other way, so it really doesn’t matter. My fate is sealed, and not only do I accept it, I prefer it.”
“To die?” he asked incredulously. “To cease to exist? You’re a god.”
“And whether I’m a god or a servant in the underworld, it makes no difference.
I strive for the reprieve of nothingness.
To never think. To never speak. To just disappear from existence like I’d never existed in the first place.
” To not have to watch Lily move on with someone else someday.
To watch her have children that I wished were mine.
To watch her love another man and forget what we had.
Kennt clearly didn’t know what to say to that. Couldn’t understand how a man could desire nothing instead of violence and domination.
“I have no doubt Lily Rothschild will defeat you.”
His eyes shifted back and forth between mine with a temperamental tint. “I’ll decrease her odds by dismissing you from my presence. Wrath, God of the Underworld, I consider our business finished. Depart and never return.”