Chapter 12 Lily #2
He shook his head. “There’s not much chasing going on.” He took another drink of his ale and rested his arms on the table. “So…what was Callum’s secret? If you’re willing to share it with me.”
I took another drink from my tankard, depression returning like a seed that bloomed in my tummy. “He had made a deal with the leader of the Barbarians right before we crossed paths. So basically, the entire time he was helping me, he was also helping them.”
Viper was stunned into silence, going absolutely still with his hand on the handle of his mug.
He didn’t seem to breathe, didn’t seem to react at all.
It was a solid ten seconds before he could find the words.
“Damn.” He sat back in his chair and crossed his arms over his chest, eyes still stunned. “That’s really fucking shitty, Lily.”
“Yeah, it took me three days just to process it. All the consequences of that fact…”
“So, I brought three hundred ships to fight in a war that he was directly responsible for?” he asked incredulously.
“Yeah, I guess. He said the Barbarians needed a new home, and he recommended the land north of Riviana Star.”
All he did was slightly shake his head. “That’s…fucking treason.”
“It happened before we met—”
“Still fucking treason,” he said. “A lot of people died, Lily. Even your own father almost passed on.”
I nodded, the sadness filling me again. “I know.”
“Even if I didn’t have a dog in the fight, that’s the most fucked-up thing I’ve ever heard. Everything Callum did for you was just making up for how he’d betrayed you. And he waited until now to tell you?”
“Said he was afraid I wouldn’t have accepted his help.”
“And you shouldn’t have accepted his help.”
“So if this were you, and the woman you loved told you this, you’d be done?”
“Without question,” he said. “If my brothers and sisters put their lives on the line for a battle my woman caused, there would be no going back from that. Even if this were you, we’d be done.”
“And you aren’t just saying that?”
“No.” He shook his head. “It’s still hard for me to wrap my mind around it because it doesn’t seem like something Callum would do. I never thought he was right for you, but he always seemed loyal to you. But he was a traitor.”
I swallowed, my heart sinking all over again.
“And the fact that you’re still so loyal to him blows my mind.”
I stared at the surface of the table underneath my tankard.
“I’m sorry, Lily,” he said with a tone of compassion. “I can’t even imagine how you must feel right now.”
“Yeah. I don’t feel great.”
He stared at me across the table, watching me intently, like he expected me to burst into tears. The sympathy he wore seemed genuine, like he really did feel bad for me that I had to deal with this. There was no victory or hope in his gaze. “What’s happened since he told you?”
“We’ve been living apart. My father gifted him a vineyard. He’s been working to get it up and running again.”
“You haven’t spoken?”
“I went over there and told him I still loved him, but I needed more time.”
“Wow,” he said as he shook his head. “That’s kind of you.”
“When he first told me, I wasn’t so kind.”
He gave a slight nod in understanding. “You think you’ll be able to forgive him?”
“I—I don’t know. But I’m going to try as hard as I can.”
His eyes dropped to the tankard he’d barely touched, and he reached for it again and took a drink.
“I love him. I can’t help it.”
He didn’t judge me for the admission, just absorbed it in silence.
“I just hope that love will be enough.”
He continued to stare at the tankard, his arms crossed over his chest, reflecting on everything I’d just shared with him.
“I think you deserve more than love, Lily. You deserve honesty and integrity and loyalty. Even if you never give me a chance, that’s fine.
You can have any man you want, so don’t settle for someone who can’t give you everything.
Because I promise you, you can easily find someone who can. ”
We walked back to the castle, and I assumed Viper was staying in one of the bedchambers my father had undoubtedly offered to him. But he walked with me all the way to the villa, always keeping about seven feet in between us.
I made it to the door then turned back to him. “I guess you’ll be leaving tomorrow?”
“No,” he said. “I have nowhere to be.”
“You’re really going to stick around after everything I already said?”
“Maybe I like it here,” he said as he slid his hands into his pockets. “It’s warm, there’s no snow, there’s dragons soaring through the sky all the time…and beautiful women. Well, one beautiful woman, besides that bar maiden you were checking out.”
“You mean we.”
“Nope,” he said. “That was all you. And not to worry, doesn’t bother me at all.” He winked.
I had to admit that Viper got my mind off my misery better than anyone else. His jokes successfully distracted me.
“The night doesn’t have to end here. I suspect you’ve got some bottles of wine that have our names written all over them.”
I was tempted to keep the distraction going. We could talk until I passed out on the couch and then he would leave, and I might actually sleep through the night. But a distinct wave of guilt washed over me. “I don’t think that’s a good idea.”
He cocked his head slightly. “I like my dick, so trust me, I’m not going to try anything.”
“I feel like having you over alone in the evening, even if there’s nothing between us, is still disrespectful to Callum.” I wouldn’t like it one bit if he spent time with a woman who wanted him in her bed, even if he’d denied her advances repeatedly.
“My intentions toward you are entirely pure, Lily.”
“Uh-huh.”
“I mean it,” he said seriously, his expression growing hard and focused like he was actually wounded by the insinuation. “At least tonight, that is.”
“Alright.” I unlocked the door, and we stepped inside my vacant villa. I moved to the hearth to make a fire.
“I’ll do that,” he said as he came near. “Get the wine.”
I let him handle the fire, sad thinking about the way Callum used to handle that all the time, and grabbed a couple of wine bottles and some glasses and sat in the living room.
He took the armchair as far away from me as he possibly could, his body mostly facing the fire.
I was in my favorite corner of the couch, curled up with a blanket, while my glass of wine remained untouched. “Do you have wine in your kingdom?”
“Yeah,” he said before he took a drink. “Not as good as this stuff, though.”
“Is it always cold there?”
“No. The harbor where you docked is, but where Kingsnake and I live, it can get pretty warm in the summer.”
“Have you ever been in love?”
He turned to look at me fully. “You’re really curious all of a sudden.”
I shrugged. “You don’t have to answer it.”
He turned back to the fire. “No, not really.”
“And you’re, like, hundreds of years old?”
“Just never found the right woman. Kingsnake was married to someone else before, but that was a mistake. Cobra hadn’t loved anyone either. Aurelias had someone, but she died. Love doesn’t come easy for us.”
“Because you’re vampires?”
“Because we’re assholes,” he said as he looked at me again.
“I think you can be an asshole, but I don’t think you are an asshole.”
He smirked before he took another drink. “Thanks for the compliment.”
“I’m sure you’ll find your person someday.”
He watched the fire for a while before he turned and looked at me. He stared and stared, like he might say something in response to those words, but he chose to stay silent instead. To let his look say everything that he couldn’t. Then he looked at the fire again. “We’ll see.”