Chapter 14 Lily
LILY
I was in the kitchen doing the dishes for the first time in two weeks when I heard the voice behind me.
“Lily Rothschild.”
The plate I’d been holding in my hand slipped out of my soapy grasp and hit the bottom of the sink, chipping off a piece. My head lifted to the window above the sink, and I saw the reflection of a handsome man behind me. Light brown hair and blue eyes, his skin fair like limestone.
My heart plummeted into my stomach, and I felt sick, horribly sick. My first instinct was to yell for Callum in the other room, but then I remembered he wasn’t there.
“You don’t look happy to see me.”
I grabbed the chipped piece of plate from the bottom of the sink and turned around.
And saw Leviathan standing in my kitchen, in battle armor with a two-handed blade visible over his shoulder, a snarl on his lips and hunger in his eyes. “How can I help you?”
He took a step closer to me, eyes locked on mine with viciousness. “You thought you would escape the underworld unnoticed? That you would outsmart a covenant of demons?”
My back pressed against the sink and I was scared for my life, but I channeled that energy into keeping my face composed, to lying to this monster’s face and pretending not to be afraid.
Was Callum mistaken, and Leviathan could take my soul right where I stood?
“How can I help you?” I leaned against the sink and crossed my arms over my chest.
He took a step closer to me, his footsteps distinct against the tile floor. “You pretend to be unafraid, but I see it in your eyes.”
“For the last time, what the fuck do you want—”
“To enlighten you.”
“Enlighten me?” I asked blankly. “How so?”
“Callum Riverside is not who you think he is.”
“He’s not, huh?” I asked blankly.
“But perhaps you already know that since he’s not here.” His eyes filled with a smugness, like he knew he had me cornered. “Callum Riverside portrays an honorable human, but he’s just as full of deception as I am. Claimed to serve you in the war, but it wasn’t only you that he served.”
“Callum is honorable, because he already shared this with me.”
“Did he?” He cocked his head sideways.
“Yes, I know that he served the Barbarians while he served me. His actions were questionable, but his honesty is not.”
His eyes flicked back and forth between mine. “I see no hint of rage in your eyes, and that tells me he hasn’t told you everything. Just the bare minimum, because that was all your fragile heart could handle.”
I used my full strength to keep a stoic expression, but the seed of doubt he planted made a home in my flesh. It hadn’t grown and blossomed, but it wouldn’t take much for it to sprout a single tendril of a vine.
“Would you like me to show you?”
“No.”
“I have the power to show you the past. When I took Callum’s position, he remained in the underworld and served the Covenant. But after enough time had passed, since time passes differently there than it does here, he filled the void of the loss with someone else.”
I refused to flinch, refused to let his poison feed the saplings he’d buried.
“You try to hide your emotions from me.” A slow smile crept on to his lips. “But it’s a fruitless endeavor.” He suddenly took another step toward me, and my kitchen disappeared and we were taken into darkness I hadn’t seen since I’d been brought back to the mortal world.
I looked around, seeing the castle in the distance and the dirt path that led to the forest. Then the image changed again, the two of us standing outside the very home in the woods that I’d inhabited.
Then I spotted Callum approach past the bonfire, the light of the flames highlighting his handsome face. It was the first time I’d seen him in the underworld without his uniform and armor. Now he was in regular clothes, his eyes looking fatigued.
The image changed again, and we were inside by a fire. Cecilia, one of the worshippers, was seated on the couch in a black dress with a slit so high it nearly reached her waist.
Callum sat on the other side of the couch, his arms on his knees, with his eyes on the fire.
Cecilia stared at the side of his face, watching the light dance in his eyes. “I can feel your sorrow better than these flames.”
His eyes flicked down. “The woman I love is up there fighting a battle on her own, and I’m down here…trapped.”
She continued to stare at him.
“I’m not sure if she’s even alive.”
“Does it even matter if you can never return to the mortal world?”
“Of course it does.” He stared at the fire again.
She scooted closer to him, her hand moving to his forearm, her long fingers stretching around his taut veins.
I felt enraged just watching her touch him.
“How much time has passed?”
“I don’t know.” He didn’t push her off, like he didn’t notice her touch at all.
“Let me take your sorrow.” Her hand moved to the side of his cheek before it dug into his hair.
He didn’t react to that either, like he’d been touched by her before.
She continued to run her fingers through his hair while he stared at the fire. “Let me comfort you.”
“I love her.”
Her fingers grabbed his chin, and she slowly forced his stare on her. “I don’t care, Callum. God or no god, I still want your power deep inside me.”
I remembered he’d said he would bed the women of the occult, mortal women who worshipped him as a god.
So this story fit with his tale. At first, I thought it could have been from a different time and he referred to another woman whom he loved, but I was the one at war.
My heart tightened in tension as I feared the end of his scene.
In silence, he stared at the fire but didn’t push her away like I expected him to.
So she took it a step further, crawled into his lap, and straddled his hips.
“Cecilia,” he said in slight annoyance. “No.”
She pushed him back against the couch, and her hands moved for his trousers, yanking the front down so she could reach for his dick. It must have been hard because she seemed to grope and stroke him under his pants.
I didn’t want to watch this anymore, didn’t want to see him with anyone but me, but I couldn’t bring myself to look away. It was my worst nightmare, seeing Callum with someone else, and even if it meant nothing, I was still sick.
He started to breathe harder, his eyes closing as if he liked her touch.
Then she pushed her advantage, lifting up her dress as she straddled his hips further, guiding his length to her entrance and then sinking down.
He closed his eyes again in shame but moaned like he couldn’t help but enjoy it.
“Oh yes.” Her fingers dug into his hair as she rolled her hips and took his length over and over. “Wrath…”
I turned to Leviathan, refusing to stare at the horror a moment longer. “You made your point, asshole.”
The scene disappeared, and we were back in the kitchen.
Callum had done something similar when he’d shown me the moment my father lost his family and then took back the kingdom against his enemies.
So it was possible for the god of the underworld to show me the past, but I wasn’t stupid enough to immediately assume it wasn’t an attempt at treachery. “What do you want from me?”
“You sacrificed your soul for this man, and I just wanted you to know exactly who he is.”
“Because of the moral compass in your heart?” I asked incredulously. “You did it for a reason—so what was the reason?”
The smile faded from his lips as he stared at me, and his eyes turned hard once again. Then he disappeared from my kitchen, the aura of power that accompanied him leaving with him.
It was dark when Zehemoth dropped me off outside Callum’s home on the vineyard. He took flight right away and flew to the wildlands, where he could rest while I waited for him to come back for me.
I could see the light from the windows, see the shadows flicker and dance like he had a fire roaring in the hearth. It was a nice place, much bigger than my villa, and far too big for him alone.
I walked up to the door and knocked.
My heart would normally be racing in anxiety and excitement at the prospect of seeing him, but now I just felt anger…and fear.
What if it were true?
If it were true, would he tell me?
He opened the door almost immediately, standing there shirtless and in his trousers, looking like a god in every sense of the word.
The light was bright behind him, casting him in a slight shadow.
The beard along his jaw was a lot thicker than usual, like he’d abandoned shaving.
His eyes took me in for a moment of disbelief before the intensity followed, like he hoped I was there to forgive him and be his again.
I lost my strength the longer I stared at him, my confidence in his strong presence waning. “I—I need to talk to you.”
A pail of water doused the flames of hope in his gaze. He wordlessly stepped aside.
I entered the home, the ceilings high, a dining table that could easily fit eight people near the kitchen, and then the large sitting room, cozy with a fire. It was a beautiful home with paintings on the walls, colorful rugs, and throws over the couches.
But it didn’t suit Callum at all.
He pulled out a chair for me before he sat at the head of the table, his body pivoted to the chair I would occupy.
I sat in the chair, face-to-face with a man who came to me every night in my dreams.
He didn’t offer me anything. Just stared at me like he needed to devote all his strength to not reaching across the table, grabbing me, and kissing me. His arms rested on the surface of the wood as he regarded me with his fathomless gaze.
“You’ve never lied to me, and I have no reason to believe you ever would.”
One of his eyebrows immediately lifted when I broached the subject, like this was the last way he expected me to start the conversation.
“So I’m going to ask you this once, and I’ll believe whatever you say.”