Chapter 18 Talon
TALON
Khazmuda wasn’t speaking to me right now, so I got a ride to Callum’s villa on the back of another dragon. It was late at night when I arrived, but the flickering light in the window from a lit hearth told me he was awake.
I knocked and waited.
He opened the door right away like he was close by. Dressed in nothing but his casual trousers, his torso and arms were thick like tree trunks. He no longer possessed the strength of a god, but he was still a mighty opponent. In hand-to-hand combat, I’d probably lose.
He wordlessly dropped into a chair at the dining table, a bottle of wine and two glasses on the surface, the other chair pushed out slightly like someone had been there recently.
Lily.
I moved to the wooden chair and felt the warmth from Lily’s presence—which meant she must have left within the last ten minutes. “She told you about the portal?”
He grabbed the bottle and poured as he gave a nod.
“Leviathan just came to me. Said if we don’t return Lily, they’ll open the portal.”
Callum didn’t drink from his glass. His eyes immediately shifted to mine instead.
“I don’t understand how my daughter can be this important.”
“She’s the most powerful soul they’ve ever had in the underworld.
Its consumption would give them a burst of unimaginable energy and, therefore, power.
It takes immense resources to open the portal, and if they go through with it, they’ll be deeply weakened by the souls they sacrificed to reach their goal.
They’re taking a risk, hoping that everyone will panic, return Lily, and avoid that outcome altogether. ”
“So you think it’s a bluff?”
“No. They’ll open the portal if they don’t get Lily. They’ll be in a drained state, but still more powerful than mortals. But it would be preferable if they just got Lily back and avoided all that. What did you tell Leviathan?”
“To fuck off.”
He gave a slight nod in agreement. “He needs to hear that more often.”
Something seemed different about him, and it wasn’t the news about the underworld. He seemed numb and empty but full of a deep level of despair. His fair face was as white as snow, as if all his blood had been drained from his body. “Lily was just here?”
“Yeah.” The second he heard her name, he took a drink, as if he needed to wash it down.
“Something happen?”
“She shared Khazmuda’s feelings, and we came to the agreement that it would never work between us.”
I didn’t react even in the most dire circumstances, but I felt my eyebrows shift up quickly when I heard what he said.
“It’d be a slow and painful death.”
I watched him take another drink, a big and powerful man reduced to pure nothingness.
He should care more about the portal situation, but he didn’t seem to care about much since he’d lost the one thing he couldn’t live without.
“I’ll work it out with Khazmuda. But for right now, we need to focus on this. ”
He nodded in agreement but didn’t seem to care what I said.
“You can’t tell Lily what I’ve shared with you. Because if she knows she can put an end to this by returning to the underworld, she’ll do it.”
“I know,” he said. “So what’s the plan?”
The portal would open somewhere in the world, and we needed to be prepared to meet that threat. It would be the greatest battle of humankind, light versus dark, good versus evil. “We prepare for battle.”
Hawk, Queen Eldinar, and General Ezra joined me in my study. We surveyed the world map, at least the world we were aware of, and tried to think of our positioning.
“If Lily is what they want, they’ll bring the fight to us,” I said. “It won’t be by sea. I think we know that much.”
The door was opened so Viper entered the room, his cape shifting behind him when he moved, commandeering attention and respect like he was a king from a neighboring kingdom.
“Lily told me what’s happened.” He approached the other side of the table and glanced down at the map before he looked at me again. “What’s the plan?”
“We need every able-bodied fighter in the Southern Isles within the next two weeks,” I said. “You should return to your kingdom and bring your fleet of ships here. Thirty thousand vampires will be essential in what’s to come.”
His eyes hardened on mine as he processed what I’d said, but there was a note of hesitance in his gaze, even confusion.
“I just deployed my army in your war that cost me many good men. My relationship with my brother is finally on the mend. I can’t ask him to relaunch the army so quickly, and I definitely can’t go against his orders a second time. ”
I felt the disappointment creep into my face. “I understand, but we need those men.”
“There’s nothing I can do, Talon. I appreciate the dragons you’ve gifted my kingdom, but we’re not your private army that you can just order around. If you want me to make this happen, I need a large incentive to move mountains and wage war against my brothers a second time.”
“I can give you coin. A galleon full of whatever you want from our treasury.”
“You know I don’t want money, Talon.”
The air between us immediately changed because I knew exactly what he wanted as payment. “Give us the room,” I said while still looking at Viper.
No one said a word as they filed out, and Hawk closed the door behind him because he was the last to exit.
I released a heavy sigh. “My kingdom is not the only one that hangs in the balance right now. It’s all the kingdoms of this world. And if the underworld and the mortal plane merge, we’ll all be fucked.”
“Trust me, I get it.”
“So trying to strong-arm me into giving you my daughter like she’s a fucking sheep does not impress me, Viper. If you love my daughter, then you should move mountains to make this happen, because it’s her life that always hangs in the balance.”
He kept a stoic expression while I snapped at him. “I already moved mountains once before. It’s not that I’m unwilling to do it again. It’s just…complicated.”
“Life and death is not complicated, Viper.”
His arms moved behind his back, and he released a sigh.
“My king was angry that I took his army against his wishes, but he was angrier that I did all of it for a woman who didn’t return my affections.
He constantly whispers in my ear that my devotion to this woman is nonsensical.
If I return with the same request and say that Lily is still not mine, he’ll lock me up so I can’t repeat my offense.
Now, if Lily did reciprocate my feelings, my brothers would go to war for her in the flesh.
Lily has been distraught for days, and I suspect it has nothing to do with the opening of the portal.
That relationship was doomed to fail from the beginning, so I see an opening right now.
And your influence would go a long way.”
Constantly hearing two men declare their love for my daughter was driving me up the wall.
They were both so different, Callum subtle but deep, while Viper was aggressive as any general would be.
“I honored my word to you and told you when their relationship was compromised. But I will not interfere further in my daughter’s private life—and I certainly will not influence her one way or another.
If you want my daughter, that’s your agenda, not mine.
But if you can really abandon her in this fight, then you didn’t love her in the first place. ”
“Who said anything about abandoning her?” he demanded. “I never said I would leave. I just said I can’t recruit my king’s army to come to your aid. If I were king, that would be a different story, but I’m limited by my station.”
So he would stay here and fight for us even if we were likely to be outnumbered by demons and creatures and monsters.
Just when my respect for him was waning, it rose once more.
“My daughter is an adult woman, and I will not be involved in her personal affairs from this moment onward. You don’t come to me with requests or disappointments.
What happens between you is your concern, not mine. ”