Chapter 21 Lily #2
“Callum, you know I’m going to hand myself over. I was the one who made the trade. I was the one who decided to sell my soul for your release. My father was lucky enough to escape his debt, but I’m obviously not.”
The emptiness in his eyes started to fill with emotion, color coming back to his fair cheeks.
“I love so many people in this world. Not just my family and my friends and the dragons, but my people. The pirates of the Brigandine Empire, the elves of Riviana Star… There are a lot of good beings in this world. Why would I want to risk all of that, just for myself?”
His chest rose and fell at a quicker rate, but he didn’t share his thoughts with me. Continued to observe me behind the pained look in his eyes.
“I have to do this.”
His eyes never left my face. He didn’t blink once, just took in my stare with a swirl of emotion I couldn’t identify. “Then I’m coming with you.”
“They didn’t ask for both of us.”
“Where you go, I go,” he said quietly. “As long as we’re together, I don’t care if it’s in eternal darkness. We can’t build the life that we want, but we would still have each other.”
I pictured us walking down that forest road together, him holding a torch above his head as he led the way into the darkness, both of us in our armor like we went to war…when we went nowhere at all.
“That’s enough for me.”
After hundreds of years trapped in that dark prison, he finally had his freedom, but he would trade it to be with me instead. To experience death as a hallucination of life. To forfeit another chance to live, to love someone and have a family, to feel joy in the sunshine.
No other man would ever love me as much as he did.
And in that moment, I realized nothing else mattered except the two of us.
That our differences weren’t important, that his betrayal was inconsequential.
It was as if it never happened. “What if we did both? What if I return and kill Leviathan? Then move on to the Covenant? If you really think I’m strong enough. ”
His eyes changed their expression as he considered my words, his eyebrows furrowing slightly as he became lost in thought. “I have no doubt you can defeat Leviathan. An even match between gods, but I know you’re the more talented swordsman.”
I felt a rush of warmth in my belly, those words meaning everything to me.
“Even I couldn’t defeat the Covenant at the height of my power.
They’re demon lords, far more powerful. But their energy and strength wane as they continue to fuel the destruction of the portal.
If we return at the right moment, they’ll be at their weakest state, and you’ll increase your chances of triumph.
But there are three remaining demon lords in the Covenant, and you couldn’t defeat all three on your own.
Even with my aid, we would be outmatched.
We would need more people, more people to isolate one at a time for you to defeat. ”
I envisioned all of that in my mind. “The occult felt my powers the second I was in their presence. If I defeat Leviathan, there would be no god of the underworld…so would I replace him?”
Callum shifted his stare between my eyes.
“And perhaps…all those servants and monsters would follow me?”
Callum still didn’t say anything, thinking it all through, his face handsome when he was deep in thought. “Perhaps. The situation is unprecedented, so I’m not sure. But if they witnessed you defeat their king, they would absolutely fear you.”
“Then I think that should be our plan. We should speak to my father and decide who will accompany us.”
“There’s a chance he won’t support your plan at all, Lily.”
“I’m going either way, whether he supports me or not,” I said. “I know he wants to protect me, but he can’t protect me from this. Either I take the battle to them, or they bring the battle to us. I can’t be shielded or spared, and it’s time he accepts that.”
Despite the late hour, I called the meeting in my father’s study.
Aunt Eldinar and Uncle Ezra attended in their battle armor.
My brother was also there, in his special armor that denoted him as the general of the Southern Isles.
Callum was in armor that was nearly identical to mine, and if our situation were less dire, I wouldn’t have been able to stop staring at him.
I loved seeing my family’s crest on his chest, loved seeing a version of him that I would want to see every day for the rest of my life.
My parents were the last ones to enter, and my father deliberately gave Aunt Eldinar a look, a scowl so deep it had to be intentional. My mother was in her armor, something she rarely wore, but we didn’t know when the war would arrive on our doorstep.
My father turned to me. “Lily, what news do you have?” He stopped at the table across from me, still looking as pissed off as he’d been hours earlier.
“I have a plan,” I said. “And I know it’s going to sound crazy at first, but hear me out.”
“Good ideas are few and far between,” Aunt Eldinar said. “Share your thoughts, Princess.”
My father looked at her with the same viciousness, his eyes pulsing in his face when he stared at her.
What had happened between them to spark this forest fire?
“Once they break the barrier, all of the underworld will spill out into our plane, and we’ll have to fight everything all at once. But what if we took the fight to them instead?”
Aunt Eldinar cocked her head slightly as she listened. “Go on.”
“Callum knows how to bypass Leviathan and enter the underworld. He could escort a team of fighters down below, and then we could attack Leviathan when he least expects it. Callum believes I have the strength to defeat him, and if we time our entry just before the portal ruptures, they’ll be at their weakest. I could kill Leviathan, and then we could pursue the Covenant next. ”
“He’ll know someone is there the second we cross the torches,” Aunt Eldinar said.
“I’ll approach him,” I said. “Tell him I’ve decided to forfeit my soul if they spare the mortal world. Once I’m down below—”
“No.” My father looked at me furiously.
“It’s a solid plan—”
“No,” he repeated, like I was a child.
“We can ask Riviana to plead for peace,” Aunt Eldinar said. “That way, we can all enter the underworld together—”
“What makes you believe you’re coming?” Dad snarled as he looked at my aunt.
Whoa, what had happened? I turned my gaze to Hawk, like he might have the answer written on his face, but when he looked at me, he gave a slight shrug like he didn’t have a clue.
“Talon.” My mother didn’t raise her voice, but she put her hand on his arm to sheath him like a sharp blade in a scabbard.
“I’m one of the strongest fighters that you have, Talon,” Aunt Eldinar said calmly. “And I would be honored to fight alongside your daughter, Princess of the Southern Isles, the woman who successfully ruled your kingdom in your stead.”
“I’m coming too,” Hawk said.
“General Ezra will also accompany us,” Aunt Eldinar said. “We can’t bring too many without arousing suspicion before we even reach Leviathan. Will Viper join us?” She turned to me. “A fused vampire would be a great ally.”
“I’m sure he would join us,” I said. “We’ll get a message to him when this meeting is concluded.”
Callum didn’t dismiss the idea of his rival joining us.
“Then it would be a team of seven,” Aunt Eldinar said. “A good number, not insignificant in size but powerful in substance. I’ll speak with Riviana about this plan. She’ll let us know when the barrier grows thin and the opportune moment to strike.”
“I never agreed to this,” my father said. “We fail, and we’re all trapped down there for eternity.”
“And if we fail up here, the entire world is doomed for eternity,” I retorted.
“If Leviathan is weak, then we don’t need Lily’s powers to prevail,” he said. “The rest of us should be enough.”
“This is all happening because of me, and I need to fix it,” I said. “I know it’s me they want. And this scenario is the only one where we win, regardless of the outcome. I fail and remain trapped down there forever, but the world is spared…or I prevail, and the world is spared.”
My father shifted his gaze to Callum, and his eyes burned with accusation.
“Don’t look at him,” I snapped. “I came to you and asked you directly if there was something you weren’t telling me, and you lied straight to my face—without hesitation.
” My father showed his pride for me, but he also didn’t treat me as his equal, continuing to cocoon me like a helpless girl rather than acknowledging the fearsome warrior I’d become—and that hurt.
He looked at me with the same rage he showed Aunt Eldinar.
“I’m not sorry. I’ll never be sorry for putting my children before everyone else.
So you can look at me like that all you want, Lily.
I don’t care.” He turned his attention back to Callum.
“If my daughter dies, it’s your spilled blood that will pay for it. ”
Callum didn’t visibly react to that threat at all, someone who never exhibited a temper.
“I hate this as much as you do, Talon. You know how much I love your daughter. But I have full confidence that Lily can do this. My strength is now dwarfed by hers, but I will continue to be her shield through this. Any blade that is meant for her will be taken by me instead. I understand you will always love her as a daughter first, instead of a monarch and a soldier, but you have to remember who you raised. She survived the storm that struck her galleon because you taught her to sail through a hurricane. Her crew was killed, but she was spared because she earned their respect with her viciousness. When she escaped imprisonment, she was able to sail a tiny sailboat across the open ocean for three days and nights without a drop of water. While, yes, she had my strength and my power, she still had the skills to save you and Riviana Star. And despite her grief at the loss of her father, she inherited a vulnerable kingdom at war and rose to the challenge. She earned her allies and dismissed her enemies. She defeated Kennt and his generals before they could touch the castle and was forced to make a decision no daughter should ever have to make—but she made it as a queen. I understand how hard this is for you.” He paused to take a breath.
“Truly, I do. But you need to remember that Lily is more than your daughter, she is the woman you worked so hard to raise to be queen. It’s time to let go, Talon.
It’s time to accept she’s your equal. It’s time to have faith that she’s ready. ”
I stared at the side of Callum’s face as I listened to him speak, and when he finished, my gaze flicked back to my father.
The rage in his face was suddenly gone, his eyes a window to his broken heart.
Both of his hands moved to the edge of the table, and he gripped it for a moment before he stepped back, his eyes still on the map that we no longer needed.
“You’re right…” The rage that had bubbled in his throat before had dissipated.
Now he was quiet, emotion making his voice raspy.
“You’re right.” He finally turned his gaze back to me, and a long stare ensued, the emotion in his eyes nearly bringing me to tears. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” I whispered.
Then he turned to look at Aunt Eldinar, his face calm rather than angry like it had been before. All he did was issue her a slight nod.
She made it in return. “It’s okay, Talon.”
I didn’t know what had transpired between them, but it must have been a conversation about me. “Then it sounds like we’re all in agreement. Let’s make our preparations.”