Chapter 28 Callum
CALLUM
Lily lay beside me in bed, her beautiful, long hair on the pillow behind her, her eyes tired and desperate for sleep but too stubborn to close. The fire burned, crackling and popping, and the rain continued to fall outside, gently tapping on the roof.
I brushed my fingers through her hair as I looked at her beside me, the single most beautiful thing I’d ever seen.
There was no tomorrow or the day after tomorrow, no future plans or worries that could break this moment we had together.
I’d dreamed of the day I could call her my wife—and I made her my wife every night.
Her tired eyes continued to look at me. Her fingers rose and gently touched my jawline, feeling the coarse hair from my beard. They lightly played with me before she moved her lips to mine and gave me the softest kiss.
I’d thought I was damned to the underworld for all eternity, and now, I swore I was in the light of the Realm of Caelum every day. In love with a powerful goddess who had somehow chosen me to share her kingdom for an eternity.
I’d thought I couldn’t love her more, but the second she became my wife, that love deepened to a new level.
Deep enough that it hurt my chest, made me appreciate her that much more.
I was in love with a woman I would literally do anything for, but I was also in love with a woman who would do anything for me.
Even trade her soul for mine to set me free.
I’d thought I loved Anya and she loved me, but that love wasn’t true.
This one was.
“What are you thinking?” she whispered.
I dipped my head to her bare shoulder and kissed her flesh.
Kissed her collarbone and then the hollow of her throat.
Continued to kiss her as I rolled her to her back and moved between her thighs to make love to her again, wanting to be close to her every moment we were apart, because lying together in bed next to the fire just wasn’t close enough.
Lily was still in bed when I got up.
It was raining outside, but I could tell from the light through the windows that it was late in the morning.
Around this time of day, the servants dropped off a new casserole or a hot dish along with water and fruit and other items to last until dinnertime.
It was probably organized by Lily’s mother because she knew we didn’t want to be disturbed… for a while.
I made coffee in the kitchen before I opened the door and found the basket of supplies for the afternoon. I picked it up and carried it to the dining table before I turned back to close the door.
But I stopped when I came face-to-face with a tall woman with fiery red hair and skin that glowed the color of gold.
I blinked and assumed she would disappear when my lids opened again, but she remained there, standing in the entryway with hair that floated freely around her. Adrenaline started in my heart because Riviana had never come to me this way—nor did she need a reason to do so.
“Callum Riverside, there’s something I want to show you.” She extended her hand to me.
I stared down at her outstretched palm before I raised my eyes to her. Fear dumped in my bloodstream, afraid that she would take me from Lily…and I would never make it back to her.
“I promise to return you exactly where you stand—and when you stand.”
“What do you want to show me?”
“Your sons.”
The breath I sucked in was automatic, a harsh inhale on the lungs, the spark that lit the emotion in my heart.
“Trust me, Callum Riverside.” Her hand remained for the taking, absolutely still without a hint of a tremor. “Lily won’t notice that you’re gone, for only a moment will pass here.”
I finally moved forward and placed my palm in hers.
The world blurred as we were tugged away, ripping us from one place to another, just as I’d been able to do when I was a god myself.
The earth went still once again, and we stood upon a dirt road in the countryside, outside a small house made of stone, smoke coming from the chimney, horses and livestock in the pasture past it.
I sucked in a sharp breath as I looked at the house I thought I’d never see again. “It—it was destroyed. It doesn’t exist anymore.”
“It doesn’t exist today, but it exists in the moment we’re in now.”
I turned to look at her, my eyebrows furrowed as I tried to understand.
“We’re in the past.”
“Why would you want to show me the past? I already lived it. Already visited them every day.”
She stared at me for a while. “Because we’re not here to observe, Callum.”
I slowly turned back to the house, the windows dusty because they hadn’t been cleaned, the wheelbarrow still out front by the door. Compared to the life I lived now, it showed a life of poverty, but it was still special to me.
“Darius is thirteen now. Tiberius is eleven.”
I looked at her again.
“They’re old enough to understand now. And they’re still young enough to know exactly who you are.”
Tears started to fill my eyes at the prospect of finally having what had been savagely denied. The opportunity to explain what had really happened. To tell them I didn’t leave because I wanted to. “Is this real…?”
She nodded.
“Why are you doing this for me?”
She looked at the house again. “It was not my idea—but Talon Rothschild’s.”
I took the biggest breath I’d ever taken, moved to the point where the tears flooded my eyelids.
“They can’t see me, only you. They’re about to come out, so prepare yourself.”
I quickly wiped the tears from my eyes with my forearm. I sucked in another breath and then a sniffle and forced my shoulders to drop.
A moment later, the door opened, and I recognized Darius because I’d seen him at this age before.
Tiberius followed behind him, both of them wearing packs across their backs.
Anya’s voice followed them out the door.
“Be back before dark, boys.” The door shut, and they crossed the yard to the short stone wall that separated our property from the main road.
Both of them stared down at the ground, so they didn’t notice me right away.
They moved through the opening in the wall and stepped onto the path.
Riviana faded from the spot, making herself invisible to me so it would feel like just the three of us.
Darius halted when his eyes lifted and he spotted me. He stopped in his tracks and immediately elbowed his brother in the side to silently get his attention. He was officially a teenager, and he was tall for his age, getting his height from me. Still a boy but in the process of becoming a man.
Tiberius released a tiny gasp when he looked at my face.
So overwhelmed with emotion, I was frozen in place, seeing my boys looking back at me for the first time.
I lowered myself to one knee to match their height, because I still towered over them both.
I looked into their eyes as they looked into mine, and I knew the only explanation for their reaction was because…
they remembered me. I looked a lot like my brother, so they would undoubtedly pick up on the similarity alone. “Do you know who I am?”
Darius quickly glanced at his brother before he looked at me again. “Yes.”
“Who am I?” I asked, my hands together as my arms rested on my thighs, wanting to know with certainty that they hadn’t forgotten me.
“Dad…” Darius finally said.
Tiberius nodded.
I nearly burst into tears when I heard the name. Being called Dad was my greatest—and my saddest—memory. “There’s something I need to explain to you two. I know it’ll be hard to understand, but I didn’t leave because I wanted to. I would never want to leave my boys.”
“Then why did you?” Darius asked.
My boys had always been smart and resourceful, and I hoped that now that they were older, they would be able to understand what I tried to tell them. “Because I was forced to. When your mother was sick, I made a deal with a bad man to spare her life, but it came at a great cost.”
Both boys listened to that in silence, probably unsure exactly what that meant.
“I’ve watched you grow up. You just can’t see me.”
“Will you come back, then?” Darius asked.
“I—I can’t,” I said as my tears started to well. “I would love to. I’m so proud of you boys, but I can’t… But know that I’m with you, that I watch you every day.”
“Dad, I don’t understand,” Tiberius said.
The tears dripped down my cheeks when I heard how effortlessly he called me that. “I know it’s hard to understand right now. I just want you to know how much I love you both, and I never, ever wanted to leave you. I think about you every day…always.”
Riviana appeared behind them, silently telling me the reunion had concluded.
“Please don’t tell your mother about this, okay?” I didn’t want to scare her. For her to think I was there to steal the children back.
Darius nodded.
I opened my arms in the hope they would come to me and let me embrace them.
But Darius didn’t move. He stared at me with a hint of distrust.
Tiberius did, though. He came to me and landed on my chest.
My arms immediately squeezed him tightly, my face burying in his hair and smelling the scent I still remembered after four hundred long years.
I wanted to hold both of my sons, but it was a gift to hold just one, to show him love through my touch.
“I love you.” I brushed a kiss to his forehead before I squeezed him again.
“I love you too, Dad.” He eventually left my arms and walked back to his brother.
Darius still didn’t trust me, probably because he was older, had become the man of the family in a lot of aspects. He was more aware of his mother’s misery, picked up on all the terrible things Anya must have said about me when she spoke to my brother in private.
“Continue on your way to the village,” I said as the tears stuck to my cheeks, not wanting them to see me leave…again.
Darius was the first one to turn away, to start up the dirt path.
Tiberius stayed behind. “Will we see you again, Dad?”
“I—I don’t know. But I’m always with you, okay?”