Chapter 11 Lily #2
I stepped farther toward the forest and peered into the darkness.
I didn’t feel Callum, but I wasn’t sure if I would be able to feel him in a place like this.
“Then leave. Return home and send a ship to retrieve me. But I’m not leaving.
” I moved toward the roots of a tree, broken branches desiccated like they’d dried out in the desert sun.
I grabbed one and wrapped dead grass and fallen leaves around the end of the branch before I held it out to Zehemoth.
He wordlessly understood what I meant and blew a small fire out of his nostrils to set it ablaze. The branch caught immediately and turned into a bright torch that illuminated a short distance into the dead forest.
You know I won’t leave you, Sunieth.
I stepped into the tree line and peered into the emptiness before me.
I’d set foot on these lands before and felt the sinister presence that Zehemoth could feel, tenfold.
If my heart didn’t beat so deeply for Callum, I’d turn around and leave.
Because this dead place, even if I’d been there before, utterly terrified me.
With the torch held high, I started into the cursed forest, noting the absence of wildlife. There was no midnight hoot of an owl, no sound of a frog in a small pond, no crickets chirping into the night.
It was just quiet…except for the burn of my torch.
Be careful, Sunieth.
Always.
I moved over the dirt, seeing a twenty-foot radius of light around me.
I felt the urge to check behind me every few seconds, to be aware of my entire surroundings at all times, as if something would grab me when I dropped my guard.
When I first came here, Callum could disappear and reappear randomly and at any point.
So could other things do that too?
Could other creatures of the underworld come here?
I stopped when I heard the whisper of a woman whose voice I didn’t recognize.
Lily, go back.
I didn’t hear it from the world around me…but within me. But I turned around in several different directions, bringing the light with me, searching for the woman who warned me.
Go back to your father.
Bumps formed on my arms at her words, because she seemed to know me.
And I didn’t even recognize her voice.
What is it, Sunieth? I feel your fear.
I—I thought I heard something.
What?
A woman. I stood there in the dark, the torch burning in my grasp, and I listened for more.
But there was nothing.
When I collected my strength once more, I continued my journey to the center of the island, relying on the compass my father gave me to guide me.
The trees started to thin the farther I traveled, and they changed to dead birch trees, the bark rolling off in thick strips.
The branches contained no leaves, but the floor was devoid of them too—like none had ever grown in the first place.
I took another step, and then the dark world was set ablaze by a ring of torches that came alive within a single breath. Instantly and in unison, the second I crossed an invisible line, a hundred torches were lit, making the world as bright as daylight.
And in the center was a massive rock of stone, perfectly carved into a skull shape with a missing jaw and teeth, the mouth an entryway. I gripped the torch like it was a weapon and felt my breaths go shaky. I did my best not to show fear, but this was the most frightening thing I’d ever seen.
But then it got worse.
I blinked.
I blinked…and he was there.
A man nearly seven feet tall, with fair skin the color of snow and eyes the color of turquoise waters off a tropical island. In a dark-blue uniform with black armor on top and an enormous two-handed blade across his back…stood the god of the underworld.
And it wasn’t Callum.
Slowly, the most sickening smile stretched across his face, grotesque in smugness.
I’d never been in the presence of true evil before now. I’d encountered Callum this exact way months before, and it had felt nothing like this. I’d never feared him, never feared the way he stared at me.
But this…creature…was a menace.
A breeze blew through the island, and the torches flickered. As they did so, so did his appearance. In the quick shadows, he wasn’t a fair man, but an eight-foot-tall demon with a dozen horns on his head, bearing a mass at least double what Callum’s was.
And then he returned to his human form, the smile still there.
Now I knew why Callum hadn’t come back.
Leviathan, God of the Underworld and King of the Dead. His lips didn’t move when he spoke. Instead, he spoke directly into my mind. Lily Rothschild, what do you seek?
Despite the heat from the torches, chill bumps formed on my arms. I tossed the burning torch aside, where it landed on the dead earth. “I wish to speak to Wrath.”
He’s been ejected into the void and, therefore, no more.
Despair splashed me in the face like a bucket of ice-cold water. Without the torch to grip, my fingers tightened into an uncontrollable fist. My expression hesitated, showing a flash of anguish that I tried to bottle inside.
His sick grin widened.
But then I remembered the strength Callum granted to me, the strength that had accompanied me for so long, I’d gotten used to it. It was still with me, still a part of me, and that meant he was still here. “I don’t believe you.”
His grin remained in place without hesitation.
“Callum!” I shouted for him, as if he’d somehow appear behind this creature. As if my voice would somehow cross the barrier between the mortal world and the underworld. As if he would somehow hear me, that he would know I understood he didn’t leave by choice. “Callum!”
The dead can’t hear the cries of the living—
“I don’t take demons at their word.”
Now the smile disappeared, and he took a step toward me.
I held my ground and refused to move back, regardless of how close he came to me.
He continued to walk forward, his cape shifting behind him as he moved, and within a blink, he wasn’t a man anymore. He was the demon again, his clothing and armor gone, his skin the color and texture of warped rock.
I swallowed and reached for the hilt of my blade on my shoulder, gripping it tightly in preparation to remove it from the scabbard.
He stopped feet from me, looking at me with dark eyes as deep as eternal night.
He had two rows of teeth on both his upper and lower jaw, the edges serrated for sinking into bone and slicing it apart.
A heart was visible in the strange webbing of his flesh, the beat noticeable as his flesh vibrated in response to the pulse.
Callum Riverside is thoroughly enjoying his promotion to an eater.
Even though he’s no longer the king of the dead, the occult continues to worship his reign.
His bed is filled with the women who have erased your memory.
I was not provoked this time. “You speak lies.”
Perhaps. But time passes differently below. A few weeks in the mortal world is nearly a year below. Perhaps Callum Riverside is dead. Perhaps he’s not. Perhaps he’s replaced you with a woman who looks exactly like you. You’ll never know…not unless you pay for it.
My hand continued to grip my sword, not trusting this demon when he stood so close to me. I regarded everything he said as a lie, except his final words.
Your soul for his—a fair price.
I finally released the hilt of the blade and brought my hand back to my side.
Leviathan flickered, and then he was a man once more, handsome in his appearance, strong in his muscular body.
A part of me wondered if Callum had lied to me and he was a demon too. He’d just never shown that side to him, knowing I wouldn’t be able to love him.
Do we have a deal, Lily Rothschild?
Callum’s handsome face came to mind, his hard stare that communicated the depth of his love without words. He would never take my soul, even when I offered it to save my father. And if he stood there at that very moment, he would beg me not to do it, not even for him. “No.”
His eyebrows furrowed slightly, his expression hardening in a slight look of confusion. He lost his position of power because of the sacrifices he made for you, and you turn your back on him.
Saying nothing was the hardest thing I’d ever done.
He’ll be pleased to hear that. Or I should say, I’ll be pleased to tell him. He disappeared in a blink, and in a rush of breeze that came from nowhere, all the torches around me were extinguished.
The only one that continued to burn was the one I’d brought with me.
Surrounded by the darkness and the cold, I started to shiver in my armor, the tears reaching the surface of my eyes quicker than blood rose to a fresh wound.
My body trembled as the sobs shook my chest and made my bones crack.
Anguish unlike anything I’d ever known ripped through me and snapped my spine in two.
I tasted the salt on my lips, tasted the sting of despair.
Then I fell to my knees and wept.