Chapter 13 Lily
LILY
I climbed into Zehemoth’s saddle and grabbed the horn. “Can you make the journey, or do you need to rest?”
I could never rest in a haunted place like this. Zehemoth took off from the beach, propelling himself high above the water until he cruised just below the clouds. What happened, Lily?
I hadn’t shared Callum with Zehemoth at any point. I’d tried to keep him a secret from everyone as long as I could. “It’s a really long story…” But the truth had finally caught up to me. I told Zehemoth the entire story, starting at the beginning with the island and then everything that followed.
The god of the underworld was in your company the whole time…and none of us knew.
“He revealed himself only to me.”
You had an intimate relationship with him and never told me?
“I couldn’t tell anyone, Zehemoth.”
You could have told me.
I didn’t engage.
You should have told me.
“What’s done is done.”
I don’t understand why you didn’t confide in me, Sunieth.
“Because I didn’t want anyone to know.”
I wouldn’t have told anyone.
I said nothing.
Why do I feel like you’re keeping something from me?
“Let’s discuss this later.”
When? We’re flying across the ocean for the next day. What better time than now?
I didn’t want to confront Zehemoth about this. I always gave everyone the benefit of the doubt, and I was certain he hadn’t meant to deceive me…but he did. “I told you I didn’t want to be queen, and you told your father, who told mine…who confronted me. I guess I’ve always been wounded by that.”
Zehemoth didn’t respond right away, continuing to glide under the clouds before he flapped his wings a couple of times and glided again. So, you don’t trust me with your secrets. His tone had only changed slightly, but I could hear the hurt in his voice.
“It was just too big a secret to risk.”
Because you can’t trust me.
Now my heart broke like I was the one in the wrong. “I wouldn’t put it like that.”
But that’s how you feel.
“I was just blindsided when my father confronted me.”
I thought it brought you closer together.
“It did. But it wasn’t your place to decide to share it with him.”
When I shared that with my father, I didn’t expect him to tell Talon.
“But did you explicitly tell him not to?”
Zehemoth hesitated. No…
“Then it’s not a surprise he told my father.”
Zehemoth fell quiet, flying in silence for a long time.
Now I was angry…and guilty. And utterly broken by what I’d learned about Callum all at the same time.
I’m really sorry, Lily. I wish you’d told me this sooner.
I didn’t say anything, not ready to let go of my resentment.
I’ve learned from my mistakes. I want you to know you can always trust me with your secrets. I would never betray you, Sunieth. But I understand if you feel otherwise.
Now I just felt guilt. Nothing but guilt. “It’s okay, Zehemoth. I forgive you.”
You do?
“Of course.” I wished we could have this conversation face-to-face, not on his back while we soared over the sky.
I’ll never break your trust again, Lily.
“I know, Zehemoth.”
An hour of silence passed, both of us reflecting on the conversation that had just taken place. Dawn approached over the horizon, and light started to spread over the world.
Finish your tale, Lily. Why did we come to the island?
I told him Callum disappeared and hadn’t been seen since before the battle.
That I’d worried about him every day until I couldn’t sit around any longer.
Told him my father viciously confronted me.
“When I reached the center of the island, I saw a skull rock…and the new god of the underworld. He told me that Callum had been stripped of his title for helping me so much…and said I could free him by giving my soul in exchange for his.”
Please tell me you didn’t, Lily.
“I didn’t. I have another idea.”
What is it?
I couldn’t get a message to Callum, not when Leviathan would twist my words into lies.
I had to hope that Callum wouldn’t give up on me, wouldn’t eject himself into the void because he had no reason to exist. I had to hope he would give me a little time to figure this out.
“I’m going to free him from the underworld. ”
By the time I returned to the Southern Isles, it was dark again.
Zehemoth came in for a shaky landing because he was exhausted from the long flight, especially since he’d flown Viper and me halfway across the world just a week ago.
I gave him an affectionate rub on the snout as I said goodbye.
I didn’t return to my villa but instead headed straight for the castle to speak to my father.
Good luck, Sunieth.
Thanks, Zehemoth.
I entered the castle then made my way toward the royal chambers. It was too early in the evening for my parents to be asleep, so I arrived at their door and knocked.
It took a moment for my mother to answer, fully dressed like they’d been seated at the dining table together.
“Hey, honey.” Her eyes shone with sympathy, fully aware of the conflict between my father and me.
She lowered her voice like my dad was somewhere nearby and might hear.
“It might be best to give him a little more space.”
“I need to speak to him now. It’s important.”
When she heard me say that, she stepped aside and let me enter their chambers.
My father had been standing in the sitting room, shirtless because he didn’t expect my company. The wound on his shoulder wasn’t covered with a bandage, but the platinum residue that remained glued to his skin. The color had faded, turning into storm-cloud gray.
I wasn’t sure if he would have it forever, or if it would fade entirely.
His arms had been crossed over his chest, but he dropped them and moved around the couch. “Lily, what’s wrong?” He dropped all animosity when he saw me there in my armor and sword, reading the despair on my face. “What’s happened?”
“The kingdom is safe, and so am I,” I said quickly to reassure his anxiety. “But I need your help.”
His eyes hardened before they narrowed.
“I returned to the dead island—”
“You did what?”
“Listen to me,” I snapped. “Listen to my words before you cut them down. Let me talk. If you have any respect for me, you will listen to the message I’m trying to convey to you. I need your help right now, and there’s no one else who can help me but you.”
He inhaled a breath so deep it seemed like his lungs would explode, but he honored my request and remained quiet.
“Wrath is no longer the god of the underworld. He’s been replaced by a demon named Leviathan.”
My father was red in the face. Beet red. Like he wanted to scream, but he didn’t.
“Wrath was stripped of his title and turned into an eater, something that makes him physically sick. It’s his punishment for breaking his vow and interfering on my behalf in ways he shouldn’t have. Leviathan said I could free him from his prison if I offered my soul instead of his—”
“Lily, please don’t tell me—”
“I didn’t. Wrath would never want me to do that.”
The breath of relief he exhaled deflated his lungs, and he dragged his hand across his jaw absent-mindedly.
“But this is irrefutable proof for you that what I told you about Wrath is true. My soul has not been claimed, nor is it owed as a debt. If that were true, then Leviathan couldn’t have offered me a deal. The reason I still have Wrath’s strength is because he chose to let me keep it.”
My father continued to stare at me with impatience, like he wanted me to finish so he could speak.
“So I need you to help me get him out of there.”
His eyebrows rose when I finally made my point. “Get him out of there? That’s not something that can be done, Lily.”
“You escaped.”
“Because Riviana opened up the portal between the realms and risked the mortal world—something she shouldn’t have done. She should have left me there. I would have preferred it than to risk my wife and Viv—”
My eyes narrowed at his mistake.
He brushed over it like nothing happened. “It was the wrong decision.”
“How could that be the wrong decision when we stand together this very moment, Dad?”
His eyes softened and showed hurt at the same time.
“That’s not what I meant—and you know it.
I just mean that interfering between the realms is dangerous.
And even if I could get Riviana to agree—which she won’t—the Covenant will be prepared for it.
They failed once, but they won’t fail again.
The second that veil is pierced, they will swallow this world whole.
And if Wrath didn’t want you to sacrifice your soul for his, he wouldn’t want you to risk your mortality and that of everyone you love for him either. ”
“Dad, I’m not going to stop until I at least try.”
“Riviana won’t do it.”
“She’ll do it—for you.”
His face turned to stone, putting up invisible walls so I couldn’t get through. “I couldn’t ask her that, Lily.”
It was the first time I’d felt slapped by my father. “Not even for me?”
“For you, yes. But not for him.”
“He is me.” Emotion started to wreak havoc on me, and my rage and pain mixed together to form a hurricane. “We are one person. He doesn’t deserve to be down there!”
“He’s there for a reason.”
“Fuck you, you don’t know him.” I cut my own father down with words I couldn’t control, exhausted by fighting for the honor of a man who had proven himself a million times.
“I do.” I slammed my fist hard into my chest plate.
“I know his soul, even if it’s hard to see because it’s rusted and warped by the darkness of the underworld.
He’s a good man who sacrificed everything for me, and he doesn’t deserve to be down there.
I’m your daughter, and I’m telling you this man is my husband, the father of my children, the man I want for an eternity—and you dismiss me?
You say you would burn this world for me, and here I am asking for the torch, and you give me ice. ”
“What you had wasn’t real.”