And he was right.
I wasn’t sure whether it was day or night, even when the witches slept in their beds. Since they were mortals, they still needed to sleep, unlike the rest of the inhabitants of the underworld, but that didn’t necessarily mean it was nighttime in the mortal world.
While they slept, I left the wooden house and walked down the stairs as the sound of the forest enveloped my ears. It wasn’t filled with the natural sounds of nightlife, like hooting owls and chirping crickets…but other noises.
The bonfire in the center of the grass was still a tower of flames, easily twice my height, the heat licking my skin and making the blades of grass shine in the light. I stood there in the black dress they’d made for me, a crown upon my head woven from branches and dead stalks of grass, and I stared into the depths of the fire as my mind drifted away.
To my father, who must have been devastated when he found me.
My mother, who had already had to watch my father nearly die…and then lose her daughter.
My brother, who’d become the friend I least expected to have.
And then Callum, the love of my life…the man I hoped to love forever.
Ever since I’d arrived here, I’d been concerned with survival, so much so that I really hadn’t thought of anything or anyone else.But now, the storm seemed to settle, and the waves of emotion washed over me with the incoming tide.
I missed them all.
I wasn’t afraid that I would be trapped here forever. I knew nothing would stop them from getting me back to the mortal world. And then Callum and I could finally be together, on the same side of the veil, an immortal lifetime ahead of us.
My eyes left the flames when movement caught my attention. My gaze shifted past the fire into the darkness, looking for signs of Leviathan or one of his servants. But my eyes failed to adjust to the darkness after staring at the bright flames for so long.
All I could see was the vague outline of a man.
I wasn’t in the armor that could protect me from Leviathan’s blade, but I also knew he wanted me to continue to exist, not disappear into the void. But I still felt vulnerable at the possibility of being cornered when I least expected it.
Then he stepped into the light of the flames, the glow from the fire illuminating his face with the intensity of daylight.
For a flicker, I saw Leviathan’s face, the demon I expected to come for me.
But then I saw the short, dark hair around his head…and the dark eyes that looked like my coffee first thing in the morning. And then the intensity of that gaze reminded me of stares across the room, when I was underneath him in bed, when we sat together on the beach with our feet in the sand.
A quiet gasp escaped my lips at the sight of him, unsure if he was real or if this place had already driven me mad. He wore black armor with the Rothschild crest in the center, a dragon flyingoverhead, six-and-a-half feet tall with shoulders that barely fit through most doorways.
Then his eyes started to shine as they took me in, a gloss emphasized by the fire, the corners of his gaze already turning red.
I knew it was real, but I just couldn’t believe it. Even as my eyes began to water because of the undeniable truth right before me.
Then he said the name I hadn’t heard in so long, and whatever tangible doubt I had about this moment was permanently dismissed. “Xivin.” He moved around the fire at a sudden speed and came into me, one of his big arms hooking around the small of my back while his other hand slipped into my hair, and he kissed me.
My eyes closed, and I felt my body float in his embrace, felt my fingers dig into his short hair as I latched on to him, my lips trembling at the beautiful contact between our desperate mouths. It’d been so long since I’d touched him, since the night I’d told him I loved him with my whole heart. Months had passed since our eyes had locked, but nothing had changed between us. We were still two flames that blazed into an inferno when they came together.
I cupped his cheek as I looked into his dark eyes, seeing my whole world staring back at me. “I knew you would come for me.” I rested my forehead against his chin and closed my eyes, treasuring the magical feeling our reunion created. It was so strong, it made me forget where we were, made me hear small ocean waves in the background and feel sunlight on my face.
“I love you,Xivin.”
“I love you, Callum.”
He pressed a kiss to my forehead before he pulled away, reaching for my hand instead and gripping it so tightly he seemed to be afraid someone would yank me out of his grasp. “We have to go. We don’t have much time.”
The dramatic conclusion in Goddess of Death.
I knew Callum would come for me.
I leave the treacherous underworld behind and return to life with the man I love -- finally. But when I ask him to marry me, there's a heaviness in his silence. He admits that he's kept something from me...and he finally tells me his truth.
A secret I wish he'd taken to the grave.
A secret that changes everything.
Callum had earned the respect and acceptance of everyone in my life, but then he destroys it in just the span of minutes. I'm not sure where this leaves us, but the situation only gets worse when Leviathan returns.
The God of the Underworld says if I don't return to the underworld, the covenant will destroy the portal between our realms...and everyone I love will die.
