Page 8 of Kiss of Death

Watch my back, then.

Always.

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WRATH

I sat at the head of the table in the chair carved out of stone and fused with bones. The table was slanted and warped from the way it was carved out of the rock. I stared across the room, the chandelier hanging low, feeling nothing…and seeing nothing.

Leviathan approached the table with a bowl in his hand. In his demon form with a dozen horns protruding from his head, he stood over me, almost too tall for the room. Every breath he released a sound like a raspy growl.

I stared straight ahead.

He held out the bowl directly over the table where I sat. “Eat.” He released the bowl, and it landed with a thud in front of me, some of the contents splashing over the edge.

I glanced inside, seeing the black yolk in a viscous pool, the soul of a stranger.

“You’re an eater now, Wrath.”

Leviathan had been promoted to God of the Underworld in my stead. Because the passage of time was so different here than inthe mortal world, I wasn’t sure how much time had elapsed for Lily. Had it been a few days? Or a few weeks? Had the battle come to pass?

Did she survive…?

“Has the war taken place?” I asked without looking at him.

He just stood there, staring down at me.

The only reason I didn’t eject myself into the void was because of her. I needed to make sure she still had my strength for the battle. She was already stranded without the army of the dead. She couldn’t afford to lose that gift either. So I was forced to sit there and consume souls I didn’t want to swallow, my own soul slowly eroding with every feast that took place, just to make sure she still had it.

And I hoped it would serve as proof to her—that I didn’t leave her.

That I didn’t abandon her.

Watching Anya believe my lie so easily had been the hardest part of my deal with Bahamut.

I couldn’t bear it if Lily thought the same.

“I was always good to you as your superior,” I reminded him. “So, tell me.”

A dark chuckle escaped past his several rows of sharp teeth. “I owe you nothing, Wrath.”

“Just fucking tell me?—”

“Eat.”

“Answer the fucking question.”

“Lily Lena Rothschild was conquered by the Barbarians. Her family was killed, but she’s tied to a bed to service Kennt until she agrees to be his wife.”

Sickness filled me, the kind that flooded my heart as well as my bones. It was an agony worse than I’d ever known. Her suffering was far worse than any I had to face. My eyes stung at just the thought…the horror.

“Now eat…or eject.”

I stared at the bowl with the soul inside, feeling vomit form in the pit of my stomach at the thought. I shifted my gaze to the opposite wall. “I don’t believe you.” I couldn’t believe that my worst nightmare had come to pass. Lily was too smart and too powerful to be conquered by evil. It had to be a lie, a lie that would suit Leviathan because he’d have the pleasure of watching me voluntarily step into the void.

“Shall I feed it to you like a child?” He grabbed the bowl again. “Or should I just force it down your throat like last time?”

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