Page 14

My eyes drifted to the blades on the ground, and I plucked one out of the earth then wrapped it around my finger. Another subtle breeze moved through the meadow, catching a few of my strands of hair. “I appreciate your words, Zehemoth. But I’m finished with this conversation.”

I left the dishes in the sink because I didn’t feel like washing them tonight. The bottle of Barsetti wine on the counter was almost empty, so I poured the rest into my glass and took a drink as I walked toward the fire in the living room.

He appeared before me, in nothing but comfortable trousers that hung low on his hips. His bare feet were on my rug, and his bare chest was cast in the glow of the firelight.

“Fuck.” I gave a jolt and splashed the wine across the floor. Almost dropped the glass too.

He didn’t react, as if he expected to startle me.

He was bigger than his uniform and armor suggested, a powerful chest that was thick like the walls that protected this kingdom.

All the individual muscles of his shoulders and arms were visible in the shadows between the cuts of his physique.

And he had thick veins everywhere, rivers all over his earth.

His abdomen was tight with the same grooves of muscles, and more veins disappeared beneath the waistband of his trousers.

Still and silent like a statue that stood in the town square, he watched me with his potent stare.

I didn’t rush to clean up the wine, far more focused on the behemoth before me. “You scared the life out of me.” Frazzled, I ran my fingers through my hair then returned the wineglass to the counter. “Why are you here?”

One eyebrow cocked just a touch.

“Shit, I forgot.”

He tilted his head slightly, his stare still intense.

“Sorry, I have a lot on my mind right now.” I shouldn’t apologize to a man who demanded me to sleep with him, but I had made a deal. And he was by far the most ripped, muscular, strong man I’d ever laid eyes on. Viper was one hell of a man, but Wrath… No words. “Come back tomorrow.”

He didn’t say anything, but his eyes looked furious. “I was already patient once. I won’t be again.”

“Well, that’s too fucking bad.” I turned away from him and opened the cabinet that housed the wine bottles. I grabbed a Bordeaux before I carried it to the counter and tried to pull out the cork, but it was a stubborn son of a bitch that wouldn’t come free.

Wrath joined me at the counter and took over, removing the cork effortlessly like he’d done it a hundred times. He left the bottle on the counter then turned his full attention on me once more, a tree that loomed over me.

I didn’t look directly at him. I was in my loose t-shirt and my knee-high socks again, but this time, I didn’t care that I was on display. I pulled my wineglass close and tipped the bottle to pour the aromatic contents, the hint of stone fruit and olive.

He continued his angry stare.

I took a drink then licked my lips, feeling his eyes hot on my cheek.

“What troubles you?” The anger wasn’t audible in his voice, not obvious like it’d been in his gaze.

“I thought you knew everything.”

“I had other matters that required my attention today. To you, it’s been a day, but for me, it’s been a week since I last saw you.”

“How does that work?” I took another drink of the wine.

He pulled the wineglass from my hand and set it aside. “Tell me what makes your eyes grow callous.”

I wouldn’t share my thoughts and feelings with a man only I could see. If anyone watched me through the window, they would think I’d gone insane. “I said come back tomorrow.”

“I will, but I still want to know your sorrow.”

I finally turned to look at him directly.

He showed no hint of anger or resentment. Just a distant hint of concern.

“Why?”

He pivoted his body toward me, casting a shadow over me as he blocked the fire. It was the closest he’d been to me since we’d met in his lands, far to the west. He didn’t touch me, but he was so close that it felt like his hands were all over me. “The same reason I saved you.”

My breathing was different when he was near. It was either the potential danger…or the fact that he was the single most breathtaking man I’d ever seen. It made sense he was so beautiful since he was an immortal god with powers that I didn’t understand. And he took pity upon me—a mortal.

I was the first one to look away. “I got into an argument with my best friend. He said some things I didn’t want to hear.”

He remained right beside me, his presence formidable and comforting at the same time.

Instead of smelling like most men, pine and the outdoors with a hint of sweat, he smelled like smoke from a fire, ash that still burned hot.

It was subtle and delicate but made me think of the outdoor fires I’d built with my father when we explored the wilderness for a week. “And what were those things?”

I pulled my wineglass closer to me across the counter before I stepped away, walking around the statue of a man to the dining table. I took a seat, still smelling the soup that I’d whipped up from what I found in the garden.

When I looked over, expecting to see Wrath across the room in the kitchen, he was already seated in front of me, as if he’d left and reappeared before I noticed.

With elbows on the table, his arms big like melons that matured in the summer season, he looked at me, his knuckles distinct, his hands big.

“Would you like some wine?”

“I don’t care for it.”

“Because you drink the souls of innocents?” I teased…somewhat.

His stare didn’t change, rock hard like the rest of him. “What were those things?” he repeated, maintaining his interest as if he actually cared.

Maybe he did. “Since I’m the firstborn, my father raised me to be his successor as Queen of the Southern Isles.

Ever since I could walk, he had been teaching me how to survive, how to fight, and how to navigate by the stars.

Six years ago, I told him I didn’t want it.

That I wanted to sail the world and see distant places. ”

He listened more intently than any man had ever listened to me, with razor-sharp focus, hanging on every word as if it was as important as the previous one. As if I was about to reveal the details of a hidden treasure that had been lost to humankind for centuries.

“But Zehemoth thinks I’m just running away from my responsibility.”

He didn’t ask who Zehemoth was. Perhaps he already knew. “Are you?”

“I—I don’t know. I guess…”

His sharply intelligent eyes watched me with the colored tones of the earth, rich and dark in their hue.

His joined hands came together against his chin and bottom lip.

“I felt your presence on my shores. Felt the Rothschild blood in your veins. I also felt your power and your mystique. When I first came upon you, I assumed I would face Talon Rothschild’s son—but I met his daughter instead.

In the armor of a king and with a sword a woman so petite shouldn’t be able to carry.

” He stopped, eyes locked on mine like he was remembering our encounter with great detail.

“Carrying a powerful confidence as a shield and eyes so ruthlessly intelligent it made me second-guess my own prowess. Every man who crosses my path cowers in fear—except you.”

My fingers rested on the top of my wineglass. I wanted to drop my gaze and look at the surface of the table, but there was a magnetism to his stare that locked me in place.

“I watched you command the galleon as a captain. I watched you evade a fleet of warships with every intention of sinking you to the ocean floor. In the shadows that none alive can pierce, I watched you slaughter men like a farmer slaughters sheep. I watched you destroy a man thrice your size. I knew Talon Rothschild had trained his daughter to take his place, and he trained her well. I didn’t meet a woman who lost her way— but a queen on her path to greatness . ”

I felt a flush of heat up my neck, a coldness down my spine.

The weight of responsibility that I thought I shed had returned to my shoulders, and it was heavier than before.

I suddenly felt breathless when I hadn’t moved in minutes.

My eyes dropped to the wineglass where my fingers rested, needing a break from the confidence of a god.

“You insult the crown by not taking it.”

My fingers traced the rim, remembering the night I’d told my father I didn’t want the responsibility he carried so effortlessly. He’d smiled and supported me, but I’d seen the disappointment deep behind his eyes.

“Lily Rothschild.”

My eyes flicked back up to his at the command in his voice.

“Why do you deny your birthright? Why do you deny what you’ve rightfully earned?”

We’d barely exchanged a few words, but he had been there with me when I’d survived my greatest challenge, and that created a sense of closeness I couldn’t explain.

But even so, I didn’t know why I shared so much with him when I rejected Zehemoth’s concern.

“You may think I’ve earned it, but I’m not sure I agree. ”

His eyes narrowed slightly, his hands lowering to the table and exposing his hard chest once again. The strongest man I’d ever seen, nothing but tight skin over muscle, not a hint of anything else anywhere.

“The Southern Isles was taken by a maniacal tyrant. He imprisoned its people, the dragons, and poisoned the lush earth. Against all odds, my father slayed the evil king and took back the lands that belonged to him. He freed the dragons and rehabilitated our people and these lands back to their pristine perfection.” My mother had shared the story with me when I was young, and it hit me so deeply.

I realized my father was more than the man who raised me, but the greatest king this world had ever known.

At every age, I noticed the way people respected him, not because they had to, but because they truly revered him.

He was a man of integrity, faithful to my mother when other kings would have strayed.

He put his people before himself, protected the dragons as his own kin.

“My father is a great man, greater than I’ll ever be.

I’ll only live in his shadow, and if evil ever marched on these shores, I’m not sure if I have the strength or the resilience to protect it or avenge it the way he has. ”

Wrath wore no expression as he listened, eyes hard as he absorbed what I’d been too ashamed to share with Zehemoth.

My best friend would never think less of me, would tell me how great I was and make me feel special, but I didn’t deserve his praise.

He loved me for me, whether I was the victor or the vanquished.

But I decided to share with Wrath instead, and I wasn’t sure why.

“I’ve witnessed your valor and bravery firsthand.

If there had been a way to save your crew, you would have done so, even to your own detriment.

If someone challenged your kingdom and your people, I have no doubt that you would fight them until the bloody end.

Mortals don’t share the valor and bravery you wore like a flag.

They’re selfish and cowardly. When I laid eyes upon you, I knew you were a woman who would be remembered for centuries—and that was why I saved you.

You are not your father.” He stared, eyes flicking back and forth between mine. “You’re more.”

My eyes immediately darted away at his words, words that were too hefty for me to accept.

“And it’s the reason I want you so deeply.”