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Raiden continued. “I know how important it is to the coven to have the keeper slot filled. I put my name in on the off chance our Elle here wouldn’t pass the test.”
I balled my fist under the table. He knew I wouldn’t pass. “How lucky we all are to have you,” I said snarkily.
“Eleanor,” Dora chastised.
“I’m glad you’re back,” I said, standing. “But I’m tired. I’m going to my room. Tell me when Maddox arrives. I want to see him.”
“Still sulking?” Raiden arched an eyebrow as he entered my room.
“You’re not welcome in here.” I scowled at him over my drawing. “Raiden,” I whispered.
He peered at my artwork, then raised his eyebrows. “Is that for me?”
“No,” I said and glanced at the dagger I’d sketched. “I’m sure it couldn’t kill a god.”
The corner of his lip tugged up. “I wouldn’t tell you if it could.”
“Why are you in here?” I moved my papers from the bed to the nightstand, sighing with exasperation. “Unless you’ve come to torment me some more.”
He chuckled. “It’s my new hobby.”
Was he… flirting? “You’re shameless.” I clicked my tongue, then pushed myself back against my pillows. “Unless you’ve decided to kill me because I know the truth.” I eyed him, evaluating his expression. Only amusement trickled through.
“I already told you, I’m not concerned with your telling them. I know you won’t.”
“Because you’ll hurt everyone if I do and they try to stop you.”
“There is that, but it’s not why I’m not worried.”
“Then why?”
His expression darkened. “You won’t tell them because you don’t want me to go.”
My eyes widened, and a laugh escaped my lips. “Your leaving is literally all I want.”
“If I leave, then you’ll have to go back to your life.” He sat on the edge of my bed, dipping the space next to me. “Unsatisfying and unremarkable, where fear ruled.”
I leaned toward him, watching him for a flinch or a flicker in his expression. “Perhaps, but it begs the question as to why you’re really here.” My gaze fixated on his. “You’re a god, and yet you’re climbing the ranks of a small coven when you could just—” I paused.
“Kill everyone and take them without putting myself through all this hassle?” he asked. “I could. I’ll admit, I’ve thought about it more than once.”
My stomach churned.
“But I won’t. I’m not the monster you’ve been told I am, Elle. I won’t kill innocents to get what I want, no matter how alluring.”
I’m sorry, what? My eyes widened as I rolled his words in my mind. “You sacrificed people all the time back in your time.” I looked at him incredulously. “Why the sudden change of heart?”
He shook his head. “That’s not true. When Freya locked us away?—”
“Yes. Because you were killing people.”
“No.” His jaw clenched. “Because she was killing people. She framed us.”
I ran cold. Was he just saying that? What would be his motivation to lie? He didn’t care what I thought about him, and he knew I didn’t have the power to stop him. “Why would she frame you?”
He winced. “She killed my sister.”
“Leda, the original goddess of the hunt,” I said slowly, remembering the books I had read on the gods, and my conversation with Maddox and Naomi when Raiden had first arrived. She had been killed and replaced by Freya.
