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I gulped. “Lucius is in a body?”
“He has come in flesh, with hounds, and he is here already. I am sorry, but there is no plan.”
“I heard you all talking in the evenings…”
“Yes.” He shrugged. “Not about what to do with you. You are simply here to pause the gods in coming for her, just in case they find a way to trace us here and give Lucius enough time to kill them before they reach her.”
I ran cold. “I’m just being used to stall?”
“Yes, but once they’re dead, she will let you go.”
“Or kill me.”
He hesitated. “She will most likely let you go. She will have no further use for you once they’re dead.”
“When will I supposedly be released?” I asked.
“By this evening. Lucius has already found their trail. They will be dead soon, and you will be released.”
He ambled away as if lost in a daydream, and I lost it. I wasn’t staying in this house for a moment longer, not when Raiden was being hunted and he didn’t even know it. I had to get out to help them, to help him. If not, we could all be dead by sundown.
Chapter Twenty-One
Howling erupted through the night, shattering the silence in the forest around the house.
Freya glanced from me to the door, her eyes widening. She could sense them, I was sure. The gods must have been close, as must Lucius.
I scratched the back of my hand with my nails, their polish chipping, and cursed under my breath. I stared at the oak dining table. I don’t know why I’d tried to send another magic quill. It was utterly pointless. I couldn’t leave the house, and my magic didn’t work—both because of Alexander, whom I’d tried and failed to talk into dropping the barrier.
There was only one other option, and the thought curdled my last meal of rabbit that Freya had put on the table. Alexander joined us, sweeping down and landing a kiss on Freya’s cheek. “My love,” he whispered against her skin as he pulled away. “They are near.”
“Yes.” Her red lips pulled into a small smile as the sky darkened, shadowing the trees through the window behind Freya. “Lucius will stop them before they reach us. They must have found her trail.” Her gaze danced to mine. “Once they pass through the barrier Lucius placed around the forest, they will be trapped.”
My eyes snapped toward hers. “You used me to lure them here. To trap them.”
“Yes,” she said nonchalantly. “Fear not. Once the night is over, you will be taken back to your coven. Alexander convinced me to let you go.”
My chest grew hollow as I looked up at him. It made what I needed to do even harder. “This is not right.”
“Do not pity them.” She looked me down. “They have had centuries to live.”
“Where do they go when they die? To Estia?”
She shook her head. “When a god is replaced, they go to the underworld.”
The thought sent a shudder through me. “Lucius’s domain.”
“They can’t inhabit another body again.”
“Leda’s soul is there.”
She nodded. “I am certain it is.”
My eyes widened. “Lucius is their father. How can he torture his own children? To wish them dead?”
“Bless your mortal heart.” She sighed, looking at me as if I were a ten-year-old. “The realms are not like this world, nor are those who inhabit them. Lucius and Estia created them but did not share the same bond a mortal would share with their child,” she explained, pausing for a few seconds. “They were born to help rule this world but instead destroyed it.”
I swallowed thickly. “I don’t believe that.”
