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She shrugged. “Believe what you wish, but it’s the truth. Demons exist because the gods did not help vanquish them. They allowed sin to flourish.”
“Nothing is that black and white.” I clenched my jaw, remembering back to everything Raiden had told me. “Besides, if they allowed sin to flourish, as you said, then what are you doing? Murder is the biggest sin of them all.”
She leaned back in her chair. “Lucius and Estia do not see it that way.”
“Have you asked him?”
She hesitated, glancing at Alexander, then back at me. “I haven’t spoken to him exactly, but?—”
“Then how do you know?” I asked, interrupting. “He might come after you once he’s taken care of the others. What’s to stop your soul from being trapped in the underworld just like the others? You’re not mortal.” I gripped my nails into the wood table, feeling splinters press against my fingertips. “By morning, you might find yourself just as dead as them.”
“No. I spoke to demons through the portal to the underworld who told me Lucius wished to replace his children. After that, I left the portal open.”
I arched an eyebrow. “Did they say you would be spared?”
Alexander entwined his fingers with hers. “She’s right, my love. Are you certain Lucius will spare us? That he will use me to replace them?”
She pulled her fingers from his, her face paling under the dim light of the oil lamp. “Lucius will not forsake us. I let him out. He owes me.”
Alexander’s eyes creased at the corners. “We should, perhaps, go to our home in the mountains outside of the barrier until this is over. Just in case.”
Her eyes reflected the flickering of the lamps as fear flashed in them. “He will not hurt us; I am certain. But I had planned to go to the mountains regardless. A fight between gods will cause untold damage, and I choose to be out of the way, at least until they are dead.”
I couldn’t believe it. She was running scared. With her and Alexander leaving off their own backs, I wouldn’t have to hurt Alexander, which was something I’d been considering. Once Freya was gone, which I’d hoped would be to aid Lucius, although that didn’t seem to be her plan at all, I was going to knock Alexander out, then bleed him out enough to weaken him so his barrier spell weakened and I could get out.
I was glad I didn’t have to do it.
Alexander cleared his throat. “What about Eleanor?”
Freya blew out a tense breath. “We let her go.”
“Now?” His eyes bulged.
“Yes.” She looked out the large window overlooking the forest and mountains. “Leave her to the mercy of the gods and the wilderness. There is little she can do now, and the gods are already through the barrier. It is made from his blood, therefore only trapping them. So we can leave.” She closed her eyes. “I can sense them.”
“I will collect my paints.”
“There’s no time,” she snapped, standing. “We will leave now.”
Alexander relented far too quickly. I wondered why they were together, but then I saw it. He would do anything for her, and she needed that. She’d been hurt by men her whole life, and Alexander was different. He was softer, gentler than them, and he would die to protect her.
For him, she was his rock in an ocean of madness. I saw it when he’d slip into a dreamy, far-off look and mutter to himself. She grounded him. Together, they were each other’s lifeboats. I was curious as to what would happen when inevitably one would have to leave the other.
He looked back and nodded as he lifted the spell. The buzz of magic, which I hadn’t even noticed until it was gone, fizzled out. The heaviness in the air dissolved with it.
Freya fled into the night. The white silks of her dress flickered behind her as she took off. Alexander was at her side as she carried him toward the mountains.
I ran to the door, breathing in gulps of fresh air. Howls from demon hounds erupted again. The cool night air prickled my skin as I climbed down the steps toward the ground. Jumping off the bottom one and onto the grass, I closed my eyes.
I sent a magic quill to Naomi first. Tell me you’re all okay - Elle
Within twenty seconds, a message back tingled onto the back of my hand. Where are you?
The forest by the mountains. Freya kidnapped me. She let me go.
I ran into the tree line, which was coated in darkness. Carefully I treaded the underbrush, plants, crunched leaves, and roots as I felt my way through. I felt a message come back, then another, but I couldn’t make the words out in the blackness.
The howling grew closer, and suddenly everything felt colder, like the leaves grazing against my hands and the twigs brushing up against my neck and cheeks as I fumbled through the forest. It was as if the ice was pricking at me. The temperature dropped until fog left my mouth with each breath. Slithering accompanied hissing from the underbrush as something slid around my boot. I suppressed a scream as I jolted back. Snakes.
