AllFreeNovel
Share Us
I arched my eyebrow. “I could,” I said, climbing onto the bed. I paused. “Wait, no.” I sighed. Damned brain. “I need to tell you something.”
“What?” He leaned forward, holding my hand in his. I wanted him to hold me, and I wanted to beg him not to do it and to stay here with me, but he wouldn’t, and I wasn’t going to embarrass myself like that. He needed them dead. It was right by Thalia and Leda, and?—
A thought popped into my head. If he ruled the underworld, Thalia and Leda would be there. He could be with them, and they wouldn’t be in pain. There was no way he would refuse it, and I could never ask him to.
“Elle?” He brushed a lock of hair from my face and smiled a silly grin. “What’s up, baby girl?”
Holy. “There’s a way for you to kill Lucius.” I blew out a long breath. “Edmund found it.”
“What is it?” His expression darkened.
“You need to go into the underworld to kill him. I don’t know all the details, but Edmund and Maddox seem to think you can, you know, take his place, and with your new powers, you can kill Freya. Aziel said he’d do it.”
“No.” He leaned away from me. “It needs to be me. This started with me; it’ll end with me.”
My stomach dipped. My lips parted. There were so many things I wanted to say, but I couldn’t. The pain in his expression returned, the sparkle in his gaze tortured. My heart sank. I placed my cup on the nightstand, then moved to his side and pressed my lips against his shoulder. He leaned back against the headboard and rested his head on me. I ran my fingers through his hair as we sat in silence, our touches saying everything and nothing.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Naomi slumped in the armchair of the study. “Where’s everyone?” She dropped her bag on the floor, looking a little worse for wear.
“Raiden’s with Maddox, and Edmund is going over ancient scrolls and stuff so he can take over the underworld.”
“Oh, right. Yeah, Az mentioned.”
My eyebrows pinched. “Az?”
“Aziel.” She cleared her throat. “Anyway, I’m sorry. I know you liked him.”
“Forget it.” I played it off, but my stomach was in knots. “Since when is Aziel Az?”
She let out a small, sad smile. “He’s, well, you know, he’s hard to read, but once you get under the surface…”
“How far have you got under the surface?”
“Not like that. He’s gone through a lot, and I’ve been trying to help him. Everyone else just steers clear because he’s a little?—”
“Standoffish? Assholeish?”
“Yeah.”
“You always were too kind.”
She bit her bottom lip. “I know he said some things, and he’s sorry.”
“He is? I haven’t heard this apology.” I paused when her expression dropped. The closer I looked at her, the more I noticed her fading bloodshot eyes and empty gaze. “Nai, what happened?”
She slapped her hands against her face, letting out a loud sob. “It’s my dad.” She gasped again, sobbing.
My eyes widened. Was he sick? Dead?
I rushed to her side and held her hand in mine. “Nai.”
“He cut me out of the family.”
My nostrils flared. “He did what?”
She cried through her fingers. “He was already disappointed when I didn’t pass the test and then he found out I’ve been going out of town, and someone told him they saw me with Aziel, who looks like, well, he looks like trouble, Elle. He thinks I’ve gone off the rails and I’m whoring myself out, and he said I’m an embarrassment to the family name.” She hiccupped through her sobs. “Something about having seven generations of casters, grandcasters, and revolutionary business owners for me to besmirch the name. It was bad enough I was a magician, but to have failed that too and to be ‘whoring’ around… That’s what he thinks.”
