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“To see Lucius.”
I ran cold. “He’s back in the underworld.”
She put a finger in the air. “Was, Eleanor. He was in the underworld. Don’t worry, lovey. I made the deal in your favor—well, mine really.”
I shuddered. “What deal?”
“Raiden is about to be given a very important choice: let you die or let you take his place as a god—well, goddess. You can take his immortality like I did Leda’s. He’ll do it. I’m certain.”
I balled my fists at my side. “He needs to die for that to happen.”
She looked at me incredulously. “Obviously. That’s the whole point.”
“If that happens,” I spat through gritted teeth. “I will never stop hunting you.”
She laughed. “Oh, Eleanor, why do you think I have your sister? Now, now. Mona, you’ll be going with Alexander here. He will take you somewhere safe and cloak you. Eleanor, you will be coming with me.”
Mona looked over her shoulder as she was pushed into Alexander’s arms.
“Mona.” My breath hitched. “I’ll find you. I’ll make this right. I promise.” A cry stammered in my throat.
Mona’s eyes didn’t leave mine. “I’ll be okay, Ellie,” she stated, and she looked a lot braver than I did as she was dragged out of the door with the new god of the dead: Alexander.
Freya extended her hand toward me. I eyed it like it was a venomous snake.
Naomi pulled me back from behind. “She’s not going with you.”
Maddox stepped in front of me. “You’ll need to go through us.”
Edmund leaped at her from behind, and without a flinch, she flung him back into the shelves. They fell on top of him, sending pans and jars crashing to the floor.
She looked only at me. “Eleanor.”
I nodded, then looked at Edmund across the kitchen, who was now covered in flour. “Don’t. She’ll have Mona killed. I’ve got this.”
Naomi held onto my arm. “No.”
I ripped my arm away from hers, then grabbed Freya’s. A cold breeze swept my hair behind me as she whisked me away and out of the house. I felt the dagger’s sheath push against my thigh. She held me close. I leaned down and pretended to scratch my leg but almost toppled from her arms. I grabbed the hilt as the trees became blots inking out into the distance. I closed my eyes, not letting dizziness settle in. I needed her this close. We’d be there soon.
I steadied myself by holding her shoulder with one hand, then moved the hand holding my dagger to her waist. I braced myself for the inevitable crash. I reached higher, allowing every powerless, helpless moment she had placed me in slide into my mind, pushing anger-driven strength behind the dagger as I stabbed the blade into the back of her neck.
We tumbled through the air and slammed into the ground. The air was knocked from my lungs. Blood splattered my hands and arms. I held my head as the forest spun around me.
Sitting up, I examined the cuts and bruises on my arms and the tears in my pants. I let out a long, shaky exhale as I brushed my hand along one of the cuts from where I must’ve hit a rock.
Freya convulsed a few yards from me. She tried to speak, but blood pooled from her ruby-red lips.
I crawled to her side, grabbed a fistful of her hair, and pulled out the dagger. “Rot in the underworld, you vile excuse of a person.”
Her wide eyes narrowed, her pupils growing tiny, as realization swept through us both. She was going to die. A part of me enjoyed it, to watch the light fade in her predator eyes as she had done to countless others. I pointed the knife against her neck again while she struggled for air. I imagined my family dying at her hands, how she would have killed any one of us without a second thought if it had suited her. I stuck it in again, then again, never closing my eyes to her blood splatters and gurgling. I kept going, cutting through her windpipe, each rage-fueled cut pushed on by thoughts of Mona, Raiden, and everyone she had threatened.
I stepped back, coated in her blood. Her head was almost detached from her body. A white light left her body, floating up, then shot into my chest.
I covered my mouth and was taking in the scene when the realization hit me, freezing me numb; I would now be goddess of the hunt. I had unwittingly taken Raiden’s sister’s immortality, and now Leda would never be able to return unless I died.
Energy buzzed through my veins, feeling like flames licking my skin. I dizzied down, catching myself on a low branch before I hit the ground with a thud. The pressure in my brain crushed every thought, and the forest darkened, then faded to black.
Chapter Thirty
