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“Aziel won’t let her get away with this.” I lowered my hands. “He’ll kill her for it. He’s stronger than her. She may have tricked Raiden, but Aziel doesn’t care about me or Mona. None of us. You know it’s true.” I maneuvered my next words carefully. “But in a way, I’m glad you’re being stupid and staying here, protecting leverage she doesn’t even need anymore. It means Aziel will actually get the chance to kill her when she goes up against him in the forest—alone.”
His eyes darted to the door. “Where did Aziel go?”
“They both fled to the east of the forest,” I lied.
He stepped away from Mona, relief flooding me, but then paused his foot in midair. “I smell blood on you.” He sniffed the air. “Yes, I’m sure that’s blood.”
I must have missed some. Crap. I hesitated, then gulped, pushing another tear over the edge. “It’s Raiden’s.”
His expression dropped. “I-I am sorry, but understand.” He moved toward the door. “I did this for love.”
“I know.” As soon as he was away from Mona, I unsheathed the dagger, looked at her and mouthed run, and jerked my head in the direction of another door.
She took off, and I lunged at Alexander, dagger in hand. He was too fast, spinning around and kicking my legs out from under me. I caught myself before tumbling to the ground and jolted upright, then lunged for his neck again. He sped out of the way before I could plunge the blade into his side. I rushed him again, but he hit my shoulder and knocked me back against the sofa, which splintered to pieces under my fall.
Alexander looked me over quickly and fled out the door. I ran out into the cold and raced through the wind-caught flurries, blinking as my eyes adjusted to the white as I traced his scent into the snow. He was stronger than I expected, even for a god. Alexander had always seemed so weak.
He’d left a trail in the snow when he raced around the ledge, and handprints along the ledges scaled down the side. I lowered myself, holding onto dips and rocks until I reached the bottom, and threw myself onto the snow-carpeted ground, the air whooshing from my lungs. I whipped my head around, sniffing the air and looking at the silent fir trees that welcomed me into the forest.
A twig snapped, and I followed it, then another. Separating snaps and cracks from the sound of a boot versus an animal was easier than I thought it would be. The way twigs sounded against rubber was hollower. I sped toward the sounds, picking up his scent again on a nearby tree, until his heartbeat pounded in my ears, his quick breaths a song to my senses. Baring my teeth and curling my lips up, I curled my fingers, then turned my head slowly. He was close. As I moved through two trees, bloodlust took over, guiding me to his warm body. I didn’t recognize the beast that took over me. It was as if the goddess of the hunt were its own being and we were simply intertwined.
Looking up at the pale sky, I inhaled deeply, the cold-pinched air filling my lungs. A leaf crunched under a sole, and my eyes snapped open. I sped toward him, lunging through the air like a tiger to its prey. Slamming into his hard body sent a crack through the ground and toward aged trees.
“I don’t want to kill you. I just want to find Freya,” he said.
I gazed at his dreamy, far-off eyes, and for a moment, guilt shocked through my chest. He wasn’t like Freya. He didn’t truly deserve this, but he would kill us if he found the truth, and he would have killed us if she had asked.
Closing my conscience, I licked my lips and dropped my arm. “You’re right. It’s her I hate. Not you.”
He stood, catching his breath. “Please understand, she’s not a bad person. She only does what she needs to do.”
I held onto his arm, leaning over to catch my breath, with the dagger in my other hand. “I know you believe that. We don’t need to fight. You’re not the one I’m mad at.”
“I will always protect her.”
I nodded. “Then we are unwilling enemies.”
He gifted me with a small, soft smile, which only made it hurt more.
I went to stand but slipped. He was reaching down, as expected, extending his hand to help me up when I struck. I plunged the dagger into his chest, hearing the blade pierce his heart. Blood spilled in his chest. His eyes widened when he realized, gazing into mine.
Tears hazed my vision. I wanted to look away, to pull the dagger out and run, leaving him behind to die, but I couldn’t. This wasn’t like Freya. I watched him die, and I didn’t blink as the light left his far-off stare.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered when his heart stopped, and his body limped in my arms.
A lump formed in my throat as I placed him onto the snow-covered ground, his final resting place. I turned to walk away, but I couldn’t bring myself to leave the clearing. “Really?” I cussed at my conscience, then turned back, picked his body up in my arms, and carried him toward where Freya was buried. I was a goddess-damned idiot for caring this much, but I couldn’t not. Despite all he’d done, all the pain he’d caused, it had all been for love, and while the motive didn’t justify his actions, it was one I could sympathize with more than Freya’s or Lucius’s.
I trudged through the forest until the snow melted and the ground became leaf-carpeted and underbrush-coated, where I found Freya’s blood and her freshly dug grave.
After waiting for the pale orb as it left his body, which Edmund had said would be there like it had been with Thalia, if any of us had stuck around for it, I captured it in a small vial I’d brought with me. I buried him next to Freya, marked the tree where their bones lay, and looked back toward the mountain. The orb would allow me to make someone else a goddess, and I planned on giving it to Thalia if I could find her in the underworld.
I made my way back up the mountain and rushed into the open door of the house. “Mona,” I said, croaking. Her panicked breaths sounded from the next room, but I didn’t want to scare her. My being a goddess was a lot to process. My being here at all probably was too. She’d grown up in a world filled with humans. All of this would be a lot, and I hadn’t got the proper reunion with her that I’d always daydreamed of.
“Ellie,” she whispered, and I heard her knees cracking as she stood from wherever she was sitting. “You’re alive.” Relief flooded her tone, and my eyes welled again. My heart caught in my throat as she appeared in the doorway, her red, fiery hair a mess and her icy-blue eyes bloodshot from crying. She ran at me and flung her arms around me. I gasped at her touch and breathed back a sob. She smelled like lilies and vanilla, and I knew that from then on I would never forget her smell.
She prodded the logs with a poker, and the fire hissed in response. I sat cross-legged across from her on the rug. I couldn’t stop staring. She was so beautiful, but her age served as a reminder of everything I had missed.
“I don’t know what to say,” I admitted.
