AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Alexander?”
“Also dead.” I swallowed hard. “Less deserving… But he would have come after us, and he took the place of a friend of mine. She deserves to come back.”
She whistled out a breath. “It’s a lot to take in. So you took Freya’s place?”
“Yeah, so it seems.”
“How… How does it feel?”
I exhaled slowly. “Honestly? Amazing. Everything’s sharper, clearer… like I’m really seeing the world for the first time.”
She fumbled with her necklace. “Does it mean you can come to visit now? I’d like to have my sister back.”
My heart ballooned. “Yes. Well, if I can. We have something else to take care of.” Time suddenly existed again. My other family would be waiting for me. “I want to stay, to talk to you and hear everything about your life, but I have to go. It’s the others.”
“Your coven, right?”
“They’re my family,” I admitted. “Like you.”
Pain flashed in her eyes, but she nodded. “I understand.”
“We’re going to save the other gods.”
She laughed. “It’s so weird to say. Gods. They actually exist.” She looked me up and down. “You’re one of them.” She placed her hands against her ears, then brought them outward to imitate an explosion. “Mind blown. This is all insane.”
“Insane only begins to explain my life.”
“They said the guy… What’s his name?”
“Raiden, you mean.”
“Yes.” She leaned forward. “They seemed to think he’d die for you. Is he your husband? Boyfriend?”
My stomach dipped. “Neither.”
“Do you love him?”
I couldn’t answer her. “He doesn’t want me like that.”
“Then why did they think he’d die for you?”
I looked down. “Because for a moment, I actually believed he would, so I’m not surprised they did. He’s good at faking it, it seems.”
“He told you he doesn’t love you?”
“He made his feelings about me perfectly clear.” I swallowed hard, trying to remove the lump in my throat. “But he doesn’t matter. I have you now.”
“Well.” She smiled. “It’s his loss.”
I stood, brushing the leaves and pines from the forest off my pants. “I’m taking you back to Dora, then coming back here. I need to know you’re safe.”
I glanced at the window. A storm was brewing outside. Time was running out, and if I didn’t get there in time, Lucius would kill them all.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Iwhite-knuckled Thalia’s dagger as the winds picked up. They howled through the forest and up the side of the mountain. The portal opened as I pressed my bloodied cut against the symbols. I held my next breath, turning toward Edmund, Maddox, and Naomi as the eerie fog crept through the opening, its fingers grappling for a taste of our world. “If anything comes out?—”
“We know.” Edmund shivered against the cold, gripping the grimoire in his blue fingertips. “We have dark objects to capture any rogue demons. Don’t worry about us. We have everything we need.”
