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I felt like I’d been punched in the stomach. “I came here to save you both.”
Raiden grabbed me and pulled me back into the room. “A minute,” he told Thalia, then half closed the door. He walked me to the edge of the bed, cupping my cheeks in his. “What I said before, I didn’t mean it.”
“Raiden.”
“Wait.” He brushed a lock of hair from my face. “I have to do this, Elle. He needs to die. I wish?—”
“Then don’t,” I pleaded. “Let this go. Come back with me.”
He took my hands in his. “Vengeance is the only thing I have left.”
I closed my eyes. My heart raced to his touch. “That’s not true. You have me.”
“You can’t want this.” His breaths quickened. “I’m not good for you. Look at you—at everything you’ve sacrificed.”
“I like who I am,” I said. “Feeling this strong, seeing the world this way… It’s not a sacrifice, and I would have given it all up for your sister to come back if she were still here, but she’s not, and I’m happy like this.”
A muscle twitched in his jaw. “You like the power.”
“I’m not Freya.” I scowled. “It’s not like that. I’m here, aren’t I? I never left you. I never hurt you. I won’t.”
“You deserved better than this.”
“Don’t do that.” My gaze burned into his. “You make me feel alive. I feel like I can do anything. You made me see the best version of myself, and because of that, I became it. My sister’s back. I saved her, and I killed Freya. So no, I regret nothing. I have sacrificed nothing. For the first time in my life, I’m not afraid of everything.”
He lowered his lips, inching closer to mine, but pulled away. “I have to go with Thalia. I’m sorry. I am.”
My arms dropped to my sides as he turned his back toward me, heading for the door. I couldn’t believe I was thinking it, let alone going to say it, but I couldn’t deny it anymore. When I looked at him, all I wanted was to be by his side, to take on every obstacle and enjoy the beauty in our world, together. “I love you, Raiden.”
Everything stopped. Time. My heart. My breath. Him.
Chapter Thirty-Six
With my heart feeling like it was in my throat, I waited for him to say something or turn and look at me, but silence deafened the room.
“You shouldn’t. I’m not good for you. You can’t have a life with me here,” he finally said and stepped out of the room.
I ran out behind him into a dark, empty corridor. Thalia moved out from a dark corner. If not for her cape swishing through the air, I wouldn’t have known she was there. “He didn’t mean that.”
My cheeks heated. “You heard.”
“You’re not the only one with strong hearing.” Her silver eyes took shape in the darkness as if tiny moons were reflecting back at me. “He’s afraid of your love, of what it means, but it doesn’t mean he doesn’t want to, because he does.” She smiled knowingly. “You didn’t see his face when he left the room. He’s used to being hurt, to being abandoned.”
“I know how that feels. I’m not going to leave him, not when he needs me,” I said. “Even if I have to show him a hundred times.”
The corner of her lips lifted. “He’s gone to kill Lucius.”
“Yes.”
“Are you going to stay here?”
My stomach swirled. I had my sister back, my family, my coven… “I-I don’t know. I have people who need me too.” My heart tugged me in two directions.
“I understand.” She nodded and took a step back. “Down the staircase, four doors to the right is the main living area,” she said, answering my unspoken question, then slid back into the shadows. “I will see you there.” Her silky voice whispered, her echo caught in a thousand cries of the dead from behind the closed doors.
Lucius’s stare darkened as Freya stepped out from behind him, her painted lips curved into a sadistic smile.
“Son.” He gestured his arms out in welcome toward the marble room. It had couches of velvet green and a glass table with an ornamental snake upon it that coiled up in a shard of glittering white. The palace was the epitome of elegance, the type of place I could see Maddox owning in our realm. A music box played a sweet but eerie melody from the mantel over the fireplace, its fire with gray and green flames.
