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Freya traced a painted nail along her lips. “It seems you escaped yet another prison. Perhaps you’re not entirely useless after all, not unlike your brother. How is Aziel?” Her laugh cackled.
Raiden’s gaze fixated on Freya’s. Blood was splattered over his face from the demon whose head he had taken off with his bare hands. A muscle in his jaw twitched, his fingers curling into fists.
Lucius’s deep robes flicked out when he stepped forward. “Have you come to try to kill me again? You always were reckless, like your brother, never thinking with your head.”
Raiden gritted his teeth, and the muscles in his back and arms tensed. “I’m glad you’re both here. It’ll make it easier to kill you both.”
She rolled her eyes, letting his words roll off her as if they meant nothing. With a tilt of her head, she moved her attention to me. “I would say being a goddess suits you, but I definitely wore it better.” She moved her gaze to Raiden’s, a smirk on her mouth. “Isn’t that right, Raiden? Although, you never did get to enjoy my immortality.”
“Immortality you stole,” he snapped.
She looked back at me, a flash of green crossing in the reflection in her eyes. “Has he told you he loves you yet? Has he whispered your name in his sleep like he did mine?”
My jaw clenched.
She grinned in response. “Oh, it seems I hit a nerve then. You’re not really his type. Raiden always did like women with more substance.”
He stepped forward, his fists clenched. “Don’t fucking talk to her like that.”
She laughed. “She killed me, honey. Do you think I would let her simply get away with it? Play nice?”
He scoffed. “Vengeance and hatred have twisted you into something I don’t recognize.”
“Whose fault is that?” she snapped, her smile falling into a hard line. “If you and your sisters hadn’t come”—her nostrils flared—“I wouldn’t be this person.”
He laughed sardonically. “Give me a fucking break. You knew what you were doing. I never had control over those hounds, and you knew it. You used it as an excuse, so you wouldn’t feel as guilty for killing my sister!” he shouted. “After everything I did for you.”
Tears swam in her eyes, and a ghost of the girl she once was, before all of this, crossed her expression. “Everyone hurt me. I had no choice. I took my power back.”
“I didn’t hurt you. You never told me what happened to your son. I had no fucking idea. All I did was love you, and you broke me. You tore apart my family, and for that, I will never forgive you!” he shouted, his tone manic, speaking what I was sure he’d wanted to scream for the past century. “Your selfishness cost me all that’s dear to me, so yes, I’m fucking glad Elle is nothing like you because she actually has a heart and that’s why I love her and could never, ever love you.”
My lips parted. Had I heard him right?
He stepped toward her again, closing the distance between them. His lips pulled back, baring his teeth. “You always were afraid of death.”
Panic flitted in her eyes. “Raiden.”
“Now you can face it.” He grabbed her by her throat and lifted her off her feet. Lucius ran at him, but Raiden sped to the other side of the room with Freya and slammed her into the marble wall. I jolted as the entire wall crackled, trembling the fireplace and fracturing the mirror above it.
Lucius screamed at them as her eyes emptied, her head toppling from her shoulders and rolling on the floor. Raiden turned, dropping her body to the ground, and tilted his head at Lucius. Blood had swept over his features, and his eyes were wild with rage, his jaw tight as he sped at his father.
Their collision rocked the room, but rage guided Raiden as he wrapped his hands around his father’s throat and whispered in his ear through gritted teeth. “This is for Aziel and Leda, mother fucker.”
“You don’t have the guts,” Lucius taunted, cackling. “You’re the same now as you were when you were a child: a coward, always with your sisters. Perhaps they rubbed off on you.”
Raiden’s laugh echoed right through me. “It seems it served me well.”
I went to run to help him, but Thalia slipped out from a shadow behind them before I could move. She pulled a sword from her scabbard and moved it through the air with deadly precision, not even a slither of hesitation on her cold features. Raiden let go, moving back just as the sword sliced through Lucius’s neck and sent his head rolling. Blood pooled along the glossy floor, trickling like a stream toward where I stood.
Thalia closed her eyes as the spirit of the underworld flowed into her. A crown of diamonds and bone formed on her head, entwining with her silky hair. She opened her silvery eyes and faced her brother.
“Sister.”
“I wanted this,” she said before he could continue. “I was always lost among the dead when I was alive. I can rule this place fairer than our father ever did.”
His gaze searched hers. “I can stay.”
She peered around him, glancing at me. “I don’t think you want that. Besides, I’m perfectly content here. I have a million souls to keep me company, and many demons who are happy to satisfy any desires I may have.”
