Page 135 of Spellbound
“The only problem is I lost your dagger.”
“Lucius has it?”
I nodded.
“Then I’m going to need to trust you.”
With no windows, the only way in without walking through the front doors was through a side door. Thalia kept to the shadows, and I used my sharp sight and hearing to hide from lurking demons. We climbed a spiral staircase to a second floor, then reached a row of doors that ran along a dark corridor, which seemed to go on forever. “Which one is Raiden in?”
She shook her head. “Space is not the same here.” Her tone seemed to float somehow. “There are thousands of doors, with thousands of souls inside them. The castle is a prison for the evilest of souls, so they can never roam, never escape, unlike the mortal souls kept down in the pits in the wastelands, tormented by demons.
I shuddered. “Do we open each one to check?” I reached for a handle but she grabbed my wrist, her touch icy cold.
“They will be able to escape. We must find another way.” She gazed down the corridor. “If we hear punching and swearing through one of them, it’s probably his.”
I couldn’t help but smile, even though I was terrified. “Where is Lucius?”
Her smile fell into a frown. “We will be dealing with him after we find Raiden.”
We walked the corridor, occasionally jolting at the sound of a screech or pummeling against one of the doors. Thalia touched each one, but I had no idea what she was feeling for. “I’m sorry about Aziel,” I said after we’d walked for several minutes.
“Thank you. My brother is lucky to have you.”
“I don’t think he thinks that.”
“He does,” she said simply. “When Leda died, he was heartbroken. Freya broke him, and I didn’t think he would ever be able to be happy again. Then we were locked away in our prisons and that was it. I thought I’d lost him.”
“Freya’s dead,” I explained, hoping it brought her some peace. Leda was her sister too.
She looked at me. “You are now goddess of the hunt, so I assume you’re the one who killed her.”
“I am.”
“How do you feel about it?”
I swallowed thickly. “I’m sorry, I don’t understand. I mean, she was a bad person.”
“She was still a person. We must all work through something when taking a life, whether it is good or bad. There is a unique feeling that comes with taking a soul.”
I fumbled my fingers, my lips parting. “It was Alexander, her lover, who got me,” I admitted, finally letting it sink in. “He’d done bad things, but I don’t know.” I scratched the back of my neck. “He didn’t feel bad. Does that make sense?”
“It makes perfect sense.”
“He would have hurt my sister and hunted us,” I said before she could judge me, though I got the sense she wasn’t like that. “I had to kill him. Right? I also did it for you.”
“If you want to hear you did the right thing, I can’t tell you that. Only you can decide. You need to find peace with it yourself.”
I nodded and slowed my pace. We’d passed a hundred more doors. “Wait.” I halted, my eyes widening when the sound reached my sensitive ears. A low growl, a cuss word... I’m sure he’d hate to admit it, but Thalia was right. “He’s here.” I walked ahead, focusing on his breathing. “Is he... crying?” I swore I could hear it, but he didn’t cry. He had never.
I opened the door, certainty guiding me as his heart rate picked up. As soon as I pushed it all the way open, he lunged at me, and we both rolled onto the floor.
Lifting his hand, his bloodshot eyes latched onto mine, his dark eyebrows furrowing. “Elle.” He quickly moved from on top of me. “How?”
I looked around. “Tha—”
She was gone.
“Your sister was here.”
