Page 117 of Spellbound
I arched an eyebrow. “You know I can beat you now, right? At weapons training. With magic.”
He smirked. “Finally, after all the years of mediocrity, a challenge.”
Edmund tugged at his collar and cleared his throat, bringing our attention back to him. “All right. So this is a new development,” he said slowly, looking up, then down—everywhere but at me. “We need to replan.”
“Replan.” Maddox scoffed. “We need to go home. Elle can find her sister herself. We’re hardly any help.”
Naomi punched his arm, having finally snapped out of the mini-trance she’d appeared to be in. “We’re still her friends, and we’re going to help her. She can’t face Alexander alone. He’s a god too now.”
“Also.” I bit the inside of my lip. “I imagine I might need some help with Raiden. He and Aziel are not going to be happy. He could have brought Leda back, but now that I’m goddess of the hunt, he can’t unless he kills me.” My stomach knotted. He wouldn’t. He cared for me. I had felt it with each kiss. He had given me the dagger. But Leda was his favorite. He missed her and loved her. She was family. I was not. When it really came down to it, could I trust him not to kill me?
I didn’t want to think about the answer.
Naomi slowly approached me, as if I were a wild predator. She touched my arm and breathed relief. “You’re warm.”
I side-eyed her. “What did you think I would be?”
She shrugged. “Cold, I guess. Like a dead person.”
Maddox’s eyebrows knitted together. “Way to be creepy, Naomi.”
Edmund interrupted their squabble. “Would you like to go back first? To, well, bathe?”
“No,” I replied. Mona’s face swept back into my mind, bubbling rage under the surface. My emotions felt stronger. I felt like I could move mountains if I wanted. I wondered if I could. “I’m going to get my sister back, then kill Alexander.” I paused, looking up at the lightening pastel sky. I rubbed my fingers against my temples and cussed under my breath. “I can’t. I need someone to take his place, and that someone needs to be Thalia. I can’t replace both his sisters.”
Maddox nodded along. “Yep, that would make you an asshole.”
“What do I do?” I looked at Edmund.
He paused, glancing upward like he did when he was deep in thought. He tapped his fingers against his thigh, then nodded. “Raiden will be returning, albeit briefly, to kill Freya after he’s gone to the underworld. Either you can wait for him and explain, then go with him to kill Alexander and have Thalia take his place because Raiden needs to be the ruler of the underworld first for that to happen, or...”
My stomach dipped. “I go to the underworld.”
“Yes.” He inhaled sharply. “I’d rather you didn’t.”
“I’m immortal now. I can go and I should. I can help him take Lucius down.” Fear gripped me as I looked out through the trees. “If he doesn’t kill me for this first.”
Maddox clicked his tongue. “Girl, he is not going to kill you. Like I said before, he—”
“He doesn’t,” I snapped before he could say it again. “Besides, this is his sister, Maddox. His sister.” I repeated myself with emphasis thick in my tone. “He loves her so much. He’s known her for centuries. He’s known me for weeks.”
Maddox licked his lips. “Unless you plan on running from him, like Freya, then you don’t really have a choice but to face him.”
Naomi sighed. “I hate to say it, but the asshole’s right.”
Maddox smirked. “See? I’m right.”
“Still an ass.” Naomi scowled, clearly not over the creepy comment.
“I can’t leave Mona,” I said quickly.
Edmund chimed in. “He’s not going to kill her. She’s leverage. As long as Alexander believes Freya is still alive, he has no reason to believe otherwise. He thinks she’s gone to summon Raiden and kill him, with you, so you have about a day, I reckon, before he starts looking.”
“Then I need to leave now.”
Edmund grabbed my hand before I could prepare myself to speed away. “Elle. We need to talk about this.” He looked me up and down. “You’re immortal now. We need to find out if there’s a way to reverse it. If there is, I know Maddox and I can find it.”
Maddox laughed. “If she even wants to reverse it. Imagine being a goddess. I wouldn’t give it up.”
