The Dread Queen's Bargain: A Greek Gods Romance (The Asphodel Series Book 6)
Prologue
Persephone was the goddess of spring and the queen of the Underworld.
She didn”t know about the latter.
When Persephone was born, the Fates made a rare visit to Olympus. They warned Demeter of Persephone’s legacy, which would surpass her mother’s. Their vague warning declared that the young goddess’s powers would far exceed those on Mt. Olympus, and her reach would be greater than that of Zeus. Of course, all of this would pass only once Persephone was wed. She would spend the first portion of her life as Kore, the maiden, growing her affection for the mortal world while working alongside her mother.
Demeter, hearing this, flew into a rage. If not for Zeus threatening to put her in chains, Demeter was prepared to send the world into a famine if the Fates didn”t retract their prophecies.
The Fates refused to return to Olympus and replied if Demeter had questions, she had to come to the Underworld and ask them like the rest of the gods. Demeter, now furious and living in fear of the Underworld, refused to go.
Demeter swore an oath that day that Persephone would never be married and would never leave her. There had never been a mother more afraid of her child’s potential for greatness. This was an accomplishment in and of itself, considering how patricide and family feuds were so typical amongst the gods. Demeter swore until she was blue in the face, promising she would wreak havoc if her daughter was ever taken from her.
The irony of this, however, lay in the oaths Demeter swore. Even for all of her enthusiasm, they were for naught. The strongest oath a god could swear was an oath on the waters of Styx. Demeter refused to go near the Underworld, especially Styx. She’d learn how futile her anger was in the centuries to come.
Persephone was too young to remember any of this happening. As she aged through the years, Demeter purposefully weakened her education. She kept her in youthful clothes and refused to see her as an adult.
Demeter threatened the lives of the mortals and, in turn, the mortal’s sacrifices. Under the direction of Zeus, the pantheon of Olympus was all too happy to pretend they hadn’t heard the Fates’s prophecy.
They went along with Demeter’s charade, always speaking down to Persephone, telling elaborate tales of their childhoods, and pretending their adolescence lasted millennia—all except Hermes, whom Demeter refused to let near Persephone.
Persephone only knew of the goddesses of the Underworld by name and role. Demeter spoke of them as horrid beasts and shades, not beautiful, powerful goddesses who could easily hold court alongside Artemis, Athena, or Hestia.
It had been over a thousand years, and Persephone was getting harder to keep in the dark.
Demeter didn’t realize she’d lost her daughter centuries ago. Gossip and stories were all too easy to come by in ancient Greece, and by visiting the mortals and accepting their sacrifices, Persephone knew more than her mother wanted to realize.
There was one rule Demeter stuck to above all else—the rule that would inevitably set the Fates’s prophecy in motion.
Demeter never, ever said the name Hades aloud.
And Persephone loved nothing like a good mystery.