Chapter 34
Chapter
Thirty-Four
Persephone
The Fall of Olympus
The armor of Death settled against my skin.
My discarded red gown whipped in the air like a splash of blood against the twilight sky before tumbling toward the ground far below.
I did not fall.
Threads of wind that I’d woven held me aloft.
Then a dark shape shot toward me, moving faster than thought. My ride had arrived.
The hellhound’s jagged wings stretched wide. One of his three heads snarled toward the retreating gods, a stream of hellfire scorching the air. Another turned to me, eyes alight with adoration and a fierce, unbounded joy.
The third remained ever watchful, surveying the chaos and destruction around us.
I alighted on his back.
A cloud of dust and shards of glass billowed upward, swallowing the sky. The Paramount that had stood for eons broke apart.
The hellhound banked away from the devastation like a flash, my thighs gripping his strong body.
“Don’t you like the view, Cerberus? Or would you prefer I call you Orren?” I asked, stroking the powerful curve of his neck.
He answered with a deep, rumbling purr.
“Good boy,” I praised him. “I shall call you Cerberus when you’re in your beast form and Orren when you appear human.”
Cerberus threw back his heads, his gleeful howl echoing over the burning city. Then he dipped into a rolling dive.
A moment later, another presence cut through the air beside us.
Hades drew alongside us on Belladonna. The Pegasus’s midnight coat drank the light, her wings wide, feathers edged with faint starlight.
My mate wore the same black armor as I, twin sets forged for the King and Queen of the Underworld. His cape streamed behind him, shadows and hellfire clinging to the fabric like living things.
The God of Death looked magnificent.
Our eyes met across the gap between our mounts. His emerald gaze held me, brimming with pride and desire so intense my breath caught. Every trial I’d endured was worth it.
For him.
For this.
For us.
Far below, the army of the Underworld, a seething mass, poured onto the golden bridge. A dark tide against the gleaming surface.
From the churning waters beneath the bridge, phantoms emerged, clawing their way onto the shores and falling upon the remaining soldiers of the gods who tried to defend the shattered walls.
“They’re inside!” the Olympians shrieked from every corner, their voices cracking with fear. “Enemies breached the wards!”
The dead streamed through the glittering streets like a rising plague, scaling buildings, toppling statues, dragging cowering Olympians from their hiding places.
Banners of the Underworld—skull, pomegranate, and hellfire—were planted on rooftops as our forces advanced.
“My love,” Hades called, gazing at me like I was his sun and moon, his everything. I was, just as I knew he was mine.
“You brought the dark storm,” I said, drinking him in. Joy longing, and a fierce protectiveness coiled in me.
“For you, my queen,” he said, his voice strained with emotions. “Anything for you. Always.”
I smiled at him. “Anything for you, too, my king.”
A deep, resonant horn blast rolled through the city.
“To Queen Persephone!” Dante’s bellow echoed beneath. “Protect our queen!”
“I’m not Bloom anymore,” I said, the words for him as much as for myself. “I’m no longer mortal. I do not require protection.” I gestured toward the fallen tower behind us. “Have I not made that clear enough?”
“As no one else ever could, love,” Hades said, pride shining in his eyes. “You shattered Infinite Crown. Should you wish it, that throne is yours.”
“I don’t want it,” I replied, disgust coloring my voice.
“I don’t want this shining city that is rotten beneath all its elegance, either.
Every being here is petty, cruel, and power-hungry.
” I paused, the weight of memory settling cold in my chest. “Immortality can be a curse. And I say that as one who has endured mortality.”
“Ninety-nine times I watched you die,” he said, rage and grief twisting through his words. His hands tightened on the reins. “Ninety-nine times I failed you.”
“You never failed me,” I said fiercely. “I learned from each and every one of those lives. Now that I remember them all, I understand things I could not have otherwise.” My tone softened. “And my heart longs for our home, our beautiful dark realm.”
He swallowed, the movement stark in his throat. A riot of emotions swept across his handsome face—hope, relief, raw longing, and profound pain.
He’d once been bitter over his exile to the Underworld, but he’d grown to love it, to nurture it, and to make it a true kingdom for his people.
I’d rejected his realm when I was a young goddess, naive and spoiled. And when I finally came to see its beauty, our enemies cursed us and stole me from my home and my husband.
He’d feared I would reject it and him all over again. And in the arena, before all the gods, I’d done exactly that.
And still, he’d come for me. His love would not die. Could never die.
“My black soul is yours,” he said, his voice thick. “I’ll atone for the pain I caused you, even though I know nothing can ever truly make up for—”
“You’ve given me everything you are and more,” I cut in. “You didn’t cause the pain and suffering. Our enemies did. And today, they answer for it.”
Fury and love seared my mate’s gaze, brighter than the fires consuming the city below.
“Now they know,” he said. “You’re the most powerful being in any realm. That’s why the Fates targeted you. Why they crafted the curse. They sought to contain you before you became unstoppable.”
He’d pieced it all together, the full, cruel scope of what had been done to us.
“I’ll find their lair,” he vowed. “I will drag the sisters to the Underworld and make them pay for every moment they stole.”
“There is no need,” I said. “They’ve been dealt with. I plucked the curse apart and set all of their threads on fire—their eons of purpose and pride. That was the worst punishment for beings like them.”
“My queen.” He nodded in respect.
No one would ever hijack my fate again. No one would hold my destiny but me.
And no one would ever lay hands on my mate again.
“Long live Queen Persephone!” Dante’s roar shook the streets below, while Hades and I soared above the clouds.
“Long live Queen Persephone!” our army thundered in response, their voices a unified war cry as they clashed with the remaining defenders.
“Loot later!” Dante shouted, a wild grin in his voice.
I rolled my eyes, smiling. “He’s such a drama queen.”
My mate chuckled. Beside him, Cerberus added a low, rumbling sound.
“Let him have his moment,” Hades said, his gaze warm. “He’s earned it.”
His team had been loyal—all but Morrigan.
“I’m sorry for the warriors we lost during my reincarnations,” I said.
He was silent for a moment, sorrow surfacing in his eyes.
“Life is not forever,” he replied, his voice a low sigh. “But death is. They are honored in our halls. Their loyalty is remembered.”
“Do they get the best suites in the Underworld?” I asked, forcing lightness into my tone to pull him back from the edge. “The finest food? Endless entertainment?”
He recognized the effort and offered a faint, grateful smile. “All of that, and more. And I have you back. If I lost you again, I wouldn’t survive it.”
“You now have me for eternity,” I said softly, letting the promise settle between us.
Tears glistened in his eyes. His love for me was so profound it hurt. “That is all I’ve ever wanted, my queen.”
From our height, the battle unfolded with brutal clarity.
Armies clashed in the streets and courtyards below—a chaos of magic, steel, and teeth.
Life met death.
The minor gods could be killed; their immortality was not guaranteed. Demons and creatures could be slain, their essence returning to the bowels of the Underworld to be reformed.
The dead and the phantoms simply rose again. No matter how many times they were cut down, they returned. An endless supply.
In the vast central plaza of Olympus—once pristine, now a battlefield—Dante and his division faced Ares and his godly warriors.
Dante was one of the original archdemons, as old and formidable as Ares.
Even from the sky, I could hear their exchanged insults and threats. Ancient grudges rose to the surface, harsh and venomous.
Then they charged each other.
A wave of dark tide met a wall of gold and blue.
Dante shifted fully, unleashing his archdemon form. He grew massive, terrifying. Obsidian horns pushed through his skull, curving back like wicked blades. His eyes blazed with infernal fire. Raw power, thick with terror, rolled from him in crimson waves.
His own power of terror met Ares’s—two equal and ancient forces colliding. His battle-axe slammed into Ares’s broadsword. The impact sent a shockwave through the plaza, shattering windows for blocks. Sparks sprayed like meteors. The ground beneath their feet cracked open.
Behind them, the two armies crashed together. Demons against gods. Dead against living.
The gods wielded impressive power—sky and lightning, fire and water, earth and wind. Domains honed over an eon.
But death belonged to the King and Queen of the Underworld. It was our domain. Our authority.
And who could defeat an army of the dead that could rise again and again?
“Let’s go greet my brothers,” my mate said, his grin savage. “It’s time for a family reunion.”