15. Finally
FINALLY
WILLOW
At first, I don’t even know how to answer that. I mean, he sees the pomegranate. He sees the portal. I’m pretty sure that he somehow sensed what happened—why else did he appear in the garden right as the portal did?—but he watches me as though he’s sure I’m already halfway home.
Home…
For months, I’ve dreamed about seeing it again.
Maybe I stopped dreaming of returning to it, but I did want to check in with Daphne.
I wanted to make sure she knew I was okay if that was possible, and hope that no one thought I vanished into thin air.
But then… then I would’ve come back. I mean, the mirror would’ve let me, right?
I’m still carrying the goddess of Persephone inside of me—
I nudge her. Right?
Yes, yes. I’m still here. But this is your legend now, Willow. This is your Hades. If you want him, claim him. That’s all you can do now.
You know what? For once? The goddess has a point.
It’s a shame that, right when I’m about to tell Aiden that, his features twist. Handsome as ever, only there’s something…
cold about him. Rather than look at me like I’m the sunshine in his life, he closes off his expression, making it clear that he couldn’t care less that I ate the pomegranate and conjured a portal.
You think he would. At the very least, he’s learned over the years that, when a story is told, depending on what sort of Ancient Greek soul we carry inside of us, those of us who choose to stay in the Other can either lean into their Greek identities or cling to their mortal “shells” while also tapping into their immortal side as necessary.
He could either become Hades completely or shove the cranky god down where Aiden can be in control for the most part. Hades got what he wanted; he got to relive his time with Persephone. But I thought… I thought Aiden wanted me to stay with him even after their story was told.
Until he folds his hands in front of him, shadows swirling at his feet, and he says in an emotionless voice that sends shivers skittering down my spine: “Aren’t you going to take it?”
I frown, confused. “Take what?”
The pomegranate? He has to see that I already ate it—
“The portal.” His voice continues to be steady, but only because I know him well enough now do I hear the effort it’s taking him to keep it that way. “Don’t you want to go home, Willow?”
The question catches me so completely off guard that I can only stare at him.
Home?
When he discovered what I’d done, I had expected surprise. Maybe relief. If I was being completely honest with myself, I’d even hoped he’d smile when he realized that I chose him.
Instead… he’s asking me to leave, isn’t he? And he’s not even calling me “Blossom” while he does it.
Was it just an act? A facade? A way for him to lull me into loving him so that I did what the magic wanted me to do? If so, he wasted his time mirrorside being a mechanic first, and a soldier second. He should’ve been a freaking actor because I honestly believed that he loved me.
“I thought...” I shake my head, trying desperately to ignore the lump lodging itself in my throat. Don’t cry, Will. There’s no reason to cry… “Aiden, I don’t understand.”
“You should go.” The words are gentle now, and that’s worse. It’s so much worse. “The portal is still open. You still have the chance.”
Something inside of me twists painfully before hope swoops in. Foolish hope.
He isn’t looking at me. It’s like he can’t.
Which is a good thing because, if he was thinking clearly, he’d understand that I couldn’t.
Even so—
“If that’s what you want...” I say softly, keeping my eyes on him.
In return, he squeezes his shut.
Okay, then.
I guess we’re doing this the hard way, baby.
I wait until I catch him cracking his eyes open just enough to watch me go before I turn toward the portal. The wavy light shimmers beneath my fingertips as I reach out, the portal itself impossibly smooth beneath my skin. I hold my breath and, hoping I’m right, I push.
Nothing happens.
I swallow my exhale of relief before telling Aiden, “It won’t let me.”
The words have barely left my mouth before the portal ripples like disturbed water. The brilliant light flickers once, twice, then folds in on itself until there’s nothing left but the familiar twilight of the garden.
Silence settles all around us.
When I look back at Aiden… when I see how he’s fighting an inner war with himself that he can’t win… I throw him a bone.
“I knew it wouldn’t work. I ate the pomegranate, Aiden.
I chose to eat it, just like I chose to stay.
But if you want me to go… that’s okay, too.
I mean, I’m pretty sure I’m stuck in the Underworld now so I’d appreciate it if I could borrow Persephone’s room until I find somewhere else to stay, but you don’t have to worry about me crawling into your bed anymore. ”
Okay. Part of me is laying it on pretty thick on purpose. Aiden might not have ever pushed me, but I’m not Aiden. And my god of the Underworld… he needs a little push.
At the same time, I won’t deny that his response to seeing the portal didn’t hurt. I mean, if he really wants me to leave, I’ll go. But if he was only saying that because he thought that that was what I wanted…
“I’m so sorry, Blossom.” His voice cracks again, and I know in an instant that my intuition was right when it turns raw.
“I never wanted you to be forced to stay with me. If the portal came and you regretted missing it… I couldn’t do it.
I couldn’t live with your regret, knowing that all I’ve ever wanted was for you to stay.
But you needed to choose me, and why would you choose me? ”
Oh, Aiden… as much as he’s breaking my heart right now, I have to say that I freaking knew it!
That was it. That was the look on his face.
He thought I’d eaten the pomegranate because I believed I had to. Because it was the only way to end this tie we had between us.
Somehow, after everything we’ve shared, after every quiet morning and every night we’d fallen asleep wrapped around one another, he still couldn’t imagine that someone might freely choose him.
Screw that. Tossing the pomegranate rind, I cross the garden without another thought.
He shakes his head before I can reach him.
“I promised myself I would never become the Hades from the stories.” He laughs bitterly, scrubbing a hand across his face.
“The one who trapped Persephone. The one who took away her choice. I swore I would never do that to you, and somehow...” His eyes drift to the place where the portal had disappeared. “Somehow, I still failed.”
What is he talking about? “You didn’t.”
“I did.”
“No. I’m pretty sure you didn’t.”
He finally looks back at me, and the grief in his expression just about steals my breath.
“I wanted you to be able to leave whenever you wished. I wanted you to stay only if you decided this life—this place... me... was enough.” His voice softens into little more than a whisper. “I never wanted you to stay because you thought you owed me.”
“Oh, baby.” The endearment slips out before I could stop it.
Moving into him, I reach for his hands, relieved when he doesn’t pull away.
“I think we’ve got one Cerberus-sized misunderstanding here.
I don’t know what you think happened before you showed up.
I didn’t eat the pomegranate because I thought I had to.
I ate it because it was tempting and I was hungry.
Not because I was trying to escape you or something. ”
Confusion flickers across his face. “Really?”
“Yup. I ate it because I was starving.”
He stares at me before his expression breaks. “Willow…”
“What? I’ve been living on ambrosia for three months.” I can’t help smiling now that I know he wasn’t trying to get rid of me after all. “Do you have any idea how badly I wanted that pomegranate? It was the first thing I’ve actually wanted to eat since I got here.”
My poor soulmate. He still looks so hopelessly confused.
“So...” I give his hands a gentle squeeze. “Yes, I ate the whole thing because I was hungry.” A tiny smile tugs at the corner of my mouth. “But I also ate it because somewhere along the way, I realized something. If I ate it, I got to stay. It was as simple as that. I want to stay.
“I wasn’t choosing the Underworld, Aiden.
” My voice trembles despite my best efforts.
“I was choosing the man who never asked me to stay. The man who would’ve opened that portal himself if I’d asked him to and the magic allowed it.
The man who spent every single day making sure I knew I had a choice. ”
His lips part, but no words come.
That’s okay. I know exactly what he needs to hear: “I choose you now, Aiden Murphy. I choose you forever. If you want to be my husband, I’m more than happy to be your wife.”
In the next instant, his knees strike the ground before I can stop him. I drop with him immediately, cupping his face before he has the chance to bow his head.
“If you wanted to say ‘no’,” I tease, “you could’ve just done that. You don’t have to play dead or something. I mean, aren’t you Death?”
Normally, Aiden is amused by my sense of humor. But now?
I’m cupping his face. Suddenly, his arms are bracing my shoulders. “Blossom, my Willow, my love… I don’t deserve—”
“Of course you do, silly.”
“I mean it. I don’t deserve someone who—“
I silence him with a kiss he wasn’t expecting. It’s a slow and lingering kiss, and I put everything I want him to understand into our embrace without having to say another word.
When I finally pull back, his forehead rests against mine.
“I want to be your bride, Aiden,” I tell him. “Do you understand that? I love you. I want to stay here with you as your queen if that’s what it takes. To live with you in the Underworld forever. To share your bed… in every way.”
His hands rise to cradle my face with a reverence that makes my heart ache.
There’s no caution in his touch right now.
No hesitation. Only love, quiet and overwhelming, the same love he’s been carrying for longer than I first accepted could be possible all while believing he’d never hear those words from me.
The old stories say that Hades and Persephone’s fate was sealed by a pomegranate.
Can’t say that isn’t true. But standing in the middle of the garden he gave me and watched me grow, with Aiden looking at me as though I’d just handed him the world all because I finally told him I love him, I realize something that the myths have gotten wrong.
The pomegranate won’t be the end of our story. For us, it’s only the beginning.
Hades and Persephone have finally reached the end of theirs.
Now it’s time for Aiden and Willow.
And as my husband lowers his arms to cradle my ass instead, lifting me up and guiding me to wrap my legs around him before he kisses me again, then summons a shadow portal to lead us out of my garden and into our bedroom, I know that the pomegranate was only the beginning.
But the rest of our forever?
It begins with now.