16. Daphne and Alex
DAPHNE AND ALEX
SIX MONTHS LATER
WILLOW
The morning after I slept with Aiden the first time, I woke up feeling well-loved, a little achy, and more than a little boneless with orgasmic-induced euphoria courtesy of my husband.
Oh, and I also woke up with a crown of fire on my head.
It doesn’t burn. If it did, I would’ve set our bedding on fire, the way I was curled up in bed, tucked against Aiden’s body.
I had one leg thrown over his, my hand splayed out over his bare chest, but my head was resting on top of the mound of pillows my husband conjured for me in particular after his initial insistence that I sleep by his side even if I wasn’t going to sleep with him.
That ship has sailed like Charon down the River Styx. What started as something innocent became something beautiful yet primal, and we consummated our union as man and wife the only way the Other understands.
And that’s exactly why I have the crown.
A gift from the magic that runs this world, Aiden explained.
He could call himself my husband all he wanted, but until I admitted that I chose to stay in the Underworld with him…
that the magic tempted me with the pomegranate, but I was the one who shoved the seeds inside my mouth by the palmful…
until I stretched out beneath him and let him take my virginity the same time as I took his, I wasn’t truly his bride.
I was Persephone, of course. The goddess has always been inside of me, just like Aiden’s always carried the soul of Hades within him. But though Hades and Persephone needed to have their story told again and again, it was Aiden and Willow’s turn to fall in love and choose each other.
And when we did? The Other recognized that, while Aiden serves as the Lord of the Underworld, I’m now his queen.
Literally.
The crown doesn’t disappear, no matter what I try.
No ash, no water, no nectar… nothing douses the flames.
Not even when I asked Aiden to try and extinguish it with his magic, though the slight curve to my husband’s lips tells me that he tried, but maybe not too hard.
He likes seeing the crown, likes thinking of it as a symbol of our love and bond.
To him, it’s a sign that no one can steal me from him because he’s claimed me, almost like it’s a wedding band back mirrorside.
Once I understood that, I let it go. Besides, I don’t actually feel it.
It’s not hot, and it doesn’t weigh anything.
Honestly, it’s more like a hologram than anything else, and if it makes Aiden smile with pride, I figured I could get used to everyone who saw me staring at it, shades and living folks alike.
And that’s exactly what I did.
Being the queen of the Underworld comes with plenty of responsibilities.
Most of them are the traditional roles that Persephone had while Ancient Greece thrived and the balance wasn’t reliant on all of us reincarnates.
As Hades’s queen, she was an equal partner in how he rules the Underworld. It’s the same for me and Aiden.
I get to enforce the rules of the afterlife that were set millennia ago.
There are times when I can interfere, possibly ask my husband to show mercy, but mostly I help him decide which shade goes where: the Asphodel Meadows, the Elysian Fields, the Fields of Punishment, and Tartarus, though no one goes to Tartarus unless they’re, like, the cream of the crop when it comes to bad guys.
I’m also his designated mediator. For anyone who is afraid to ask anything of Aiden, they have a much easier time coming to me and seeing if I’ll intercede on their behalf.
That doesn’t mean just the dead, either.
In the palace of Hades, our servants—and can you believe that I have servants—prefer going to the lady of the house instead of the “master”.
The Furies worship Aiden, but they’re fond of me because I sneak them bones from dinner the same way as I save them for Sir.
There are also the lesser gods, demigods, and heroes of legend who find their way to the Underworld and it’s up to me to decide their fate.
And then there’s family.
Sigh.
Now, I love my family. As far as I know, Persephone’s mother—Demeter, the goddess of the harvest, and one of the Twelve—either hasn’t been reborn yet, or she hasn’t found her way to the Other; at least, not in the three seasons that I’ve been here.
The only family that I have is my cousin Daphne, and wouldn’t you know?
She’s Daphne. Like Daphne Daphne. The infamous nymph who once pleaded to be turned into a laurel tree because she was that determined to escape the sun god, Apollo, when he decided he wanted to bang her.
I don’t know what the odds of two blood-related people both being reincarnated with the souls of those whose stories became myths back in Ancient Greece are, but after I followed Sir through the mirror and into the Other, Daphne came to the condo a few days later and followed me.
Of course, she had to live out her story first. That meant discovering who she carried inside of her, and what part she had to play to keep the balance and the magic alive.
Though, because she’s Daphne Ackerly as much as she’s the mythical Daphne, she did all that while determined to find me and make sure I was safe.
That was at the tail end of fall, beginning of the winter season.
Time works differently here, and while it took her days to come after me, it was months here before the magic let her cross over.
It was about three months after I bonded with my soulmate—six months after I first arrived in the Other—that she appeared on Charon’s boat, proving that she would even find her way to the Underworld to assure herself that I was okay.
And I was. Obviously. I was happy and in love—still am, too—and so very excited to reunite with my cousin.
If I had any regret at all when it came to choosing Aiden and the Underworld, it was knowing that I would never see Daphne again.
Then, when I did, I was disappointed because I knew I couldn’t leave the Underworld to enjoy the sun and light and outside with her above because I ate the entire pomegranate.
But Aiden… my wonderful husband… gave me the one thing that made life perfect: the freedom to leave the Underworld and visit the above realm during the spring and summer months.
He didn’t have to, but he did, and I loved him even more for it knowing what it costs him every time I disappear for even a few hours at a time.
That’s why I don’t go that often. Daphne has a charmed ruby that Aiden gave her. It’s a token that lets Charon know she can take a ride on the River Styx and visit the palace of Hades whenever she wants.
Her soulmate? Her husband?
Her—as she said with a slight smirk the first time she introduced me to him—hotshot, golden boy toy?
I’m not the only one who found my happily-ever-after with a god.
Just like how we changed our story so that I chose the pomegranate—I chose Aiden—instead of him tricking me into eating the seeds so that I couldn’t leave, my Daphne decided to give the sun god a second chance.
Alex houses Apollo inside of him, and while they both agree he can be a dick, some time between searching for me and learning the truth of the Other, she decided he was hers.
She still hates the outside, though. Lucky for her, Apollo comes with his own golden palace full of amphilopoi—nymph handmaidens like Minthe and Leuce act as maids in the Underworld—that cook, clean, and give Daphne an outlet to be her ball-busting self whenever they make the mistake of hitting on her husband.
So, yeah… between surprising herself by falling for the cocky, arrogant Alex—who, I’ve gotta say, is perfect for my cuz—and discovering that I’m here, I’m happy, I’m in love, and I definitely can’t leave the Other (even if the above is on the table for now), Daphne has gone all in with staying on this side of the mirror.
Which is why she showed up earlier today, Alex in tow, demanding to talk to me.
Well. No. Just like she has ever since it’s become spring, she demanded that Aiden stop hiding in the shadows and hear her and Alex out. Me, being the mediator, I step between them, distracting my cousin so that my husband can escape, and then I do my best to understand just what she expects of us.
The old ways are dying. That’s what Zeus told her—and if it was a shock to learn that Daphne has a place in the Other, that was nothing compared to learning that the Z in Mr. Z stood for Zeus.
He appeared in the Other with Elisabeth—who, surprise, is Hera—shortly after Daphne and Alex changed their story enough to have a second chance at love as Daphne and Alex, not Daphne and Apollo.
Despite keeping a distance from his godly side, Alex still thinks of Zeus as his dad, and when the king of the gods told Alex that the only one who can save the Other is my husband, Daphne’s believed him.
Apollo believes that Aiden is the key to the Other’s survival.
But Aiden? He doesn’t.
Daphne crosses her arms over the front of the golden chiton that her soulmate had woven from sunbeams just for her. “Okay. I know he was here when we entered the megaron, but I don’t see him. Where’s Aiden, Willow?”
Aiden’s gone. Well… no. “Gone” probably isn’t the right word. It’s more accurate to say that he’s giving my cousin and I—and Alex, too—privacy from somewhere else in the palace while remaining completely aware of everything happening inside his domain.
Daphne casts another peeved look around the throne room. With me standing on the floor with her, the two thrones on the dais are empty. She snorts. “Come on. Where is he hiding? The shadows?”
Knowing Aiden, probably. “He doesn’t want to intrude when I’m having family time,” I explain.
Another snort. “Fine excuse. Like he doesn’t know we see the shadows growing thicker whenever you come above to see me. He’s listening, isn’t he?”
Again, probably. “Daph. Stop picking on Aiden.”