Chapter 28
HADES
Icalled Tee to come and fetch Persephone because my restraint was on a hairpin. I was about to lose control and claim her.
Tee’s accusatory glare, however, had taken care of my raging hard-on. I’d walked around Persephone’s garden when she had left with Tee, then stayed up all night brooding.
The following morning, Hecate barged into my office, looking like she could incinerate me with a single gaze.
‘You performed oral sex on her again, and she’s given you head? She was high on nectar last night, Hades. She had so many glasses I’m surprised she didn’t pass out. What in Olympus’s name are you playing at?’
I raised my gaze to her and clenched my teeth. ‘How come me telling Poseidon about the oral sex is a crime, but her telling you everything is okay?’ I spat.
‘You what? You told your brother? What the Fates?’
I shook my head in disbelief. ‘I had to tell him why she kissed Apollo. I trust him, Hecate. And she seemed fine last night. I didn’t realise she was high… Her powers are obviously growing quicker than we realised.’ I sighed with frustration, then lowered my eyes.
‘You cannot, under any circumstances, fuck her. Not until she agrees to be your consort. You cannot keep her unwillingly,’ Tee ground out.
I closed my eyes momentarily. ‘It’s getting harder and harder, but I am aware.’
‘And you marked her. You claimed her!’ she fumed. ‘What gives you the right?’
‘I marked her in a moment of lust and madness. I will not act upon it. You have my word.’ Those words seemed to pacify Hecate.
‘She’s still skittish, and you’re not doing her any favours.’
‘Skittish?’
She didn’t elaborate on the statement but continued, ‘Maybe I was wrong? Perhaps you ought to lay your heart bare and tell her how you truly feel.' I furrowed my brow in confusion. I couldn’t do that. My Persephone had gifted me the most honest, unending love I’d ever known or ever would.
The loss of it had been so visceral that it cut me to the bone.
Now she was resisting our soul bond; I needed the emotional walls I’d built to shield me from her impending rejection.
The pain of her no longer loving me was overwhelming.
'Stay away from her until you swallow your arrogance and admit your love for her,’ Hecate snapped, and my eyes shot to hers.
‘I mean it, Hades, for the love of the gods, stay away from her. Otherwise, I will take her from you until you calm the fuck down. You’re all messing with her head, and I will protect her from all the gods… including you.'
I glared at her. ‘You wouldn’t dare take her from me,’ I snarled.
'Oh, I would! I’ll whisk her away somewhere, and no one will ever find her,’ she spat at me before flashing from my office, leaving me with my head in my hands, knowing that, as the goddess of witchcraft, she was more than capable of following through on her threat.
What a mess.