Chapter 5
Persephone
By the time Hecate came and got me from the conservatory, Skop and I had found every buried seed.
I'd spent a blissful hour sorting them into groups, then planning the flower beds.
Lots of the seeds were useless, as they couldn't be grown indoors in the warm, or alongside other greedier plants, but a complex design was forming in my head that I was positive would be stunning if I could pull it off.
I had to shower again as I was covered in dirt, and then I got dressed in a gown that Hecate had chosen for me.
It was a deep mossy green color, and had shoulder straps that slid down across the top of my arms and a boob-tube type bodice that skimmed the top of my breasts.
I clutched at them, looking in the mirror.
“Are they actually bigger?” I asked Hecate as I peered down at my chest. She laughed.
“No. I told you when you first got here, you just needed better clothes.”
“Or none at all,” Skop chimed in. I ignored him.
Working in the conservatory had definitely relieved some of the tension in my body from my encounter with Hades, but I still felt hugely restless. As soon as the word naked entered my head I was picturing Hades, bare and glistening and hard and...
I squirmed and shook my head.
“What do we have to do at this thing tonight?” I asked.
“Just have a few drinks, talk to a few folk, and find out what you have to do next in the Trials.
It'll be a few hours, tops.” Hecate was wearing an electric blue dress that barely covered her ass, and had some sort of leather collar attached to the top.
I wouldn't have been surprised if she produced a whip and handcuffs at any moment.
“Do you have a...” I tailed off, looking for the right word. “Lover?” I finished a bit lamely.
“Hundreds,” she grinned at me.
“Anyone I know?”
“Nope. Now, are you ready?”
The Second Round Ceremony was being held in Hades' throne room, and when Hecate transported us there I felt a strange comfort in seeing the enormous colored flames licking up the open sides of the room.
My eyes flicked to the thrones. There were only two empty chairs on the dais; the skull throne, and the rose throne.
My gaze settled on the carved roses intertwined with the brutal thorns, and that spark of energy I thought might be my power rippled through my veins.
I raised my eyebrows in surprise and stepped closer.
“Where you going?” hissed Hecate, and yanked my arm, spinning me around. I sucked in a breath.
Fifty people or more were filling the rest of the throne room, all holding saucer shaped glasses and dressed in finery. Many I recognized from the ball, and Eros, that sexy-as-hell god of lust, stood out the most as he gave me a finger wave.
“Uh, hello,” I said, and a rumble of chatter started as they all turned back to whomever they were talking to before we had arrived. A few made their way towards us though, and Hedone and Morpheus were first to reach me.
“You did so well at the ball!” Hedone said, kissing me on the cheek. Pleasure rippled through me at her touch and I blinked, trying to dismiss the awkward feeling.
“Thanks,” I said, and took a glass from the little serving satyr's tray that had appeared beside me.
“It didn't go exactly to plan, but you handled it well,” said Morpheus, taking my other hand and kissing it.
Didn't go exactly to plan? It was a complete cluster-fuck! A man was literally torn apart, because of me.
I swallowed my real thoughts, plastering my practiced smile across my face and hoping it wasn't a grimace. This little get-together was going to be just the reminder I needed that these people were freaking nuts.