12. Hades
Hades
Why was she not here yet? The last time I had seen her, Persephone had been as white as the marble beneath my feet, the black poison from that cursed snake most of the way up her leg.
Even with the ability to go anywhere instantly, I hadn't dared try to find the antidote. I hadn't known how much longer she had before the venom reached her heart, and then it would be too late.
Dread coiled its way through my chest at the thought of her death. This is why she was sent away! This was why I'd ripped a part of my soul out - to keep her safe. And now, here she was, at death’s door every other damned day.
I realized the temperature was rising and took a slow breath, calming myself. Poseidon was acting cagey since the Trial, and I hadn't seen Zeus yet. Both would goad me tonight, I was sure. I needed a better handle on my temper. I needed to see Persephone, alive and glowing and healthy.
The feast in her honor was being held in the courtyard of a small dome, and it was decorated beautifully. A huge circular pool filled the middle of the pale brick ground, and female merfolk and ocean sprites splashed and played and batted their eyelashes at the other guests.
Not that anyone was looking at merfolk's faces; they were all as naked as the day they were born. I barely noticed them as I scanned the dome yet again. Many lesser gods were present, talking and laughing under twinkling golden lights, the blue of the ocean casting a favorable light over them.
“She'll be here soon, Hades,” I heard Hera say in my mind. I looked sideways down the row of thrones at her, but her gaze was fixed on the crowd.
“I know,” I answered gruffly.
“I spoke with her, you know. After the masquerade ball.” My heart skipped a beat. “She is an enigma. So much of your fierce Queen has been buried too deep to resurrect.”
I thought of Persephone's own words, and anger and pain gripped me. I've let other people treat me like shit for years, because I've never had any strength. I'd done that to her. She had been one of the strongest women I'd ever known, and I'd left her defenseless and alone.
“She will not be in Olympus long,” I said to Hera, forcing my emotions down. This was the way it had to be. I had already accepted that twenty-six years ago.
“I wouldn't be so sure about that. Strength born from overcoming trauma is very different to blood-born arrogance. It is true strength.”
“What?”
“Her experience as a human has changed her. Instead of being born to power, she's had to earn it. And the more we put her through, the stronger she may become. Stronger even than she was before.”
“No,” I snapped, but conflicting feelings of excitement and fear rippled through me. Stronger than she was before? Was Poseidon right to fear her? But imagine her with true power, ruling by my side...
My body responded immediately to the vision blossoming in my mind. Persephone on the Rose throne, resplendent in one of her fierce black corseted gowns, an onyx crown atop her head and black vines coiling from her palms as she glowed with power. Arousal throbbed through me.
She walked into the dome at that exact second and she couldn't have looked less like the woman I was imagining.
She was wearing a yellow dress, with white daisies on it, and she was wide-eyed with awe. She looked delicate and young and vibrant and innocent and... And I wanted her even more.
Her eyes found me almost immediately, and a bolt of something deeper than desire tore through me. I couldn't handle it.
All my resolve to avoid her and merely lust after her from afar disintegrated, and I was standing in front of her within a second.
“Oh! Hello,” she said, and I could hear the nerves in her voice. Was she still afraid of me?
“Hello. I'm glad to see you looking so... healthy.”
“I hear you are to thank for that,” she said. I could see her eyes scanning my smoky exterior, and I deliberately dropped it from my face just long enough to let her see me. Something leaped to life in her green eyes, hints of her power shining through. My arousal throbbed again.
“You're welcome,” I said, the words gruffer than I'd intended them.
“I, erm,” she started, then bit her bottom lip. I almost groaned aloud as my attention was drawn to her mouth. “I was talking to Hecate earlier and she said I should ask you about something.”
“OK.”
“It's sort of private.”
“Oh. Right.” I threw up the smoke bubble, and she looked around herself frowning.
“Won't this look really suspicious?” she asked me.
“No. To everyone else it looks like you're talking to an over-enthusiastic griffon.” A smile crossed her face.
“Let me see you?” I dropped the smoke that hid me from the world and saw her chest swell as she took a breath. “How come you wear clothes from the mortal world instead of a toga?” she asked me.
“It pisses Zeus off,” I shrugged. “Plus I look good in it.” I gave her my most wicked smile and she rolled her eyes at me.
“You think so, huh?”
“You'd prefer this?” I asked, and made my shirt vanish. Color leaped to her cheeks as her eyes widened. And I knew I wasn't imagining the lust I could see in them.
“Put your shirt back on!” she squeaked. My cock was throbbing painfully now, and I let my own desire show on my face as my shirt reformed around my chest.
“You said no magic sex!” she chided, and I bowed my head.
“So I did. I apologize profusely.”
“Liar.”
“What did you want to talk to me about?”
Her face changed, a seriousness settling over her beautiful features.
“Hecate said something about gods not being able to have more than one realm, and I should ask you about it because you can explain it better.”
“Hecate shouldn't be telling you anything about Olympus, because you're not staying here,” I snapped, the subject of her question causing the reality of the situation to slam back into me like a hammer.
Hurt flickered across her face, but she folded her arms and lifted her perfect chin.
“In that case, there's no harm in telling me,” she retorted.
The desire to talk to her like I used to, to have someone to share my problems with, made me want to tell her every secret I had, but I couldn't act on it. What good would it do?
“Tell me,” she demanded, and as I looked into her resolute face, my resolve crumpled a second time.
“Fine. Zeus is punishing me because I created a thirteenth realm and filled it with new life. I was able to keep it hidden from the other gods for a while, but eventually they found out. Zeus destroyed every living thing in it when he found it.” I was aware that my voice had gone hard with fury as I ground out the last sentence.
Horror filled her eyes.
“Why?”
“As a punishment to me. But he fucked up.
I was able to hide one of the creatures I had made.
A sea creature who was turning out to be incredibly powerful.
And once a realm has been created, it can not be destroyed, so I gave it to Oceanus before Zeus could work out what to do with it.
Oceanus is one of the few beings he can't argue with.”
I remembered the fury on my brother’s face as he had agreed to the suggestion. He'd had no choice. And for a short time, I thought I'd won.
Until I'd seen her, standing in my throne room.
“Zeus announced the Hades Trials the next day, knowing how little I wanted to be married. His final act of revenge for my insolence was to find you and bring you back, knowing I'd either have to lose you again, or watch you die as a human.”
“What a complete fucking asshole,” she breathed, still wide-eyed.
“Yeah. Lord Asshole.”
“What happened to the sea creature you saved?”
“She's living under Oceanus's protection. It will be announced to the rest of Olympus that there is a new realm after these Trials are over. I think Zeus is still trying to find a way to stop it, but short of declaring war on Oceanus, I don't see how he can.”
Persephone stared up at me, her face intense and thoughtful.
“Why did you do it? Why risk his wrath like that?”
I pushed my hand through my hair, debating. Should I tell her the truth?
“After I lost you, I couldn't deal with the darkness,” I said quietly. “You brought light and life to this place, and I became obsessed with replacing it.”
“So you made new life? Out of nothing?” She was staring at me now like I was crazy.
“Well, yeah. I didn't know if I could actually do it, and I had to have a lot of help from Hecate, but she's a Titan and much stronger than she lets on and—” I stopped talking as I realized I was babbling.
Not a great trait in a king. I straightened, trying to reassert some dignity, but when I looked into Persephone's eyes they were filled with emotion.
“You literally created life to replace me?” she whispered.
“Yes. The hole you left in my heart was impossible to fill with anything less.”
“Did it work? Did it fill the hole?”
“No.”
She was in my arms in a heartbeat, her lips on mine with fervent desperation.
Electricity sparked through my body, the mass of power I was permanently tempering deep inside me flaring to life. I pushed my hands into her hair, pulling her as close to me as was physically possible, every ounce of willpower deserting me completely as her desire swept through me.
“I need you,” she murmured onto my lips, lifting her hand to my jaw and pushing me back slightly, to look into my eyes.
Hers were shining and intense, her pupils dilated. I moved one hand to the small of her back, pressing her against my hard body, and she tensed as she felt my arousal.
“I need you more,” I breathed, and a wicked gleam crossed her face.
“Is that right?” she whispered, and dropped her hand to her skirt. I was so hard I was beginning to worry that I wouldn't be able to contain myself.
Inch by tortuous inch, she began hitching up the long flowing material of her skirt.
I took a deep breath as I watched more and more of her beautiful thighs being revealed, inhaling her divine scent.
Just before she reached the top of the skirt she stopped, and moved her hand between her legs, out of view.
Oh gods, I was going to explode. I had to touch her. And this was the wrong place. She was too special, this was too special.
“You deserve to be worshiped,” I breathed. “And I can't do that here. When I finally touch you I want to hear you scream my name, watch you come over and over.”
Her face flushed deeper red, her lips parting further. I ran my fingers along her jaw, drawing her face close to mine and kissed her again, deep and slow. She moaned softly as she kissed me back, and pleasure pounded through me. Or I could just take her here and now...
“You're right,” she said breathlessly, stepping back from me, her skirt dropping to the floor. “We're supposed to be at a party.”