Chapter 3
Hades
She was back.
I was vaguely aware of Hecate, and her flashing us somewhere else, but I didn't let go of Persephone's hand, didn't take my eyes from her tear-filled green ones.
She was back.
“I'm sorry,” I said, as she pushed me backward. I felt my legs hit something and sat down hard. My head was still full of darkness, but it was receding.
The beast called to me, but green and gold light burned hot through my body, drowning out its voice, piecing my barriers back together, reinforcing them with glowing vines. Her power.
“Sorry for what? Dumping me in New York, or nearly getting yourself killed?” she snapped, and I blinked. She shoved something into my hands. “Drink. Now.”
I did as I was bid, the sweet taste of nectar forcing the evil thoughts even further into the recesses. I realized I was still twice her size as I drained the tiny glass too quickly, and shrank myself down.
“I'll leave you to it, boss,” Hecate said, but I still didn't look at her. I couldn't take my eyes from Persephone. My Queen. My savior.
“Thanks, Hecate. And, erm, please be nice to Sam,” Persephone said to her.
“As if I'd be anything else,” Hecate responded, and there was a flash.
Persephone looked back at me, and her face was stern.
“I'm only here because Hecate cares so much about you.
You're an idiot,” she said, exasperation and fear mingling on her beautiful face.
“If Zeus found out that you lost control like that, what would he do?”
“He would give my job to someone else, and leave me in Tartarus for eternity,” I answered. And that's what I had wanted. There was no life without her. No point existing. And I was a monster. I was destined for that hell-hole in the end anyway.
“Hades, you are bound to me, and I to you. Even in New York, I could feel your suffering. Do you think it was fair to put me through that?” Her voice was strained, and I realized she was barely containing her emotion.
Electricity seemed to spark through my body as she spoke, and something the monster had snuffed out completely leaped back to life. Hope.
“You feel the bond?”
“Yes. I feel it. I feel you. And you were right.
It's not something. It's everything.” I reached for her, but she stepped backward, out of my grasp.
“Hades, you need to understand. I felt what is inside you. And it is evil and cruel and toxic.” Her voice shook as she spoke, and I could feel the devastation closing in around me.
The monster was stronger than the bond. The monster was stronger than everything.
“Instead of fighting it, instead of letting me help you, you left me. You left me and you let it win.”
She wasn't mad at the monster, I realized. She was mad at me. Shame washed over me as her expression hardened.
“You are the King of the Underworld. If I am to be your Queen one day, you need to start fucking acting like one.” My mouth dropped open.
“Everything here bows to you, the worst and most vicious demons, the cruelest gods trapped in Tartarus, all of it. That thing inside you is no stronger than they are.” I stared at her.
She was right. Why had I never seen it that way?
“And if the one thing that would allow you to lose control of it is losing the woman you're bonded to, why the fuck would you do something as stupid as leaving me?”
“I... I had no choice,” I whispered.
“Hades, I am so sick of not knowing anything, of others making decisions about my life without me being involved, and being told there's no choice.”
“I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. I shouldn't have left you.”
“I couldn't have left you,” she whispered, her face a mask of betrayal.
“Well, apparently nor could I,” I snapped, rubbing my hands across my face. “I don't know how many I killed. Most are demons who will regenerate.”
Many weren't. Self-loathing roiled through my gut.
“Then why do it? Why did you leave me?”
I closed my eyes and let out a long breath. I had to make her understand. I couldn't let her think I didn't love her. I couldn't.
“You must never meet Cronos,” I said eventually, opening my eyes. She frowned.
“The titan in Tartarus?”
Apprehension and fear clouded her face and I reached for her again. She took my hand hesitantly, and a spark of something thrummed through my skin.
“Persephone, you can take power from others. If you were to take too much, from a far stronger being, you would not be able to hold onto it.”
“I don't understand.”
“There's no easy way to say this. Cronos is trapped, his power severely limited in Tartarus. If he were to use you as a vessel to channel his power...” I trailed off.
“What? What would happen?” Her eyes were filled with fear now.
“Your body would expel the magic,” I said tightly, rage and terror bubbling up again at the thought. “Destroying you and everything around you.”
“You're telling me I'm a fucking bomb?”
“No. Only if you take the power of something exceptionally strong.”
“Like you?” she whispered. I shook my head.
“No. Stronger. Cronos is one of the original Titans, born of the sky and earth themselves. He is primordial in strength. You would be using his own power to destroy Tartarus.”
“Wouldn't that destroy him too?”
“A god can't be killed by their own power.”
She let out a long breath, then sat down beside me. I'd been so dazed that I hadn't even taken in my surroundings, and only then did I realize that we were in my own bedchamber, sitting on my bed.
“Is that why Poseidon hates me? Why he thinks I'm dangerous?” asked Persephone, her voice small. I looked back to her, noticing she was still wearing the red ballgown, scorched and torn.
“Yes.”
“Why didn't you tell me all this before? I would never have tried to get my powers back,” she said. “If I didn't have my vines, there would be no risk of Cronos using them.”
“If I had told you this before, you would have been overwhelmed. And by the time you had eaten the first seed it was too late.”
“Take my powers away again,” she said, her eyes wide.
“No. I'm never leaving you again. If you become Queen of the Underworld, you must have your powers back, or you would not survive here. And...” I reached out, cupping her cheek in my hand. “And I need your magic. You are the only one who can save me, Persephone.”