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It seemed like so long ago.

Persephone looked at him and smiled softly.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Nothing,” he said. “Just thinking about how beautiful you are.”

Beautiful in so many ways.

Her brows rose, as if she were curious or perhaps suspicious of his thoughts, but if she were going to comment, it was lost once Lola spoke.

“Look!”

Persephone’s gaze shifted to shore where the other souls waited, and while her attention was no longer on him, he did not take his eyes off her.

Lola and her father were helped onto the pier by Yuri and Ian, welcomed with music and food by the other souls in Asphodel as they made their trek to the Field of Judgment.

Charon’s soft laughter drew Hades’s gaze. “They certainly shall never forget their entrance into the Underworld.”

“Do you think it will overshadow the suddenness of their death?” Persephone asked.

He smiled. “I think your Underworld will more than make up for it, my lady.” He bowed, stepped into his boat, and returned across the river.

“Is it still a fate woven by the Fates if it is caused by another god?” Persephone asked.

Hades looked down at her, frowning. He knew she asked because Demeter had been responsible for this, but that did not mean the Fates weren’t involved.

“All fates are chosen by the Fates,” Hades replied. “Lachesis had probably allotted an amount of time to each of them that ended today, and Atropos chose the wreck as their manner of death. Your mother’s storm provided the catalyst.”

He knew his words were not comforting. They were just what they were—the reality of fate.

“Let us leave this place. I have something to show you.”

Today, Demeter had hurt his lover, his goddess, his future wife, and if she thought for a second he would not repay the favor with fury, she would soon learn.

He brought her closer as he teleported to the Temple of Sangri, to the bottom of the marble steps, untouched by ice or snow.

“Hades…why are we at my mother’s temple?”

“Visiting,” he said and held her gaze as he kissed her hand.

“I do not wish to visit,” she said.

“Your mother wants to fuck with us,” he said as he ascended the steps, Persephone following at his side despite her resistance. “Then we shall fuck with her.”

“Do you intend to burn her temple to the ground?”

“Oh, darling,” Hades said with a smile. “I am far too depraved for that.”

As they came to the top of the steps, Hades called on his magic, and the doors of the temple burst open. Priests and priestesses froze in place as they saw him approach, eyes wide with fear, though some looked on with hatred.

“L-lord Hades—” A priest attempted to stop him at the doors, though he shook.

“Leave,” he commanded.

“You cannot enter the Temple of Demeter. This is a sacred space!” a priestess aid.

Hades ignored her.