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“You should be practicing on fucking…flowers. Not yourself. What did she have you do?”

“Does it matter? I healed myself. I did it. Besides, I don’t have a lot of time. You know what happened to Adonis and saw what happened to Harmonia.”

“You think I would let what happened to them happen to you?”

“That is not what I’m saying. I want to be able to protect myself.”

He could not help staring at the blood. She crossed her arms over her chest.

“I swear I’m fine,” she said. “Kiss me if you think I’m lying.”

“I believe you, but I will kiss you anyway,” he said and pressed his lips to hers softly, too anxious to kiss her the way he wished, especially after what she’d told Hypnos about her dreams.

When he pulled away, she asked, “Why didn’t you tell me I had the ability to heal myself?”

“I figured at some point Hecate would teach you,” he said. “Until then, it was my pleasure to heal you.”

Her eyes fell to his lips, and warmth curled in the bottom of his stomach.

“What shall we do this evening, darling?” he asked.

She smiled. “I am eager for a game of cards.”

CHAPTER XXIII

HADES

“We play by my rules,” Persephone said.

Hades raised a brow as he sat across from her at the table in their bedroom.

“Your rules? How do they differ from the established rules?”

“There are no established rules,” she explained. “That’s what makes this game so fun.”

This sounded like his worst nightmare.

“Just listen,” she said when he frowned. “The goal is to collect every card in the deck. Each of us will lay down a card at the same time. If the cards add up to ten or you lay down a ten, you slap the deck.”

“You…slapthe deck?” he repeated, confused.

“Yes.”

“Why?”

“Because that is how you claim the cards.”

He tried not to laugh. This sounded ridiculous, but he wasn’t opposed to slapping.

“Go on.”

“Outside the rule of tens, there is a rule for face cards,” she said, and Hades started to think that maybe he shouldn’t have wished for rules. These were confusing.

“Depending on the face card you draw, you have a certain number of chances to get another face card, or the player who laid down the first face card takes all the cards.”

He didn’t understand anything she said, but he nodded as if he did.

“And last, if you slap at the wrong time, then you have to put two cards at the bottom of the pile.”