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“Do you think she will have an opinion if I fuck you against it?” he asked, letting his teeth graze her ear. She turned to face him, and he was troubled by her expression. He’d expected to see her eyes ignited with a dark passion, but instead, she looked…distressed.

Perhaps Demeter had done something more.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, letting his hands fall to his sides.

“I had Helen escorted off the property today,” she explained, her voice quaking. “I…” She paused, letting her gaze break from his. “She wanted to write an article about Triad, which I supported if she could find actual sources, but I guess in the process, they managed to bring her to their side.”

“What do you mean?”

“She met with me today and explained what she wanted to write about. She told me that Triad was…good. That they are like the gods, but they protect their people, as if we do not.”

Hades was not surprised. He knew how Triad recruited members, and he knew their use of magic always seemed to override fate, so it was not surprising that they had managed to snare Helen in that web.

“They can be very convincing,” Hades said. “It is unfortunate. Mortals who fall into their trap only see an isolated event—a moment of healing where these demigods have seemingly defied fate. They do not see the fallout.”

“What is the fallout?” she asked.

He shrugged. “It depends on the anger of the Fates, but usually, they face an end worse than the one that was chosen for them.”

She was quiet for a moment. “I feel like this is my fault. If I’d never—”

“You could not have known, Persephone,” Hades said. “If Helen was so easily swayed to join Triad, her loyalties were never very strong.”

Persephone frowned.

Hades touched her chin, tilting her head back so she would meet his gaze.

“She threatened you,” she said. Her fists clenched, and there was a shift in her power. It was angry and seething. “Do you think Triad will…target you?”

“I imagine so,” he said.

She blanched, and he was a little surprised by her shock. He frowned.

“Are you afraid for me?”

She glared at him. “Yes. Yes, you idiot.Lookat what those people did to Harmonia!”

“Persephone—”

She was quick to stop him.

“Hades. Do not diminish my fear of losing you. It’s just as valid.”

Something warm invaded his chest at her words, and his features softened. “I’m sorry.”

He had never thought twice about whether Triad would target him. He knew they would. He was one of the three most powerful gods among the Olympians. If they wished to come into power, they would have to defeat him. Up until the resurrection of the ophiotaurus, he had not considered it a possibility, though things were very different now, especially in the aftermath of Katerina’s dream.

“I know you are powerful, but…I cannot help thinking that Triad is trying to bring about another Titanomachy.”

Hades’s gut twisted. He had known this for a while, but to hear Persephone speak it was another thing entirely. It made him think again of Katerina’s vision.

Hades did not wish to give power to this dream, but he could not help wondering how much of it was true. If the ophiotaurus was slain, would they face a hundred-year war? Hades was not certain he could bear the burden of that future, not when his past had been fraught with the same horror.

It wasn’t what he wanted—not for him and not for Persephone.

Hades cupped Persephone’s face between his hands.

“I cannot promise we will not have war a thousandtimes over during our lifetime, but I will promise that I will never leave you willingly.”