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It wasn’t a no, but it wasn’t a yes either. Still, he was rewarded with her soft smile, and that felt like conquering the world.

“But for now, you need rest,” he said, and then he looked at Hephaestus because he did not trust Aphrodite or Hermes for that matter. “Summon us once Harmonia wakes.”

Hades took them to their chambers.

When they arrived, they stood apart but faced each other. Neither of them moved.

He was attempting to process what it meant to involve her in discovering Adonis and Harmonia’s attackers. If it was something she could do from the safety of Alexandria Tower, her investigative work could help, but was she ready for this? Because right now, he feared she was about to break, and he wasn’t even sure she knew it.

“You will keep me informed of every step you take, every bit of information you glean on this case,” he said. “You will teleport to work. If you leave for any reason, I have to know. You will take Zofieeverywhere.” He shifted closer to her, bending over her. “And, Persephone, if I say no…”

He meant it. He could not even verbalize whatconsequences he would enact if she disobeyed, but they would be dire, and she wouldhatehim.

“Okay,” she said, and there was a sincerity in her tone and in her gaze he believed so deeply it hurt his chest.

He exhaled and then brought her forehead to his, hands braced at the base of her head.

“If anything happened to you—”

He couldn’t let himself imagine it—her in place of Harmonia.

“Hades, I’m here. I am safe. You will not let anything happen to me.”

“But I did,” he said.

He’d let Pirithous take her, and he had not known. He’d let him violate her.

What good is being God of the Dead if you can’t do anything?she had asked him once in the face of Lexa’s death, but he asked himself that now. What good were his powers if he couldn’t even protect Persephone?

“Hades—”

“I do not wish to discuss it,” he said, releasing her. He took a step back. “You need rest.”

He rarely put distance between them, but he needed it right now. He hated how it seemed to stun Persephone. She watched him for a moment as if she thought he would call her back, but instead, he turned to pour a drink and she retreated to the bathroom to shower.

She must think he was rejecting her, but she did not want him right now. At least she wouldn’t, not if she knew what he was thinking.

And he was thinking that he would never let her leave the Underworld. He had threatened as much before, but these attacks were too close, and it wasn’t asif she hadn’t been targeted either. Ilias was still looking for the woman who had poured hot coffee in her lap.

It angered him that his realm was not enough. He could never embody the warm summer sun or the blue skies of the mortal realm, and she would never be content to only rule the dead.

She thrived on purpose, on changing the world.

But she had changed his world, and while there were moments when he felt better for it, there were also moments when he felt more violent than he ever had before, more capable of terrible things.

It was wrong to want to hold her hostage, but he was angry. Aphrodite had drawn her into this world, exposing her to what he had tried so hard to shield her from, and of course she had been willing and ready to help. She took responsibility foreveryone.

It was a quality he could usually admire except in this manner, when gods were the victims.

“Are you coming to bed?” Persephone’s voice drew his attention, quiet and apprehensive.

He didn’t like it.

He turned to look at her. She was dressed in a shirt that was too big. It clung to the places on her body that had yet to dry. Her hair was heavy and wet. She had been crying. Her cheeks were a little too pink, her eyes a little too red.

His mouth hardened, and he set his drink on the mantle before crossing to her. He took her face between his hands, letting his fingers brush her skin.

His heart squeezed.