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Her eyes hold mine, and she smiles softly into the flame. “They will be ready soon.”

The closer we come to this moment, the moment of their birth, the more my heart aches. She aches, too. I can scent the dew of sorrow on her skin.

We won’t have long with them.

Persephone sighs, her eyes drifting to the portal. “I hate that Demeter is not in there.”

“She will be,” I vow it.

“She was so distant in Olympus. I thought she would try to talk to me, to know me.”

“Demeter has always been a highly intelligent Goddess. Her manipulations are intricate, and her sense of self-preservation far exceeds that which most Gods and Goddesses possess.” I catch her small face between my big palms, lifting her green eyes to mine. “Her intuition is unmeasured, little goddess. It is how she played us against each other for centuries.”

“But I’m her daughter.”

“Mythology aside, Demeter has never been a loving mother,” I say as gently as I can. “She loves only what serves her. And you, my Queen, no longer serve her.”

“I just—” Her shoulders fall. “I just wanted her to pay for the ways she hurt me. Hurt us.” She closes her eyes and shakes her head, as though she can shake away the memories that haunt her. “I can still see the way she used to starve people, watching asthey withered to nothing, feeding on their prayers for her mercy before she again let wheat grow, crops thrive—only to take it away again. And still, today, she has no mercy. The food scarcity in the living realm is devastating.”

“The day will come when she answers for the pains she has caused.”

Persephone casts her gaze to the portal. “I will not rest, not truly, until she is in there with them all. Until she is somewhere I know she can’t hurt another soul.”

“Until then, little goddess—” I turn her toward the portal. “You must seal the realm.”

She nods, but the weight of her acceptance is heavy. I ache to carry it for her, but this is not something I possess the power to do. The gift of creation has never been mine. Before my daughters, I did not create at all. Everything I have and all that I am is because of the woman, the little goddess in human form, who stands before me.

I watch again, marveling at the power of Chaos that surges from her freely and without hesitation. Sweat does not bead her skin; exhaustion does not paint her features. There is peace as she calls upon the gifts of the Mother Goddess.

From the palms of her hands, a ribbon of color shining with the stars and threaded with the light of a full moon stretches toward the portal. A galaxy of color, like looking at a condensed thread of the milky way, weaves over the face of the portal. The threads tug the border closed as though sewing the very realm shut. When the final stitch is tightened and knotted, the threads simply stop flowing from her palms to wrap their final tendrils tightly around the portal that will stand in the center of the burning lands of Tartarus.

When she rises again, the peace vanishes as fear flashes in her eyes. Her hands fall to her belly and her lips part in horror. She gasps, “It’s time.”

For a moment, I hear nothing but the magma rushing between my ears. She keels over as a cry falls from her lips, and I gather her in my arms, ready to run for the border when the sound of wings in the hot air pull my gaze upward.

Hydra lands before us, her eyes on Persephone. There is worry in those mauve eyes as she takes in the scene. How she’d known Persephone needed her, I will never know even as I will forever be grateful for their bond.

“Take her back.” I lift Persephone, who moans again in pain, onto Hydra’s back.

When Hydra growls low, snapping vicious teeth at me, I feel my brows pinch tight together. Persephone flops against Hydra’s back, her hand stretching out to try and grip her neck.

“Go!” I roar.

Hydra hisses a snakelike sound, one of her heads unwinding from the others to stretch for me. Between sharp hisses, her teeth snap.

Persephone groans. “She wants you—” Another cry pulls both mine and Hydra’s gaze back to Persephone. “Ahh! Get on, Hades.”

My eyes snap to Hydra. I’ve never, not once been permitted on her back as Persephone is permitted. I’ve never even tried.

Hydra snaps her teeth again, and I take a cautious step forward. At the roll of her slitted eyes, I take it she does want me on her back with Persephone and do as I am told.

Beneath me, her scales are hot. I waste no time gathering Persephone in my arms, holding tight to her as she cries out again. “Oh God, hurry.”

I find the ridge between Hydra’s shoulders and grip tight with my other hand as her wings flap violently beside us, and we rise into the night.

Chapter

Forty-One