Page 101

Persephone

“They are so beautiful.”Emotion cracks in my throat as I stroke my daughter’s little nose. Her eyes are open and bright with life as she looks up at me with the love and trust of a pure soul. “My little Sophia Dawn Pluto.”

Beside me on the bed, Hades holds her twin against the bare flesh of his chest. They both have curly red hair, and more than I would have expected from a newly born baby. Rosy cheeks flushed with life and adorably plump with little pink lips I could kiss a thousand times over.

My heart has never been so full of love or so full of grief.

“Lilith Angelos Pluto,” Hades bestows the name with the pride of a father, sealing it with a kiss to her forehead. She tilts her head back, mouth open at the feel of his lips on her skin, searching.

Hades chuckles, his dark eyes alight with warm flames finding mine. “Is Sophia satisfied?”

“I think she’s eaten enough for now.” We trade babies, and I smile as Lilith latches quickly, drinking deep from my breast.

Against Hades’ chest, skin to skin, Sophia takes a deep breath of contentment. Love ruptures my heart, leaking into all of me. I hate that pain follows close on the heel of it.

I hate that I know I don’t have long with them. I hate that I don’t know when the short time we do have will run dry.

I hate that I can’t allow myself to spend this time simply loving them, because I can’t ignore the shadow that is the fear of losing them. The shadow of loss that dulls the beauty of this moment.

“I never thought I would be a father,” Hades speaks the words softly to Sophia. “I never could have imagined someone so small could bring me so much joy. So much love.”

Little fingers curl around Hades’ big thumb, and emotion squeezes the air from my lungs. We sit together, a little family of four in the silence of our room with only the sounds of Sophia’s little breaths and Lilith’s suckling.

They’ve both fed multiple times now, and I pray that there will be a thousand more even as the vision of them still with death under the Elysian Tree haunts me.They’d been so small.

Give us time. I beg to whatever spirit cares to hear. Please, give us time.

Lilith pulls from my breast, satiated for now. Her little baby sounds lull me into the warmth of Hades’ chest where I snuggle close enough to feel the little puffs of Sophia’s breath that whisper across my face.

I inhale the scent of her. The taste of her life deep into my lungs where I pray it will brand me for all time.

Warm air surges in from the balcony, caressing the naked skin of our daughters as though even the realm wishes to be their comfort. Tears prick my eyes as Lilith settles on my chest, her little lids fluttering closed. Together, our girls fall into a calm and secure sleep. Their bellies are full, their skin warm, their hearts rich with love.

I press my lips to the fuzzy red hair atop Lilith’s head as Hades presses another to Sophia’s. Then his lips linger on my forehead for long moments.

His voice is rough when he urges, “Sleep, little goddess.”

I smile up at him with all the dreams of a new mother. With all the hope of a new beginning. “Wake me when they are hungry.”

Hades dips his chin but says nothing as I snuggle deeper into this moment of bliss that will forever live imprinted on the fabric of my soul. Tiny but strong breaths lull me into the peace of sleep, and I dream.

I see my daughters in my dream. A daughter of light and a daughter of darkness.

One is fated to the sky.

The other is destined for the sea.

Chapter

Forty-Two

Hades

On their thirteenth hour,the number of the divine feminine, of Chaos, my daughters took their final breath together.

My own breath stalled in my lungs, the burn unlike anything I’ve suffered in all my millennia. I feared for a long moment, perhaps minutes, that they took my final breath with them when they took theirs.

That I would never breathe again.