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“Really, Persephone.” Hades’ lips twitch with just the faintest smile.

Hydra huffs a hot breath that warms my skin.

“There are very powerful human bloodlines connected to the powers of the Gods, bloodlines in which are in possession ofthe gift of magic. There are times when they see through the glamours cast by Gods. When they catch glimpses of the world in which lives alongside their own.” His voice deepens even as it quiets. “More often than not they are persecuted for the things they see. Called crazy. Schizophrenic. Those who process the things they see quietly call themselves clairvoyant.”

“My goodness.”I had no idea.

The elevator doors roll open and we step out into the tower where I first met Hades. The tower where everything changed.

I sense now that everything is about to change again.

Hair rises over every inch of my skin and gooseflesh needles my skin. I feel as though I’ve just stepped into a pit of vipers cast in darkness. I can’t see from which angle they come at me. I only sense that they will strike.

Hades curses low and viciously, pivoting quickly. His bulk blocks any view I may have hoped to have of the space beyond him, and I feel his hand connect gently with my belly, pushing me into the wall at my back. He crowds me, thick shadows leaching from him to curl around us both until I can see nothing beyond them.

His eyes blaze with the flames of Tartarus, lit from the core of him. “Don’t go with him.”

My stomach knots, twisting violently. My heart riots. I want to do the thing that cleanses him of his fear.

“Hades…”

“We can go to war. All of the Underworld would be happy to go to war for you.” Hot breath spills from his lips. It should burn my own, but it doesn’t. “The flames of Tartarus would burn for you.”

“I—I can’t.”

“We can tell them it’s not their time. They get you in the spring. Fall is for me.”

“You tried. Demeter argued that I should have been hers over the summer when I arrived.” I cup his strong neck, pulling his face closer to mine. Poor Minthe had been back and forth all night, trying everything she could try to keep me from this fate. Ares had not been swayed. “Hades, we’ve tried everything. If I don’t go, we know what will happen. I won’t let you pay that price.”

“Little goddess.” I hate the break in his voice. It threatens to break me. “Please. I don’t know that I can watch you walk away with him.”

“Don’t watch.” I cover his mouth with my own, tasting his fear and grief. “Just know I’ll come back to you. I promise, I will come back to you.”

“I can’t save you from Olympus. Anywhere on earth, any other realm, but not Olympus.”

“I won’t need saving.” I press my forehead to his. “I’ll have Hydra and Leuce and—and I won’t need saving.” He inhales my shuddering breath and my heart squeezes. “I have to do this, Hades.” My hands lower from where I’ve cupped his neck, down his chest to my own belly where our girls grow. “I have to do this for them. For life.”

His eyes shutter before slowly reopening. “I wish I knew what the Moirai told you. I wish you would tell me.”

My lips part and close.Now is not the time. It’s a thought that is both my own and not.

Hades sighs a sigh that is weighted far heavier than any man, woman, soul, or God should ever have to carry. He dips his head and takes my lips in a kiss that is soft and loving and tainted with desperation.

I pour my whole heart and soul into the kiss. I don’t do it because I fear I may not return to him. I know in my heart of hearts that I will. I pour everything into this kiss because I needto leave him with all of me, even if I’m gone. I need to leave him with the thing he has lacked all of his existence. Hope.

He pulls away from the kiss far too soon, and yet I know it’s time. Softly, so softly, he tells me, “I love you, little goddess. With all that I am and all I have ever been, I love you. You are the only future I want, the only future I crave.” He presses his lips once more to my own. “Come home to me.”

“I will,” I vow a moment before the shadows begin to pull back and the room around us comes back into view.

That’s when I see Ares for the first time. And that’s when dread and fear unlike any I’ve ever experienced before settles like an anchor in the sea of my belly.

I drown the urge to flee and instead take a single step toward the God of War.

Chapter

Twenty-Three

Persephone