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“I’ll find a way to storm Olympus,” I vow. “Even if I have to burn the realm to the ground with the flames of Tartarus, I will find a way to destroy the deal that stands between us. I’ll bring you home.”

She shakes her head. “You can’t.”

“I can.”

“No.” Her palm in my chest pushes me back so that her eyes can find mine. “There is something here that is meant to be—meant to live.” She shakes her head. “But right now, I need you. I need you to make love to me, Hades. Remind me that I’m not alone.”

She doesn’t have to ask me twice. I pull back and sink in, growling low, “You will never be alone, little goddess. You will always have me.”

“Always,” she gasps as I pull back and sink in again. “I love you.”

“I’ve always loved you.” I press a kiss to her forehead, her lips, her chin and down the line of her throat. I kiss her chest, between her breasts and listen to the roar of her heart that soothes the rage in my own like a balm crafted solely for me. I make love to my wife, the eternal keeper of my soul. My bonded mate. My Goddess.

When we come, we come together. It’s not with the crashing waves of a violent sea or even the blazing flames of that which ends everything for the path of all that is new. It’s quiet and gentle like stars that rain from the night sky. Like burning embers of hope in an otherwise eternal darkness.

She is the star that burns bright for me. She is the ember of hope that fell for me when I feared all was lost. When darkness and suffering was my eternity.

She is the hope for the future of the realms, I realize with an icy chill that strokes the very core of my soul. She is the portal through which that hope will travel, will come into the world and changeeverything. She is the mother Goddess.

And she is mine.

Emotion builds inside me, a crescendo I loose in a sound that edges on a sob.

Her arms tighten around me, clinging to me as though she fears this will soon be over. That this dream will soon end.

I sense it, too.

“What is this?” She strokes her hand over the braided ropes of black mist and white fog.

“The tether back to the Underworld. To Hypnos.”

“Oh.” Sadness paints every inch of her, wreaking havoc on my heart.

I nudge the tip of her nose with my own. “What did you mean when you said there was something meant to live in Olympus?”

“It’s—there’s so much evil here, Hades.”

I’m afraid to ask, but before I can she tells me, “There are sacrifices here. But not in the way I thought they would happen. Not that it would be any better to have some poor soul laid out on a stone to have their throat cut but?—”

“But what?”

“But the way Zeus demands the blood be spilled is—God, Hades. It’s awful. He’s awful.”

Her eyes watch my frown. “I didn’t realize Zeus was still demanding sacrifices.”

“I think he’s—I think he abducts people from the living realm.”

Everything inside me stiffens. “What?”

“Every night I’ve been here, I’ve watched someone innocent die.”

I pull away from her, fearing the rage I feel building inside me. “Tell me more.”

She pulls the sheet up to cover her body, her hands trembling in a way that I loathe.

“He makes them fight gladiators in the arena. They have no chance of winning. No chance of living.”

“And once they die in Olympus, they remain in Olympus for eternity.”