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Hades bows his big, horned head between his shoulders. “You can’t go alone.”

“I come!” The words are loud in my mind.

“Hydra will come with me.”

Hermes looses a sharp laugh. “Zeus will never allow her in Olympus.”

“We make it a condition of my going,” I say. “Surely, we have some pull. They want me there—I’ll go with protection.”

Hades scrubs his hands down his face. “I don’t like this, Persephone. You are human. Vulnerable.”

“I know.” I’m really beginning to wish I wasn’t human. “I know what I am. But they still want me for the powers inside my soul. I don’t know why, but I know they need me alive.”

“You will be unprotected!”

“Hydra—”

“Won’t fit everywhere!” he roars.

I can’t make my tongue tell Hades that I suspect Ares will be on my side. That he will stand with me, protect me. He’s not in a state of reasoning around what he believes is the impossible.

I flinch. Softly, inside my mind, Hydra speaks, “This is true, my Persephone.”

“Olympus is a complicated place, Persephone,” Hermes tells me. “It is full of secrets and politics. There is darkness in its beauty and blood in the wine. You must always watch your back. Friend and foe will be after you. You will be, entirely alone. I would go with you but?—”

We all know he can’t. That he bound himself to the Underworld forever more when he gave Hades his soul.

Thanatos bows his head, but I don’t miss the tight set to his hard jaw.

“I’ll go,” Leuce volunteers. “I’m strong, trained, and I know the games those Gods play.”

Memories accost me. Visions so vividly gruesome play in my mind, stealing my breath. I’d just saved Minthe from being transformed into a mint plant when, in Demeter’s ire that they’d joined me and Hades in our bed, she’d aimed to end Minthe tragically by binding her irrevocably inside a plant.

I’d invited them into our bed because they were beautiful, and they loved me. I loved them. Perhaps not sexually, but still—I’d loved them and trusted them. And I thought, perhaps, they could help me seduce my husband. Make him love me more.

I’d been wrong. Hades hadn’t even looked at them. He’d watched me as they?—

I can’t. The memory cranks to a stop in my mind and I hear Minthe scream that she took Leuce. That Leuce was missing.

Fear twists a blade in my heart now as it did that day when I searched on horseback for my friend.

Aethon had ran faster and harder than ever before, but by the time I found Leuce where Demeter had planted her beyond the Elysian Fields, on the pale mountains adorned with white poplar trees, the rooting had already taken place.

The curse was slow and agonizingly painful.

Her feet were entirely rooted. The skin that covered her legs, once smoothly dark and beautiful was split as bark tore, as though from the depths of her, to settle in place of skin on her legs.

Ribbons of blood streaked the flesh of her legs as shimmering streams fell from her eyes to streak her face.

And the way she screamed.

The memory of it nearly brings me to my knees.

The bark spread like a poison on her body, cutting into calf and thigh before I finally reached her.

As I had with Minthe, I called on the powers of spring and birth, healing and love.

I reversed the curse my mother had put on my friend, releasing her from the roots that held her in their eternal prison. But I’d never been able to heal her.

Like Minthe bore the tattooed vines of the mint plant over her feet and calves, Leuce bore the scars of the bark that had split her skin.

Her hair, once silky black had turned the color of silvery bark.

And her eyes, once rich brown had faded to the gray green of the underside of a white poplar’s leaves.

I realize now that I’ve never seen Leuce in a gown. Never seen her show her legs. She’s always worn flashy pantsuits.

Now, I suspect I know why.

My gaze shifts to Minthe to see that she’s turned ashen with fear. The thought of setting Leuce, her lover of centuries, in the path of Demeter’s ire once again strikes a fear inside her she can’t hide. Still, she says nothing.

I shake my head. “I can’t let you do that.”

“You go with protection, or you don’t go at all,” Hades says firmly, but it takes only one look into my eyes for him to sigh. “Little goddess, please. Don’t fight me on this. I can’t lose you.” There is true fear in his eyes. “I won’t survive it. The Underworld won’t survive it.”

I can’t help myself as I move into the circle of Hades’ arms. They close around me tight, and when I hear the vicious pounding of his heart, I know he’s nearing the end of his control. He loves me. It’s not easy to stand back and watch the one you love walk willingly into harm’s arms.

I understand his short temper. I want only to soothe him.

“I’m not weak as I once was, Persephone,” Leuce says. “I’ve trained every day since that day.”

“Demeter is a Goddess, Leuce. And she hates you.”

“I am an immortal nymph, thanks to you. I’m powerful, too.” She smiles a confident smile. “I will keep you safe.”

“Let her come, my Persephone. She loves you.”

I smile a small smile at Hydra’s words. Then, resigned, I nod. “We’ll keep each other safe.”