Page 5

Chapter

Five

P ersephone

Connected to my mind as she is, Hydra lands on the balcony of mine and Hades’ room.

I sense that he is close as I slide down her tail between the spikes she flattens.

I find him standing in the shadows cast from the flickering hues of falling stars that rain down from the crystal ceiling.

He’s thrown in a glow of deep violet light, but even still I can see the flames in his eyes.

“That was quite a show.” Hades dips his head as I move closer. His pitch lowers. “You made friends with Hydra.”

Excitement jitters inside me. I’m still riding the high of riding Hydra! “I have so much to tell you.”

Those eyes of flame and shadow connect with mine. “I’m all ears, little goddess.”

“I didn’t make friends with Hydra. At least not just now. She’s been my friend.” When his brows furrow, I lift my hands to flatten my palms to his chest. Under the thin material of his shirt, his heart thunders.

He tells me, “I don’t understand.”

I let my hands drift upward until they’re curving around his neck. His skin is so warm and there’s a tightness to his expression. Within it, a residue of fear lingers.

I tip my head to the side, studying the dance of flame and shadow in his eyes. “Did you look for me?”

“I did.” His skin heats further. I wait for the painful ache that is my constant need for him.

His nostrils flare. He’s scenting the air.

He’s waiting for that need, too. But it’s not there.

I still want him with a desire that is more than typical. But it’s not the same desperate need that swelled with discomfort. With pain.

My eyes flick sideways to the black mountains where I know the Moirai reside, and the moons that sit high in the sky, burning bright. I wonder if they’re watching even now. Playing the game of life and death with our souls.

Hades speaks and I drag my eyes back to him. “Did you see me standing on the shore of Hydra’s sinkhole?”

A shiver coils around my spine. I shake my head. I’d been so caught up in the magic of the moment I’d shared with her—of her finally breaking free from the centuries she’d spent alone in the caves and waters that were once the Lernaean Lake.

“I didn’t see you.”

“I heard you call out for me in my mind. You were so afraid.” His eyes shift to Hydra. I feel her presence in my mind even as she speaks no words. She shifts her big body on the stone of the balcony, getting comfortable. She has no intention of leaving me.

“I was afraid,” I admit. “At first.”

“At first?”

“Hydra would never hurt me.”

Hades’ eyes narrow, but only for a moment. He shifts closer, his body grazing the front of mine gently as he dips his head, towering over me. “Why, then, were you afraid?”

“Well—” I flash him a coy smile. “When I first arrived at the sinkhole, I put my hand in the water. I wanted to know if it began shallow or instantly dropped off. My hand was in the water when I first saw her. Hydra. She spoke to me, and I think that’s when I called for you.”

His brows rise, before his eyes flick again to Hydra. He asks quietly, “She spoke to you?”

I nod with jittery excitement. “And then she pulled me into the water. Deep, deep below the surface.”

The flames in his eyes brighten, fringed by coal black shadows that speak of an eternity of torment. He’s clearly doesn’t share my excitement.

He asks dangerously, “She pulled you into the water?”

“Did you know there are caves under the water, Hades? Did you know they snake throughout the whole of the Underworld, deep below the surface?”

He swallows. I watch his throat work around the swell of it. “I did not know that.”

“Well, there are so many caves. She lived there, mostly alone.”

“Mostly alone?” There is death in his voice. A low simmer of darkness that has that shiver coiling tighter around my spine.

My hands shift from his neck to cup his face. “That’s where I was, Hades. After Demeter murdered me in my first life. My soul sought sanctuary with Hydra deep below the surface of the Underworld. I remained there with her?—”

“She was with you ?” His eyes cut to Hydra. There is a rage in the deep of them that I’ve never seen. He is a tormentor come to life. His flesh ripples with the temper of the beast he harbours beneath.

I try to catch him as he steps away from me, stepping toward Hydra.

“Hades!”

He roars, “I searched for her! The Underworld searched for her for centuries!”

“Hades!”

“Speak, beast!” He rages at Hydra. “She says you can speak, so speak!”

“She can’t speak to you.” I hurry to position myself between my lover and my friend. “She’s tried, but you can’t hear her.”

His eyes cut to mine even as his nostrils flare with every hot breath. He growls, “Explain.”

“She speaks in my mind.”

“That doesn’t answer why she kept you to herself for centuries when the Underworld searched. When it weakened.”

I can feel Hydra moving at my back. I can sense that for me, she would throw down with the God of the Underworld.

How is this my life? Surreal.

I get my head back into the game when I suck in a deep breath that tastes a little like charbroiled, angry God.

Calmly, I explain, “She tried to bring me to you. I wasn’t right when I first arrived to her in the Underworld. I was—confused. For a long time, I think.”

“A very long time.” It’s the first time Hydra speaks since bringing me to Hades. Feeling her sound in my mind, so soothing and ancient and powerful, puts me at ease.

Hades’ eyes flick between the two of us. “She speaks to you now, doesn’t she?”

I nod. “She tried to bring me to you. I screamed for you to hear me. She tried to speak to you as well. You couldn’t hear either of us.

You couldn’t see me. She took me back below the surface to the caves of her home where we stayed together until I felt the pull to the Elysian Tree. Until I felt the pull to live again.”

“And she just let you go?”

I feel incredibly emotional. “It was written.”

“Written?” Hades shakes his head, but I can sense his anger is waning even as his agitation remains high. “Written where? By whom?”

“The walls of the cave,” I answer simply. “And it was written by me, but I think—” My eyes drift once again to the black mountain that plunges high into the sky. “I think they gave me the visions—or whatever it was that inspired me to carve the walls.”

“Carve the walls with what?” Hades asks, wariness dripping from his voice now.

“The future.”