Page 8 of Winning Back Persephone (Jinx Paranormal Dating Agency #9)

PERSEPHONE

The hotel was surprisingly ornate looking. Then again, I shouldn't have expected anything different from a hotel that Aine was planning to buy to use for Jinx events. I guessed the thing that surprised me most was that they were already starting to hold them here.

I entered the building and followed the signs to the lock and key party, trying not to feel out of place. I wasn't even sure why I'd decided to come to this. It was supposedly only for those at the top level of Jinx's membership, but I had no idea what that meant, and just like I'd told Nyx, I didn't want to date mortals. Even younger immortals and gods weren't on the list. I knew some gods didn't have a problem with that, but to me it felt strange to have had a relationship that was older than the new person I wanted to date.

But I had to try. Hades was moving on, and it was better for me if I tried to do that too. I had to at least try to honour our break-up, even if there was a part of me that didn't really want to.

I pushed the thoughts aside as I stepped into the room, finding a lot of well-dressed people milling around and talking to one another.

I swallowed any nerves and headed towards the table at the entrance, where a beautiful woman with long dark hair and a striking black dress was waiting.

"Ah, Persephone. Aine said you might be joining us tonight," she said.

"I've heard good things about your parties, Qetesh."

"I'm glad to hear it." Her smile was genuine, making me think that she truly appreciated the compliment. "Would you like a lock or a key this evening?" She gestured to the items laid out on the table.

"I get to choose?"

"Of course."

"I thought these things were a case of women getting locks and men getting keys?" I asked, looking over the selection.

"That seems reductive to me," Qetesh responded. "And doesn't account for nuance. The locks and keys are simply a way of making it so that people have a reason to talk to one another. No matter which you take, you would have to talk to everyone in the room in order to find the matching set. Once you've done that, you can collect a drink at the bar and return to mingling."

I nodded. "All right." There were half a dozen locks still on the table, and four keys. If I wanted to make the most of tonight, then I needed to talk to the most people possible, and a lock would give me that.

"Do you ever take part yourself?" I asked the other goddess.

She tucked a strand of dark hair behind her ear. "No. I prefer to watch people meet their match. And if I'm distracted by searching for my own, I miss it when other people need help."

"Doesn't that get lonely?"

"Not really," she responded, but there was a note in her voice that I suspected meant there was a different answer. I wasn't going to press her on what it was. We barely knew one another beyond having attended some parties together, both now, and during the crossover time between the worship of the Greek and Egyptian pantheons.

I looked over the locks and selected the one that I felt the most drawn to.

"Have a good evening," Qetesh said with a smile.

"That's it?" I asked.

She chuckled. "Yes, that's it."

"Oh." I wanted to ask her more questions, but another woman arrived, suggesting that it was time for me to go. I stepped into the room, heading to the bar first so that I could get myself a drink. This was all still kind of new to me. I'd never really dated unless I counted what I'd had with Hades, and somehow, I didn't think that would. It wasn't so much dating as more a series of run-ins that had resulted in me falling for him, ending in a staged kidnapping that had caused my mother to hate him for thousands of years.

There weren't a huge number of people in the room, but there were enough. From an initial look, I didn't think I recognised any of them, though whether that was a good thing or not remained to be seen.

"Hello."

I turned to find a woman with dark red lipstick and long brown hair braided down her back in front of me. "Hi."

"I don't think I've seen you at one of these events before."

"It's my first time," I admitted.

"Ah, I remember mine. I was nervous, but it was really fun. Do you have a lock or a key?"

"A lock." I held it up.

"Then we can try it out." She opened her hand to reveal the key within.

I nodded, feeling surprisingly nervous about the whole situation as I held out my hand. I wasn't exactly sure what would happen if they were a match. Was I expected to spend more time with the woman in front of me? I didn't know her, so I didn't have an opinion on whether that would be a good thing or not. I was just confused about the situation.

She slipped the key into the lock, but it didn't click. "That's a shame. Maybe next time?"

"Yes, maybe."

She smiled. "See you around."

I watched her leave, a little bit confused by the interaction. That wasn't exactly the talking to people that Qetesh had implied was the point of the evening. Then again, maybe she'd decided that I was too nervous to be of any interest to her. I took a sip of wine and considered my options. I could wait by the bar and let other people come to me, though that also seemed to defeat the point of the evening.

I took a deep breath and approached a man who appeared to be in his forties, though I was well aware that age could mean anything to the people in this room. I certainly didn't look my age and was lucky my mother had managed to wait until I was fully grown to turn me immortal. I was sure she'd have loved to change me when I was a baby, but then I'd have been stuck that way.

"Hi," I said. "I'm Persephone."

He raised an eyebrow. "Like the goddess?" There was a slight hint of an accent in his voice, but I couldn't place it.

"Yes." I wasn't sure if he was asking if I was the goddess or if I was named after myself, but I guessed it didn't really matter.

"I'm Vladamir."

"It's nice to meet you," I said.

"We should get the necessities out of the way," he said.

"You mean the lock and key?"

He chuckled. "That will come second. If you're not interested in vampires, then the conversation has no need of going forward." He flashed the slightest bit of fang while he spoke.

"It's not a problem to me," I responded. In all honesty, I wasn't even sure what or who I was interested in. "So long as you don't have anything against dryads." Or goddesses , but that part of the conversation could wait, especially if he knew what my name was. He could work out the rest.

"I do not," he responded. "So, what brings you to the party?"

"I'm just looking to do something different," I admitted. "What about you?"

"Immortality gets lonely," he said.

"Yes, I suppose it does." Especially considering I made the mistake of leaving the person who made it less so. I pushed the thought away. Tonight wasn't about Hades. It was about me, and I should remember that.

The conversation with Vladamir flowed well, but it was clear that there was something missing, and after discovering he also had a lock, we parted ways. I sighed and leaned against the table beside me, trying not to feel like this was all a waste of time. I was looking for something that probably didn't exist. I couldn't expect someone I'd just met to meet the standards of someone who had loved me for two and a half thousand years.

"Persephone?"

My heart skipped a beat at the sound of my name, and I knew exactly who it was who had said it, even if it felt like an improbability. I turned around, my gaze landing on Hades in a nice suit, though as far as I could tell, it was the same one he'd been wearing the last couple of times we'd run into one another.

"Should we try your key in my lock?" Hades asked, holding up the key he must have picked up at the front door.

"Do you really want to go there?"

He shrugged. "That's the point of the party, Sephie. What are the chances our lock and key actually match?"

I narrowed my eyes at him, trying to ignore the fluttering within me at hearing him use my name like that. "Did you persuade Qetesh to give us a matching set?"

"How would I do that? I barely know her. I only got an invitation tonight because Jinx is determined to make it up to me after the mishap of our date."

"You'd think they'd go out of their way to make sure we aren't at the same events," I pointed out.

"You're the one who knows Aine. You should ask her if that's what she's doing."

"I don't want to cause more trouble." And I honestly wouldn't put it past the love goddess to purposefully make sure we ran into one another if she thought we were the best match for one another.

He raised an eyebrow. "Could it be that you're not as opposed to spending time with me as you say you are?"

"You and I both know that spending time together isn't the issue," I reminded him. I picked up my glass and took a sip, but it was mostly to have something to do that wasn't staring at him. I hated that he still affected me, even if it made sense. What was two years of being apart after over two millennia together? I cleared my throat. "All right, let's try your key."

He gave me a strange look and lifted up the key, holding it out to me.

My hands shook a little as I took it from him, slipping it inside the lock I'd selected. The only thing a successful unlocking meant was getting a drink at the bar, but somehow, it felt like it was going to mean more than that.

The tell-tale click filled the air, even above the music in the bar.

"Huh, would you look at that?" Hades said, looking down at the lock with a genuine look of surprise on his face. It seemed that he really hadn't asked Qetesh to make sure our keys matched.

"Maybe the Fates are messing with us," I muttered.

Hades chuckled. "I can imagine them doing something like that."

"They do like to meddle. But they adore you, I'm not sure they'd mess with you."

"Maybe they would if they thought it was something that would make me happy," he said.

I swallowed hard as he looked at me, not having to question him more about what he meant. It was painfully obvious that he was talking about the two of us being together as something that would make him happy. and I couldn't say I blamed him. There was a part of me that was convinced that would be true.

"Shall we?" he suggested, holding out his arm to me.

"I think it's better if we don't touch," I murmured.

"Ah." He dropped his arm back to his side and gestured for us to head over to the bar. Having another drink probably wasn't a good idea, especially when it was with him, but I couldn't help myself.

I picked up my empty glass and followed him over, feeling a mix of excitement and trepidation at the thought of more time with Hades.