CHAPTER X: MIND GAMES

CHAPTER X – MIND GAMES

Hades sat in a chair before his fireplace, drinking and watching Persephone sleep. The slow rise and fall of her body as she breathed soothed his nerves. His head swarmed with the events of the last few days—discovering his connection with the beautiful goddess, their subsequent bargain, her anger toward him for merely being the God of the Dead.

She might hate him, but she had let him get close to her today, and he was not sure he would ever be the same. He had hoped to maintain a modicum of control over this situation the Fates had woven for him, but he felt like he was losing that battle each time he looked at the woman in his bed.

He had lost his composure twice in the span of an hour—first with Hermes, and then with the dead in the river—because this goddess was curious, because seeing her bleed had ignited rage in him so hot, he’d had no other place to expel it except at those who had injured her.

Perhaps you should meditate, he heard Hecate’s voice echoing in his head.

“Fuck meditation,” he said aloud.

Then Persephone stirred, and he stilled. She sat up quickly and then paused to close her eyes.

Dizzy, he thought, frowning.

When she opened her eyes again, they were bottle-green and seemed to glow like pale light streaming through a muted window. She stared at him with those eyes for what seemed like an eternity. His body tensed beneath her gaze, his grip tightened around his glass, and the fingers of his other hand pressed into the supple leather of his chair. His cock grew hard, pinned against his leg and trousers.

“How long have I been here?” she asked. Her voice was husky, and he wanted to groan. Instead, he managed a one-word reply.

“Hours.”

Her eyes grew wide. “What time is it?”

He shrugged because he did not know. “Late.”

“I have to go.”

Hades expected her to be angry or react with a sense of hysteria, but she didn’t. She just sat there in a pool of black silk looking beautiful and rosy and warm.

“You have come all this way. Allow me to offer you a tour of my world.”

He stood and downed the last of his whiskey. Her eyes did not waiver from his as he approached and drew the covers from her, revealing a sliver of skin between her breasts where her robe had parted in her sleep. It took everything in his power to avert his eyes as she clasped the robe closed. After a moment, he extended his hand. Her fingers slipped into his, and he found himself wondering when he would stop being surprised by her willingness to touch him. He guided her to her feet and waited for her to look up at him before asking, “Are you well?”

“Better,” she answered quietly.

He traced the curve of her cheek. “Trust that I am devastated that you were hurt in my realm.”

Her gaze told him she was surprised by his words, or perhaps their sincerity.

“I’m okay,” she whispered, but okay was not good enough.

“It will never happen again. Come.”

He guided her to the balcony outside his room, where the Forest of Ash stretched for miles, meeting a wall of obsidian mountains. She wandered ahead of him, her fingers twined with his as she peered over the balcony.

“Do you like it?” he asked.

“It’s beautiful,” she breathed as her gaze wandered over the landscape. “You created all of this?”

He nodded. “The Underworld evolves just as the world above.”

He tugged on her hand, and she followed him down the stairs into the garden below. He felt a thrill of excitement as he brought her to the edge where lavender wisteria wept, where inky roses and pink peonies bloomed, and purple and red slavia twisted like serpents from darkness. Would she find this just as astounding?

His answer came as soon as her feet touched the dark stone path leading into the garden. She wrenched her hand from his and turned on him.

“You bastard!”

Hades suddenly felt completely ridiculous. His mouth tightened. “Names, Persephone.”

“Don’t you dare! This—this is beautiful!”

So she was impressed, but why the anger?

“It is,” he agreed.

“Why would you ask me to create life here?” She sounded…devastated, as if seeing his realm and the flora that grew here drained her hope. Did she grieve for what she felt she had no power to create?

With a wave of his hand, he dismantled the illusion. Revealing the truth of his realm felt like revealing the truth of his soul. The Underworld was desolate—a wasteland of ash.

“It is illusion,” he explained. “If it is a garden you wish to create, then it will truly be the only life here.”

Hades called the glamour back and walked ahead. Persephone followed, and he wondered what she was thinking. Was she appalled by what he had shown her? Did she think less of the Underworld just because its beauty was a creation of his own magic? He had not intended to give her a tour of the Underworld to make her feel powerless…but he could feel her doubt and anger flare. As much as he hated being the reason for these feelings, he knew it was the only way she could reach her potential. One day, Persephone would tire of feeling defenseless, and his queen would rise from the ashes. A goddess.

Hades stopped near a retaining wall at the back of his garden. On the other side were the Asphodel Fields. At his feet, the earth was barren and black.

“You may work here,” Hades said.

If Persephone wanted to grow a garden, if that was her way of creating life in the Underworld, then she would have to do it in the ashy soil of the Underworld.

“I still don’t understand,” Persephone said. “Illusion or not, you have all of this beauty. Why demand this of me?”

Because it is the will of your soul, he thought.

“If you do not wish to fulfill the terms of our contract, you have only to say so, Lady Persephone. I can have a suite prepared for you in less than an hour.”

“We do not get along well enough to be housemates, Hades.”

Her comment inspired a few salacious images—bare skin and breathy moans.

He disagreed.

“How often am I allowed to come here and work?”

“As often as you want,” he said, because after today, he would ensure she never took that portal again. “I know you are eager to complete your task.”

Her gaze fell to the ground, and she bent to scoop up a handful of sand. It was not meant to nurture life, the texture like ground bone. She rose to her feet again.

“And…how shall I enter the Underworld?” she asked. “I’m assuming you don’t want me to return the way I came?”

“Hmm.” It was the question he had been waiting for, and his answer made his body tight with anticipation. He tilted his head to the side, and she stared back, lips parting.

It was enough of an invitation.

He gripped her shoulders and pulled her flush against him, bringing his mouth to hers. He could have offered her favor without laying so much as a finger on her, but it was an excuse to touch her. Given that, he should have been gentle, but he found he was anything but tame. His body reacted like it was on fire and desperate to be smothered. He felt ridiculous; he had kissed and fucked, but he had never felt this…whatever it was. This burning desire, this desperate wish to claim and protect and to love.

Then again, he had never kissed or fucked a woman destined to be his lover. Was the thread the reason he felt so…uncontrolled?

He urged her lips apart, his tongue gliding against hers, his teeth grazing her lips. She tasted like wine and salt, and smelled like a bed of sweet roses. Her body trembled, and he held her tighter so that there was no space between them, feeling all her soft curves against the hard contours of his own body. She was just as enthusiastic, kissing him with unabashed abandon. He got the sense that she would not have appreciated gentle, that she craved passion, rough and raw.

Her arms wound around his neck, and he groaned, the sound coming from somewhere deep and long asleep. He moved, directing her until she was pressed into the stone. His hands drifted down her waist and over her round bottom, where he gripped and lifted her from the ground. With her legs planted around his waist, her heels digging into his back, his erection grinding into her most sensitive place, he let his lips wander, trailing her jaw, nipping her ear, kissing down her neck. Now and then he would pause and taste her skin, salty from the river. She arched beneath him, gasping until she took control, driving her hands through his hair, loosening the strands until it fell in layers around his face. It was his hair she used to control him, because as his hands slipped beneath her robe, grazing the hot and tender skin between her thighs, she gripped it harder, and it was that sharp pull that brought him back to reality.

He had gone too far. He broke their kiss, breathing hard, struggling to contain his lust. He had meant to tease her to gauge her desire, but it had turned into something more. Even now he continued to hold her, fighting the urge to begin where they ended. All he had to do was shift his hand ever so slightly, part her damp flesh with his fingers, and he would be inside her.

But this was not how it should be. She had no reason to trust him with her body, no reason to trust him at all. He would not let her regret their time together, and when he made love to her, it would not be against a garden wall.

That would come later.

He lowered her to the ground but did not release her.

“Once you enter Nevernight, you have only to snap your fingers, and you will be brought here.”

He knew he had said something wrong when the color drained from her face and she attempted to shoved him away, demanding, “Can’t you offer favor another way?”

“You didn’t seem to mind,” he pointed out, liking the flush that touched her cheeks and elegant neck. He wanted to tell her she should not be embarrassed, but when she touched her lips with shaking fingers, he lost his train of thought.

“I should go,” she said.

Hades nodded in agreement. If she did not leave now, he would rescind his earlier statement.

Fuck waiting to love her elsewhere, the garden is perfect.

“What are you doing?” she demanded as his arm tightened around her waist.

He was silent, snapping his fingers and teleporting. When they appeared in Persephone’s room, she was gripping his arms like a cat who had been frightened. He waited for her to adjust, her head turning slowly, and as she recognized her surroundings, she pried her fingers from his skin one by one.

“Persephone.” There was one more thing she needed to know before he left her for the night. “Never bring a mortal to my realm again, especially Adonis. Stay away from him.”

Her eyes narrowed, glinting with defiance. “How do you know him?”

“That is not relevant.”

He felt her attempt to pull away, but he held her in place. This was important. He had not saved her from Underworld monsters just to have her hurt by mortal ones.

“I work with him, Hades.”

He ignored the pleasure he got from the sound of his name on her lips.

“Besides, you can’t give me orders.”

“I’m not giving you orders. I am asking.”

“Asking implies there’s a choice.”

His grip increased, and he leaned over her, nearly bending her backward so their faces were inches apart. Again, Hades thought of her lips, her taste, her touch, and he knew she was having similar thoughts because she closed her eyes and swallowed.

He spoke in the silence between them.

“You have a choice, but if you choose him, I will fetch you and I might not let you leave the Underworld.”

Her eyes flew open. “You wouldn’t,” she hissed.

Hades chuckled, his breath caressing her lips as he spoke. “Oh, darling. You don’t know what I’m capable of.”

Then he vanished like smoke fading into the sky.