Chapter XXV

Chapter XXV

The Forest of Despair

It was late when Hades returned to the Underworld to find Persephone waiting up for him. She turned to face him as he entered their room, dressed in a full-length gown. It was black and gold and the sleeves were long but split, so she looked as if she wore a cloak that touched the ground. On her head was a crown with jagged edges. It was black in color and encrusted with diamonds and pearls. It complimented his own, and he knew that it had been done purposefully, likely by Hecate.

She took his breath away, though she gazed at him unhappily, looking like a queen— his queen .

“I did not think you would be awake,” he said.

He had expected her to be asleep, exhausted after celebrating with the souls. Instead, she looked bright-eyed, almost lustful, and there was an excitement that curled in the bottom of his stomach.

“Where were you?” she asked.

“I had a few things to take care of,” he said. Explaining what had happened with Dionysus and Ariadne needed too much context. It also opened up a whole new part of his world that, while he’d eventually be glad to share, was too uncertain.

Luckily, she did not seem interested in pursuing his whereabouts.

“Were these things more important than your realm?”

“You are angry that I was not at your party.”

He frowned, in part because she knew why he did not often attend celebrations. He made people uncomfortable, as much as she believed otherwise.

“Yes, I am angry,” she said. “You should have been there.”

“The dead celebrate everything, Persephone. I won’t miss the next one.”

“If that is your view, I’d rather you not come at all,” she snapped.

His brows lowered. Obviously, she was searching for an answer he could not give. “Then what do you want from me?”

“I don’t fucking care how much they celebrate. What’s important to them should be important to you. What’s important to me should be important to you .”

“Persephone…”

“Don’t,” she snapped, and he pressed his lips together, repressing the surge of frustration that erupted at her command. “I understand you don’t know what I don’t tell you, but I expect you to be aware of what I am planning and show interest—not only for me but for your people. You never once asked about the solstice celebration, not even after I asked you for permission to host it in the courtyard.”

He stared at her in silence for a long moment. It was true he hadn’t taken it seriously. Even after Hecate’s reminder, he had dismissed the importance of attending, and for that, he felt ashamed.

“I’m sorry,” he said at last.

“You aren’t. You are only saying that to appease me, and I hate it. Is this why you want a queen? So you don’t have to attend these events?”

“No, I wanted you, and because of that, I wished to make you my queen. There are no ulterior motives.”

Did he respect her more because she loved his realm and his people? Yes, but those characteristics came from her compassion and her kindness, and that was why he loved her.

After a moment, she took a breath and closed her eyes. “Look, Hades. If you don’t…want this anymore, I need to know.”

He stared at her, confused, and waited for her to look at him again. “What?”

“If you don’t want me, if you don’t think you can forgive me, I don’t think we should be in a relationship, the Fates be damned.”

The words were out, and they lingered in the air between them. Hades spent a few moments processing them before making his way toward her.

“I never said I didn’t want you,” he said. “I thought I made that clear yesterday.”

“So you want to fuck me? That doesn’t mean you want an actual relationship. It doesn’t mean you will trust me again.”

He paused before her, towering over her small frame, and despite the difference in their statures, she held her own, glaring furiously back at him.

“Let me be perfectly clear,” he said, leaning close as he spoke. “I do want to fuck you. More importantly, I love you—deeply, endlessly. If you walked away from me today, I would love you still. I will love you forever. That’s what Fate is, Persephone. Fuck threads and colors…and fuck your uncertainty.”

“I’m not uncertain,” she said between her teeth, her eyes searching his. “I’m afraid, you idiot!”

“Of what?” he demanded. “What have I done?”

“This isn’t about you! Gods, Hades.” She turned her head. “I’d think you of all people would understand.”

He studied her profile for a moment—her angry, glistening eyes and the hard set of her mouth.

“Tell me,” he begged.

It took her a few tries, a few deep swallows before she managed, “I’ve longed for love all my life. Longed for acceptance because my mother dangled it in front of me like something I had to earn. If I adhered to her expectations, she would grant it; if I didn’t, she’d take it away. You want a queen, a goddess, a lover. I can’t be what you want. I can’t… adhere to these…expectations you have of me!”

He had to admit that he was stunned. He had never imagined that calling her his queen would come with so much weight.

He turned her head toward his, and she met his gaze, eyes red and watery. “Persephone, what do you think of when you think of a queen?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “I know what I would like to see in a queen.”

“Then what would you like to see in a queen?”

“Someone who is kind…compassionate… present .”

The last word was meant for him.

“And you do not think you are all those things?” he asked. He let his thumb brush over her lips. He wanted to kiss her because he hadn’t in a very long time. He wanted to bring her comfort and to assure her that there was no title she needed to live up to because she was already enough. “I’m not asking you to be a queen. I’m asking you to be yourself. I’m asking you to marry me. The title comes with our marriage. It changes nothing.”

“Are you asking me to marry you again?” she asked, her words quiet and slow.

“Will you?”

She stared, and he already knew the answer, even as the tears slid down her face, and he had never felt so conflicted—so desperate to hear her say yes but so content with her no. She’d shown him tonight how willing she was to defend his people, how she had adopted them as her people, and he knew that meant she loved him.

“My darling,” he whispered. “You do not have to answer now. We have time—an eternity.”

Finally, he kissed her, and the release was instant but quickly overpowered by an all-consuming need to be inside her. Then she touched him, sliding her hands down his stomach and over his cock before unbuttoning his trousers, fingers curling around his bare flesh. He groaned, loving the feel of her on him, and he wanted more.

He let his tongue and teeth play across her lips, over her jaw and down her neck, and the harder she breathed and moaned, the more he teased and sucked her skin, which was why he was surprised when she pushed him away. She took a moment to stare at him with hungry eyes, then placed her hand on the center of his chest, pushing him back until he felt the edge of the bed behind him.

“Sit,” she ordered, and as he obeyed, she removed the crown from her head and set it on the nearby table. She placed her hands on his knees, holding his gaze as she lowered to the floor.

“You look like a fucking queen.”

She always did.

She smiled as she answered, “I am your queen.”

Then she touched him, her hand working up and down his cock. He took a breath, the heat of her touch going straight to his head.

“Persephone.” Her name felt rough on his tongue, and while her hands felt good, her mouth felt better, closing around his crown, tongue trailing around his head before she brought him fully into her mouth.

He drew her hair into his hand and held it away from her face so he could watch her take him deep. She was warm and wet, and the pressure her mouth offered was far different from being inside her. There was something all-consuming about this, and he had an acute awareness that she was somehow in every part of his body, though she touched just one. After he came, he brought her to her feet with him and devoured her mouth while his fingers worked to unlace her dress. Once she was naked beneath his hands, he lowered her to the bed until she was on her back, rising once more to shed his own clothing.

She watched him from where she lay, and his eyes never left her body, so exposed in the firelight of his room, cradled in the darkness of their sheets. As good as her mouth had been on his body, he couldn’t wait to be inside her.

He climbed on top of her and rested his body against hers. There was nothing like the feel of her against him, nothing that felt more like home. She placed a hand on his face, then twined strands of his hair around her fingers.

“Why do you wish to be married?” she asked.

He wasn’t exactly sure how to take her question, though they had never discussed each of their perceptions of marriage, and perhaps that was part of the problem. He had asked her twice without knowing how she felt. He was definitely an idiot.

“Haven’t you always dreamed of marriage?” he asked, curious, though he imagined she hadn’t thought it was ever going to be a possibility, considering her mother had probably never encouraged her to think beyond four glass walls.

“No,” she answered. “You didn’t answer my question. Why is marriage important to you ?”

“I don’t know,” he admitted. “It became important to me when I met you.”

They stared at each other for a few moments, then their bodies shifted so that their hips met, and Hades reached to guide himself into her heat. He entered her hard, but once he was fully sheathed, he paused, bending to press kisses to her forehead. There he stayed as his hips began to move, taking her in slow, deliberate strokes, but the harder she held on to him, the harder he moved.

“So fucking sweet,” he said as his mouth pressed against her skin, tasting and sucking and nipping. “Take me deeper, darling.”

He shifted, snaking his arm under her leg, which lifted and parted her flesh even more. She gasped, her head digging into the bed. The deep fissures her fingers had made into his skin turned into scratches down his back.

“Harder!” she cried in a breathless plea, and he obeyed, completely disarmed as he watched her pleasure. He held on to that, unrelenting until she clenched around him.

“Come, darling.”

Feeling her come was the end of him too. He felt his whole body quake as he released into her, pulse after heated pulse.

Breathless, he bent to kiss her, then settled his weight on her before shifting so he could lie on his back with her draped across his body.

“Gods, I missed you,” she said and pressed a kiss to his chest.

He laughed and looked down at her as she stared up at him. He could tell she had something to say and understood why she was hesitating when the words came out of her mouth.

“You were going to tell me about Leuce.”

“Hmm. Yes,” he said, and he tugged on her until she shifted on top of him, resting with her arms crossed on his chest. “I had a meeting with Ilias at my restaurant. I didn’t know Leuce was there. She hurried after me as I was leaving and grabbed my hand. Old habit.”

He wasn’t sure why he added the last part, because he did not so much believe it had been a habit now. Persephone must not have liked it either, because she gave him a dull look, and he pressed his fingers to her lips, smiling wryly.

“I jerked away and kept walking. She was asking for a new job.”

It was a half-truth, but he did not wish to go into the details of Leuce’s own lie or deception. That would come later when he could prove it.

“That’s it?”

“Afraid so.”

She dropped her head, and he drew his arms around her.

“I feel like an idiot,” she said.

“We all get jealous. I like when you’re jealous…except when I think you might actually leave me.”

She sat up fully, her hands pressed flat against his chest, gliding to his stomach. Her eyes glittered in the dim light and her skin was flushed. He liked the look of her, liked being beneath her.

“I was angry, yes, but…leaving you never occurred to me.”

He studied her a moment, then rose into the same position, keeping his hands on the bed for stability while her arms wound around his neck.

“I love you. Even if the Fates unraveled our destiny, I would find a way back to you.”

“Do you think they can hear you?” she asked in a whisper.

He gave her a smile. “If so, they should take that as a threat.”

She laughed, and their mouths collided. Hades dropped back to the bed while Persephone sought his erect cock, positioning him once more near her entrance before bearing down on him. He inhaled as he watched her move, setting her hands against him so that her breasts pillowed and rose together. He held them as she rose up and slammed down, and when she was too tired to move, she went to her side, and Hades entered her from there and brought them both to release.

* * *

Hades woke hungry, which wasn’t usual. If he ever felt that gnawing rumble, he usually quenched it with a drink, but tonight, he found himself slipping from bed while Persephone slept and wandering the halls of his palace to the kitchen, where he discovered tons of leftover food from the solstice celebration, both sweet and savory smells competing for dominance. At first he thought he’d prefer something salty, but as he searched what remained in the array of dishes, he found something he did not expect.

Cake.

He remembered his previous battle with Persephone’s molten monstrosity. He’d never gotten to taste it, and while this was not her creation, it was still chocolate and it was cake. He shifted to look around the kitchen, which, while he technically owned it, was not really his. It was Milan’s, and the result was that he did not know where the fuck anything was. He started to look for a plate or some kind of bowl to put the cake on, but when he found a fork first, he decided he would eat straight from the container.

As he cut into the springy and fluffy cake, his stomach growled even louder, but then a horrible feeling trickled down his spine and he froze. It was like his body was being attacked by some invisible force. Chills raced down his arms, and there was a weight in his chest that kept his lungs from expanding. He could not take in breath, could not swallow, could not move.

Persephone .

He dropped the cake, fled the kitchen, and raced back to their bedchamber, where he found their room empty. Then he noticed the balcony doors open, and from there, he felt Persephone’s magic detonate. It was the only way to describe it. It dropped like a bomb, and the shock waves echoed throughout his realm. He had never felt anything like it, and his magic was not prepared to handle the sudden spike.

His world began to wilt. Even the garden below him wept, trees bowing, limbs curling, flowers disintegrating beneath the weight of Persephone’s magic. Within a matter of minutes, the Underworld was a desert of coarse black sand that stretched for miles and miles, only interrupted by desolate rivers and the ominous mountains of Tartarus.

What is happening? Hades thought.

She had bared the true nature of his realm, and throughout it all, a wail carried across a violent wind. It was anguished, much like his world.

His heart raced. Her power made him breathless.

Persephone.

He teleported from the balcony to find her in Tartarus—in the Forest of Despair. He felt acid burning the back of his throat at the thought of what horror she had discovered here. It was a place within the boundaries of Tartarus that fed off fears. Whatever she’d seen here was real to her. It had her shaking with a violent energy he could feel rumbling the earth at his feet.

If he didn’t stop her, she would destroy his realm.

“Persephone!” he called, desperate.

“ Don’t say my name!”

He blanched at the sound of her voice, a horrible grating echo that carried across the space between them.

“Persephone, listen to me!”

He took a step toward her.

“ Don’t! ”

Her voice boomed, and the ground ruptured and yawned as a deep ravine fractured far and wide between them.

“Persephone, please!” If she didn’t stop on her own, he would have to use his power against her, and that was the last thing he wanted.

But the more he said her name and the more he begged, the more agonized and angry she became. She screamed, and he did not know if it was from her rage or the power of her magic, which usually felt so pleasant against his own, but tonight felt more like war—a goddess prepared to deliver death, heedless of prayer.

He watched in horror as she brought her hands together, and the power she had drained from life in the Underworld—his magic—gathered between her palms, then she turned them outward, and all that power hit him. He was thrown back by the force of it, and as he landed, he dropped his glamour.

This was a nightmare.

His chest and heart ached—both from the impact of her blow and for what he was about to do. He gathered his magic, and it tore from him. As it charged for her, she threw up her hands and screamed, anguished and enraged, and his shadows froze as they hurled toward her, long black spears just suspended in the air, vibrating as they were caught between the push and pull of both of their powers.

There was a moment of stark silence. It pressed against Hades’s ears until they popped, and suddenly his magic was racing back toward him. He managed to recover enough to gain control of them and turn them into ash, the remains of which were carried away with Persephone’s raging wind.

“Stop!” Hades said. “Persephone, this is madness.”

And it was madness—everything about it. Just weeks ago, Persephone had been unable to control her own magic. It had burst from her in the form of thorns, leaving her torn and bloody, and suddenly, fueled by whatever horror the Forest of Despair had offered, she was turning Hades’s magic on him? It was unheard of.

It was dangerous.

Then she spoke, and despite the roar of her magic, her voice carried like a spell.

“You would burn the world for me?” she said, and there was an energy gathering around her that was both feral and volatile. “I will destroy it for you.”

The sky opened, and roots that looked more like giant trees breeched the vast expanse, slamming into the earth below. The ground shook and debris rained down on the entire Underworld.

Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

He only seemed to be making it worse. She was heedless of anyone beyond her pain, but whatever that was, it would not compare to what she would feel when this was all over.

“Hecate!”

The Goddess of Magic appeared beside Hades, her robes whipping in the wind, and she brought her hand up to shield her eyes against the debris.

“What happened?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I felt her anguish and came as soon as possible.”

Persephone seemed to grow stronger. The roots that she had summoned from the sky grew larger and tunneled into the ground, curling around trees and mountains, squeezing until they were rubble. Hades attempted to counter that, his magic spiraling like matching vines to tangle with Persephone’s, while Hecate’s power joined the miasma. Only she did not attack Persephone. She kept her spells defensive, casting a shield over them in an attempt to contain the damage Persephone was doing to the Underworld. At the same time, though, Hecate’s magic had a weight. Even Hades could feel it bearing down on him. It made his shoulders shake and his concentration wane. He ground his teeth against the intrusion and knew that Persephone did too. There was an interruption in the power of her magic—a give, a break—and he watched as tears began to track down her face, her eyes locked with Hecate’s.

“What are you doing?” he demanded.

But Hecate did not respond, focused on Persephone. Then, all of a sudden, her magic was gone and a horrible silence followed, as if she really had sucked the life out of everything within his world.

Persephone swayed, and Hecate teleported to catch her just as she vomited at her feet.

“It wasn’t real,” Hecate whispered, brushing Persephone’s hair from her face. “It wasn’t real, my dear, my love, my sweet.”

Hades watched as Persephone buried her face in Hecate’s chest.

“I cannot unsee it. I cannot live with it.”

“Shh,” Hecate soothed, and as she did, she looked at him, and for the first time since this had all begun, he could see what had sent Persephone into her rage.

Him.

Hades wanted to vomit.

Even now, his stomach twisted into hard knots, and his throat felt tight as the vision Persephone had seen played through Hades’s mind—Leuce locked in his embrace, pressed against a tree, their mouths colliding in a passionate kiss.

He knew how the forest worked because he had created it as a weapon for torture. The souls who were sentenced there constantly lived a reality of their greatest fears. They felt and looked real because, in a way, they were.

When she had stumbled on them, she would have had no reason to believe what she was seeing wasn’t real. It would not have occurred to her, such was the way of the forest.

He watched Hecate rise with Persephone in her arms.

“I will take her to the palace,” she said, “while you restore order.”

He did not argue. He would have preferred to be the one to take Persephone, but he also knew that she would not want him right now, so he let Hecate leave and focused on restoring order to his realm.

While it was something he could do within seconds, he took his time, turning the roots Persephone had brought into the Underworld to ash, leveling the ground she had disturbed, before calling up his magic to create lush, rolling hills, thick forests, and extensive gardens full of blooming flowers.

When he was finished, he returned to the palace and found Hecate in his bedroom. She sat beside the bed while Persephone slept.

“How is she?” he asked.

“Exhausted,” she replied. “She just stopped shaking.”

Hades’s frown deepened.

“I don’t understand how she managed to wander into the forest.”

“Enchantment,” Hecate said.

“Enchantment,” Hades repeated.

“I have been thinking, the fear is all wrong too.”

Hades’s brows knit together. “What do you mean?”

Hecate kept her gaze on Persephone as she spoke.

“Persephone has no fear of you cheating with Leuce. She trusts you. Her greatest fear is losing Lexa. Which leads me to believe this was meant to tear you apart.”

Hades considered her words and, after a moment, asked, “Was Leuce at last night’s celebration?”

“I believe so,” Hecate said. “Which is why the fear seems off. Even after that picture surfaced in the Delphi Divine , she was unbothered enough to bring Leuce to celebrate.”

“You said it was an enchantment?” Hades asked.

The goddess nodded.

“A potion, if I had to guess,” Hecate said. “Likely from a Magi.”

Hades had no doubt that Leuce was involved somehow. Her deception was about to end. He left the bedroom and headed outside, where his realm had been restored to order, and called for Hermes, who appeared almost immediately, as if he had been waiting for Hades’s summons.

“You called, Daddy Death?” Hermes arrived grinning, but that smile quickly died. “You look awful.”

Hades felt awful.

“Find Leuce,” he said.

“Oh no,” Hermes said. “What did she do this time?”

“Nothing different from before,” Hades replied. “She just fucked with the wrong god.”

“I’ll locate her.”

“Don’t just locate her,” Hades said. “Bring her to me.”

Hermes nodded and vanished.

When he was once again alone, Hades took a deep breath and wandered away from the front of the palace, around its many gardens. He was anxious to have Persephone awake, to talk to her about what she had seen and beg for her forgiveness. Despite the fact that he had done nothing wrong, he had created the monster that had affected her so cruelly, and for that, he felt guilt.

He rounded the garden wall that separated the garden outside his bedroom from the Asphodel Fields and came face-to-face with Persephone.

She was pale and dressed in white. Without energy to keep up her glamour, her Divine form was on full display, and beneath the muted Underworld sky, she looked both beautiful and haunted.

For a moment, all he could do was stare. There had been so many times in the past when he had feared that she would disappear right before his eyes, that every moment they’d had was some kind of torturous game the Fates had woven into his life only to unravel, and he’d never felt that more than in this moment.

He swallowed hard and asked, “Are you well?”

She stared back, the gold of her hair glinting as a light wind teased the strands, and in that moment, her cheeks flushed a light pink.

“I will be,” she said softly.

The silence that followed was not so heavy, and Hades hoped that healing from this would be easier somehow.

“May I join you on your walk?” he asked.

“This is your realm.”

He frowned at her response, which was less enthusiastic than he’d hoped, though he supposed he could not blame her for putting distance between them after what she had seen. She moved ahead, walking in the direction he’d come from, and he fell into step beside her. He wanted to touch her, at least hold her hand, but he recognized that he was seeking comfort, seeking confirmation that they were okay, and he could not expect her to be ready for that.

He curled his fingers into fists as they continued on in silence, coming to the end of the garden, facing the Asphodel Fields, and the tension between them was so great, Hades could no longer handle it.

He turned to her, and while her body was angled away, she stared up at him.

“Persephone,” he murmured, wishing so much that he could reach for her. “I…I don’t know what you saw, but you must know— you must know —it wasn’t real.”

Which was mostly true. Hecate had pulled memories from Persephone’s mind, and those had been filtered through her pain and her anguish and her trauma. He would never truly know what she’d seen, only how it had affected her, and that somehow made this all worse.

“Shall I tell you what I saw?” she asked, a raw note to her voice that made it rasp. “I saw you and Leuce together. You held her, moved inside her like you starved for her.”

She squeezed her eyes shut and trembled.

“You took pleasure from her. Knowing she was your lover was one thing. Seeing it was…devastating, and I wanted to destroy everything you loved,” she said, her voice cracking as tears spilled down her face. “I wanted you to watch me dismantle your world. I wanted to dismantle you .”

Her words were like claws digging deep into his chest, and despite his previous reservations about touching her, he reached for her now, wishing to meet her gaze.

“Persephone,” he said and she opened her eyes, brimming with tears. “You must know that wasn’t real.”

“It felt real.”

That was the horror of it—the torture of it.

“I would take this from you if I could,” he said, and he meant it. He would take it from her so she would not feel the pain of a betrayal he did not commit, so she would not look at him like she did now—with the shadow of suspicion in her eyes.

And yet even with the doubt swimming in her expression, she drew nearer.

“You can take this,” she said, then whispered, “Kiss me.”

He was doubtful at first but eager all the same, and he touched his lips to hers. His intention was to be gentle, but Persephone left no room for soft caresses. Her hand snaked behind his neck, and her mouth pressed hard against his, so he let his tongue taste hers. Hades drew her closer, his fingers digging into the fabric of her dress while her hands cascaded down his body to his cock, which had grown long and thick as their kiss had continued, and he drew away with a guttural inhale.

Still, Persephone held him, and despite the layer of fabric between them, he felt hot in her hands.

“Help me forget what I saw in the forest,” she begged. “Kiss me. Love me. Ruin me.”

She never had to ask, though he cherished the invitation. They shed their clothes as they kissed, and Hades reached between Persephone’s legs, cupping and teasing her heat before drawing one of her legs to hook around his hip and sliding two fingers inside her. She offered a breathless moan, arms twining around his neck as she sought a way to steady herself, but Hades kept a firm hand wrapped around her waist and moved slowly. Their faces were inches apart, and he watched her as her expressions morphed from a focused intensity to something far less controlled—as if she could no longer control how her body reacted to him. Her head fell back, her mouth fell open, her eyes rolled, and when she became weightless in his arms, he knelt to the ground with her.

He stared at her openly as she reclined on his robes amid the tall blades of grass that rustled around them. Naked, hair gleaming, bathed in his light, she was ethereal.

“Beautiful,” he murmured. “If I could, I would keep us here in this moment forever, with you spread out before me.”

She tilted her head down, and though her eyes were eerie and bright, there was a darkness to them that made the pit of his stomach ignite with fire.

“Why not fast forward,” she asked, “to when you are inside me?”

He offered a lopsided grin. When he had said this moment, he meant all of it.

“Eager, darling?”

“Always.”

He crawled forward on his hands and knees until he was between her thighs, where he kissed her skin until he found her center. She was soft against his tongue, and he lapped at her arousal, pushing her legs farther apart while Persephone hooked her arms beneath her knees. She was a vision, glorious and glowing, and she writhed beneath him as he pushed her toward release with both his mouth and his hand.

When she could no longer control her body or the sounds that came from her mouth, he knew he had her and he pushed forward until she came.

“Hades,” she spoke his name, her legs limp around him, her fingers threading through his hair, then tugging on the strands to bring him up her body to her mouth. He kissed her for a long time, the heat between them unbearable even as he paused exploring to stare into her eyes.

“There was no greater torture than feeling your anguish.” There was a part of him that hated bringing this up, especially after all his effort to make her forget what she saw, though she knew just as well as he that there was no forgetting the Forest of Despair. “I knew I was somehow responsible, and I could do nothing about it.”

Persephone was less inclined to speak on what happened, because she touched his lips while dragging her tongue over her own and said, “You can do something about it.”

She arched beneath him, then her hand found his cock, which she tugged generously, sending a wave of pleasure to his head, and he understood. As much as they had to talk eventually, this was what they needed, what they did.

So he settled between her hips and entered her. The first few strokes were slow and deep, and his reward was watching Persephone, breathless, beneath him, but he found it hard to maintain this pace when what he really wanted to do was fuck, and if they were trying to make this far more memorable than their exchange in Tartarus, then it had to be different.

So things shifted between them, and Hades kissed her harder and moved harder, and Persephone’s fingers dug into his skin. Neither one held on to their cries of passion, pleasure—and pain.

This was it, the vessel through which they released and processed their emotions, and it was raw and wild and desperate.

Persephone came first, her entire body clenching around him, even her nails, which pierced his skin.

“Fuck!”

He drew in breath between clenched teeth, but not from the ache of breaking skin. It was more from the pleasure of it and a fierce need to come inside her, to claim this moment, and he took her hands and guided them over her head, holding her in place as he slammed into her. Moving inside her was its own euphoria, and the pressure built in his cock and the back of his throat until he came so hard he collapsed atop her.

They were still for a long moment, just breathing. Persephone’s hands came around him, fingers trailing down his back. He got the sense she was looking for injuries, but they had already healed. When he had collected himself, he rose onto his elbows and stared down at Persephone.

“Are you well?” he asked, drawing pieces of her hair from her face.

“Yes,” she whispered.

“Did I… Did I hurt you?”

It occurred to him that he hadn’t been completely grounded or aware at some point during their coupling, but then she smiled and touched his face, her finger dancing lightly over his features.

“No,” she said. “I love you.”

Those words flooded him with a sense of relief. He had said before that words held no meaning, but that was before Persephone had uttered those three.

“I wasn’t sure I would hear those words again,” he admitted, unprepared for the shock those words would have on Persephone, who immediately began to cry.

“I never stopped,” she whispered.

“Shh, my darling,” Hades comforted. “I never lost faith.”

But his words did nothing to quell her tears. Her body shook with them. Maybe she needed this—another form of release. He lifted her into his arms and carried her inside, where he laid her on their soft bed and kissed her until she was calm.

“I love you,” he said, because he had yet to say it back, and then, “I am sorry.”

She shook her head. “Things have been hard.”

It was true for both of them in very different ways.

He bent to press his lips to her forehead and settled between her thighs. Despite the fact that they had just come together outside, he wanted to make love to her, and he wanted it to be both delicate and desperate. At the end of it, he didn’t want to know where he ended and she began.

She widened her legs as he guided himself to her entrance but froze as a knock sounded at the door. He met Persephone’s gaze, then grinned.

“Enter,” he said, and Persephone’s eyes widened.

“Hades!”

He chuckled as he rolled off her into a sitting position, and she rose too, pulling the blankets to her chest right as Hermes entered.

The god gave a lopsided smirk.

“Hey, Sephy,” he said, a note of warmth in his voice.

“Hermes,” Hades said, and his gaze shifted to him.

“Oh yeah.” For a moment, Hermes’s smile widened, then he took on a more serious expression. “I found the nymph, Leuce.”

“Bring her,” Hades ordered, and the nymph appeared before their bed, looking stricken and pale.

“Please—” she began, already sobbing.

“Silence!” Hades’s voice was like a lashing, and Leuce immediately quieted, tears tracking down her face. “You will tell Persephone the truth. Did you send her to the Forest of Despair?”

At his question, more tears spilled down her cheeks and she nodded. There was a very small part of him that felt remorse for Leuce—not for what she had done to Persephone but for how sorry she truly seemed.

“Why?” Persephone asked. The betrayal in her voice made him feel terrible for bringing this to her, but she needed to know.

“To tear you both apart,” Leuce answered in a whisper, her eyes on the floor.

Hades could not tell what Persephone was thinking, but he thought she might be in shock, because all she could ask was “Why?”

Leuce pressed her lips tight and shook her head, body shaking with renewed sobs.

“You will answer,” Hades commanded.

She collapsed in a heap on the floor. “She will kill me.”

“Who?” Persephone asked, looking from Leuce to Hades.

“Your mother,” Hades said. “She’s talking about your mother.”

Persephone’s eyes widened and she looked at Leuce. “Is this true?”

Hades didn’t like the shock in her voice. This was a woman who had taken Leuce in. Not only had she invited her into her home, but she had offered to mentor her. Even if Leuce hadn’t wanted to, she still deceived Persephone.

“I lied when I said I didn’t remember who gave me life,” Leuce said. “But I was afraid. Demeter reminded me over and over that she would take it all away if I didn’t obey. I’m so sorry, Persephone. You were so kind to me, and I betrayed you.”

There was a moment when no one spoke—not even Hermes, who still stood by, watching this interrogation take place. But then Persephone shifted, wrapping the sheets around her as she left the bed, exposing his nakedness, though he did not care as he watched her approach Leuce and kneel before her.

He wanted to protest. The only person he would ever kneel to was her, but Persephone was not like him, nor did she need to be.

“I don’t blame you for fearing my mother. I feared her for a long time too. I won’t let her hurt you, Leuce.”

Persephone spoke with a note of understanding in her voice that Hades did not share, but her kindness comforted Leuce, and the nymph fell into her, sobbing. Hades watched the strange display, his feelings mixed. On the one hand, it was what he had expected of Persephone, but he was angry with Leuce and frustrated that she had received such an easy pardon, though he supposed she had been punished enough by him.

“Hermes,” Persephone said once Leuce had collected herself. “Will you take Leuce to my suite? I think she deserves some rest.”

He smirked, bowing as he accepted her instruction.

“Yes, my lady.”

Persephone rose with Leuce, and they shared an embrace before Hermes led her from their room. Once they were gone, Persephone’s gaze returned to Hades, her eyes dipping to his exposed flesh, as if she’d just realized he’d been sitting there naked.

Then her eyes darted to his face.

“What?” she asked, likely because he was staring and smiling at her.

“I am just admiring you.”

She raised a brow, her eyes momentarily darkening, but then she sighed. “I suppose we should summon my mother to the Underworld.”

“Shall we call on her now?” Then he suggested, “Perhaps we should make love so that she has no reason to suspect her plan worked.”

“Hades!” she scolded playfully as he reached for her, pulling her between his thighs. She dropped the sheets and pressed against him skin to skin, and they fell back onto the bed, descending into their madness once more.