Chapter 91

91

In the blink of an eye, Persephone saw it also clearly. How her mother had manipulated them all. She’d only had to flip two men after all—one inside Poseidon’ camp, and one inside Hades’s. Spike Hair and Angelo, who, now that Persephone thought about it, Hades had mentioned had been troublesome in the past.

And now here she was. Caught like a fly in a spider’s web.

“Call off the attack,” Persephone said. “You have me.”

Demeter laughed. She looked nothing like the woman Persephone had grown up with, who wore overalls and rarely conditioned her hair.

Now Demeter’s dark brown hair was styled in big curls, she wore dramatic makeup, and she had on a power skirt-suit. “Not that you aren’t special, darling, but this is about so much more than you. This is about history. And righting wrongs. Ubeli stole this city from me and I mean to have it back.”

“Righting wrongs?” Persephone scoffed. “Sixteen years ago, you murdered an innocent girl. After my father and uncles raped her.”

Demeter’s face went cold. “I thought I knew what I was getting into when I married a Titan brother. But I was young. Karl was handsome and said he loved me. I never had a real home or real family so marrying into his seemed like a dream come true. But he was weak.”

Demeter took a step towards her. “So I did what needed doing while he drank and whored his way across town. Then he finally managed to do something right—he caught the Ubeli girl, but of course he couldn’t keep his dick in his pants.”

Demeter shook her head in disgust. “So again I had to come in and clean up his mess.”

“You stabbed her over and over!” Persephone shouted. “You’re as much a monster as he was.”

Demeter crossed the last of the space between them and grabbed Persephone’s wrist in a painful, bruising grip. “You will not disrespect me in front of my men. You’ve embarrassed me long enough, running around and consorting with the enemy. It ends here. Today.”

“What are you going to do?” Persephone glared hatefully, only inches from her mother’s face. “Kill me in cold blood? That’s what you’re good at, right?”

“I do what has to be done,” Demeter said through gritted teeth. “Something a girl like you would never understand. But you will. I’ll take you home and you will get an introduction to the way the real world works. You are my daughter and one way or another, you will behave as such.”

“Never—” Persephone started to shout, right as the back door to the theater swung open and a deep voice called, “Persephone!”

“No!” Persephone shouted but it was too late. The shooting had already begun.

“Charon!” Persephone cried.

He had his weapon out and managed to take down three of Demeter’s guards before falling to his knees, blood gushing from several wounds on his chest.

“No, Charon!”

Persephone fought to get away from her mother but Demeter caught her from behind in a chokehold and started dragging her towards the SUV parked several feet away.

Persephone wheezed and tried to scream, but she couldn’t get any breath, her mother’s hold on her was too tight.

How many times do I have to tell you to turn your head to the side to free your airway?

The self-defense lessons with Hades.

Persephone swung her head to the right, immediately freeing her airway, just like Hades said. She sucked in a deep breath, then she elbowed her mother hard in the side, once, twice, three times, until Demeter’s hold loosened. For good measure, Persephone stomped on her instep, then, when Demeter was wheezing, Persephone grabbed one of Demeter’s arms and planted her feet, using her firm stance as a fulcrum to launch Demeter to the ground.

Demeter screamed as her face slammed into the pavement and she rolled over once. She landed right by Charon. He’d been immobile, Persephone feared dead, but he suddenly reared up and slammed a knife straight through Demeter’s heart. And then he collapsed.

“Charon!” Persephone cried, right as the back door of the theater opened and a handful of more Shades poured out. They made quick work of the rest of Demeter’s guards, but all Persephone could see was Charon.

“Charon, please,” she sobbed, crouched at his side, pressing her hands to the wounds on his chest. They had to stop the bleeding. There was so much blood. It was like Eurydice all over again. “You’re going to be all right.”

He lifted his hand to caress her face. “Loved?—”

“You loved her, I know. You told me. You’re going to be okay. You’re going to love again, you’ll see.” She choked on her tears as the big man’s eyes closed. “No. No! Help me! Someone! Help me!”

Hades was beside her, prying her hands away as several Shades moved in to put pressure on Charon’s wounds.

“Hades?” She grabbed him with bloody hands. “You’re alive?”

At the same time, an ambulance pulled into the back alley and sped their direction. Its lights weren’t flashing and the sirens didn’t sound, but as soon as it came to a stop, several EMTs poured from the back and Hades barked orders at them.

Charon was immediately put on a gurney and wheeled inside where the EMTs started working on him.

Persephone looked on in stark shock.

Hades finally took her hand as the ambulance sped away, this time with lights flashing.

“I had an ambulance nearby in case things went wrong. And I was wearing a vest,” Hades said gently as she finally turned to him, parting his shirt and touching the Kevlar. “I should have insisted Charon wear one, too.”

Persephone heard the pain in his voice but she was too raw to be able to comfort him.

“Come with me, now, Persephone?—”

He tried to put his arm around her but she wrenched away. “Will they be able to save him? Charon saved me, he killed my mother. He has to be okay?—”

“It’s over. Honey, it’s over now.”

She glared up at him, fury and grief warring within her. “No, it’s not. But it will be.”