Chapter 29

Cole

Garden District, New Orleans, Louisiana

A fter saying goodbye to Charles, Cole hung up the handset and stared unseeing at the bed in front of him. Evie’s scent still lingered in the room, which made thinking even more difficult than it already was with the erection from hell. He wanted nothing more than to touch her, bury himself in her. But if Charles was correct—and it was almost a guarantee that he was—then they needed to slow things down. A lot.

He dropped his head into his hands and shoved his fingers through his hair. On a good day, he wasn’t particularly patient; on a day when he had a warm, aroused Evie in his arms... impulsivity was the name of the game, and patience was nowhere to be found. It got more intense when he factored in his own years of sexual fantasies about her and the ones he would bet his house and firm that she had about him too.

With a loud groan, he started working through what about his plans had to change for the day. He still needed to tell her about the Moirai’s prophecy about the two of them, which could easily make or break her choice. It was a big decision for a normal person to tie their life to another’s in a standard human marriage that only lasted for one life. Factoring in the immortal life span they would both have if they accepted the throne made her choice even more difficult.

He leaned back, drumming his fingers on his thighs distractedly. There was no doubt in his mind that he had already made his own decision. Although most of his thirty-five years were spent pushing back against a destiny he had no choice in and navigating magic and memories he never asked for, his profession life was unbelievably fulfilling, and he had no complaints about his personal life up until recently.

Now, though, with Evie sitting down the hallway, he felt complete in ways he never had before. His experiences with happiness before her weren't even close to what he was feeling now; he was completely mystified that he ever mistaken his previous emotions for fulfillment. So he was all in with her, no question. Now it was just a matter of getting the witch in his study to agree. The way to do that was to spend time with her and make her realize just how much better her life could be with him in it for good.

Cole’s eyes popped open on an idea. Time for him to actually use this landline himself. He picked the handset back up and dialed the number for his personal assistant, Daeira, a truly terrifying woman in her mid-forties whose striking features and olive skin kept luring in husbands, who kept succumbing to mysterious deaths. Husband number four still alive and kicking for now, but who knew how long that would last.

“Mr. Aidoneus’ office.” Her three-packs-a-day voice answered the phone after the first ring.

“Hey, Dae, it’s me,” he replied.

“Where the hell are you, Cole? There’s a pool in the office going on in the office that you're dead since you’ve never missed a day of work in your life.”

“Don’t be dramatic,” he scolded lightly. You would think co-founding and -owning the firm would get him at least one day off in a decade, but, based on his employee’s responses, they expected him to work 24/7. “I’ve missed days befo—” he trailed off, realizing he couldn't remember the last time he had called off work.

“That’s right. You can’t even finish the thought.” Daeira was annoyingly smug through the phone. “So since you’re clearly not dead, what do you want? Do you need me to overnight your passport to Mexico again?”

The one time you get drunk and accidentally cross the border while sleeping off a bender in a random woman’s backseat, and you never hear the end of it. Didn’t matter that it happened almost a decade ago or that Hayden had been right there with him; everybody only focused on Cole's role in the whole thing. He glared at the phone. “No. I don’t need you to send my passport to Mexico. Also, just remember that I sign your paychecks, Dae, so let’s maybe feign respect?” He ignored her snort of ridicule and shook his head at the complete lack of control he had over his assistant’s behavior. “I’m safely at home, but I need you to do me a favor. Non ,” he interrupted when she started trying to speak. “Don’t try to guess what it is. I’m full up on being insulted for the day.”

“Hmm.” Daeira hummed disapprovingly into the phone. “Well, then. What can I do for you, Mr. Aidoneus?”

He rolled his eyes. The only time she acted professionally was when Hayden was around, and they were trying to prank him. “First off, say hi to Hayden for me.” An audible male snicker sounded from the other side of the phone. “Second, take me off speaker.” He waited a beat. “Am I off speaker?”

“Yes, spoilsport, you’re off speaker. You ruin all the fun.”

“I’m so sorry for making your job a little less fun. Whatever will you do now,” he drawled. “But I do actually need you to do something for me.”

“Fine. What?”

God, if she weren’t so efficient and good at her job, he would have fired her ages ago. “I need you to have some women’s clothing messengered over here.”

The other end of the line went dead silent. A pin could have dropped in the firm’s office, and he would have heard it through the speaker. “I’m sorry. You need what?”

“You heard me,” he said.

“Is this some sort of code?” Daeira asked. “Are you being held hostage again? Do I need to call the police? Tap against the handset twice if you’re in danger.”

“Don’t be absurd. I wasn’t being held hostage the last time. It was just a one-night stand gone wrong. She only had a starter pistol, and the whole thing got blown way out of proportion.”

“Fine,” she sighed. “Do you have her size?”

He had gotten an eyeful of Evie over the last few days, so he was fairly certain he could spitball measurements. “I’m guessing a 36-inch chest, 29-inch waist, and 38-inch hips, but get clothes up and down one size from those measurements, just in case I’m wrong. Whatever doesn’t fit, we’ll send back. And shoes.”

“Is there any type of clothing in particular you need for this woman?” She paused delicately. “Lingerie, perhaps?”

“Jesus Christ, Dae.” Cole scraped a hand down his face. “Just basic clothes for the next few day: jeans, shirts, dresses, underwear, shoes, whatever.”

“And when do you need this clothing for your mystery woman delivered?” His assistant’s words dripped with suspicion.

“An hour from now. Two at the latest.” He heard a slight inhale from the other side. “We represent corporate customers across the damn city, including two major clothing retailers that I can think of off the top of my head, and the ones that we don’t, we have relationships with them through our fundraising efforts. This shouldn’t be a big ask.”

“Well, if I’m to supply your lady friend with a multi-day wardrobe from an as-yet unknown retailer in less than two hours, I need to get off of the phone with you, Mr. Aidoneus.” Daeira’s voice was frosty; he made a mental note to send her something in appreciation. “I’ll send an intern with whatever I can find.”

“Thank you, Dae,” he responded gratefully, dragging out the last vowel on her name. “I owe you.”

“By last count, you owe me several hundred times over, Cole,” she sighed, her tone thawing a little. “I’ll get this taken care of, and then I’m taking the rest of the day off, and you have no problem with that.”

“I have no problem with that,” he parroted back without hesitation. “Thanks again.”

“Umhm,” was all his assistant said before hanging up the phone, leaving the dial tone ringing in his ears.

Now that that was taken care of…

“Cole?”

At the sound of Evie’s voice, he glanced up, only just realizing that he had probably been sitting here for upwards of half an hour. She was standing in front of him, still swimming in his t-shirt, her head cocked in confusion. That primal part of him that wanted her no matter what her choice may be was encouraging him to embrace the legacy of abduction associated with his family. His rational side was demanding that he lay out every ounce of the prophecy and history so she could make an informed decision. The result of this internal battle? He froze in place, brain grinding to a halt, his mouth open but no words coming out.

Evie blinked at him and came a bit closer. “Is everything alright?” When he didn’t respond, she came closer, resting her hand on his shoulder. “Cole?”

Her touch jerked him out of his self-inflicted freeze. “ Ouais , Angel.” He nodded, standing and tucking her into him once more in a smooth movement. “Yeah, I’m good.”

She melted into him, tilting her head back to glance up at him. “Who was it?”

“Just my Uncle Charlie and then a quick work call to sort out some stuff so I can spend the day with you.”

She ducked her face down into his chest but not before he saw the smile take over her face, the happy blush spreading across her cheeks.

An answering grin spread across his own face. It took everything in him not to jump up and down in glee that spending time with him was an exciting option for her. Instead of letting out an undignified screech of premature victory, he simply went, “Let’s go back to the study. We got some things to talk about.” She darted a quick concerned look at him, but he smiled down at her as he escorted her down the hall. “Nothing to worry about, mon ange . Just unveiling the last secrets I ever intend to keep from you.”

Her smile came back, brighter than before and so beautiful he almost tripped over his feet. Shit, he didn’t deserve a single second with her, but that wasn’t going to stop him from trying to get her to commit to him. He was ruthless in every other aspect of his life. It took on diabolical intensity when it meant keeping his witch by his side.

He kept his arm around her as they walked into his study, and he rifled through the built-in bookshelves bordering the couch facing his desk until he found the tome he was looking for. It was one he had only pulled off the shelves—by choice, at least—a handful of time. Usually, his uncle or one of the Moirai had to bully him into reading it. The time had finally come to open it willingly since he needed it desperately to explain to the woman he wanted more than anything that, not only should she choose to stay with him, but she should give up her entire life as she knew it to do so.

Cole tugged Evie towards the couch and sank into it, pulling her into his lap, resting the book across her legs. Her eyes flicked down to the text that had changed his entire life and was about to change hers. From the outside, it looked like nothing special. The cover was worn leather, cracked in places, burnt in others; the pages were mismatched with different colors, textures, and widths, resulting in tattering and ripping to the wider page edges while the slimmer ones were tidy. It bore no title or author.

Inside, though, was a whole ’nother story. The book held the comprehensive history of the Aidoneus family, every solitary scrap of information about the prophecy that drove his entire life.

“Should I be concerned?” Evie finally broke the silence. “I’m pretty sure there’s blood on the spine of that book. I’m wondering whether you’ve waited all this time to tell me that you’re going to make me a ritual sacrifice?”

Cole snorted out a surprised laugh. “You caught me,” he joked, and she smirked at him, eyes alight with mischief. It would be all too easy to get distracted by her, so he pulled away from his urge to just talk to her and nodded back down at the book. “Last night, your coven asshole asked me what you were to me.” He ran a hand down her back. “And it was a good question. A great question, actually. But it wasn’t her story to get before I shared it with you.”

“What exactly is the story, Cole?”

“I, um… ” He trailed off. “I don’t know if I’m gonna tell it right. I’ve never had to be the one to explain any of this to anyone. And definitely not to someone as important as you.”

Her forehead furrowed, and she cast him a confused look. “Just tell it the best way you can, I guess. I’m not picky, and I’m not going anywhere.”

“So.” Cole exhaled. Tangled his hand in the ends of her long hair as he set the book to the side. If he read straight from the book, it would be wooden. Hollow. He needed to tell her this in his own words. “Sometime tens of thousands of years ago, the Titans, immortal gods with elemental powers, dominated the human world. Of them, Cronus was the most powerful, so much so that he ruled both the other Titans and the humans with an iron fist. He left blood and destruction in his wake. Even weaker Titans weren’t wholly safe from Cronus’ rule. It was perfectly normal for them to go missing and never be heard from again. After millennia of bloodshed, though, Cronus found Rhea and forced her to marry him. Years of rape later, she bore him four immortal children: three female, one male. But there was a prophecy that one of his children would overthrow him, and Cronus became convinced the only way to stop it from coming true was to eat all of them.”

Evie lightly touched his arm. “If this is the story of the Titanomachy, I’ve read it.”

“It is, but you haven’t heard it this way.” He shook his head, still running his fingers through her hair thoughtlessly. “What really happened. The myths got it wrong, Angel. Yes, Cronus ate the four children Rhea gave him, but he was so disgusted for some reason that she only gave him one male son, Hades, to eat that he whored her out to his generals. She bore two sons, one to Atlas and one to Hyperion. Cronus was so paranoid that he ate Poseidon, Atlas’ son, but Rhea, now wise in the ways of Cronus, secreted Hyperion’s son, Zeus, away to Crete and gave Cronus a stone swaddled in cloth to eat instead. Once he was of age, Zeus became obsessed with seizing the power the Titans held, raising an army of the Titans’ surviving children to do so. He ingratiated himself to Cronus, eventually becoming his most trusted advisor. Zeus worked for him for years. Eventually, one night, Zeus slipped Cronus an emetic that caused him to vomit up every child he had ingested. But they never stopped aging after Cronus ate them, so they were all adults, and they were pissed. Partially ’cause, y'know, they were eaten, but mostly because they were stripped of their immortality by Cronus’ stomach juices.” Cole chuckled grimly. “Apparently being digested by the god of fucking time isn’t conducive to maintaining immortality, who knew.”

“Although they were mortal, they had the powers that they were born with and were powerful allies for Zeus, who was still immortal because he had never been eaten. Cronus’ biological children, Hades, Hestia, Demeter, and Hera, and Poseidon, Atlas and Rhea’s child, all joined forces with Zeus and his army to overthrow the Titans. After ten years of war, just absolute destruction, Rhea’s children were successful in their mutiny. But they needed somewhere to keep the Titans who were still alive. And that’s where the Underworld came in.”

“As the only ones with power over earthly and celestial creation, Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades joined forces to create the Underworld and, in it, Tartarus, a hellish cage for the worst of the worst. They banished the surviving Titans there so that they could never escape and wreak havoc upon the world. Then, the three of them sent the millions of deceased souls occupying the human realm to the Underworld. The only problem is that there was no organization to the resting places in the Underworld, so the good were expected to live right alongside the evil. None of the Olympians could come up with an effective way to share the duties and no one wanted Underworld oversight, so, not only did it remain unguarded, but the souls inside weren’t kept in places that aligned with how they conducted themselves on Earth.”

“Within months, the situation in the Underworld reached a fever pitch. The souls lost their absolute shit being that close to Tartarus and the Titans; even the good go bad after so much exposure to the worst, most depraved souls. With nobody guarding the Underworld, they escaped into the human world, unleashing absolute rage across creation. The world was dying as the escaped souls, what we call shades, devastated everything in their path. Crops, the environment, even humans themselves.”

Cole breathed in. This next part was make or break. “In the intervening time, Hades had taken on his mortal name Aidoneus. He met a powerful witch named Kore, the daughter of his half-sister, Demeter. She held unbelievable power over flora and fauna, and he was smitten with her the moment they met. The two fell in love, but Demeter wouldn’t support their marriage, so, one night, they ran away together. Demeter, of course, claimed that it was a kidnapping, but Kore chose Aidoneus from the beginning. After the shades escaped, the Olympians decided that somebody should probably be overseeing the Underworld. Aidoneus’ strength lay in death magic so, when Zeus, Poseidon, and Aidoneus decided which region they would rule, it was only natural that Aidoneus take ownership of the Underworld. Which meant capturing the roving shades, returning them to the Underworld, and establishing a living system within the realm to ensure the good received their rewarding existence and the bad… well, the bad were taken care of in the way most fitting to them.”

Evie was listening closely, her back ramrod straight. Her gaze was unflinching on his, and he knew the gears were turning in her mind as she puzzled through the story he was telling her.

In spite of the nerves destroying his stomach, Cole continued. “Aidoneus told Kore she could leave, but she chose to stay. Chose a life of chaos with him rather than any straightforward existence they could have apart. When they assumed the role as the royals of the Underworld, they took on the proper titles—Hades and Persephone. Kind of asinine, but it was a branding thing more than anything else. Together, they began to slowly force the shades back into the Underworld after ensuring there were safeguards in place so they couldn’t escape again, including Charon, the gatekeeper, and Cerberus, their trusted three-headed hound.” A slight gasp emerged from the witch in front of him, but he was reaching the end now, so he powered through. “They did this for years, aging as the mortals did, only able to achieve immortality once all shades were returned to the Underworld. During one of their scouting missions, they were attacked. Not unusual, but the shade had insane powers they’d never seen one use before. It slaughtered Aidoneus as he held Kore and then brutally murdered Kore as she wept over her love’s corpse. Before she died, though, she cast a curse using Aidoneus’ blood and her own power, ensuring the return of their memories and powers to a couple in the future so they could reunite in some lifetime and finish what they started.”

Deep breath in. Deep breath out. Time to share the biggest piece of information . “When I was young and I started dreaming about death and war, my family suspected that I was Aidoneus’ reincarnate. When they realized that my magical source was death, it became almost certain. You showed up in my dreams around two years after that. My family and our supporters spent years trying to find Kore’s reincarnate, but she wasn't prophetically tied to a family like I was.” He bit his lip. “The same day we met that night at the construction site, my uncle brought me the file on you. You met all the prophesied markers, he thought, and, given the proximity of your mother's death to the forest and your father's allegations of magic, you may have survived and been taken in by the witches. I had to meet you, though, because the only way to truly know was to see if you shared an affinity for death magic.”

“When I got to that forest… well, you felt what happened that night.” He took it as a good sign she was still in his lap. But who the fuck knows? It wasn’t like there was a manual for telling the woman you planned to spend the rest of your life with that she was the reincarnation of a murdered goddess. “You were the woman from my dreams. I never hoped that you could actually exist, although I wanted you to be real more desperately than I had ever wanted anything. That was a huge coincidence on its own, but then you had an affinity for death magic. And you’ve seen me almost all your life.”

“Cole… ” Her voice was breathy. Uncertain. Absent from her tone, though, were fear or anger.

He looked deep into her stormy eyes. “It’s you, Angel. You’re Kore’s reincarnate. You’re my fated half in every way that could ever matter. You’re the one who’s meant to rule beside me in the Underworld for the rest of our days. That’s the choice you have to make. Whether you want to accept that fate or not. But I need you to know something first.” Cole took another deep breath. “I’ve spent more than half of my life with Aidoneus’ memories, more time than that with his powers, but I’m not actually him. I’m just... me. I don’t have his emotions or his feelings for Kore.” Her lips were parted as she stared back at him, whole worlds in her deep silver eyes. “So when I tell you that I want you next to me because you are my goddamn everything, Angel, I’m not telling you that as Aidoneus to Kore. Or as the future king of the underworld. I, Cole Aidoneus, am telling you, Evie, that I want you in every fucking part of my life. And whether we take our rightful seat ruling the underworld together or not, I don’t give a fuck. I just need you with me. That's the story, baby.” Dropping his hands to the couch, he nodded. “Whatever you choose to do next is up to you.”