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Chapter 21

Chapter

Twenty-One

H ades

Her soul senses the ancient history we share, even if her memories of me—of us—are tainted by the damning effects of her tragic murder, lost to the rapids of the Lethe.

Her body knows what her mind can't yet accept. That she is mine.

That she belongs with me.

The ancient God within me is growing restless as the days pass, bleeding into weeks. He is more than aware that she is close to him. The mate he's longed for, for centuries. He hungers for her, for the taste of her. His desperation simmers under the flesh of the man. Take her , he whispers, mark her, steal her.

I drag my palms down my face, restless and irritable. I need more time with her. I hunger for her when she is gone from me. The pull of her is massive. The worry is relentless torture.

"You're losing it," Leuce tells me what I already know. "Maybe you should just tell her."

"I can't. Not yet."

She sits back in the couch, lifting an arm to drop it lazily against the back of the couch. "Why not?"

A low growl of irritation rumbles in my chest. "You know why."

"No, I don't, Hades."

"She doesn't love me." I glare across the room where my ex-lover and friend sits. "She is human, Leuce."

She scoffs. "She isn't."

"She smells human."

"But she isn't. She has the soul of a Goddess."

I feel my lip curl. "Her body is human. Vulnerable."

"Take her to the Underworld."

"It's not that simple."

She rolls her gray-green eyes. "You keep saying. What I don't understand is what's different this time around. You took her before, and she fell in love with you. She's already halfway there, Hades. I've seen the way she looks at you."

My blood heats at the thought of Persephone looking at me with want. I've sensed it, too. The hunger that burns under her skin. The desire that swims in her veins, simmering in the marrow of her bones. But it's not enough.

"I need her heart."

"You'll get it. Eventually."

Tension spreads inside me like poison. I admit what I have yet to admit to anyone. The words fall quiet, but she hears them. "I need her soul."

The very breath in Leuce's chest stills. She is stiff, frozen for an entire minute. "Her soul ?"

"It's the only way I can keep her safe. Can ensure that she will never be taken from me again."

"But you can't take a soul, Hades."

I grit my teeth. "I am aware, Leuce."

My patience is thinning. Such a thing is very, very dangerous.

"It must be given."

"I know."

"Freely."

Rage and something much worse— fear —bubble in my chest. Because it's not a simple or easy thing, to give a soul. It is not a thing done lightly, and the consequences are more than massive. They are eternal. And as such, they are consequences I'm not confident she will ever be willing to pay.

She has been raised in the Christian religion. Her idea of Hades has been greatly distorted by her view of the devil, a thing of evil. I am a much more complex God.

I am multifaceted, but the fact remains, considering I predate the devil and the formation of the Christian religion by well over a thousand years, like the formation of the Roman and Egyptian Gods, pieces of my puzzle have been plucked and molded to fit the narrative of a new God, or in the devil's case, a fallen angel. One such puzzle piece is the rare dealings I make with souls. Although butchered massively by Christianity's spin on the devil's determination to damn souls in earthly dealings, my dealings for souls are far more complex. Intricate, even. Still, the comparisons remain, and one aware of the devil's ways as Persephone is would be hard pressed to promise me her everlasting soul.

I sit back in my chair. Leuce's eyes track my fingertips as I rub them into my jaw. "Such is my dilemma."

Leuce bows her head for a moment, chin meeting her chest. She's thinking, her mind racing for another way.

She won't find one.

I've considered every angle, for centuries. The only way to ensure Persephone's eternal safety with me is to possess her eternal soul.

Anxiety spikes inside me. A feeling I am unaccustomed to, but have been plagued by since her return in my life.

I need more time with her .

I need to show her that she doesn't simply want me, but that she needs me.

I need her to crave me as I crave her.

I need her heart if I am ever to possess her soul.

But more time with her, time spent in the day, in public , could— will put her in danger.

"What are you going to do?" Leuce interrupts my scattered thoughts. She shifts on the couch, planting her elbows into her knees as she leans forward.

She, too, is agitated. Like I can smell the defenceless human that clings to Persephone's skin, I can smell the worry, spiked with fear, that wafts from Leuce's pores now.

I stand, straightening my shoulders. "Right now, I'm going to take her to lunch."

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