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Chapter 35

Chapter

Thirty-Five

P ersephone

A sea of stars spills into the cracked window. The sounds of the night, the rustle of dry grass in a warm breeze, dances into the quiet of Willa’s snores. Tossing in my narrow bed, I find myself aching for Hades. It’s the first night I’ve spent without him since—since I let myself be with him.

It feels wrong to be alone now.

That itch in my bones has returned. But there is something else. Something pressing into the back of my mind that, try as I might, I can’t quite ignore.

I keep seeing the dig site. It appears like flashes of memory, hazy like a dream just out of reach. I feel like I’m forgetting something. Something important. Something I would remember if I only visited the site.

Giving up on sleep, I toss the thin blanket to the side. Shoving my feet into leggings, a hoodie over my head, I tiptoe from the room. The hall is impossibly dark, and after staring out the window at the winking of the stars, I’m unprepared for the blackness of shadows.

A big body bumps into mine and a male ‘oomph’ sounds before two strong arms settle me. Shocked, I pull my hands from the bare chest in front of me. I’m grateful for the dark now. It hides the red sting of humiliation.

“Sorry,” I say quietly.

“Annie?” Addison asks, his hands still holding my hips.

I take a step back. “Yeah. Sorry.”

“What are you doing?”

“N—nothing.”

There is a pause and a scoff of annoyance. “Are you kidding me right now?”

“What?”

“Are you seriously sneaking out to see him? Why didn’t you just stay?”

“I’m not going to see Hades,” I whisper-hiss my defense. I don’t know why I’m defending myself to him.

Things between me and Addison have felt off since I had that vision of him as Adonis. The way he’d pleasured me…the way Hades had watched .

Sick churns in my belly. Hot prickles of icky distaste rise beads of sweat on my skin.

I regret the hoodie.

“No?” Addison demands. “Where are you sneaking off to then?”

“It’s none of your business.”

“So, it is him?”

For frick’s sake . “I’m going to the dig site.”

Silence. “Why?”

“I just—I don’t know. I just am.”

Addison folds his arms over his bare chest. His broad bare chest. I can see more now that my eyes have adjusted. That means Addison can see as well, so I’m pretty sure he caught me looking at his chest and—undoubtedly—getting the wrong impression.

I huff, dropping my eyes to my feet. “I’ll be back soon, okay?”

“Tell me why you’re going to the site.”

I roll my eyes heavenward. “I feel like I have to. I can’t explain it, Addison. I feel like—like I’m missing something and it’s there. The answers are there and I need to figure out what it is.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

I groan, a surge of hot frustration blooming under my flesh. “I know that.”

He’s quiet for a moment. “We shouldn’t be there without the crew lead. You know that.”

“I’m not going to dig anything. I just need—” I shake my head. “I don’t know, Addison. I just need to go.”

“Fine.” I breathe a breath of relief that is quickly cut short when he adds, “I’m coming.”

I could argue with him, but I don’t. There’s no point when I know he’ll follow me anyway.

Still, I don’t wait for him as I walk out the front door and down the sidewalk in the direction of the site. Addison catches up only a few minutes later, tugging a shirt over his head and finally, finally covering his rack of muscles.

“So, what are we looking for?”

“I don’t know.”

I can feel his eyes on my face as I walk, but I refuse to look at him. To acknowledge that he likely thinks I’m nutty.

I already know I’m off my rocker. I don’t need him pointing it out to me.

When we arrive at the site, it feels eerie and quiet. Haunted with the ghost of an ancient past that is finally ready to spill every confession into the ether of the present. There is a heaviness to the air that whispers of danger even as it calls me forward, like a siren in the deep.

I’m not sure what I have to know, but I have to know it.

I’m not sure what I have to see, but I have to see it.

“It’s creepy here at night.” Addison shivers, alert eyes scanning the site. “I don’t think we should be here, Annie.”

“Then go. I didn’t ask you to come with me.” I don’t know why I’m being so mean. So short with him. I feel off. Pulling in a breath, I give him my eyes. “I’m sorry.”

“You’re being weird tonight.”

I laugh, but it’s full of an ugly kind of bitter. “I’m always weird.”

“I like your weird.” He follows behind me as I keep walking, driven by a force I can’t see. “Usually.”

I harrumph.

“Hey,” Addison calls. “Stop for a minute, will you?”

My chest twists, but I do. Looking up at him, I watch as hesitation drifts over his features before he finally says, “I’m sorry if I’ve made you feel awkward or uncomfortable around me.” He pushes a tan hand through golden waves. “I—I don’t know what it is about you that makes me feel the way I feel.”

“Addison.” Discomfort twists in my gut.

“Shit, this is coming out wrong.” He shakes his head, his curls flopping. “I know you’re serious about Hades. What the hell kind of name is Hades? Who does that to their kid?”

“Addison.” There’s a small smile threatening my lips. He sees and mirrors it with his own.

“Sorry. Really.” He lifts his hands in a gesture of surrender. “Sorry.”

“Forgiven.” I narrow my eyes teasingly. “Maybe. ”

“Like I said, I know you’re serious about Hades. I don’t like it, but I know it. I just want you to know I don’t want you to feel awkward around me. I want you to feel—I feel—” He pushes his hand through his hair again.

I touch his arm. “It’s okay, Addison. You don’t have to finish.”

“I do.” He’s so serious, that I nod. He continues, “Right from the start, I felt like I knew you. Like I’ve always known you.” His eyes plead with my own to understand. “I feel like I’ve had you. Like you were mine once a long, long time ago.” He curses again and I shiver. His words are like snakes on my skin. After my visions, it’s hard to cope with hearing this from him.

Addison continues, “I know it sounds crazy— I think it’s crazy—” He shrugs helplessly. “I just feel like I was meant for you.”

I offer him a small smile that feels so forced it might just crack. Softly, with my whole heart, I tell him, “I think you were meant to be my friend.”

He bursts a laugh. With a short shake of his head and a glance up at the stars, he says, “Letting me down easy, huh?”

I shrug.

“S’all good.” He laughs again, even though I’m sure I hear a raw hurt in it. “What are we looking for here, anyway?”

“I don’t know.” I start to walk again, deeper into the site with Addison at my side .

With every step, the pressure grows. With every step, I am closer to exposing the need that called me here.

At the mouth of the temple, I pause. I am here and yet not. Peering into the mouth of land and ancient stone, I consider the stairs. They’re steep and it’s dark.

“We’re not going down there,” Addison says beside me. “No way.”

I shake the thought from my mind as ridiculous. “I know.” I sigh as I lean away from the yawning hole in the earth. “Let’s forget I’m a lunatic and go home.”

“Good idea,” Addison agrees, relieved.

As we turn, a smooth feminine voice says, “I disagree.”

Addison yelps and I jump. But when my eyes land on her, everything—every part of me—freezes.

Recognition hits me like a wall of bricks. The woman is stunning. Breathtaking.

Beside me, Addison breathes, “Shit.”

I’m not sure if he’s referencing the sex appeal the woman emanates or the fact she’s here in the dead dark of the night, creeping up on us like this.

The woman’s familiar warm brown eyes land on me. Unlike all the times I’ve seen her before, they are winged in black liner. Her wheat-colored hair is pulled into a high, tight ponytail. Her lips are painted an earthy nude, her long nails polished in the same shade. She’s stunning, and that’s not taking into account the off-white pantsuit she wears .

Who wears a white pantsuit to a dig site?

“I thought my spies were mistaking when they told me there was a girl called Persephone working the Eleusis site.” Her hands land on her hips, spreading the white jacket she wears, that plunges down to her navel. Under it, she wears only a lace bra, again in white. “Imagine my surprise when I learned you’ve been here for months.”

I don’t know what to say. A cool sweat has broken out over my skin. My mind feels fractured between this reality and another I’ve only ever dreamed of. Because the last time I saw this woman was in my nightmare—while she drowned me.

The woman continues to speak. Disgust curls her lip. “Why would someone with the name Persephone—a name for a Goddess—go by the mundane name of Annie?”

“Annie is a nice name,” Addison defends me, moving closer to where I stand. I can feel the warmth of his body through the clothes I wear.

The woman’s eyes cut to Addison. She scans him from tip to toe, then breathes, “You.”

“Me,” Addison says, but I don’t think he knows who he’s engaged with. I’m not sure I know. I can’t know.

She can’t be Demeter. She can’t be the Goddess of Agriculture, Persephone’s mother.

The Gods aren’t real.

I drop my head into my hands, rubbing my face roughly. I mutter, “This isn’t real. I’m seeing things. None of this is real.”

“Hey.” Addison touches his palm to my back.

Dry earth crunches under heels. There is dangerous laughter in the woman’s voice as she coos, “This is very real, I assure you, Persephone.”

I’m still shaking my head. Still denying the reality before me. “No.”

“What’s going on?” Fear edges Addison’s voice now. He’s picking up on my panic. Or maybe he can sense the terror this woman is capable of. This Goddess—figment of myth and legend that is clearly more than a story.

“I really shouldn’t be surprised to see you here.” A shrill chime rings like an alarm in her laugh. “Aphrodite will rejoice when she learns that still, after all this time, you chase a love that will never be yours.”

“Aphrodite?” Pebbles rise on Addison’s skin at the name. His neck bobs on a nervous swallow.

The woman smiles a beautiful smile. I know it’s beautiful, but I can’t help but see beneath it to the ugly she holds in the core of her. The ugly she hides.

“Oh, yes.” Her eyes sweep over Addison again. “There’s nothing like the curse of a jealous Goddess, now, is there?”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Addison looks to me, eyes wide. “We need to leave.”

I nod. Slipping my hand into his, I start to move away—to flee—but her voice halts my movement with a single command. It’s as though centuries of dormant obedience simply rise. The same need that pulled me from my bed to this place holds me prisoner now.

I need to be here. To please her.

“Annie.” Addison tugs my hand. “Come on.”

I can’t move. My heart drums a frantic beat in my chest. There is a whir in my ears.

She moves closer, as though she has all the time in the world. Like she is a predator hunting her prey. I can’t move, even as I tremble.

Addison stops tugging on my hand to stand in solidarity with me.

She lifts her hand and touches my face, cradling my cheek. “So beautiful.” Her eyes drift over my face. “I’ve not once, in all the years I’ve lived without you, forgotten your face. My lovely daughter.”

I don’t lean into her touch as I had in my nightmare, seeking comfort that wouldn’t come. I tremble in it. Terror coats my tongue and dries my throat. My heart is a frantic drum in my chest, the terror acrid as it spills with every shallow breath I dare breathe.

She peers into my eyes, hers narrowing. “So human , you are now.” Her gaze drifts down my body and back up again. “But your immortal soul must be in there. You look identical, every freckle the same as before.”

At my side, Addison breathes, “What the fuck is going on? ”

Demeter—I’m seriously beginning to believe the woman before me is Demeter—pays him no mind. “I suppose we shall see the power you possess now.”

“I—” My throat is so painfully raw. Scorched by the acid of my fear. “I have none.”

“You must.” She smiles. “For if you don’t, you serve no purpose at all.”

“And—” I croak. “If I don’t?”

“I’ll just have to kill you again. And this time, when the Moirai bring you back, I’ll make sure they do it right.”

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