Chapter One

1024 A.D.

“Vampire.”

“No. Not for this job.”

“It’s one of Echidna’s children,” Zagreus tugged on his father’s sleeve, hoping to jar the gloomy immortal out of his mood.

Hades sat up, bleak eyes taking in the sights around his darkened throne room for the first time in months. Lilith was powerful, a demon of note, some distant descendant of Zeus’s first brood of monsters. Ha. Zeus, mighty King of Gods, mighty hero, and married to the Goddess of Marriage... Zeus didn’t have a faithful bone in his body. Hades had seen the way his brother had looked at Persephone. It didn’t matter that Persephone was his own child.

Hades knew godly bloodlines muddied the waters of relationships, but there was something... sickening in the way Zeus eyed the girl as she turned into a woman. Something that made him act so stupidly that one summer day, scooping Seph up and carrying her off as she was tending her favorite patch of wildflowers.

“Dad. Father!” Zagreus poked his elbow to jar him out of his reverie. “I think you should give her the job. Please. If anyone can track down Mom, it’ll be her!”

Hades shook out his long, black robes and adjusted the iron plate across his chest. “Let her enter.”

Lilith had pretty manners and a beautiful form. Though she was more demonic than god by this point, Hades could still see a slim resemblance to his brother, the expressive eyes, the sensuous mouth. The fangs... those had to come from her mother’s side, right along with the hellfire eyes and the taste for blood. The endless urge for pleasure? Well, that might have been a gift from Old Zeusy, too.

“You wish to leave Tartarus. Why?”

Lilith gave him an insolent glare. “Have you seen your basement lately, sweetie? It’s in a horrid state. Monster shit and bodies everywhere. Not to mention this Tantalus fellow you’ve got down there. Massive flooding. And the rock fall! I—”

“All right, all right.” Hades gave the newcomer a sidelong glare. Impudent. Rash. No one speaks to the Lord of the Dead like that. Except for Seph.

1000 B.C.

Seph looked like a summer flower, with sunflower-yellow hair shot through with sunset reds and bright green eyes the color of spring.

She hit him, kicked him, and spit on him. As she struggled, her mouth spewed forth enough profanities and curses that Charon dropped his oar.

He should have let her go right then.

He’d put her down with a frustrated hiss. Then, in the echoing, fearful nightmare tones that mortals dread and even gods can’t shut out, he warned her, “Zeus will have you.”

“What? Zeus?” She stopped shouting long enough to listen. “He’s my father!”

“I know. I am your uncle.”

“I never see you.”

“Yes, well... I don’t like Olympus all that much. And many Olympians don’t like me. I’m too different, too serious, with no time for their petty power squabbles. I will let you go if you listen to me.” It mattered more at that moment that she was safe than that she was his. “Zeus will have you. He will claim you like any other maiden. Like your mother.”

“Wh-what? Mother said—”

Hades told Persephone the details. He told her lots of details, details that made his nerveless stomach twist and burn in ugly shame. He didn’t look at his unwilling guest as he did so. He was good at punishing, good at causing pain, but he didn’t want to give her any. “I know it doesn’t matter with immortals. There are no ‘bloodlines’ to speak of when two gods mate. I only thought you... ought to have a say in it.” Some of Zeus’ partners did. Some did not. Funny how his brother, god of kings and King of Gods, was so haphazard about rules when it came to his own appetites.

In a very different voice, a voice covered with frost, Persephone asked, “May I stay here for a bit?”

“Of course. My home is yours. Ah—but not the kitchen. Don’t eat a thing. Not a crumb. If you taste the food of the dead, then you’re stuck with us. Me. In Hades, I mean.”

“Name and place, one and the same. Convenient.”

He’d tossed her a smile before he left her beautiful ebony rooms. “Well, yes. I suppose it is. Anyway, I like it.”

She’d smiled back.

1024 A.D.

“Dad!” Zagreus jabbed him in the back. Fortunately, his son had borrowed the helm of invisibility (he had told him how many times not to do that?), so Lilith didn’t see the intrusion—or she pretended not to.

“Your points are well taken,” Hades gave the beast a dry smile. “So you wish to leave.”

“Yes.” The demon bowed and muttered something suspiciously like “Your Obliviousness.”

Hades ignored her, an idea forming in his mind. “Everyone who seeks their freedom must agree to complete two tasks.”

Lilith arched shapely brows. “I had heard of one.”

“Vampires are a special case. You replicate, therefore, you have greater responsibility. But, if you prefer to be Tantalus’ pool girl or clean up after the vultures who keep taking out Prometheus’ liver...”

“No! No, no. Task away, Your Most Deadly-ness.”

Hades rolled his eyes. “Groveling doesn’t suit you any better than insolence. Shut your fangs and listen. One, you reap souls and fill my halls. Fair is fair, you know.”

“Easy. Done.” Lilith snapped her taloned fingers.

“Second... you bring back my queen.”

The veneer of confidence fell like a stone. “I do what? Queen? Your—”

“My wife, Queen Persephone. She left for her annual pilgrimage to the mortal world, the halfway point between my home and her mother’s.”

“Ah. In-law drama?”

Hades counted slowly to ten, then sent a torrent of flame over the vampire’s feet, just enough to singe and make her hop around the room. “She didn’t return as she always does, as she’s done for countless years, and I cannot find her. But I know that she is in the mortal realm, a place I cannot search for long periods of time. Even a day or two without me sends the spirits into a panic. Last time I went to look for her, a few mortal years ago, I completely forgot to appoint any reapers to their tasks. For days, no one died. I had to coordinate an entire plague just to rebalance the population and prevent an apocalypse. The amount of souls in queues...” Hades winced. “No, I know what happens when I go look for her. They say death has eyes and ears everywhere, but all my senses focus solely on her to the expense of all else.”

Lilith snorted, then flinched, clearly expecting another jolt of flames.

Hades gave the demon a severe glare, this one more frosty than fiery. “You wait. Some day, someone will come along who erases everything else for you. You will find that you cannot bear his absence. You cannot live with his pain. You will not rest until you give him what he wants, what he needs.”

“Demon, here. Not to argue with you, Your Most Grimship, but I’m pretty sure you need a soul for that sort of love. And not to second guess you, but you know the rules for my kind. All water is holy. The blessed water evaporates, gets back into the atmosphere, a bit of blessed that, a little sacred this, and we’re confined. Vampires can’t cross running water. I was hoping you’d pop me down in Europe. Lots of ways to travel without directly crossing rivers, or so I understand.”

Hades walked to the demon. To her credit, Lilith didn’t back away. Hades reached out a hand, pale gray-white skin glistening as blue energy whipped through him and expressed itself through his long, clever fingers.

Seph had always loved holding his hands. It was mutual. Hers were petal soft, the color of warm peaches in the sun. She brings all the best things to me. His daughter. His son. His first true taste of joy. The only way he’d ever known love. He had to take a moment, pretending it was to gather his deep, most ancient, powerful voice to work his magic.

But it was really just so the vampire wouldn’t tell everyone that the ruler of Hades, Hades himself, was still crying over his missing wife.

“You, and all your spawn, shall have power to travel throughout the mortal world, over oceans, seas, rivers, and lakes. Holy water will irritate you, burn you, but it will not destroy you as it does others of your kind. Any who share your blood will have this power.” He pressed his palm to the beast’s forehead, feeling the current of magic sizzle into her skin. And one of you will love. Truly love, with or without a soul. That one will find my queen. He kept that part of his promise silent. “Any who you spawn will share your task. All who share will be rewarded or punished as one. You have one day to find my queen.”

“One day ?” Lilith squawked.

“A day—to me. You know what they say about the gods. ‘A thousand years is but a day in my sight.’” Hades shook his head. “While it’s true, it’s not quite the same to me as it is to other immortals. I measure time closer to the mortals, since I hold their lives. My Seph has been missing for far too long, by any clock.” Hades moved his hand from the vampire’s forehead to her throat. “If you fail... I will reap all the souls of all you’ve spawned and throw them into the lowest pit of Tartarus. I will check in on your progress, vampire, but I shall give only one warning before your mission is over.”

“B-but what if I’m not around in a thousand years? I’m going to live among mortals! I know we’re hard to kill, but we’re not completely death-proof.” Lilith squirmed, balancing on her toes as Hades kept her just on the edge of reaching solid ground.

“Then your youngest living direct descendant.” His brow creased. “ Un -living direct descendant. Un- dead direct descendant? Ugh. You monsters and demons. You know I’ve had to create an entire department to deal with your sort.” Hades released the deadly beauty, sudden weariness washing over him. “Go. Bring her back to me.”

Hades turned away and ignored Zagreus, who protested that there were a dozen other demons waiting for an audience. There was a ghost with an entire business plan and some dimensional representatives from another underworld.

He should never have sold the franchise.

But it had meant more time at home with Seph.

He would give anything to have her back home, even if he had once urged her to leave.

1000 B.C.

“You have to leave.” Hades showed her the ferry. Charon was wearing his best cloak. The spirits in the Styx were all humming instead of their normal moaning.

Everyone loved Seph.

Especially him.

That was why she had to leave. In just a few months, a cat-nap to an immortal, she had grown pale and thin. Her hair hung limp. Her peach skin was the color of a withered orchid.

She looked at him from the shadows of her chamber. “Close the door.”

He obeyed. He was ruler in name only when she was around.

Seph reclined, as she often did when he came for his daily visits. Sometimes she left her rooms and walked beside him, seemingly blind to any grim and ghastly shades around his palace. Lately, her strength was failing, and he came to sit with her, bringing Cerberus, who shrank down to the size of a fox kit and went romping across her thick, satin sheets, eager to paw at her and lick her cheeks with his three little pink tongues.

“I don’t want to go back. I don’t... I don’t want to be another one of his conquests. I don’t want to bear Zeus a child. I know he’s a terrible parent. Why, you’re better to Cerby than he is to Hephaestus. And Ares! There’s a man with anger issues.”

Hades said nothing. Those were fine sentiments, sentiments he agreed with. But Zeus didn’t believe that his will was optional. “My darling Seph—”

“Say it again.” Her voice was an Elysian breeze, warming him to the marrow.

“My... darling?”

“Yes. Why did you take me away?”

“To tell you that you were in danger of being forced to do the unthinkable.”

“Kidnapping is so much better?”

“No! Oh, no. But you have not been a prisoner! You know this. I have urged you to leave. I have Charon in readiness.” Hades dared to sit on the edge of her bed. She took his hands and pulled him closer, surprising him with her lingering kiss. Her lips were dry as ashes, but that didn’t make him thrill any less. Surely he should have taken a lover by now, as every other god seemed to do... but he hadn’t found one he wanted, and his work didn’t lend itself to courting.

“Hades...” She broke the kiss, looking into his eyes.

“I can’t. We can’t. Demeter will be enraged. She’s already so miserable. People are starving, my love. You have to go back.” He rose.

She sank. “You called me love. Do you believe in such a thing? Do you know what it is?”

“I know love is when their will outweighs your own. Their heart’s desire is over yours. You will sacrifice everything for their pleasure, their joy. Yes. I know what love is.” And I love you. Is it supposed to hurt like this?

Her eyes were shining. She sat up and got to her feet, blinking as she strode silently past him on unsteady feet.

Part of him had hoped she would stay. It was no good telling his heart to stop breaking when she had done exactly what he wished. All he could do was accompany her back to the shores of the living.

He left her rooms and tried to sound commanding. “Charon, ready your oars. We will— Where’s Seph?” Hades looked around, bewildered, his eyes clearing.

“I believe she went toward the kitchens, my lord.”

“What? No! No, Seph! Seph, don’t do it!” Decorum was forgotten. He fled through his hallowed, darkly flickering halls, screaming her name, his garments flying out behind him. He looked like a big, frantic bat. How had a half-starved goddess moved so fast?

Hades arrived just in time to knock the pomegranate out of her hand, sending seeds scattered over the floor. “Do you realize what you could have done? You could have been stuck here! You could have been damned to this realm, with me!” Hades was so angry that he grabbed her wrist and shook her, yelling loud enough that Cerberus tucked his tail in between his legs, loud enough to drown out the wishes in his wayward heart. “You have to go. I must... I must let you go.” He released her wrist, only for her to seize his shoulders.

She kissed him again.

He could taste it. Pomegranate. Sweet, tart, tangy, and just a little bit bitter. He drew back with a gasp of shock, looking at her bright pink lower lip. “Oh, Seph. What have you done?”

“I know what love is, too, Hades.” She bent and picked up the smashed fruit. “You’d better have Charon take me home.”

“Wh-what? Seph, you can’t leave if you—”

“Oh, I can leave —I just can’t stay away.” Her eyes were luminous, looking deep into his. “That won’t be a problem, will it?”

“No. Oh, no. Not at all! You mean you want to—” Words failed. A whisper of realization, “With me?”

She answered with the complacency he so admired. His Seph looked delicate, but she was so brave.

“My mother will have to know about our wedding. If I’m going to be your queen and live here with you, I want a wedding first. Preferably a summer one, but...”

He swept her into his arms and onto the ferry, head buried in her neck so Charon couldn’t see his happy weeping.

Not that he fooled anyone.

Of course, the earth had changed without Demeter’s care. Everything was red and orange, fading, instead of springing to life.

“I like it.” Hades complimented his sister, hands behind his back, voice full of admiration (and a little bit of panic). “I like the muted palette, and the shades of fire.”

“You would.”

He faced her, hands spread in pleading. “Demi, listen, I swear to you—”

Demeter put her elbow into his windpipe and her knee in his stomach. He stopped talking. His fierce sibling, full of maternal rage, shoved her lips next to his ear, presumably to threaten him.

“Thank you,” Demeter breathed against his ear.

“What?!”

“Shh, idiot. You saved her. You know exactly what I mean. I will always be in your debt.”

“And I in yours.” He sagged in relief. Demeter shoved a spade into his solar plexus. “Perhaps slightly less so?”

Her voice was hard. “Zeus fancies himself the chief negotiator here. I know what Persephone wants. She loves this world, and she loves you. You and I will both demand her time, exclusively. Zeus will split it down the middle, without expecting an argument. Look meek and humble, and nod your boney head. Clear?”

“Yes, Demi. So... to be clear... are you upset with me or not?”

She kissed his cheek, right before she cursed him and punched him in the nose.

“Love is confusing,” Hades reflected aloud, staring up at the clear blue sky from where he’d been knocked onto his back.

Persephone pulled him up, smiling as she brushed him off. “Maybe a little.”

Demeter’s creation of a new season was ideal. The upstart Romans even had a feast in time for their wedding, to celebrate the dying of the growing season and a thinning of the veil between mortal and immortal worlds. They called it Lemuria.

Hades and Seph called it “Our anniversary.”

She always came home by Lemuria...

1024 A.D.

Hades snapped his fingers and summoned Lilith back to his side just as she passed through the ornate doors of his throne room. “You have until Lemuria, a thousand years to the day, to bring my wife back. I will give you that date as a reminder.”

“I... Uh... When’s that?”

Hades thought. Mortal time was slippery and moved fast, like a silvery fish in a running stream. “I know it was once held in summer, but it is now associated with fall, Demeter’s harvest, and the dying of the growing season.” The beginning of our season, home and hearth, Seph and I...

“Don’t some feast days switch around, based on the moon and stars, that sort of thing?”

“In time, they will celebrate another feast to honor the sacred dead, the hallowed ones. You have until that night, but the day after, you must return her to me. Do you understand? Without fail, you must bring her back to me.” Another snap, and the demon was gone. Hades went back to their bedroom, so long simply his room, and slept.