Before the words were out of his mouth, Hades already felt a heaviness in his throat and stomach. Somehow, he knew what was coming.
The headline read:
HADES STEPS OUT WITH MYSTERIOUS WOMAN
Below that was a picture, snapped at the precise moment Leuce had reached for his hand. It was as if someone had been waiting to take it, and in that frozen second, it appeared that he had been holding her hand, dragging her hurriedly down the shadowed street. There was a lot someone could infer from it, but all he cared about was that Persephone knew the truth.
As he stared at the photo, he studied Leuce’s face, who had schooled her features into a placid mask, the opposite of how she had looked when they had faced each other.
I’ll help you when you admit that Demeter gave you life.
Well, if this wasn’t fucking proof.
She had set him up.
A sharp, black spire shot from the tip of his finger, and he used it to shred Leuce’s face before rising to his feet.
“I’ll be back,” he told Ilias before vanishing.
He manifested on the sixtieth floor of the Acropolis, at the entrance of New Athens News. There was a young blond at the front desk who gasped and stood. As he walked past her, she started to speak. “Can I…?”
“No,” Hades growled, having already found the object of his visit—Persephone, who rose to standing, dressed in black. She was beautiful and striking, and her anger and pain hit him with a force that nearly stole his breath.
He swallowed down the dread crawling up his throat and continued toward her.
“You need to leave,” she whispered furiously, though it was so quiet on the floor that her words carried.
“We need to talk.”
She leaned forward just an inch, eyes alight, determined in her refusal to hear his explanation. Clearly, she’d already decided what to believe, and there was a sharp pain in his chest that made his heartbeat feel slow and sluggish.
“No.” The word was harsh and definite.
His features hardened. “So you believe it then? The article?”
“I thought you had a meeting,” she threw back at him, and it was the first time he heard the hurt leak into her voice.
“I did.” It was frustrating that she didn’t believe anything he had said.
“And you conveniently left out the fact that it was with Leuce?”
“It wasn’t with Leuce, Persephone.”
She looked away, clenching her jaw. “I don’t want to hear this right now. You need to leave.”
She came around her desk and walked past him toward the elevator. He turned to follow.
“When are we going to talk about this?” he asked.
“What is there to talk about?” she asked, jamming the button for the elevator. “I have asked you to be honest with me about when you are with Leuce. You weren’t.”
“I came to you immediately after I saw Leuce home, but I didn’t feel good about waking you. When I saw you yesterday, you looked exhausted.”
She whirled to face him. “I am exhausted, Hades. I’m tired of you and sick of your excuses.”
That was a lie. Well, part of it was, anyway. She wasn’t tired of him.
“Leave!” She pointed to the open doors of the elevator, but if she thought he would go without discussing this, she was wrong.
He drew his arm around her waist and hauled her into the elevator with him, choosing a floor at random just so the doors would close. Once they were alone, he sealed the lift with magic. It wouldn’t move and it wouldn’t open for anyone.
Hades placed Persephone on her feet, his hands on her waist, and he leaned into her, bracing one hand on the wall.
“Let me go, Hades! You’re embarrassing me,” she said. Hades felt a twinge in his chest at the sound of her tired and defeated voice. Her hands were on his chest as if she wanted to push him away, but she didn’t. “Why did you have to do this now?”
“Because I knew you’d jump to conclusions. I’m not fucking Leuce.”
She paled at his words and shoved against him. “There are other ways to cheat, Hades!”
“I’m not doing any of them!”
And a horrible sickness twisted through him, knowing that she thought he had. Though it seemed after hearing those words, she’d lost her energy to fight. She stood between him and the wall, her arms at her sides, staring at his chest.
“Persephone.” He closed his eyes against her name. “Persephone, please.”
“Let me go, Hades,” she said quietly.
He wanted to touch her, to lift her face so he could look into her eyes. So he could beg her not to think what she was thinking, but he realized she was not ready to hear anything right now, and while he hadn’t wanted to give her time to think, to agonize, to wonder what had really happened, this wasn’t how he’d wanted to have this conversation—not through force.
“If you won’t listen now, will you let me explain later?”
“I don’t know,” she whispered.
“Please, Persephone. Give me the chance to explain.”
“I’ll let you know,” she said, her voice thick with tears.
“Persephone.”
He moved to brush her cheek, but she turned away. There was a strangeness to this pain between them, and it went deeper than Leuce. His heart felt very broken, a shattered thing that moved about in his chest, puncturing whatever it came into contact with. After a moment, he stepped back, giving her space. She wouldn’t look at him, keeping her burning, glistening gaze on the elevator wall. Still, he studied her profile—the turn of her nose and the pout of her mouth and the way her hair curled around her ears and neck, like tendrils of his shadowy magic cupping her face.
He memorized her as if this were the last time he’d see her, and without another word, he left.
* * *
Hades found himself on the island of Lemnos, knocking on Aphrodite’s front door.
He hated what he was about to do, but Hecate had asked him over and over what he was going to do, and while Aphrodite never seemed to be able to handle her relationship with Hephaestus, she was still the Goddess of Love, and it was likely she could offer some insight.
Or at least tell him what to avoid.
He peered through the glass door of her home, looking for any sign of Aphrodite or Lucy, the animatronic maid Hephaestus had made who was far more lifelike than necessary in his opinion, but the hallway was empty.
He knocked again and sighed.