“How did you know I was missing?” she asked.
“Your coworker, Helen, got worried when you didn’t come back from the basement. She went to search for you and found the journals.”
When he thought of them, he wanted to kill Pirithous a thousand times over—and he would. He had no tolerance for abusers of women and children, and the fact that Persephone was involved made it even worse.
“She didn’t know who to tell. For better or worse, she told a security guard. Zofie had been patrolling outside when she was notified, and she realized she’d watched Pirithous leave with you—in a tilt truck. When she told me, I sent the Furies. You had already been gone so long…I wasn’t sure what I would find.”
“He was a demigod,” she said, her voice quiet. “He had power.”
Hades’s earlier observation had been right, then. He grimaced.
“Demigods are dangerous, mostly because we do not know what power they will inherit from their Divine parent.” Not to mention many demigods did not know their parentage, and it was not always apparent even after their powers developed. Hades could not help thinking about Ariadne’s comment, that Theseus had gathered an army of demigods—soldiers, she had called them.
Pirithous was just one example of how little they actually knew about demigods—including their numbers, their powers, their capabilities.
“What was Pirithous able to use against you?”
“He put me to sleep, and when I woke, I couldn’t use my magic. I couldn’t focus. My head…my mind was in turmoil.”
Hades’s brows lowered. “Compulsion. It can have that affect.”
It took a lot of training to keep from being compelled too. Persephone would have had no chance to fight it.
After a moment, he asked in a quiet, rough voice, “Tell me what happened?”
She studied him for a moment, looking very troubled. Perhaps she worried over what he would do once he knew the full truth, and she had every reason to, because he was not stable at the moment.
“I will tell you if you will promise me one thing.”
Hades studied her face, waiting.
“When you torture him, I get to join you.”
He hugged her tight as he swore, “That is a promise I can keep.”
* * *
It might have been a promise Hades kept eventually, but it was not one he would keep tonight. Once Persephone was sleep, he teleported to Tartarus. Pirithous had been taken to his office and tied to the same chair he’d used to restrain Persephone. The stake that had left him lifeless on the floor in the Upperworld was still embedded in his chest, and with each breath the demigod took, he whined.
When Hades finally came face-to-face with him, he lashed out, kicking the stake farther into the man’s chest. Pirithous gave a pathetic cry and began to wheeze as blood spattered across the floor and dripped from his mouth.
“You touched my lover, my fiancée, my future,” Hades bellowed. “An unforgivable crime.”
“It’s not my fault!” Pirithous gave a gargled howl.
“Not your fault?” Hades repeated, the fury burning his blood. “Go ahead and tell me how it wasn’t your fault. You stalked her. You wrote horrible things about her. You abducted her. You. Touched. Her.”
He was raging, and once more, he kicked the man in the chest. This time, Persephone’s stake went right through him and fell to the floor, though Hades managed to hold on to the man’s life thread. He would not die yet. He would face immeasurable pain, and despite the pleasure Hades would take from inflicting it, he knew it would not atone for what this man had done to Persephone.
“No,” Pirithous moaned, his words barely intelligible. “Th-Theseus said…we… Theseus said…”
“Theseus?” Hades repeated, his body stiffening at the sound of the demigod’s name. “Did you say Theseus?”
Pirithous nodded.
“He…was…friend.”
Hades took a moment to collect himself, then used his magic to heal the demigod. It would be hard for him to explain himself with a mouth and throat full of blood.
“What about Theseus?” he demanded.
“We made a bet,” Pirithous explained, his voice high-pitched and keening. “To carry off goddesses. He said…he said we couldn’t get in trouble because of Hera.”
“You made a bet to carry off goddesses, and you chose my goddess?” Hades asked.
“It was Theseus who suggested it,” said Pirithous. It was as if he thought he shouldn’t be punished because it was not his idea, though Hades wondered why Theseus had put Pirithous up to this. Had he merely wished to see what happened when someone fucked with him? Or had he done this as a type of revenge?
Either way, Pirithous would not be the one to suffer for what happened tonight, though he would be the first.
Hades used his magic to summon Persephone’s stake from the ground, and as he hovered over the demigod, Pirithous began to wail.
“She was not yours to take,” Hades said, and he jammed the stake into the man’s neck. As he jerked it free, he seethed. “She was not yours to touch! She was not yours! She was not yours!”
As he raged, he shoved Persephone’s stake into the demigod’s body, bathing in his blood, and he only stopped when he had lost his voice.
Chapter XXX
The Start of War
Hades’s stomach knotted with anticipation. Tonight, his nonprofit, the Cypress Foundation, was hosting a gala to illustrate the impact of his charity work. Among them was the Halcyon Project, which held a special place in both his and Persephone’s hearts. Without her, it would not exist. Everything he poured into it was inspired by her. It was also a project Lexa had worked on before her death, and he had something planned to honor her legacy.
It was just one reason he was unusually excited about tonight’s event. The second had to do with the black box in his pocket. As he stood outside his bedroom door, he took it from the inside of his jacket and looked at the ring. Nestled in black velvet, it gleamed, and by the end of the night, it would glitter on Persephone’s finger, a symbol of their commitment to each other.
Once more, his chest felt tight with nervous energy. He took a breath. He could do this—she had already said yes.
He closed the box and returned it to his pocket before entering their bedchamber, where he found Persephone already dressed for the evening in a red off-the-shoulder gown. While the top was lace, her skirt was made of layers of tulle, and he could not help thinking that Hecate had chosen it specifically to make things difficult for him.