Page 133 of A Touch of Chaos

“I think it would be best if she heard it from your brother,” said Hades.

Thanatos did not disagree.

They left the Styx and returned to the palace, no longer suffocating beneath the weight of Thanatos’s shock and sadness.

“We have to do something,” Persephone said when they appeared in their room.

Hades did not speak and turned away, which only made her more frustrated.

“We cannot just keep letting Theseus get away with these murders,” she said.

Hades halted and faced her. “Is that what you think I have been doing?Lettinghim get away?”

That was not what she meant to insinuate, but she was still working through the frustration she’d felt sinceshe discovered everything he had kept from her, and it appeared those secrets were still coming out.

“Apparently I know nothing about what you’ve been doing,” she said. “Hera and Theseus are close allies?”

He looked away, glaring at the wall, but after a moment, he took a breath, and she felt the anger in the air between them lessen.

“Around the time you lost Lexa, Hera asked me to help her overthrow Zeus,” he said. “When I refused, she found someone else to help her execute her plan. She chose Theseus because she believed he was capable, but she also thought he would be easy to dispose of. I think she learned otherwise today.”

And now it was too late. He was dangerously armed, both with the weapons of the most powerful Olympians but also weapons that could kill gods.

“There is much more to that story,” he said. “But given what we have learned, I think we should summon our allies.”

As curious as she was, she agreed. Silence fell between them for a moment. She didn’t like the feel of it, like something angry still lingered between them, so she spoke, needing to be sure he knew how she felt.

“I…did not mean to suggest you haven’t tried to stop Theseus,” she said. “And I know there are still things you are working on telling me. I think I am just afraid of what I don’t know.”

Hades moved closer and took her face between his hands. “I am no less afraid even with all I know,” he said. “But I can promise you that I will never leave you in the dark again.”

She tipped her head back farther, holding his burninggaze. The corners of her lips lifted just a little as she brushed a strand of his hair away from his face.

“I want your darkness,” she said. “But I want your secrets too.”

“Darling,” he said. “Give me time, and I will give you everything.”

“I just want to know that we have time.” She spoke quietly, unable to keep the fear from entering her voice. “I want to know that we have forever.”

Hades studied her, slipping one hand around her waist. He kept the other on her face, his thumb caressing her cheek.

“Then perhaps we should dream about it,” he said. “So that we can think about it when we are on the battlefield.”

She raised a brow. “Did you not say that I am to think about the pleasure of being beneath you?”

“Well,” he said with a small smile. “That is one part of our forever I look forward to.”

He leaned close, his lips brushing hers, but instead of deepening the kiss, she felt him freeze, and she knew something was wrong. Instantly, her heart started to beat faster. Then a scream tore through the quiet.

“Somebody help! Please!”

“Is that…Ariadne?” Persephone asked. She exchanged a look with Hades before they both raced from their chamber, following her desperate screams until they found her in the foyer, bent over Dionysus’s bloodied body. Another woman—Phaedra, Persephone realized—stood nearby, holding her screaming baby and looking terrified.

“Help him, help him, please,” Ariadne sobbed asthey approached. She was also covered in blood, but it was hard to tell if it was hers or Dionysus’s.

“Fucking Fates,” Hades muttered.

“He’s not healing,” Persephone whispered.

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