Page 135 of A Touch of Chaos

Hades pressed a finger to her lips.

“Do not speak his name,” said Hades, dropping his hand.

Persephone drew her brows together. “Is…there something else I should know about?”

“Unless you want to hear another monologue about the faults of our hospitality and how loud you moan when I fuck you, then I suggest waiting until the last possible second to summon the God of Glitter.”

Persephone arched her brow. “As I recall, his monologue included an impression ofyou, not me.”

“That was before our most recent interlude,” he said.

She narrowed her eyes. “You know he doesn’t have any magic, right?”

“He doesn’t need magic to be summoned. At this point, it is a sixth sense. He’s just selective when he decides to use it.” Hades tilted her head back a little farther. “I will see you in an hour.”

She smiled as he kissed her, ignoring the dread that seeped into her stomach when he vanished, unable to keep from worrying that he might not return. The thought frustrated her, but she knew it would be a long time before that fear ever went away, given the horror of the labyrinth.

Persephone left the foyer in search of Aphrodite, Harmonia, and Sybil. When she did not find them in the queen’s suite, she wandered outside. As she stepped into the light, there were no signs of the decay that had plagued her realm during Hades’s absence. The air smelled like spring, earthy and floral, and everything seemed brighter and fuller. While it should feel normal, Persephone thought it seemed almost overdone, almost as if Hades thought he could make everyone forget what had happened during his absence.

She wondered if she had made a mistake when she’d allowed the Underworld to wither. In that moment, it had seemed like the right thing to do. She did not know if she would have been capable of summoning anything beautiful and lively with how she had felt, and what would she have done had he not returned? She thought of how Hades had described the start of his reign in theUnderworld, how he’d lived a colorless and desolate life. Would she have subjected her people to that existence again?

The thought scared her.

She did not wish to be that kind of queen.

“Persephone!”

She looked up at the sound of her name and saw Sybil, who had risen to her feet at the sight of her. Persephone had been so lost in thought, she had nearly walked past her, Aphrodite, and Harmonia. They sat on a marble bench among the palace gardens, looking ethereal beneath the glow of the sun.

She smiled, feeling a genuine burst of happiness warm her chest, her anxiety momentarily forgotten as she crossed the green to them, embracing Sybil, then Aphrodite, then Harmonia. She held on to her longest before pulling away, holding the goddess’s clear-eyed gaze.

“I am so glad you are well,” Persephone said.

“I am well because of you,” said Harmonia. “Thank you, Persephone.”

“I do not deserve your thanks,” said Persephone. “You would have never found yourself in such a position if it wasn’t for me.”

“Do not shoulder the guilt of what happened to us,” said Harmonia. “You could not have known Theseus would be so evil.”

It was true that Persephone had not understood the extent of his malice until it was too late. Perhaps that would not have been the case had Hades been honest about his own dealings with the demigod.

All of a sudden, she felt an incredible rush of anger. It was like lightning in her veins, burning herbody. As quickly as it shot through her, it was gone, leaving her cold and shaken. It was the first time she understood how she really felt about the entire thing, and it scared her.

“As much as I wish to give you more time for peace, I’m afraid I have come with bad news,” she said. “Hypnos arrived at the gates of the Underworld, slain by Theseus’s hand.”

Aphrodite looked pale, and Harmonia pressed a hand to her mouth. She decided she would wait until the meeting to tell them about Zeus and the lightning bolt.

“We are summoning our allies to discuss how we will move forward in our war against Theseus. I would like for the three of you to be present. Hades has already left to call on Hephaestus and Apollo. We will meet in Hades’s office within the hour,” Persephone said.

There was silence for a moment. Persephone’s attention was drawn to Aphrodite as the goddess shook her head.

“We act as if we are not gods,” she said. “We should have killed this man years ago.”

“We may be gods,” Persephone said. “But we are ruled by a power greater than us.”

“You mean the Fates?” Aphrodite sneered. “There is no greater betrayal than their golden threads, weaving pain and suffering while they sit idly in their mirrored halls. Perhaps it is they who should—”

“Aphrodite!” Harmonia snapped, her tone full of warning. “You sound likethem.”

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