Page 161 of A Touch of Chaos

“Youneed worship. I need nothing beyond the fear of death,” he said.

“Do not be selfish, Hades. Think. What does killing Helios accomplish?”

“Vengeance,” said Hades.

“And what does it accomplish for Persephone? Aside from confirming her guilt?”

Hades glared at her.

He hated that she was right almost as much as he hated Helios.

He pointed the trident at her. “Announce the games, Aphrodite. We will take down Theseus, and then I will make Helios pay for every moment my goddess is in distress.”

Then he left in search of Persephone.

Hades found Persephone sitting among shoots of asphodel in the field just beyond the castle garden. She was crying, quiet tears streaking down her cheeks. He sat behind her, his chest to her back, his legs framing her body. He wrapped his arms around her and held her tightly, but his presence only seemed to make her cry harder.

He did not know what to do except wait, so that was what he did.

Finally, after some time, she grew quiet in his arms and spoke.

“It is not even fair that I should cry when I have taken a life,” she said.

“You did not mean to hurt your mother, Persephone,” said Hades.

“I did nothurther,” she said. “Ikilledher, and now the whole world knows what I truly am.”

“And what is that?” Hades asked.

“A murderer,” she said.

“We are all murderers, Persephone. Me, Hecate, Hermes, Apollo.”

She did not speak.

“Would it ease you to know that her thread was cut?” he asked. “That the Fates decided it was time for her to go?”

“How do you know?”

Hades laced his fingers through hers and held her arms straight out.

“No threads mark your skin,” he said.

She stared at her unmarred skin for a while, as if she expected something to appear any second and prove him wrong. Finally, she let her arms fall and rested her head against his chest.

“Why did they choose her?”

“I cannot speak for them,” he said. “But I imagine it has something to do with her desperate attempts to destroy the destiny they have woven for you.”

She was quiet for a few long moments, and then she turned to face him, sitting on her knees.

“I have ruined everything,” Persephone said.

“You have ruined nothing,” he said. “Helios cannot even prove his claim.”

“I am not talking about Helios,” she said. Her eyes were watering again. “Nothing is the same. Not even us.”

Hades’s brows lowered. “What do you mean?”

---