Page 197 of A Touch of Chaos

“What do you mean you can’t?” she said, hysteria rising inside her. “Hades,please.”

He took her hand and squeezed. When she looked down, she saw the black threads of the demigod’s soul marring her skin.

“A soul for a soul, Persephone.”

“No,” she said. She refused to believe it, not only because she did not wish for it to be true but because she knew itwasn’t. The Fates would only trade Hades’s life for that of another god.

Sheknewthat.

“It’s over, Persephone.”

“No,” she repeated, her hands shaking. She didn’t know what was happening, but she knew this wasn’t real. “No! Hecate! Hecate!”

She searched for the goddess, but all she could see was ruin and fire. There was nothing else.

“Persephone,” Hades said.

She couldn’t look at him, because she knew if she did, he would drag her back in. He would convince her this was real.He would say goodbye.

“Persephone, look at me,” Hades begged.

“I can’t,” she said. A guttural sob erupted from her throat.

“I love you,” Hades whispered, and then he fell silent, and though she knew she shouldn’t look, she couldn’t help it. She had to know.

Her gaze fell to his face. He was still.

“Hades?” she whispered, frantic to hear his voice again. She shook him, but he did not move. “Hades, please!”

She placed her hands on his face. His skin was growing cool.

“Hades!”

She screamed, and a pain more acute than anything she had ever felt ripped through her. She felt like she was being torn to shreds, and then a wave of magic barreled over her, and Hades’s body began to break apart, and thelandscape around her seemed to burn away and melt, revealing a different world beneath.

The real world.

What she had sensed was true—the vision she had seen of Hades’s dead body was not real. Instead of kneeling before him, she was kneeling on the ground before Athena’s temple. Sandros lay beside her, blood pooling on the ground around him.

Confused, she looked into the sky and saw two gods fighting.

One she recognized as Cronos, and the other was Prometheus, the Titan God of Fire, and suddenly she understood that the reality the God of Time had crafted to torture her had been broken by Prometheus, and now they battled in the sky.

Hades manifested before her, and she rose to her feet, flinging her arms around him, a sob escaping her mouth.

“I’m here,” he said, and then they vanished.

CHAPTER XXXVII

THESEUS

Theseus watched as Cronos and Prometheus battled in the sky. The appearance of the Titan God of Fire was a surprise, enough for Cronos to lose control over the illusion he was using to entrap the gods.

A wave of anger twisted through Theseus, and he summoned his lightning bolt. Its powerful heat wafted over him. If he was not invincible, it would have melted his skin from his bones. He turned in the direction of Hades, who had just manifested before Persephone, but as he took aim, they vanished.

Another surge of fury tore through Theseus. He pivoted to see Damian locked in a vicious battle with Hephaestus. Theseus lifted the lightning bolt and aimed for the god, but Hephaestus must have sensed the attack, because he raised his hand, and the bolt was swallowed by a stream of fire that shot from his palm. Fortunately, his magic was quickly extinguished when Damian impaled him with his spear.

Hephaestus gave no pained cry. He only grunted and fell to his golden knee. Damian tore the weapon free and reared back, preparing to stab him again, when Hecate appeared, blasting the demigod with a ray of black fire.

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