Page 53 of A Touch of Chaos

“This is a cat,” Hecate said, looking down at the animal. “Her name is Galanthis. I want you to take her into the labyrinth with you.”

“Why?”

“In case there are mice,” she said.

Persephone raised a brow, but she didn’t ask for clarification, knowing that was the only explanation she would get. She shifted her gaze to the garden again.

“I have been thinking about what I want most,” Persephone said.

She thought if she could anticipate what the labyrinth would offer, she might more easily say no. The reality was that she hadn’t thought beyond what she wanted in the present, which was to rescue Hades, but she had a feeling the labyrinth would demand more than that.

“Have you decided?” Hecate asked.

“What if it isn’t a choice?” Persephone asked, looking at the goddess.

“Explain,” said Hecate.

“What if I’m faced with something I did not know I wanted?”

One’s greatest desire seemed like something else entirely, not so much a choice but something formed around what she’d lacked all her life.

She felt Hecate’s eyes on her.

“What are you afraid it will show you?” the Goddess of Witchcraft asked.

Persephone was quiet for a long moment before she spoke, a whispered fear she released into the night. “Everything Hades said he could never give me.”

The silence was long and the guilt heavy.

“Are you afraid knowing will make you love Hades less?” Hecate asked.

“No, of course not,” Persephone said, meeting Hecate’s gaze. “But I am afraid to hurt him.” She couldn’t bear that. She looked away quickly. “I should not have said anything. I don’t even know what I will see.”

“I think you know exactly what you will see.” The goddess paused and offered a small smile. “Desires change, Persephone. Tonight, you may want something you do not want tomorrow.”

Persephone frowned. She didn’t really wish toentertain her fears, but she needed to say it—to speak the words so her doubt existed somewhere outside her body.

“What if I can’t do this, Hecate?”

“Oh, my dear,” Hecate said, taking a step closer. She brushed her cheek, and Persephone let her eyes flutter close. “You can. You will.You have no choice.”

Persephone did not sleep. She rose early in the morning before the sky brightened with Hades’s muted sun and made her way to Elysium, hoping the peace of the Isle of the Blessed would seep into her bones and ease her anxiety, but even as she sat on a grassy hill looking out over the quiet landscape, dread followed.

No part of the Underworld remained untouched by Theseus’s attack, and Persephone knew that would soon be the same for the entire world.

She did not know how long she sat there, her mind tumbling over everything that had happened in the last few days—not only by Theseus’s hand but also Helen’s.

Persephone hoped her statement regarding Helen’s article quelled some of the mistrust it had inspired. It seemed so trivial to worry over public perception when so much in her world was falling apart, but the fact was that Demeter’s storm had caused so much unrest and anger. Mortals were looking for any excuse to shift their worship, and the demigods—who presented as honorable advocates for the downtrodden—looked more and more appealing as the mistakes of the gods were laid bare.

Right now, that was her greatest fear, and it would only make them stronger, their power greater. Giventhat they had already managed to wound and kill gods, they were a true threat to the reign of the Olympians.

“The system is broken,” Tyche had said. “Something new must take its place.”

But they didn’t just need something new. They needed somethingright. Otherwise, they would just trade one evil for another.

Persephone knew Zeus would not go down without a fight. The question was, would he be looking in the right direction when the attack came? Right now, he seemed to consider her a greater threat to his throne than Theseus.

Either way, she knew one thing for certain—the gods would go to war, they would face another Titanomachy, and no matter the outcome, the world would suffer.

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