Page 31 of The Dread Queen's Bargain

“Pærsæphónia!” Persephone gasped, her chest tightening. “Despoina, daughter of Demeter.”

“Abandon that name! Try again!” the voice sneered, and Persephone physically recoiled at the command.

“Pamvasíleia, Queen of All!” Persephone’s head was spinning, and her words were not her own. They were coming from someplace deep inside her, a place that had previously only been known to the Fates. Power surged through her, and it danced across her fingertips. Persephone could feel her body changing, shifting, cracking…as though her bones were coming undone, and her soul was knitting itself back together.

“More!” the voice cried, and Persephone’s body screamed in response as she writhed equally in passion and fear.

“Agní, Ánassa! Creirwy! Llywy!”

“Again!” The call resonated in Persephone’s bones. Her entire body trembled in its command, and her mind was fracturing. Her powers were mixing and rolling in her stomach, the cycle of death and rebirth, death and rebirth, reoccurring over and over within her. Persephone barely had the comprehension to breathe, let alone witness herself beginning to go mad. She could see nothing and feel everything.

“Karpophóra, fruit-bearer. Kæróæssa, horned one!” Persephone strangled out.

“Good, good,” the voice started to praise her, and Persephone nearly started gasping in relief. “Keep going.”

“Mægála Thæá!”

“Great goddess, indeed. More, tell me more. Who are you?”

Light started to dance in Persephone’s vision, only tiny flickers of it, but it was something. The pain in her chest began to ease, and it was slightly easier to catch her breath. Persephone continued, names coming out of her mouth that she had never heard before but could feel each one getting engraved on her bones.

“Khthónia, queen of the earth and the mortals who will be buried under the earth!”

“More!” Thunder rolled whenever the voice spoke, cracking across the abyss Persephone was trapped in. Her back bowed under the weight of its command.

“Wife of Ploutohn, much revered, ruler of the Underworld, the Dread Queen!” Persephone was spitting blood as the words crossed her lips, and her entire body seized. She collapsed to her knees and only then realized she’d been standing the whole time. She could feel her heartbeat ricocheting in her head and through her body, gasping for more air.

Slowly, the abyss around her started to lighten. Persephone began to look around for the rising sun, disoriented and confused. She collapsed to the earth and waited for its dull impact but felt nothing. Her limbs trembled and ached, but a strange fuzzy feeling and a renewed strength started to slowly—ever so slowly—replace the fatigue in her body. Her eyes began to flutter, and she started to see shapes in front of her.

The shapes started to fill in, and more details were revealed until Persephone could see they were faces. There were three faces. One of them was murmuring something, chanting repeatedly. Another made no movement. The third one was the closest one to her. She focused on that one.

“Hades,” Persephone whispered. Her voice sounded cracked and dried. She attempted to sit up but realized Hades was holding her in his lap. His hand came up and gently stroked her cheek, shaking his head. He was appearing before her in his full god attire—all the finery and savagery that Persephone had come to associate with Hades.

Why is he appearing like this?

“Don’t move.” His voice was softer now, but Persephone realized he had been calling to her in the darkness.

“What happened?” Persephone started to tremble, and a cold sweat broke across her forehead.

Her body didn’t feel like her own. She looked past Hades and saw Thanatos and Hecate standing several feet away, looking concerned. Only then did Persephone realize the earth around them was scorched black like a wildfire had raced through the valley. Hades was holding her in a crater of smoking, charred ruins. Hecate’s house was still a stone’s throw away, unscarred even though the burnt grass stretched nearly to her front door.

Hades sighed heavily in relief, and he turned to Thanatos and Hecate and motioned for them to give them some space. The gods looked concerned but nodded, slipping away into Hecate’s house without a word of protest.

“What happened?” Persephone repeated, her voice already sounding a little stronger. “When did you get here?”

“Catch your breath first,” Hades commanded softly.

Persephone was too tired to argue, so she rested her head on Hades’s chest, trying to battle the myriad of sensations in her body. She suddenly felt alive and surging with power, as if she’d stayed in the sun too long.

Hades stood to his feet without jostling Persephone, keeping her close to his chest as he started walking them out of the ruins. Persephone caught a glimpse of the devastation and gasped when she realized the entire valley had become a desert. The ground was cracked in every direction, all the vegetation was gone, and some of it was still smoking.

“Did I do this?” Persephone felt like crying, the intense highs and lows of adrenaline still wearing off in her veins.

“That’s not important right now.” Hades shrugged. “Hecate or I can fix it as easy as breathing. I’m going to take you back to the palace,” Hades informed her, and Persephone could only nod, exhaustion finally winning out as she slipped into unconsciousness.

12

Persephone started to wake up slowly, and pieces of her memory came rushing back. She jumped up in bed, frantically looking around the room.

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