Page 19 of Hades

“I want Ares here today.” Persephone’s sweet voice drew him back to her and he tried to be firm, putting on a show of frowning at her and setting his jaw. She saw straight through him, her pout becoming a mischievous smile that hit him hard in the heart.

What his wife wanted, she would always get.

He scowled at Ares. “I will spare you in exchange for your vow that you will never repeat what you heard here today. Neither of you. If any of your brothers or your sister, or anyone hears of this, youwill bequestioning everyone in Tartarus, Ares.”

Ares swallowed hard and was quick to nod. Megan nodded too.

“Must you go?” Persephone inched closer to Hades, her warmth seeping into him and stirring a need to remain with her as she wanted. Perhaps she didn’t always get what she desired from him after all. Sometimes, he couldn’t do as she wanted.

He nodded and hated it when she looked disappointed, so he captured her hand and held it to his chest as he gazed down at her. He knew the moment she saw how little he wanted to leave her, how torn he was between duty and desire, because she forced a small smile for him.

“I will not be long. Perhaps you could take Adora to meet Cerberus while I am gone? Thanatos is already waiting for me, and Nyx is joining us. Eris will talk today. I am sure of it.” And if she didn’t, he would condemn her to a cell closest to the bottom of the pit of Tartarus, where there was no light and the fell creatures who inhabited the prison’s lowest reaches were small enough to slip inside the cells and numerous enough that they could easily overwhelm a tired, weakened goddess.

And when they killed her, she would rise again to suffer the same fate the next night.

And the next.

The light that had been burning inside him all morning slowly sputtered out and the shadows were swift to invade his soul again as his mind turned from the present to the imminent future. That darkness spread, stealing the warmth from his veins and replacing it with cold.

Before Persephone could see it, Hades lifted her hand and pressed his lips to her fingers.

And teleported to Tartarus.

Eris would talk today.

Or she would die a thousand deaths.

Chapter 6

Morpheus watched the female as she cut through the clear turquoise water, the sunlight rippling across the shimmering blue scales of her tail as she gave it a single powerful beat that propelled her forwards. She rolled as she caught up with the pod of dolphins, twisting onto her back to swim beneath them, her bare chest drawing his gaze.

Hunger lanced him the way it always did whenever he walked in her dreams and he envied the dolphins as they swooped beneath her and over her, beginning to play with her.

Her striking amber eyes lit up in response and she rolled again, feinted left when a young dolphin tried to catch her and went right instead, leaving the creature confused for a heartbeat before it realised where she had gone. It swam after her, dancing with her over colourful corals and cutting through shoals of jewel-tone fish.

Morpheus kept pace with them, his black leather wings easily driving him through the water. He could move through the dream without any of it touching him, but with her, he preferred to feel what she felt. To hear what she heard.

Her bubble of laughter as she breached the surface spoke of the purest form of joy and made him ache with a desire to hear it again. She dove, leading three dolphins down into the darker water. One caught up with her and rolled into her, and she took the hint, capturing its dorsal fin and holding on. It gave several hard pumps of its tail and shot away with her.

Making him want to growl.

He flew through the water after her, not wanting to miss a single moment of this dream.

One she often had.

It was always different, but the same. The time of day would change. Or the island she ended up on would be greener. Or little more than a sandbank. Or she would be swimming with manta rays.

Sometimes even whale sharks.

But always, she was like this. Bright. Stunning. Pure.

Innocent.

Some would sayblindin place of that.

If she knew how close to the truth her dreams of being a mermaid were, she would probably freak out. When he had first come across her, he had thought she knew she was a nereid, but then she had dreamed of mortal offices and humans he felt were familiar—close—to her.

Nereids were rare now, and the more he watched her dreams, the more he began to feel it wouldn’t be long before someone else discovered what she was.

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