Page 34 of Hades

Anger blazed in them.

Together with disappointment.

Too many of his children had looked at him in that way today.

He looked away from Ares, up to the palace, and shame twisted his insides as he saw that the west wing had taken a bad hit, part of the wall now nothing more than rubble in one corner. He slowly turned to take in the rest of the land that surrounded him, shame becoming horror when he saw that a great chunk of the mountain had fallen into the river, altering its course.

Adora continued to cry, each petrified wail shredding his heart, hitting him hard.

He returned his gaze to her, his dark eyebrows furrowing as he cautiously reached a hand towards her. “I am sorry.”

The apology wasn’t enough to make his son move aside, but it was enough to have Megan stepping out from his shadow, coming to face Hades.

She gently rubbed Adora’s back through her pink dress, her dark eyes holding an accusation and a warning.

She didn’t need to issue either. He knew what he had done wrong and that Persephone wouldn’t want this. She wouldn’t want him to scare the females or Adora. She wouldn’t want him to harm this realm they ruled. She wouldn’t want him to return to being the monster he had been when they had met.

His mood darkened again.

She would want him to save her.

Hades willed her to remain strong, because hewouldfind her.

There was one way for him to do it, and he would use it.

Despite the dangers.

Chapter 10

Persephone gazed out of the narrow window at the vast ocean that twinkled as the sunshine kissed it, her hands pressed to the cold tan stone on either side of the opening, feeling nothing. She wrenched her hands away, disappointment flooding her, but what had she expected?

The wards around her prison were too strong.

There was no way for her to breach them with her power over nature when it was bound.

Just as there was no way for her to breach the single door behind her.

Rather than pacing as she wanted, she fixed her gaze on the turquoise sea, using the sight of it to calm her. It didn’t stop the tight, knotted feeling that was growing inside her from spreading. She absently pressed her palms to the stone once more and tried again to reach beyond the tower.

To reach Hades.

Fear for him was a cold space in her chest, one that was constant and fierce, its hold on her tight and unyielding. It stole sleep from her, made her restless, and tore her between rage and despair.

“Hades,” she whispered, aching to let him know that she was all right.

That she needed him.

Just as she knew he needed her.

She knew it so well that she feared what might happen to him—to her beloved family—without her. Their children would try to help him, but they didn’t know their father. They didn’t know the male he had been before they had met.

Before she had tamed the savage side of him.

That side would be unleashed now. There was no way for him to hold it back. She was the dam that stopped it from flooding him with darkness. The only thing that could stem the tide of his malevolent side.

“Be strong, my love,” she murmured to the ocean, wishing he could hear her, could feel the flow of her thoughts and her emotions, and how much she needed him to find the strength to somehow hold the darkness back until she was with him again.

She would find a way back to him.

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