Page 36 of Hades

It was pointless.

Nothing she did would free her of this cage.

Persephone clenched her fists and shunned that feeling. She steeled her heart and stood straight, her mind sharpening as she purged the sombre emotions from it. Hades needed her.

Her family needed her.

She had faced worse odds in her years and had succeeded, but back then the cost of failure hadn’t been so high. This time, if she didn’t succeed, her entire family would suffer the consequences.

Just as Hades was probably suffering without her right that moment.

Standing here moping wasn’t going to help matters. Hades might not see it, but their time together had changed her. She was no longer the delicate maiden she had been, sheltered on Olympus and destined to be kept in a gilded cage by a man she had despised. She was a warrior. She was strong. Brave.

Fierce.

She stared at the sea, at the world outside her narrow window, resolve flooding her.

She wasn’t sure how she was going to manage it, but she was going to escape.

And then she was going to find Hades.

Track down Mnemosyne.

And end this war.

Chapter 11

This was taking too long.

Hades paced his war room, unable to keep still.

He moved between two large black stone bookcases that were crammed with leather-bound tomes that recorded the history of his realm, but didn’t really see them. He didn’t see any of the grand room that surrounded him, with its black walls and gold chandeliers whose candles spilled bright golden light over the enormous round obsidian table in the centre of it. His focus was turned inwards, his mind on the constant battle against the shadows that snaked through his veins and probed at his heart, seeking a way to gain ground and drive the fragile light he clung to out of his aching soul.

He pivoted and strode back towards the other bookcase, wearing a trench in the wooden floor, his boots a methodical ‘clunk, clunk, clunk’ that matched the pace of his heart.

The constant motion made him feel as if he was doing something, fooling him into believing this hopelessness that gripped him would soon be gone and his love would be back in the shelter of his embrace.

He wasn’t sure how his children—their children—could stand still around the table. Didn’t they feel the same pressing need to get Persephone back?

One look at the weary, drawn expressions on their faces revealed they did. His beloved’s absence was taking its toll on them all.

Keras shoved long fingers that were pale from lack of sleep through his onyx hair, pushing it back, and leaned forwards to prop himself up on his left arm as he glared at the table. Enyo reached for him, placing her hand on his back. Hades’s mood fractured at the sight of them. Persephone had been overjoyed when she had discovered they had finally moved from friends to something more than lovers.

He looked at his other children, noting that Ares and Valen looked as tired as their older brother, and that Daimon was faring better than the others, but looked harried as Cassandra toyed with the soft white spikes of his hair. His ice-blue gaze was rooted on the map of the Underworld spread across the table, leaping from point to point, as if he would find his mother if he just kept looking there.

She wasn’t in the Underworld.

Enyo’s jade irises softened with concern when Keras growled.

“She must be here somewhere.” Keras shoved the maps away from him and bared fangs at them as his shadows came dangerously close to ripping into them. He twisted away from the table at the last moment, pacing away from it. “Esher, Marek and Calistos have scoured the mortal world.”

The three of them had been taking turns to remain in Tokyo to guard the sole remaining gate to the Underworld, and protect their females who were staying in the mortal realm. Hades could understand two of their females not wanting to set foot in his world again. Aiko had come here as a soul after her death, and Esher had taken her back from Hades, overcoming the challenge he had set for his son. She rarely visited and always remained close to Esher’s side whenever she did, her dark eyes filled with wariness and nerves.

Marek’s female Caterina was part-daemon, infected by the enemy in order to force her to help them.

Daemons of her ilk were not allowed in the Underworld.

Hades had banished them after the last uprising, allowing only the breeds who hadn’t mutinied to remain in his realm. Since then, the exiled daemon breeds had been constantly trying to get back into the Underworld via the gates he had created, ones his sons had protected for centuries before Mnemosyne had finally made her move. All but one of those gates had been sealed by his sons at great cost to them. With each gate they had closed, they had needed to spill more blood to control the next portal and seal it.

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