Page 46 of Hades

His tradition of doing that and lazing with Cerberus for a time, savouring the peace and the calm it roused in him, had become their tradition once Persephone had grown used to the beast. He still recalled the first time she had joined him, a little tentative and nervous, and very cautious. Not afraid of him though. She had feared Cerberus.

With good reason.

Cerberus hadn’t taken well to Persephone. The beast had been jealous of the attention Hades had given her.

But after a time, Cerberus had grown jealous of the attention Persephone had given others instead.

A feeling Hades knew well.

The sight of his beloved showing kindness towards anyone else, or so much as looking at another man, had birthed a vicious kind of protectiveness inside him, one that provoked him into attacking the one on the receiving end of her attention.

“I need her back,” he muttered to Cerberus, who whined low, seemingly in agreement.

Hades’s ears twitched as his focus was drawn back to his children and he found himself tuning into their murmured conversation.

“He is not well.” Keras’s tone was cautious, a sign that his eldest son was aware Hades could hear him even from this distance. “We need to do something to find Mother and bring her back… before…”

Enyo’s soft voice filled the silence he left as he trailed off. “You have darkness inside you, but Hades… When you were lost to the darker side of your blood and you stole me away after the battle, Persephone came to me. She said that the rumours about your father are true. There is another side to him… one I think none of you have seen. She told me that she is the leash on his darker side and that without her around—”

Hades slanted a look at the black-haired goddess of war and she cut herself off.

Without Persephone around, the darkness easily overwhelmed him, dragging him down into the mire and changing him, transforming him into something out of a nightmare. Enyo didn’t need to finish her sentence to say all of that. Awareness of it was there on the faces of all four males she stood with as they stared across the garden in his direction.

A brittle scoff burst from his lips as he turned back to Cerberus. “They do not know the half of it.”

There was silence.

Then Ares muttered, “We’ve checked all the places we had on the list. Megan is trying to get him to talk and offer up other memories, but… I don’t like her being near him right now. Not when he’s like this.”

“I will not get any better,” Hades growled at Cerberus and then his features pinched in a scowl as he considered what Ares had said. “How low my children think me. I would not harm Megan.”

Cerberus canted his three heads, the look in the creature’s glowing blue eyes reeking of doubt.

Hades glared at him now, but didn’t bother to argue. Fine. Perhaps he would harm her, but he wouldn’t mean to do it. His hold on the last fragile threads of light was weak now, ready to break at any moment, and when it did, no one in this realm would recognise him.

He slid a look at Thanatos.

Perhaps he might.

Thanatos had been around in the time before Hades had met Persephone.

The grim god of death knew exactly what was coming if they didn’t get her back soon.

“This is weighing on Calindria,” Thanatos said, not bothering to lower his voice, revealing he was well aware of Hades listening in on them and that it was pointless trying to stop him from overhearing their conversation. Thanatos raked his hand through his raven hair, the action jerky and tense. “She is struggling even though she hides it. I can feel it in her.”

Hades could too.

He could feel the toll Persephone’s absence was taking on all their children.

Hades looked at Cerberus and knew what he had to do, and with equal clarity, he also knew that he couldn’t tell the children. They would only try to stop him as they had before, and it had to be now, while he was still lucid enough to know the danger of stepping into the mortal world and would take the necessary precautions to lessen his impact on that fragile realm.

If he left it any longer, the darkness would have too strong a hold on him and getting Persephone back would be all that mattered to him. He wouldn’t care that it would come at a great cost to the mortal world. He would tear that realm apart to reach her.

The clarity and determination that came with his decision also brought with it guilt that churned his stomach and had him looking at his children again. They would be worried, and he regretted that he would cause fear in Calindria when she was already struggling with the fact her mother had been snatched from her when they had only just been reunited. It was enough to give him pause, to sway him into speaking with them, but then Cerberus nudged him and he looked at the beast.

And knew he had to do this.

If anyone could find Persephone, it was Cerberus. It was him. He would find her and he would bring her back to her family, and then he would hunt down Mnemosyne. The urge to take Cerberus and go right that second was strong, almost overwhelming, but he denied it and focused on the necessary preparations he needed to make.

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