Page 124 of Queen of the Underworld

Hades snatched his black bony helmet from his armour stand, gripping it by one of the twisted horns that flared up from the back of it. Smaller, smooth bones swept down to form a protective plate that reached the tip of his nose as he placed it on his head. They arched around to points that sat before his ears too, tipped with talons whose tiny claws clutched at his cheeks.

His helm of darkness.

The moment it sat snug against his head, a shimmering veil descended over the world. Power seeped over him like a cold caress. He glanced at his right hand and then his left arm, tracking the flow of it to his wrists. When it had covered all of him, and he was satisfied that he was now invisible to all eyes—even those of a god—he grabbed his bident, growled and teleported.

Landing near the gate to Olympus.

Persephone was his.

And no one would stop him from taking her back to the Underworld.

Hades stalked through the shimmering circular portal and stepped out into the white city of Olympus, slipping into it unseen thanks to his helmet. A storm rolled in behind him as his gaze tracked upwards, past the clusters of terracotta-roofed white buildings that lined the harbour and the lower quadrant, to the elegant columned temples that stood looking down upon them. Boiling black clouds blotted out the sunlight and the people around him cast fearful gazes at the sky. Waves lashed the shore, crashing over the harbour walls to douse the wooden stalls that extended from the buildings, and several people shrieked and ran out of their path.

His lips stretched in a cold grin that flashed his fangs as he savoured their terror, soaking it up as it fed the darkness that writhed within him, murmuring at him to make Persephone pay for what she had done.

To make the whole of Olympus pay.

He stormed along the broad avenue that led up the hill and spotted decorations on the white buildings. The city was preparing for a celebration. For Persephone’s safe return?

Hades collared a passing male, digging talons into his neck and ripping a cry of pure fear from him as he hauled them towards him and growled, “What is this celebration for?”

The male turned wild, dark eyes on Hades. Eyes that only grew wider when he saw nothing, only the streets around him as people rushed back and forth, many of them ducking into nearby buildings to take shelter as great fat drops of rain began to fall, pelting the city and filling the air with the scent of earth.

“P-Persephone,” the man stammered. “Her wedding.”

“Her wedding?” Hades snarled, two words that cut him to his soul, unleashing darkness from it that poured through him to have him closing his talons and pressing them deep into the male’s neck.

He cast the man aside as he choked on his own blood and a female unleashed a terrified scream. Several guards ran down the hill, all of them sweeping past Hades, not seeing him. Hades twisted and lodged his bident into the back of the skull of one of them, and the guard nearest him turned wide eyes on the male as he went down, blood bursting from the wounds as Hades ripped his bident free. He cut that male down too, and then another, and then two more as he stormed up the road, heading for the white and gold columned temples.

He growled, ceaseless snarls and rumbles escaping him as he seethed, as his shadows ripped at the decorations in his wake and tore into more of the people as they shrieked and tried to escape the wave of destruction that followed him.

Hades’s onyx eyes scoured the temples, seeking the one that belonged to Persephone, and halted as they landed on a lush garden next to one. A garden far more beautiful than any other temple owned.

“Persephone,” he snarled and teleported there, landing in the middle of that garden, a silent unseen predator who had just found his prey.

She stood on a pale stone patio among the vivid green bushes and colourful fragrant blooms that were as beautiful as she was as she gazed at the sky, her luminous emerald eyes fixed on the storm as thunder rumbled across the heavy black clouds.

By the gods, she was beautiful.

The sight of her arrested him right down to his heart, had his fury abating as he caught her scent and felt the softness of her power as it curled around him in this place born of her creation.

Hades growled and stoked his rage back into an inferno, refusing to be swayed by her, to be fooled again.

She started at the sound of his black snarl and turned, her eyes widening as they scanned the garden. Rain pelted her, soaking her pale dress so the white layers stuck to her skin and saturating her scarlet hair so it hung in ribbons like blood across her bare shoulders.

When her gaze grew desperate and she turned to leave, Hades snarled again and removed his helmet, revealing himself to her and ripping a gasp from her rosy lips. The fear that had been building in her eyes transformed into hope, into relief he refused to believe as she gazed at him.

“Hades,” she breathed and hurled herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck and burying her face there as she clung to him.

She had the audacity to sob.

Hades gripped her waist and shoved her away from him, the pain that welled inside him fuelling his rage as he glared at her. “I hear you are to be married. So, you were betrothed after all. Perhaps not everything you told me was lies.”

“Lies?” Her brow crinkled as she frowned at him. “I have not lied to you, Hades. I am betrothed but—”

“And now you will be wed, on this very day… soon after you escaped me.” He refused to listen to more of her lies, to let her addle his mind and placate him so she could wed another. “How pleased you must be to be home in your city oflightandlife. How pleased you must be to be marrying your beloved.”

She shook her head now, a flicker of darkness crossing her expression even as it remained pleading and laced with desperation. “I tried to return to you. I tried. Mother stopped me. She keeps me under guard. She is not giving me a choice, Hades. She is forcing me to marry another, when I want only you.”

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