Page 125 of Queen of the Underworld

He snorted at that. Who could want a male like him? Not someone as beautiful, and tender, and sweet as this goddess standing before him that was for sure. He had been a fool to believe she could come to love him and want him. He had been a fool to think he could make her his queen and find the happiness his brothers had.

“I see no guards, Persephone,” he growled and cast a look around them.

Her eyes grew wild. “They were here. When the storm hit, they went to protect the temple. People were trying to find shelter in it and Mother was not—”

“Spare me your lies,” he barked as thunder crashed and lightning branched across the clouds. “I came only to congratulate you.”

He had come to take her back with him, but now he wavered, his heart aching so fiercely that he couldn’t breathe. Persephone didn’t want him. He was right. Everything had been a lie. A beautiful lie. One he had foolishly believed to be real, and had found happiness in.

He turned away from her, unable to bear the hurt any longer.

Her words lashed at him, her voice strained. “You will leave me to my fate then?”

Hades slowly closed his eyes and lowered his head, tears burning and heart shattering as he murmured, “You have made your choice.”

“I did.” She had never sounded so grave, and he almost looked back at her, needing to see if she looked as sad as she had sounded. “And now I will make another. If I cannot have the one I love, I will ensure the one I despise cannot have me.”

Hades grimaced as her words plunged into him, as deadly as any blade, and couldn’t stop himself from looking back at her.

Pain glittered in her eyes, hurt she couldn’t mask, and grim resolve painted itself across her face. She trembled, her fear a palpable thing that reached out to him and made him want to soothe it.

He crushed that desire.

“I will not stop you. I will not keep you from your love,” he husked, each word a labour as he wanted to say others, ones designed to wound her and hurt her as deeply as she had hurt him, but he couldn’t bear the thought of her being unhappy.

It hadn’t taken him long to realise something when he had been holding her in the Underworld.

He would rather she be happy—that she chose who she was with—than force her to be his.

She didn’t move.

Hades glared at her and growled.

“What are you waiting for?”

Chapter 37

“You! I am waiting for you!” Persephone bit out as she shook her head, her emerald eyes holding his and frustration and fear sweeping across her delicate features as rain battered her and another peal of thunder rumbled overhead. “You are the one I love, Hades, but if you do not love me then I will embrace death.”

Hades roared, his claws and fangs lengthening as pain engulfed his heart and tore down his strength, just the thought of her dying enough to make him feel as if he was.

He rounded on her, anger pouring through him, rage that had the storm growing fiercer and a jagged lightning bolt striking close to them.

“I will not allow you to die,” he barked. “Never! I would refuse your soul.” His voice hitched and his throat tightened, emotions closing it. “I would beg Zeus to restore it.”

Persephone closed the distance between them, her gaze beseeching him as water rolled down the tangled strands of her hair and tears filled her eyes. She laid her small hand on his chest, her skin far too pale against his black breastplate, almost ashen.

Like death.

“Then free me from this prison.” Her softly spoken words roused a dangerous beast within him, one that had his mind turning towards violence again.

That hunger only grew when he pulled her into his arms and tried to teleport her back to the gate to the Underworld.

And found he couldn’t.

She hadn’t been lying. She wasn’t here by choice. Her mother was holding her against her will. Anger at Demeter morphed into fury at himself.

“Forgive me, my love,” he murmured thickly, despising himself for being so quick to doubt her. He dropped his bident and his helmet, gently cleared strands of her hair from her cheeks, careful not to harm her with his talons, and framed her face, angling her head up to keep her eyes locked on his and filled with a need to hear her say she would. His eyes darted between hers, seeking absolution in them. “Forgive me for ever doubting you.”

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