Page 14 of Queen of the Underworld

Free.

The forest came back into being around her and she took it in. She had never felt as alive as she did in this place. She couldn’t be further from Olympus and she loved it.

She heard one of her maidens say, “To the shore?”

“I will follow.” Persephone didn’t want to leave. Not yet. Maybe she could convince them to let her linger a little longer. Maybe. They had already brought up returning to Olympus several times and the last time Mira had looked half-concerned half-anxious, leaving Persephone feeling that if they didn’t go back soon, she would get both herself and her maidens into trouble. But perhaps she could delay a little longer. Her trio of maidens enjoyed lazing on the rocks as much as she did, soaking up the sunshine, and talking about the latest scandals, and she wanted to hear the gossip. “Meet me at our rock. I shall only be a moment.”

Mira looked reluctant to agree, but the two younger females pulled her with them, their white robes blending together as they moved arm in arm.

Persephone crouched again, the layers of her pale green dress pooling around her bare feet as she went back to picking flowers. It was strange that a crimson one had grown. She didn’t remember adding such a colour. She lifted her head. She couldn’t see another one like it anywhere among the pastel-coloured blooms.

She plucked it and added it to the bouquet before rising and walking on, heading through the forest to reach the rock rather than following her maidens towards the path along the shore. The grass tickled her feet, cool against their soles, and sunshine streamed through the canopy, warming her skin.

A song played on her lips as she meandered through the trees, drifting towards the next patch of flowers.

“I just need something lilac and then my bouquet will be perfect.”

The woods suddenly grew darker around her and she frowned and peered in all directions.

Had the sun gone in for a moment?

She had overheard one of the guards outside her home talking about approaching bad weather, and when storms swept across Olympus, they often did the same in the area around the Aegean in the mortal world.

She looked up at the sky through the leafy canopy and sure enough, clouds were gathering. She stared at them, her eyebrows slowly lowering. She had never seen clouds so dark before. They were black as night, and heavy looking, as if they would burst at any moment and cause a torrential downpour.

Persephone abandoned her quest for the final flower and turned away.

Froze as a feeling tripped down her spine.

A sensation that she was being watched.

Dread followed it, chilling her blood, and she wanted to laugh at how silly she was being. Nothing in this forest would harm her. It was probably just an animal watching her.

She turned in a slow circle, seeking the source of the sensation to prove to herself it was just that and she was being foolish.

Locked up tight again as her gaze snagged on a lone figure in a shadowy recess of a pale cliff just beyond the trees.

A man.

She couldn’t make out anything about him other than his size. He was impossibly tall, but lean.

And he was watching her.

She swallowed and went to turn away, but he stepped forwards, into the light.

It chased over the hard plates of his black armour.

Armour that was not of mortal fashion.

Alarm bells jangled in her mind, but they quietened as her eyes leaped up to his face and her gaze collided with his. Her breath hitched as his cold blue eyes pierced hers and held her immobile. The ferocity of his sculpted features unsettled her, quickening her pulse until it beat like a warning drum in her mind. She edged her foot backwards and his black eyebrows knitted hard, his gaze instantly dropping to her feet, shattering the spell that had been holding her in place.

Persephone was quick to pivot away from him, her mind on hurrying back to her servants and leaving this place. In the distance, her maidens called for her.

“I am coming,” she said, loud enough for them to hear.

Only something drew her gaze back to the male and she couldn’t stop herself from looking over her shoulder in his direction. He hadn’t moved. He lingered where the shadows seemed to have gathered, only part of his face in the light, and was staring at her as if the sight of her tormented him.

Why?

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