Page 21 of Queen of the Underworld

Or was he lying to her, attempting to make her so frightened that she wouldn’t dare leave and would obey him?

One glance over her shoulder at the forbidding black lands beyond the balcony doorway was enough to convince her that he was telling the truth.

She had heard tales of the fell creatures that roamed the Underworld, eating its occupants. Horned beasts. Gargantuan grey bipedal monsters. Winged wyverns.

Even things called Keres—ghostly white fiends who flew on bloodied wings over battlefields, waiting for warriors to bleed so they could descend upon them to sate their unending thirst.

She looked back at Hades.

But what beast in this world was more frightening than the one standing before her?

The tales whispered about him were legendary, stories spoken to scare children and adults alike.

The bloodthirsty and cruel god-king of the Underworld.

His features pinched in a scowl as she stared at him, as if he knew the path of her thoughts and didn’t like it.

When he stepped towards her, she moved one back, and his scowl became a dark glare.

“You would deny your husband?” he growled.

“Husband?” Persephone spluttered, the shock his declaration had caused rapidly giving way to outrage as she realised she had been right about him. He did think he owned her. She bit out, “I do not remember marrying you. You arenotmy husband!”

He didn’t miss a beat.

“You are mine now.” His handsome features darkened with each word he hurled at her. “My queen. My wife. You would do well to obey me.”

Persephone scoffed, her anger mounting so swiftly that she didn’t feel in control of herself. It obliterated the side of her that screamed at her to not antagonise him.

“Obey you?” she barked, unable to believe her luck. She had gone from one controlling person to another, and she was damned if she would just lie down and accept her fate. “So, I am to be your slave? That does not sound much like a wife… or aqueen. What you want is something I willneverbecome.”

This time when he moved, his stride was long enough that she couldn’t keep the distance between them steady. He easily closed it, narrowing it down to nothing, and his power wrapped around her—immense and dark—and entrancing. She truly had never felt anything like it.

She had been in the presence of his brother, Zeus, more than once, and had felt his power as a passing breeze, subtle and gentle, warm almost. She had barely noticed it.

But Hades’s powerembracedher, becoming all that she knew.

It was cold, and strong, more like a gale than a mere breeze.

It was incredible.

She found herself staring up into his eyes again, transfixed and unable to move, and a little shocked by how her gaze boldly traversed the planes of his face, from the strong line of his jaw to the straight slash of his nose, to his fine cheekbones and the long black lashes that fanned against his ashen skin as he gazed down at her through heated, hungry crimson eyes. She had missed a spot. Her gaze lowered to the wicked perfection of his firm lips. How could she have forgotten them?

He inhaled. Ragged. Sharp. Those tempting lips parting with it.

That reaction to her gaze on his mouth startled her out of her reverie and had her eyes darting back to meet his.

Part of her expected him to kiss her again, as he had the last two times she had lost herself in the feelings he awakened in her, ones that were a little frightening. She didn’t quite feel mistress of her own body whenever she found herself trapped in his gaze.

He remained perfectly still this time, lines bracketing his mouth that made her feel he was holding himself back. Rather than breaking away from him, she lingered, curious as to what he would do.

A dangerous game.

Persephone came to her senses as he growled low, flashing a hint of his fangs, and reached for her, gripping her waist to drag her against him. She twirled out of his hold and broke away from him, hurrying towards the other side of the room, foolishly attempting to throw another barrier up between them despite the fact she knew it wouldn’t work.

Hades didn’t let her get far.

He caught her arm and spun her around to face him, and her back met the stone wall as he hemmed her in, one hand pressing against the wall beside her head and the other catching her jaw. He tilted her head back, so their eyes locked again, and she couldn’t breathe as he stared at her mouth and his hand dropped to her throat to grip it.

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