Page 80 of Queen of the Underworld

“Where did you take her?” he boomed and the land beneath his feet fractured, tiny fissures streaking outwards in all directions and causing the guards to move back.

Or that might have been his rage that made them swiftly distance themselves from him.

Shadows whipped around his feet as he glared into Nyx’s brightening eyes.

“Answer me!” He turned with her, kicked off and slammed her with such force into the side of the tower that blood burst from her lips, splattering his left cheek. He drew her towards him and shoved her back again, smashing her back into the wall. “I said, answer me!”

Her face crumpled, her fine eyebrows furrowing as desperation flooded her eyes, and she wheezed, “It is better she is gone. I did what I thought was right. I did what I had to for this realm and for you. She is not worthy of you—”

Hades scowled at her as he tightened his grip on her throat to choke her, anger raking his insides, clawing and dragging him down into the deep dark, away from the light. “You dare believe you have the right to decide what is best for this realm and for me?”

“Uprisings… mutinies… the lands changing…” She squeezed each word out as he closed his fingers more tightly around her throat and bore down on her, her eyes wild now. “She… will… be… your downfall.”

“This realm has been shadow and blood for too long,” he growled close to her face and bared his fangs again as he thought about what she had said. There was unrest in many regions, with several factions attempting to gain power, which he easily crushed and restored order wherever it happened, and the lands were changing, but he felt the changes were for the better. The realm was growing more stable, and life had improved for many of his subjects because of it. “I have neglected it… and it has taken Persephone to make me see that. I have been blind. I have not been a good king to my people.”

“Lies,” she hissed and glared at him now. “You are… good… king.”

Hades loosened his hold on her, but didn’t release her as he shook his head and studied the feelings growing within him, ones that had been quiet before but roared at him now, opening his eyes just as Persephone had to make him see how wrong Nyx was.

“No. I have not.” His brow relaxed, the tension easing from his muscles. “I have terrorised those under my care and have allowed dark and violent souls to run amok in my realm for too long. I have not been a good king, Nyx, and while I have long appreciated your unwavering support, I cannot condone what you have done. I cannot forgive you.”

Her eyes widened again and she rapidly shook her head. “She will be your downfall.”

“If she is to be my downfall… then I readily accept my fate. I would do anything to have but another day with her. Another hour. I would sacrifice everything for it. I would go to war with my own flesh and blood for it.” Hades smiled slightly, and Nyx looked stunned to see it. His anger abated, trickling from him as he stared at Nyx and saw in her eyes the reason she had done what she had.

She cared about his welfare, and had been trying to protect him in her own way, but she had been serving her own needs too, and that had his anger spiking again.

“You are wrong about her, Nyx,” Hades said, his gaze drifting up the height of the tower and heart aching to see his little goddess standing on the balcony there, waiting for him. “Persephone is not the one unworthy of me. I am the one unworthy of her.”

The need to see her and tell her the things that were in his heart, casting away the barriers and revealing his true feelings to her in the hope she would accept him as her husband had him releasing Nyx and turning away, his focus shifting to the gate to Olympus.

“I will bring her back. Zeus will not stop me from bringing her back to the Underworld.” He went to step away from Nyx.

Only her words stopped him.

“She is not in Olympus.”

Hades pivoted to face her, the darkness sweeping through him again, his rage spiking as he caught the fear that flashed across her eyes as his shadows writhed around his feet and he glared at her. “What do you mean, she is not in Olympus?”

Nyx swallowed hard and inched back against the wall of the tower. “I did what I thought was right for your sake and the sake of this realm. She was a danger to you both. I thought that if she was gone—”

Hades seized her by her throat again as cold shot down his spine and the unease he had been feeling morphed into despair and fear. When Nyx had said Persephone was gone, he had presumed Nyx meant she had run away, had left him and returned to Olympus.

But Nyx meant she was dead.

Not dead.

He clung to that fragile thread of light and hope within him that told him she wasn’t dead and he wasn’t too late to save her. If she had died, he would know. Her soul would be on its way to him, ushered to him by Thanatos so he could judge her and find her place in the Underworld.

“Where did you take her?” he snarled in her face and had to fight to stop himself from strangling her so she could speak.

“East,” she wheezed. “The scorched lands.”

“The wyvern nest?” His eyes widened as chills swept over his skin, numbing his rage and his mind as he imagined Persephone there, exposed to the dangers of that valley and the ravenous hunger of those beasts. He had bound her powers. She had no way to defend herself against them. Fury at himself joined his anger with Nyx and he pivoted and cast her away from him, hurling her towards the guards. Without looking at them, he barked, “Lock her in Tartarus and let her think on what she has done.”

“My god-king—” Nyx started.

Hades didn’t wait to hear her protests and pleas.

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