Page 116 of Queen of the Underworld

Zeus pressed his left hand to the flagstones, golden arcs of electricity chasing over his fingers, and pushed himself back onto his feet. He came to face Hades, and Hades wanted to strike at him again. How could he look so calm and unaffected as he destroyed his own brother’s life?

Hades’s happiness?

Zeus truly did not love him. Not even a little.

“Her mother, Demeter, knows you have her and is causing glacial weather across the mortal realm. Crops are withering. Thousands of people are dying. She has sworn she will not relent until her daughter is back with her.” A flicker of emotion coloured his brother’s eyes as they entreated him to listen. “If there was another way, Hades, do you not think I would take it?”

“Slay the goddess,” Hades snarled.

Persephone gasped.

He flinched and looked over his shoulder at her, instantly regretting what he had said. He would apologise about it later, once this was resolved and she was back in his arms, his forever.

“Demeter has agreed to terms. They are reasonable, Hades. She understands I gave you leave to claim Persephone as your queen and will allow her to return to you part of the year.” Zeus’s words weren’t the comfort his brother clearly thought they would be.

“Reasonable?” he spat and scowled at his brother as his chest hollowed and ached. He clawed at his breastplate with his talons. “It is not enough. I cannot be without her for that long.”

Months without Persephone would be a torment he couldn’t endure, and being with her in Olympus wasn’t an option either. His presence would affect the realm, darkening it, and his duty was here, in the Underworld.

He looked back at her, pain beating inside him.

Regret flashed across her features, there and gone in a heartbeat, but he saw it and he knew.

She was going to do as Zeus wanted.

He growled and bared fangs at her now.

“No.” He stormed towards her, shadows streaming from his back and darkness welling within him to steal control, to fill his mind with images of hunting her mother down to end her and stop her from taking Persephone from him. When he reached her, those violent needs suddenly flooded from him and his brow furrowed as he framed her face with his palms and silently pleaded her not to do this. He whispered, “No. I cannot lose you, my love. I cannot.”

She lifted her hands and gently placed them on his, her emerald gaze soft and filled with love, and despair. “And you will not. But I am a goddess of life… and I cannot bear the burden of all those deaths. I cannot, Hades. Please do not make me do it.”

The tears in her eyes wrenched at his black soul, bringing them to his own eyes too as he gazed at her, seeing how much this was hurting her. Not just parting from him, but the knowledge that her being here with him was causing a catastrophe in the mortal world. His beautiful goddess was too kind. Too gentle. Too good of heart. She cared so deeply about beings she had never met, the thought of their deaths and her part in them paining her.

If he selfishly made her stay, it would destroy her.

Hewould destroy her.

He couldn’t do that. No matter how fiercely he needed to keep her by his side, within his reach. He didn’t want to be the one who killed her smile and snuffed out her light. He didn’t want her to become as dark as he was. She would if he forced her to stay.

He heaved a shuddering sigh and lowered his forehead so it rested against hers, his heart feeling fragile and as if it might shatter.

“Very well,” he husked.

She lunged at him, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing him tightly, as if she had expected him to refuse and now that he had agreed, she didn’t want him to let her go. He held her, silently cursing her mother for hurting her like this, deeply aware the goddess had done it on purpose to force him to release Persephone, and was manipulating Zeus and all of them.

Selfish goddess.

Hades drew back and looked down at Persephone, her distress carving a hole in his chest. Did Demeter even care about the pain she was causing her daughter? He doubted it. Demeter was controlling. Manipulative. She cared only about herself.

And now she was stealing his love from him.

Persephone remained with her face against his chest, clinging to him, and he palmed the back of her head to hold her to him as he looked across at his brother. Guilt and sorrow shone in Zeus’s eyes, and for once, Hades felt he might actually care about him.

But then the emotions that coloured his expression were probably all about what this was doing to Persephone rather than what it was doing to Hades.

“Give me a moment longer with her.” Hades held his gaze, not bothering to conceal his feelings from his brother, allowing him to see how badly he needed just a few more hours with her before she returned to Olympus and left him alone for months to wonder about her and crave her. “I will return her tomorrow at first light.”

He thought Zeus might deny him, but then his younger brother dipped his head, and turned to leave.

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