Page 19 of Queen of the Underworld

Shock filled his blue eyes as he stared at her, his cheek reddening where she had struck him, and then crimson ringed his irises as the dark slashes of his eyebrows knitted hard and his lips flattened. Beyond him, the golden fire that lit the room morphed into azure, matching the colour his eyes had been and casting cold light over the sharp glossy spikes of his crown and his pitch-black hair.

Persephone scooted out from beneath him and was across the room as quickly as her trembling legs could manage, placing as much distance as she could between them as his face darkened and her heart galloped. Her hands shook, her right one stinging from the slap.

She had struck Hades.

By the gods, what had she done?

When he pushed to his feet and turned on her, she backed into the curved black stone wall, fear gripping her as she readied herself for his wrath.

He lifted his gauntleted hand and touched his cheek, his eyes fully crimson now, and then his features shifted, something she couldn’t name crossing them for a moment as his talons glided to his firm lips.

The way his claws brushed them made her deeply aware of her own lips.

Lips no male had ever touched before.

She hadn’t expected her first kiss to be so… transformative.

Her entire body had come awake from the mere brush of his mouth over hers and the mingling of their breath, and echoes of pleasure continued to ripple through her even now, rousing a wicked need for more. Unwise. She tried to shut that need down as she caught her breath and fought to calm herself, struggling to regain control of her body.

She licked her lips, an action she regretted on two counts.

One: It made Hades’s eyes darken and lower to her mouth, the hungry look that flared in them wreaking havoc on her body that she fought to hide from him.

Two: She could still taste him on her lips—all dark spice—and ended up recalling every moment of his brief bruising and savage kiss.

Her cheeks flamed.

Persephone turned her back on him to conceal the reaction and frowned as she found herself facing a small square doorway and a balcony barely big enough for one. But it was neither of those things that had dread pooling inside her, tangling with a stronger emotion that had her cheeks burning for another reason.

It was the forbidding black lands that stretched around her, illuminated by a scarlet sky.

The Underworld.

She pivoted to face Hades again, anger flaring within her as she glared at him. “Why am I here?”

“This is your home now, my little queen.” His bass voice rolled over her to have heat curling through her veins before she could stop it, the fire of anger becoming that of desire again as she struggled to hold her withering look.

Had a male ever sounded so delicious? She certainly couldn’t recall ever hearing a voice like his.

“I am not your queen.” Her voice wavered as she fought the rising tide of her desire, attempting to quell it as she faced him. Her heart pounded faster, her limbs shaking as she looked back at the grim, dark world beyond the doorway. A lifeless world. One made of death. She couldn’t sense any life in this realm. It was like a void to her. There was nothing. It was bleak and far too black, the only colour in it the unsettling sky and the ribbons of lava that streaked the faces of the towering mountains to heat the air and make it stifling. She turned her scowl on Hades again, fighting to appear strong and confident, even as she quaked and fear sank icy talons into her heart. “Take me home.”

His profane lips peeled back off sharp white daggers as he took a hard step towards her, his crimson eyes flashing dangerously. “You are home.”

Onyx invaded his irises like shadows seeping into blood and red fire ignited in his pupils.

Persephone backed off another step, tempted to use her powers to create a barrier between them, a move that would only anger him further. He glared at her bare feet, and then back into her eyes.

She had the feeling he didn’t like it whenever she moved away from him as she just had—the action born of fear—but what had he expected from her? He had abducted her from her bright world and plunged her into darkness, and now he was talking madness.

She wasn’t his queen.

“I want to go back to Olympus,” she said, her voice trembling a little, hating how it did that and how she couldn’t conceal her fears, even when she desperately wanted to hide them from him and appear as strong and commanding as he did.

He didn’t respond this time. He lowered his gaze to her feet again, his eyes raking over her body in a way that made her all too aware of him and the fact they were alone, and he had kissed her.

Kissed her.

Her fingertips trembled with the desire to rise to her lips and touch them just as he had touched his with his black talons.

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