Page 63 of Queen of the Underworld

Chapter 17

Persephone stomped around her room, bored out of her mind. She shot daggers at the black stone floor and the walls that formed her prison, her mind on the one who had constructed it and swept her away into this dark world.

Hisdark world.

Hades was definitely avoiding her again, just as she had feared he would, and it was all her fault. The sight of long black claws where his nails had been had completed the picture of a monster many had in their head when it came to him, complementing his crimson eyes, fangs and pointed ears, and his savage behaviour.

Only it had dawned on her that her reaction to them hadn’t been born of fear or terror, but from curiosity. Over the days they had been apart, she had returned to studying him and poring over everything that had happened while they were together, the course of her thoughts fixated on why those claws had appeared.

He had reacted on a physical level to his emotions.

Just as the realm reacted to them.

It fascinated her.

She drifted to the window that faced the direction of the temple, a place she had spent many hours over the time they had been apart. She had spent every minute of them pondering all the little things she had learned about him during her captivity, piecing together a better picture of Hades. Each piece that had clicked into place had revealed a different image of him, one that fitted the male he had been at their dinner, before she had angered him.

Wounded him might be the better words for it.

Persephone willed him to return to her. Not because she ached to see him again. Not because she needed to see that her thoughtless, cruel words hadn’t shattered whatever fragile emotions he felt for her. Not at all. She just wanted to apologise. It had nothing to do with this violent, desperate need to see she hadn’t ruined everything.

Her stomach growled.

Persephone rubbed it as she glanced over her shoulder at the trays of food that tormented her. Trays she had covered with the black dress Hades had given her, trying to make them less tempting. Out of sight, not out of mind. Her mouth watered at the thought of biting into one of the ripe pieces of fruit and she almost moaned as she imagined how the sweet juice would quench her thirst as the tender flesh sated her hunger. What she wouldn’t give for something she could eat. If he would let her go to her forest to pluck some of the cherries and apples from the trees there, she would probably swear to stay with him forever.

He would never allow it. He wanted her to eat the fruit he provided daily, tempting her as she grew weaker and weaker. He wanted to bind her to this realm—to him. He didn’t want to give her a choice and trust she might choose to remain with him.

How much longer could she hold out?

As a goddess, she only needed to eat to keep her strength up and could go without food for weeks or months before hunger dragged her down to a mortal’s strength. Even then, she could continue without food, ticking along for years. She might even grow used to the level of strength and energy she had when she was only as strong as a human, and then she could probably go decades between eating.

Was Hades willing to keep her captive for that long?

The thought of remaining shut in the tower for decades had her anger flaring hot in her veins and made her want to go to the balcony and scream and yell until Hades grew so sick and tired of her that he let her go.

But the thought that he might do just that had her remaining where she was, keeping still and silent as something in the region of her chest ached.

Persephone sighed and swept her gaze over the mountains as she realised it was too late for her. She was no longer a prisoner, because she wanted to be here. She wanted to be near Hades—the only man to have ever made her feel alive—the only person who had ever made her feel seen.

The longer they were apart, the stronger her need to see him again grew, and other things were slowly changing too. The realm was appearing less frightening and less dark by the day, which unnerved her, because it left her feeling she was starting to view this place as her home and was trying to come to love it as Hades did, seeking out the things that weren’t so different from her world or the signs that it could be a better, brighter place if she set her mind to it. The orchard drew her gaze, rousing that hope that she might be able to grow things here, plants that would soften the harsh appearance of this realm.

She had also spent far too many baths thinking about the ruler of this realm.

And sometimes when she retired to bed when she was tired too.

And also sometimes when she woke alone.

She couldn’t hold back the flush of heat that swept through her as flashes of her fantasies filled her mind, awakening that wicked ache between her thighs that increased her need to see Hades.

Damn him.

Movement to her right caught her eye and she looked there. Hades. By the gods, he was glorious as he strode across the black land, dressed in his full onyx armour and his spiked crown back in place, nestled among the thick unruly tangle of his black hair. He moved with purpose, long legs chewing up the distance between him and his destination, a male on a mission, and her heart fluttered as she thought he might be coming to see her.

She moved to the balcony when she lost view of him, overcome by a powerful need to keep her eyes on him, the tension that built inside her falling away again as her gaze landed on him. He had never looked so fierce. So angry.

So alluring.

Shadows streamed behind him, fluttering around his long black cloak, and his gauntleted hands flexed as he walked, fingers curling and uncurling constantly.

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