Page 70 of Queen of the Underworld

Hades found he liked it.

Although he was sure he wouldn’t enjoy it if it was anyone but Persephone teasing him.

When she swept around another tree, her left hand grazing the trunk as she circled it and her green gaze on the fruit it bore, he eased towards her, closing the distance down to only a few feet.

“If your powers were not bound, do you think you could grow things here?” Curiosity tugged that question from his lips and tension crept into his muscles as he awaited her reply.

She pulled a thoughtful face, her bright gaze falling from the dark leaves above her to the black earth beneath her bare feet. That look became one of longing that had a feeling ringing inside him—she wanted to try. She wanted to transform his dark realm into something more colourful and alive.

“Perhaps.” Her soft voice teased his ears, a breathless little sound that drew him closer still. She didn’t seem to mind his proximity as she studied the earth and then lifted her head and took in the orchard. “I managed to make the forest grow and plants take root in that dusty stretch of land at the end of the world. I imagine I could do it here too. Is all the realm like this?”

“Why do you ask?” He circled her, plucking another seed from the pomegranate and popping it into his mouth.

“It would be a good indicator of whether this soil could sustain a more diverse array of plants than just these trees.” She swept her hand down the trunk of one, her scarlet eyebrows knitting.

Hades debated whether to tell her or keep quiet on the subject. When she glanced at him, a striking look of curiosity mingled with hope in her eyes, he found he couldn’t remain mute and deny her.

“The Elysian Fields are a paradise.” He drank his fill of how her face lit up, her entire visage brightening before his eyes as she planted both palms against the tree and leaned into it, peering around it to him, her scarlet waves falling away from her slender shoulders. When she looked at him like that, so open and unafraid, he found it impossible to hold his tongue. He wanted to please her and sate her curiosity, if only to keep her looking at him in that way. “They are lush and green, and filled with drifts of crimson poppies. The sky is bright there, blue and dazzling, and verdant mountains enclose the Fields on all sides. There is even water there. Crystal clear lakes and rivers that snake across the vast plain.”

Her fine eyebrows knitted. “If there is such life and light there, why is it not everywhere?”

He frowned right back at her and then took in the orchard and the glimpses of black mountains beyond them. “Because it is reserved for heroic souls, and much of the Underworld is reserved for the good and the bad.”

“The good must live in darkness?” She pulled another face. “That does not seem very fair. What kind of reward is it for the way they lived their mortal lives if they are made to live in the same conditions as the bad during their afterlife?”

Hades glowered at her now. “Your view of this realm is coloured by what you have known your entire life. You do not know how this realm works or what life here is like for the good souls.”

It wasn’t very good, she was right about that, but he wasn’t going to admit it. He lowered his gaze to the floor, trying to see it from her perspective and then those of the good souls who called vast stretches of the Underworld their home. He held back a grimace. The lives of the good souls could be infinitely better. He had placed their villages in groups so they would be together, but had failed to separate them from the souls of people who had done terrible things in their lives. There were often skirmishes between the two factions, with regular violence and other terrible acts being committed by the bad souls.

Those souls even attacked the breeds born in the Underworld from time to time, causing tension across the realm and anger towards Hades.

From now on, he would make sure the wretched souls who were sent to him were held at a distance from the rest of the population of the Underworld, in a walled environment they couldn’t escape, and would keep legions posted there to maintain order.

He glanced at Persephone as she drifted away from him, his feet moving of their own accord to keep the distance between them steady, as if she had a rope tied around his waist and it had pulled tight and now tugged him along with her.

She was changing him.

He hadn’t really cared about the welfare of the souls in his care before she had come into his life. Now, his head was filled with plans to improve the lives of the good and those born in his realm. Rather than ruling through fear and demanding their respect and adoration, part of him wanted to earn it. He wanted them to respect him because he was a good king—to adore him because he provided for them.

He didn’t want them to fear him.

He gazed after Persephone. What power this slight, delicate female had over him. With only a look, she could wrap him around her finger and make him ache to do whatever she commanded. With only a glance, she could strip him of his armour and leave him feeling vulnerable and exposed.

With only a smile, she could slay him.

That smile graced her lips as she rounded a tree and peered at him.

Persephone nodded at his shadows where they danced around his boots, a flicker of interest in her eyes as they lifted from the black ribbons to meet his.

“What about your powers?”

Chapter 19

Apleasing sort of feeling rolled through Hades in response to the knowledge that Persephone wanted to know more about him too.

“They will not harm you.” Hades held her gaze, needing to see she knew that and wanting to reassure her that he meant it. He would never harm her. Or at least, he would try not to, but sometimes when she provoked him, the darkness was strong and it was hard to hold it back and retain control of himself.

She drifted deeper into the trees and quietly murmured, “I did not think they would.”

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