Page 74 of Queen of the Underworld

In exchange, she would give her word that she wouldn’t try to leave.

Not that she really could leave since she couldn’t teleport like other gods and she didn’t know the way to a gate that would take her back to Olympus. Leaving meant hurling herself into more danger than she felt she was in now, placing herself at the mercy of the wilderness she could see from her tower.

At the mercy of that beast she had heard.

She shuddered at the memory of its bellowing roar, an echo of the adrenaline that had flooded her in that moment running into her veins again to have her rising from her bed. She paused at the edge of the mattress and looked back at the pillows.

“Another night of refreshing sleep.” She frowned at how deeply she had slumbered since her walk with Hades. “Anyone would think he has set me at ease.”

Anyone would be right about that.

Since their stroll around the orchard, she had felt more relaxed, and far less afraid of this realm. Fear had given way to curiosity, and the more she pondered what she knew of the Underworld, the more she wanted to know about it. She had hundreds of questions she wanted to ask Hades about the Elysian Fields, and how the souls lived here—did they have homes? Villages? Friends?

She also wanted to know what kind of beasts roamed the realm, and what sorts of breeds called it home too. Was it only the gods and goddesses of the Underworld and the souls of the dead, or were there other breeds living here too? Olympus had many breeds, such as centaurs and cyclopes. Poseidon’s realm had the nereids.

If Hades would only visit her, she could ask him all the questions burning on the tip of her tongue, driving her mad with a need to know the answers to them.

If he visited her, she could try again to ask him about what he had called thedarkness. And maybe this time, he might speak to her about it.

Persephone flopped back onto the bed on a sigh, her arms outstretched at her sides. “If Hades would only visit.”

He seemed determined to remain away from her though. She had watched him coming and going from his temple, and even walking the beast he called Cerberus, and only four times had he looked her way. One time he had stopped and stared, and she had felt sure he would teleport to her, only he had finally kept walking towards the barracks.

A hot shiver rolled through her as his growled promise rang in her mind for what felt like the millionth time. That snarled vow that he would shake this world if another male so much as looked at her had starred in every fantasy she’d had since he had returned her to her room, only she had changed it so she had kissed him.

She wasn’t sure why she had felt compelled to ask him if he really would, but his answer had pleased her. No, it had more than pleased her. There wasn’t a word strong enough to convey how satisfied she had been to know he wanted no other male to look at her, to know how violently he would react if it happened. It shouldn’t please her. She knew that.

But every hour she was here, and every minute she spent in his company, things were changing, and, in a way, it was frightening.

Before, she couldn’t wait to escape.

Now, she was lazing on her bed wondering if she would see him today.

Persephone toyed with her hair, her arms draped on the soft bedding above her head and her legs dangling over the edge of the mattress. Would Hades visit today? Maybe she could convince him to spend some time with her, luring him up to her. He might not have left his home for the barracks yet.

She could catch him on his way there.

She sat up and her stomach growled loudly at the sight of the platter of fruit on the table, and she rubbed it through the layers of her green dress. She couldn’t eat. The pomegranates Hades continued to send her were definitely of this realm, and she wasn’t sure what other things he was growing here, beyond her sight. For all she knew, all of it could come from the Underworld. Eating something belonging to this realm might tie her to it forever.

“Would that be such a bad thing?” she murmured.

And froze.

“It would be a bad thing,” she said, mentally chastising herself, and then swinging back the other way as she frowned at the stone floor. “Why? Because he is Hades? He is not as frightening as others make him out to be, or so heartless.”

In fact, she was beginning to suspect that beneath his hard, sometimes scary exterior, beat a tender heart capable of the deepest sort of love.

That smile that had almost graced his lips when he had spoken of Cerberus had been affectionate, and bewitching. Now, she wanted to tease another one out of him to bathe in how gorgeous he was when he smiled with warmth, when his guard lowered and he relaxed around her.

She wanted to be the cause of that smile.

Her stomach growled again.

To take her mind off her hunger, and to maybe catch Hades as he moved between the buildings, she wandered to the balcony and stepped onto it.

Things looked different again today. Every morning she came to this spot, something had changed. The volcanoes in the distance were now dormant, the glowing rivers of lava that had streaked their faces now glossy black veins. She looked for more changes, curious about the power Hades wielded in this realm and how it responded to his mercurial mood.

Was it similar to her power in a way?

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