Page 33 of Hades and Persephone: Keeper of Sins

Chapter

Seventeen

Hades

The workof the Fates truly is like no other. When they spin their wheel, weaving their threads, the crisscross of paths, the foresight, really, it is unparallelled. The webs are sticky and complex, and I should have known that when I was presented time and again with an option to sponsor the archeology program that brought Persephone here to Greece, to fund the passion that is the study of the ancient Gods, that this thread would be the one to lead her back to me.

I should have known, but I hadn’t suspected a thing. I’d sponsored the program as a means to dowhat I’ve always done, bettering the lives of the people while raising awareness of the Gods they have forgotten. The Gods who hold the balance of their precious world in their palms. The Gods who are growing more and more tired, with every forgotten century that crawls by.

Imagine my surprise when I dug deep into what I know of Persephone’s life, only to discover that she’d nearly emptied her personal savings in order to pay for this opportunity. The parents she speaks of so lovingly clearly hadn’t supported her in this. If they had, they would have helped her to pay for this experience.

And how hadn’t I noticed that a young woman named Persephone had registered? I had all the files here in my office the entire time. I could have been prepared for her—if I’d just read them.

But that’s the thing about Fate. In all the webs she weaves, all the threads she pulls, there are still paths we can choose to take. There is still free will. And that is why Fate is ever-changing, always evolving.

“You won’t believe who else is in the program.” Minthe enters my office, dropping into the plush couch I keep in here for both her and Leuce.Invasive little nymphs.

I slide my eyes from the registration, where I’ve entered Minthe as a late entry even though she’s been working the program close to Persephone for the last week.

“Don’t keep me in suspense, Minthe,” I say dryly.

“But Iknow you love suspense so much,” she teases, the little nymph. I love her, though. Deeply.

I sit back in my chair, giving her my gaze. It’s what she wants, and I get confirmation of that fact when a slow smile curls her lips.

“Adonis.”

Every muscle in my body tightens. My pitch drops, the death of my realm slipping into my tone. “Is that so?”

“Oh, it’s so.”

“How can you be so certain?”

“Hades,” Minthe deadpans, but there’s a spark of offense in her green eyes. “I’ve been around a long time. I know what a reincarnated soul looks like. Adonis is here, and he’s determined to have Persephone for his own.” A delicate laugh chimes between us. “Dare I say, he’s almost as smitten as you.”

Fucking Fates.“He was always taken with her.”

“He’s more than taken with her.” Minthe settles into the cushions, the teasing glint to her eyes washing away with something more serious. Grave, even. “Hades, I am aware Adonis was and is human. But I believe…” She shifts on the couch, her hesitation clear. “I believe his soul remembers her.”

“If his soul remembers her?—”

She finishes when I pause. “Then his love for her was real. Pure and true.”

“She is mine.” The words sound on a growl. Low and fierce and bursting with a deadly protectiveness that stems from an ancient possessiveness. An ancient frustration that never healed fromthe centuries where I’d been forced to stand back and share her. For all the times I told myself it was what I wanted.

“I know,” Minthe says placatingly. “I’m simply warning you.”

“And her soul?” Anger vibrates in the dark tones of my demand. “Does her soul remember him?”

Minthe is quiet for a long moment as she considers. Against my thighs under my desk, my hands curl into fists capable of the greatest monstrosities.

I warn, “Minthe.”

Minthe blinks. “I do not know, Hades. I am undecided.”

“Why?” I demand, at the end of a very short fuse. “It is a simple question.”

“Persephone’s soul is—it’s complex.” Minthe’s tone is as soft as her eyes. “She was drowned in the river Lethe, Hades?—”

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