Page 46 of Hades and Persephone: Keeper of Sins

“What are you going to do?” Leuce interrupts my scattered thoughts. She shifts on the couch, planting her elbows into her knees as she leans forward.

She, too, is agitated. Like I can smell the defenceless human that clings to Persephone’s skin, I can smell the worry, spiked with fear, that wafts from Leuce’s pores now.

I stand, straightening my shoulders. “Right now, I’m going to take her to lunch.”

Chapter

Twenty-Two

Persephone

Hades was rightwhen he said I like the heat. Even though the sun beats down on me, and I’m unbearably hot, I can’t quite get enough of the bone-deep warmth that spills from the sun in the sky. When everyone else is hiding from the heat, I’m soaking it up.

I know better, I really do. Beth has called me in from the heat to hide under the big tents they’ve erected to protect us all from the rays. In the first weeks, I’d been happy to spend time under the shade of the tent—but now not so much.

I can’t explain it, this deep hunger that swells like an ache inside me to sit out under the golden rays. I’mfair of skin with hair more white than blonde. I should fear the sun, the burns and cancer Mom warns of.

Yet I hunger for it. For the warmth.

I never noticed back home, covered in sunscreen and concealed under hats, how deeply the hunger for the warmth inside me ran. It’s a balm for my soul. Nourishment I didn’t know I needed.

Stripped of my mother’s constant nagging to apply another coat of sunscreen, my father’s warning to put my hat back on my head, I’m free to feel the world around mefor me.

Shrugging the light shirt from my shoulders, I let the sun kiss my pale skin as I take a seat on a big stretch of warm stone. I stretch out my legs and pull my hair from the high ponytail, letting the strands fall to tickle the sweat-dewy skin left exposed by my tank top.

My head is tipped back, my face free of sunscreen to bask in the rays of liquid gold that pours from the sky when I hear a rustle of movement beside me. I nearly groan, thinking it’s Addison come to flirt again like he has all morning, when I spot Minthe.

She’s settled in beside me in much the same way I am. Legs stretched out; hands planted on the warm stone behind her so that she can lean back to catch the rays. As though we don’t get pelted by the sun all day long, every day.

Like me, she’s wearing shorts. Unlike me, deep green ink stretches up in a twist of vines from her feet,over her calves, to fade into the flesh of her thighs. Minthe is exotic and gorgeous in a way I can’t ever hope to be. Her glossy, soil-colored hair is cut short, the sharp line of her bob just reaching her shoulders.

“Do you ever get enough of the sun?” She gives me a sideways look with shocking green eyes that spear me like thorns.

“Do you?”

Instead of answering, she throws her gaze to the white tent. I follow her gaze to where Addison sits, watching us. “The guy’s soaked through his clothes, but he’s still debating coming out here to flirt with you.” She laughs, a chimelike sound with just a hint of tension. “Well, he was until I came over.”

I’ve noticed that although Minthe likes most people, and is extremely friendly, she’s a little less so around Addison.

I cast my gaze out over the land, a flicker of something warm spreading in my chest. It’s the same something warm that I feel whenever I look out over this ancient earth. I feel, oddly, like my soul knows this place.

It’s silly.

I’m crazy.

I sigh. “Addison likes to flirt. He’s harmless.”

“Is he?”

When I shoot a frown at Minthe, I find she’s tipped her head back and closed her sharp greeneyes. “What do you mean?”

“I think he has feelings for you.” Her eyes are still closed. “Feelings are never harmless.”

“I don’t understand.”

Minthe’s chimelike laugh sounds again, this time with a hint of huskiness. She lifts her hand to run it through her hair and I’m slammed with a scent of mint so strong, and so familiar, I’m speechless. Memories that aren’t mine assault me. Soft lips on mine, the taste of mint on my tongue. The touch of…

I stand abruptly as Minthe’s eyes flutter open, her lips spreading into a smile that feels oddly knowing. “Is something wrong, Persephone?”

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