Page 63 of Hades and Persephone: Keeper of Sins

What. The. Fuck?

“Who sent that?”

Leuce flips her phone back around as she drags sharp white teeth over her full bottom lip. “Minthe.”

“Minthe is with her?” At the deep rage in my voice, Leuce looks up. I’m shaking.

“Don’t shoot the messenger, Hades.”

“Why is she allowing this?”

“Oh.” Leuce shrugs. “We didn’t think you’d care?”

A low growl rumbles from my chest. The God is hovering under the surface of my skin, and if Leuce isn’t careful, she may just see the monster she hasn’t been privy to in centuries.

She seems to sense this, because she dips her eyes. A rare submission for Leuce. She explains softly, submissively. “You’ve been taking your time with her, Hades. It’s been weeks—weeks and nothing. You haven’t told her. You haven’t taken her to the Underworld.”

“Why does no one understand that I am trying to give hertime?” I roar the last word, my rage simply too much to contain.

Leuce doesn’t look up. She’s too smart for that. Too smart to challenge the ancient beast crafted by something much more powerful than the humans we’ve been pretending to be.

Her voice trembles. As do her hands. “The Underworld is in danger.”

“I am aware.”

“We’re all in danger.”

“I. Am. Aware.”

Leuce slides her phone into the deep pocket of her silver slacks. She begins to lower, her bow slight but there. “We only wanted to push you. To make you jealous so that you might hurry with her.”

“You wanted me to crack and steal her away to the Underworld,” I say.

It’s not a question, but she answers it anyway. “We hoped.”

“If I kill that boy, his soul is on you.” I shove from the elevator into the club, my gaze instantly finding Persephone. She’s still dancing with the boy, and something akin to magma bubbles in my veins. Memory slashes through me, cutting like a blade. Her and him, another life. Another touch.

“Hades!” Leuce hisses, bravely grabbing my arm and hissing when she feels my heat.

I don’t stop moving toward the boy who is touchingmymate. His soul clearly remembers his dealings with Aphrodite, because like he was in ancient times, he is a master of trickery when it comes to the heart. I can see it in his sea-colored eyes. He is a seductress of women, both human and Goddess. It is the same today as it was then.

I don’t know this jealousy I bear now, the inability to reason through it. It was not this way in ancient times, when she stood as my mate and Queen. I had understood then, the need I awoke within her. I had encouraged her to share her body, and she had deeply enjoyed watching me share mine. Now, I could kill the boy with the ancient soul for daring to touch what ismine.

Only mine.

Something hot like acid rises in my throat as I grow near,watching the way her hips sway in his hands. I inhale sharply, trying to clear the acid—a mistake that nearly has me roaring deadly flame. With my inhale, I’ve scented her. She is aroused. Withhishands on her,sheis aroused.

I will kill him.

My hand shoots out to grab the boy by his shirt, fisting the material at his chest. Cameras on phones flash as the crowd gets loud, then quiet. I say one word, but I know he understands when he bobs his head eagerly. “Mine.”

“Hades!” Persephone screams. Her hands come to my arm and she tugs at me to release my grip on Addison. The boy’s chest smokes, and he plucks desperately at the shirt that covers his chest.

“You lit me on fire!” the reborn Adonis accuses, but Persephone doesn’t hear him. She also doesn’t seem affected by the heat that burned both Leuce and Addison as she takes my hand and pulls me to the edge of the dance floor.

Away from her friends and stumbling on her heels, she spins to me. “What the hell was that, Hades?”

I sniff the air again, shocked. “Are you drunk?”

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