Page 47 of Hades and Persephone: Threads of Fate

“Carrying me. His back was to the water.”

“You didn’t tell him what you saw?”

“It was in my head, Minthe. It wasn’t there, but it felt so real and it scared me.” Ashamed, I admit, “I looked away, buried my face in Hades’ neck.”

“What else have you seen?”

I frown, then scoff. “I don’t even know. There’s no warning when they come, these visions. Most feel like visions—like dreams…” I shake my head, blinking fast. “Or distant memories that can’t be mine. I—I don’t know.”

“It’s okay,” Minthe calms, leaning forward to touch a warm hand to my knee. “It’s okay, Persephone.”

“It’s not. I don’t know what’s happening. I’ve always been different. Always.” I sniff back tears. I don’t want to cry, but I feel so emotionally raw. “My parents thought I was crazy when I was little. Took me to doctors and everything, talked about a personality disorder.”

Minthe scowls, something like anger flashing in her eyes. “Your parents are idiots.”

“Can you blame them?” I cry. “Because I can’t. Especially not now. Not with all that’s going on.”

“So, why didn’t the doc give you that crazy diagnosis?”

I look away. I can’t meet her eyes and see all thejudgement there. “I learned to pretend. It’s just getting harder now, though. It’s more than his voice. I don’t feel present when I have these—episodes.”

“You say his voice? Do you know who it is you hear?”

Gosh, how can a girl my age, who has known me for a couple months, know the right questions to ask? “He—he sounds like Hades. Of course, I know he’s not him.” I can’t help it when my eyes slide to hers, wet with emotion. “But he sounds like him.”

“And the visions?”

I shift uncomfortably. “They’re all about me. I mean, I’m in all of them. Sometimes I feel like I’m actually the person in them. Other times, it’s like I’m watching a memory inside my head. Like I’m watching myself—out of body, you know?”

“Sure.” Minthe nods, even though I’m not sure she knows what I’m talking about. I’m not sure anyone could understand the things I’m saying.

“Sometimes I look like me—just like me. Other times I look like me, but not me.”

Her brows furrow. “What do you mean?”

I laugh nervously. “I had red hair in one of them. My eyes were darker. And my skin was so pale, Minthe. I mean, like I don’t even know that I had freckles—and then I stepped into the sun and everything changed. My hair back to blonde, eyes lighter, skin tanned.” I scoff. “Insanity.”

“Amazing,” she breathes. Then she leaps off thetable. “I’m taking you to see a friend.” She’s already at the door when she says, “Be ready to ditch in ten.”

I blink, utterly stunned.

I just spilled my innermost guts to the girl, and she wants to take me to meet a friend?

What’s with the people here not understanding the risk of chilling with a crazy person? A legit mentally unstable person who sees things that aren’t there?

What. The. Actual. Hell?

Chapter

Twenty-One

Persephone

“I’m never gettinginto another car you’re driving as long as I live.”

Minthe swings her head to me in much the same way she swung the car into the parking lot. Wildly and slightly manic. “Why?”

I blink at her. She can’t be serious. But she is. “Because there’s a good chance, I won’t make it out of the experience alive.”

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