Page 55 of Hades and Persephone: Threads of Fate

I’m just worried about Hades. That’s all this is.

I grind my teeth and ask Herman, “Why are you here?”

He regards me for a long moment. When he lifts his drink and the gold ring stamped with wings flashes in the low lights, I nearly scream. He sips his drink slowly. The itch grows. Intensifying.I’m going to kill Hades.

Herman’s eyes narrow. “Are you feeling well, Persephone?”

“What?” I snap. “I’m fine. Why are you here, Herman?”

“You don’t look fine,” he mutters, but I swear there’s a grin hiding in there somewhere. I want to kick him in the shin.

I’m appalled by the thought.I am not a violent person.

“You’ve been sitting here every day since the scan, and I want to know why.”

Leuce begins to move behind the bar. I don’t let my eyes drift from where I’ve locked them on Herman, though.

Finally, with a roll of broad shoulders, he sighs. “I’m here because Hades is not.”

“That doesn’t make sense.”

His eyes turn intense on mine. Swirling with something dark and dangerous, something that reminds me of Hades.

Obviously, it’s a family thing.

“You are the single most important thing in all the realms to Hades. He is not here, not able to protect you, to keep you safe from harm in this moment, and therefore, I am here. I will keep you safe. It is the least I can do.”

I peer up at him. “You mean it’s the least you can do after you killed his wife?”

The sharp fall of a glass on the bar makes me jump, and I shift to find Leuce leaning over the bar, her silver talons curled around the glass she’s slammed down on the surface. “Drink,” she commands, her tone low and dangerous. “And hear me when I say that Herman is not responsible for the death of Hades’ wife.”

It’s the first time I think I’ve ever seen Leuce upset. Her gray-green eyes practically glow with emotion, her lips curled in a sneer I can’t help but flinch away from.

Herman lifts his hand, palm up to Leuce. He warns, “Mind yourself, Leuce.”

Leuce blinks slowly, the burning glow in her eyes fading to something less intimidating. She looks more human, less creature.

I sever eye-contact.It’s anxiety, Persephone. You’re seeing things that correspond with the peak of your emotions. Calm. Down.

I swallow hard, fixing my eyes on my lap. My vision burns with what I imagine can only be tears.

I feel Herman’s fingertips catch my chin, gently lifting my face. His eyes widen, only a fraction, but I read the shock before he shutters it. Leuce, however, can’t contain or hide the startled gasp she looses.

“Magnificent,” Herman speaks softly. “You fit him. Dark and light. Night and day. Justice and deliverance.” He swallows hard, not releasing his hold on my chin. “It is difficult not to be jealous of a man who finds his mate not once, but twice.”

I can’t help but flinch. The burn in my eyes fades, but the itch under my skin only grows. I croak, “I’m not his mate.”

“But you are.”

“Shewas his mate. His wife.” My lips tremble as I pull my face from his grip roughly. “I’m a summer fling.”

Chapter

Twenty-Six

Hades

Heat radiatesfrom the core of me as I climb from the bowels of Tartarus, a need I can’t name clawing from the depths of me. Blood runs thick and inky like tar over the stones of the dark realm of torment. Blood I’ve felt trickle down my flesh to drip from the tips of my claws. Even now, moving through the Underworld at a pace only a God in true form can keep, the world blurring around me, the echo of screams loud between my ears, that need I can’t name screams louder. It is more important than the blood that drips from my talon, more insistent than the need to enact punishmenton the depraved. It is an itch in the deep of the bone.

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