Page 77 of Hades and Persephone: Threads of Fate

“What do they have to do with Persephone?” Something loud is drumming between my ears as I wait for him to speak the words I fear.

“She possesses the darkness of Chaos’ ability to create from nothing.”

“We don’t know that.”

“We do, Hades.” He looks almost excited now. “Look how she changed the Underworld. Look how she changedyou. It was a realm of darkness before her. You were the God of Death. Now—you are so much more. The Underworld is a place of torment, yes, but it’s more than that. It’s a place of living. A place for the souls to rest and heal. For the souls to grow and overcome.Shecreated that.”

“Hermes.”

Hermes rises again to touch the screen where the darkness eclipses the light. “And Aether’s light.” He taps the ring of brightness. “It can’t be mistaken. It’s right here, not something we can deny.”

“And, what? She possesses the stars of Nyx, too?”

Hermes’ face twists. “I don’t know. You see the expansion, here?” He traces the eruption of stars in the scan before pacing quickly back to the book. He flips to Nyx’s page. “You see how her stars burst from her in an eruption, perfectly positioned with the inclusion ofconstellations?” I nod. Hermes flips to the final page where Chaos is shown to gift Aether with light. It is also the page where she is fully formed. The personification of creation. “Do you see how the stars here with Chaos—the stars before she gifts them to Nyx—how they cluster?”

“I see.”

“Well, that’s how the stars appear within Persephone. It is also how they appear in the Underworld. Clustered formations of brilliance. Absent of constellations and order.”

I release a breath that does nothing to ease the tension that is coiled within me. “So, you don’t think she has the gifts of Nyx?”

“I think she has the gifts of Chaos.” Hermes frowns.

After a long silence, I admit, “I visited Hyperion not long ago.” At Hermes’ look of surprise, I admit, “I had a theory.”

Confusion slashes his brows as his mind works. “What would Hyperion have to do with Persephone?”

“Demeter claims Zeus fathered Persephone.”

Hermes nods. “And Zeus has confirmed those claims.” His smile flashes with wicked delight, if just for a moment. “Much to Hera’s ire.”

I ignore his comment of Hera. Hermes has long since loathed the Queen of the Gods. For a Goddess of marriage, family, childbirth and women, she is aspiteful and jealous female. Hermes blames her for the way the mountain nymph, Maia—his mother—abandoned him for reprieve in Poseidon’s sunken city. That blame is not without reason.

“I don’t believe Zeus fathered Persephone.” I gaze at the light that bursts alive, even in the dull image of a scan well beyond medical limitations, thanks to Hermes’ advanced intellect. “In her first life, while she would pour energy into the realm of the Underworld, she would spark with light. Flashes of it.”

“Like lightning bolts.”

I nod. “That’s what we all assumed. What I assumed.”

“You think it was something else?”

I pin Hermes’ eyes with my own. “Recently, I’ve seen the light of all life in her eyes.”

“The light of all life?” Hermes takes a step back, before changing trajectory for the sheet. His head tips back as he studies the loop of images that play a video on the screen. He whispers, “You think Hyperion fathered her?”

“Hyperion agreed to a blood vow. A prettier prison in exchange for the absolute truth to any questions I ask of him.”

Hermes’ eyes widen. “A blood vow?”

I nod. “He claims he is not her father.”

“But if she possesses the light of all life…” Hermes’ eyes shift back to the books and something darkly dangerous—Gods fear—flashes in his eyes. “You think Aether fathered her?”

“I didn’t until just now.” Gesturing to the books, I add, “But, like Chaos, Aether has been missing for some time. He simply vanished one day, and Hyperion was born.”

“Of Uranus and Gaia.”

I nod again. “Possessing the light of all life.”

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