When she was taken from me, I’d vowed that I would find her. I vowed that when I found her, I would do things differently. That I would earn her heart and be gifted her body. That she would entrust me her soul to keep, so that I might offer her an eternity of protection.

So that she could never be stolen from me again.

The echo of her screaming my name in my mind was like a beacon guiding me to her. I’d already been searching the city, hellhounds at my side—scentingfor her. We ran harder. God and demons side by side, hunting for our Queen.

It doesn’t surprise me when we end up at the dig site, or when the beacon in my mind pulls me toward the ancient temple I’d long since sealed. What surprises me, however, is the winged Goddess who soars from the bowels of the temple, the tatters of her mortal form overtaken by the immortal Goddess she released upon my mate. Again.

Again, I was not there to help her. To save her.

Noc, Jas, and Prim respond to the sight of the Goddess—Demeter—the one responsible for our thousands of years of torment. They conjoin, merging into a beast so vicious and deadly even Tartarus shook with fear at their howl.

I want to stop and capture the Goddess. To destroy her.

But I wanthermore. To feel her skin. To hear her heart beat.

To know she is alive.

I race down the steps, my soul a storm in my chest.

Cerberus howls and Demeter screams. Black feathers rain down on the temple stairs as a paranormal battle rattles the ground above.

The sky splits, and lightning strikes. It illuminates the walls of the temple, not that my paranormal vision needs aid to see the horror within this dark.

I can smell the death.

My stomach revolts. I’ve seen more death than anyother creature. I’ve cared over more souls than any other God. But the scent of death andher.

I will not survive this.

I fall to my knees, a plea heavy on my tongue as I gather her small body against my own. Her eyes flutter and her lips part. She is alive.Alive.

“Hades—” Her throat is raw. She’s been screaming.

The torment I will reap on Demeter…

“Shhh.”

“A—Adis…” She can’t finish his name, but I already know.

The death that clings to the air—it is not hers. It is his.

The golden boy who has only ever loved my Queen. Murdered.

She will grieve, and for that I rage.

Shifting my body so that she will not see his, I turn to face the stairs once again. Another bolt of lightning connects with the ground. Cerberus yelps, but growls follow. Teeth gnash. Snarls tear into the silence between the thunder. Demeter screams a cyclone of wind, the inspiration for the legend of the harpy. Rain pours from the sky as another bolt descends. And then the earth quakes, splitting at the arrival of the God of Sky and Thunder. My brother. My nemesis. Zeus.

Persephone’s head rolls to the side. She’s lost consciousness, her human body not able to withstand the screech of Demeter’s cry for much longer. LikeAddison, she is vulnerable to the very organs inside her body bursting under the pressure of the sound waves.

I will not lose her again.

“Cerberus!” I roar, as the earth begins to spill into the temple. My dog bounds down the stairs, chipping stone with taloned claws. Lightning spears like a dagger meant to maim after my companion. Three heads snip and yip, spitting and growling at the beasts above. The Gods I vow to ruin. It is not in their nature to retreat from battle.

Zeus roars, “I will have her, Hades!”

I’d vowed to give her the chance to choose the Underworld. To protect her freedom in the middle realm until she decided she could part with her life above to join me in the realm below. It had been a dangerous game, but a game I’d played all the same.

I knew the stakes, and I took the risk.