Page 23 of Hades and Persephone: Threads of Fate

In the chair next to the bed, I plant my elbows into my knees. Every breath in her chest is a slow rise and fall. She’s been sleeping now for just over twenty-four hours. Her Goddesses soul is waking, stirring deep within the vulnerable human body that cases it. What happens next is unknown. Never before has an eternal soul been placed within the vulnerable flesh of a human. Never before has an eternal soul been ravaged in The Lethe like hers.

Behind her lids, her eyes move. She is waking.

My heart thunders in my chest, but I sit back in the chair. I am holding tight to the reins of composure. Desperate not to slip and harm her.

She has been harmed enough.

Her eyes flicker and I am met with the shine of emerald. It’s the same emerald I’ve dreamed about for centuries.

I say nothing, simply watch her as she blinks to take in her surroundings. Her lovely lips part and she sits up in the bed.

Her brows furrow. She croaks, “Where are we?”

“My boat.”

Those furrowed brows jump. “Wh—what?”

I don’t move a muscle. Her hands knot in the blankets.

She sucks in air and asks, “Why are we on your boat, Hades?”

Does she not remember?

I answer quietly,“You threatened to leave me. I felt it important we talk.”

She simply stares at me for a long moment. Then she whispers, “I look like your wife.”

“You bear some resemblances, yes.” It would be much simpler if I could only tell her sheismy wife. Reborn, of course, but my wife all the same.

Her bottom lip quivers. I watch as she sucks it into her mouth. Her gaze drifts around the room to settle on the window where dull moonlight drifts into the dark space as though on a watery mist. She shudders. “I?—”

“Talk to me.” I don’t mean for my voice to sound so rough where it falls between us. I hate that she flinches. I beg, “Please.”

“I heard the man—the man in my head,” she stammers. “I—I—it hurt. So much.” She touches her fingertips to her temples, as though testing for the pain. Her eyes are misty when they land on mine again. “He reminds me of you. He soundslike you.”

I want to console her, but I sense invading her space right now would be the wrong move. Under my skin, my muscles twitch with their desperation to touch her. “Do you hear him now?”

I know she can’t.

“No.”

“Did you hear him while you slept?”

Again, she shakes her head. “No. I would have woken up.”

“You lost consciousness when you heard him.” I lean forward, and she pulls the blankets up to her chest. I stripped her of her dress and clothed her in one of my shirts. I keep my eyes on hers as I drop my elbows to my knees. “Has that ever happened before?”

“No.” Her voice is so small.Sheis so small.

I swallow the feral growl I feel growing in my chest. “How do you feel now?”

“Fine.” She frowns again. “Hungry.”

She hasn’t eaten in some time. It makes sense she would be hungry. I stand. “Come. We’ll fix you something to eat.”

She swallows hard and pushes the blankets from her body, sliding her legs to the side of the bed. For a moment, her gaze is trained down on her body. “Did you dress me?”

“Yes.”

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