Page 22 of Hades and Persephone: Threads of Fate

I don’t know why I’m being so difficult now when I’ve been grieving the end of us this entire time.

“And I already told you that wasn’t going to happen.”

“It’s not up to you to decide.” I’m digging myself a hole I’m not sure I want to be in. I can’t stop myself, though.

His eyes darken into obsidian orbs in the moment before a burst of deadly flames ignites the dangerous dark. Placing one palm on the hood, Hades leans in close. “You can come with me willingly or I can throw you over my shoulder. Either way, youarecoming.”

“This is over.” I glare up at the crazy man who still makes my heart flutter. “I quit.”

His hands fall to my hips and I am lifted from the seat as though I weigh as much as a feather.My fight is restricted by the tight gown, but I swear all of Greece hears me when I scream, “Put me down!”

For my trouble, his palm lands quick and sharp against the curve of my ass. He barks, “Enough.”

“You can’t keep me!” I cry. “Don’t you understand, I don’t want to be with you right now. I’m—disgusted by you.”

I don’t mean it. As soon as I say it, I wish I could take it back.

His steps stutter and I feel a sharp breath lodge in his chest. Where he holds me over his shoulder, I feel his fingertips twitch. “Persephone,” I hear him whisper my name in the breath before the agonized roar of the man I haven’t heard since the first night I met Hades reverberates loud in my mind.

It’s so loud, bursting with so much pain, I am helpless to keep from crying out. The man in my mind cries for me again, and again, and again until it’s all I can hear. Pain splits my skull as I scream into the night. I think my body bucks over his shoulder as the agony of the man fights to escape the confines of my mind.

I’m crying harder now, but I can hardly see through the blur of my tears. I am only just aware of the fact that my body is now cradled in Hades’ arms. The lines of his face blur in and out of focus as I grip my splitting skull. I think I hear myself pleading for reprieve.

And then everything is simply dark.

Chapter

Eleven

Hades

In the distance,I can see the far away glow of golden lights. Persephone has slept all night, day, and well into the night again. If I’d known the ways my agony for her affected her, the pain it caused her, I would have seen to it that it was kept in check.

I can still hear the sharp bite of her scream. The echoing whimper of her pain where it reverberates in my brain. I’ve checked on her multiple times, my worry for her well-being taking over my sane thoughts.

There was a moment, achilling, awful moment when her body had stilled, and I’d thought her soul had left me. Where I feared I would be sentenced to another eternity of torture where my soul mourned and searched for hers. Where I waited for her to be born, my soul screaming in agony for his lost mate.

I wish I had known how the cries of my soul, the spill of my grief into the ether of this world, had been causing her pain all this time. I never could have imagined she felt my pain so completely.

Fuck, but the torment of it incapacitated her.

The soft ripple of the waves caresses the belly of the yacht. I drop my head into my hands and sigh. All the parts of me feel heavy.

I long to steal her away to the Underworld. At her threat to leave me, I very nearly did just that.

This had been the next best thing. Not right, but not as wrong as stealing her away to another realm entirely.

That’s what I tell myself, anyway.

I am trying to be goodfor her. I am trying to do it all right this time.

It is very rare that a man is given a second chance to claim his mate’s heart.

The yacht sits anchored to the seabed, surrounded by a blue so deep it looks black. Even though there is a distant glow of life on the nearest island, I’ve sailed too far from land for a human to swim to escape. She cannot leave me here, even if leaving is her wish.

A tightening knots in my chest. The very thoughthurts. It hurts because there is no situation in this world in which I could fathom willingly leaving her. None.

Even now, I am drawn to her. Knowing that she doesn’t wish for me to be near makes no difference to me. It is a need I must feed, a call I must answer.

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