Page 29 of Hades and Persephone: Threads of Fate

“I don’t even know how I’m supposed to react to that.” I laugh again. This time, it’s incredulous. “I should be afraid of you. I should flee and never look back.”

“Is that what you want?”

“It’s what a smart woman would do.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“I—” I straighten my spine and sigh. I can’t make myself look at him. “No. It’s not what I want.”

Do I even know what I want? Probably not. But even as I don’t know what I want—I know I don’t want tonothave him.

Life is so complicated.

I can feel his eyes on me now as I stare out at the ever-darkening stretch of blue. “You threatened to leave me before I brought you here. When we return to shore, are you going to try to run from me, Persephone?”

“I don’t know.” I’m only half teasing him. “I haven’t decided.”

“I thought you said you didn’t want to leave me.”

“Want has nothing to do with it.” I kick my feet in the water. It’s darkening with the sky. And with the dark comes a feeling of danger, like something far bigger than I am able to imagine lurks in the depths. I suck in air. “But no, I’m not planning to run from you. Not yet, anyway.”

“Yet?”

“My return flight is booked for September.”

“I see.” I feel him shift beside me, but I forget our conversation as something massive and satiny silver flashes in the depths just underfoot.

I shriek, spilling my wine into the sea as I yank my feet from the water. The deep red of the wine plumes out like blood as I lean over the edge on my knees to peer into the abyss. My heart is pounding so violently that I almost don’t hear Hades next to me.

“What is it?”

“There!” I shriek. Another flash of silver—and I swear to all things holy—I just saw a mermaid. “Oh, my God.”

“Persephone?” Hades calls, his feet still dangling precariously in the water.

I claw at his legs, trying to physically pull him from the sea where the creature of myth might very well snatch him away. “Get out of the water! Get out of the water!” I’m screaming now, shaking.

Hades does my bidding, standing with me. He catches my face between big hands, forcing my frantic eyes to his. “What did you see?”

My lips part, but no sound falls into the space between us. I can’t say it. I just can’t. It’s well and truly insane.

And, like my vision at the dig site, it’s not real.

A sob falls from my lips and my knees buckle. Hades catches me against his hard chest, lifting me into his arms. As I wrap my arms around his neck and peer over his shoulder at the stretch of sea, I see something massive split the water to hover there, its stillness is unnatural.

The form of a man with long white hair and skin the color of ebony stares back at me from eyes so blue, they don’t look real.

Because he isn’t real.

With another sob, I bury my face in Hades’ neck. And I pray that my slipping mind will stop failing me.

Chapter

Fourteen

Persephone

Willa shriekswhen she sees me hiking to the dig site. Her mass of black hair is piled into a now frizzy bun on the top of her head that gives me a nod with every jump she jumps. I’m still too far to hear much more than shrieky chirps, blended together in a string of excitement I can’t yet decipher. But I can’t help myself from smiling when her hands connect in front of her chest in quick, overeager claps that speak of bursting joy.

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