Page 31 of Hades and Persephone: Threads of Fate

“Beth thinks it’s magic. An enchantment of some kind.” The giddiness hasn’t left Willa’s voice. “Maybe it’s some temple for Hecate, enchanted by her dark magic.”

Addison’s studious eyes never leave mine. “Is that what you think?”

“I have no idea.”

“Beth thinks it was some passage for Persephone to travel between the realms.” His words have every hair standing on end. Goosebumps rise on my skin, and his eyes fall to them before rising slowly back to mine.

His eyes are so blue. The kind of blue a girl could drown in, if she wasn’t careful.

“That’s what it is, isn’t it?” Addison presses. “A temple for Persephone.”

I shake my head again. “I don’t know.”

He rolls his lips. “I think you do.”

“How could I know?”

His jaw is hard for a long moment. He says, “I think you’re connected. Somehow.”

“That’s insane.”

“Is it?”

“Addison, you’re a lunatic,” Willa huffs, tugging on my arm. “C’mon.”

“How else did she know there was stairs when we all thought it was a temple in ruins, like all the rest?”

I dig my heels as we pass Addison, standing close now. He’s so tall, I have to tip my head back to meet the shocking blue of his eyes. I mean for the words to sound sure and strong, but they fall between us on a small whisper that bleeds insecurity. “I feel like you’re accusing me of something.”

His head falls back as he releases a long breath to the sky. “I’m sorry. I’m—edgy.”

“Why?”

“I can’t explain it.” He tips his head to meet my eyes again. “Just am.”

“It’s okay.” I offer him a small smile of understanding. “I get it.”

“Yeah.” He nods. “S’pose you do.”

“Let’s go check it out.” I nod my head to the site and, reaching out, I touch his arm. The moment my skin meets his, there’s a crackle of something that shouldn’t be. A sensation of more. A spark of history thatdoesn’texist.

Familiarity.

Attraction.

My skin heats even as I frown.

Addison sees it. More, I sense he feels it, too.

Pulling my hand back as though I’ve been burned, I turn to take stuttering steps away from Addison, toward a site that confuses me a whole lot more.

Chapter

Fifteen

Hades

Gray clouds,thick with the threat of a storm, conceal the sun as a cool wind whips over a barren land untouched by growth. It has been cursed to exist, eternally out of reach of the sun. The same storm that bleeds threat into the ominous sky scents the air, always threatening, never passing.

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