Page 94 of His in the Dark

I look down at my wrists, startling at the realization that there are no magical chains flickering there. Nothing binds me to Hades’s bedroom. When was the last time I felt their presence? I cannot remember.

I look back up into his pained expression, speechless.

“My Queen,” he says.

“My King,” I manage.

Then magic thunders in the room. A black cloud whirls tightly through the space, stopping only a few feet away from me.

Hekate steps out of the dark, her hand held out to me. She is majestic. Her dark hair flowing and her eyes nearly pitch black. They mirror all that is around her. Magic flows from the powerful Titan. The mother of witchcraft and the keeper of keys.

My head bows in her presence but more so, my body wishes to be held by her. To release the pain. She takes it so willingly. Please, Hekate. I pray in silence.

I take her hand without thinking, only realizing what I have done when our hands touch.

“Come, Persephone.Now.”

Hekate starts to lead me away. All those times I dreamed of rescue, and now that it is here, I do not want it. Not like this. It’s like being kidnapped a second time.

“Hekate wait—” I start and look back on my lover. My King and my Hades.

I want to stop everything and refuse to move another step until I have all the answers, but it is too late—we are already going, and I do not think Hekate will allow us to stop.

“You must come back to the world that is now forever changed.”

Hekate leads me forward, and I glance over my shoulder to look at Hades.

He stands tall, his hand on Cerberus’s head and his eyes as sharp as ever. I want him at my side, just as I was at his side at court. It does not feel right that I should go and he should stay.

“Hekate,” he calls, his voice ringing through the distance between us. Even Hekate’s name is a command. “Do not leave her side. Do not betray me.”

The mother, the maiden, thecronelooks back at Hades, her eyes narrowed. There is some deeper meaning here. Something I do not understand. I have changed, yes—but I have not forgotten how it felt to watch my powers dry up without a single clue why they should do so.

She glances down at my hands—my right in hers, and my left in a fist around the remaining seeds.

“Show me,” she says as tears slip down my cheeks.

Once again, I obey her.Why? There are no chains to hold me. And I want so desperately for someone to stop this madness. This pain. Why does agony fill me so?

“Did you eat them?” she questions.

I nod, not understanding a thing that occurs.

“Foolish girl, what have you done?” she asks breathlessly as the sky cracks above us in a powerful boom.

HADES

Ihave suffered many times before, for far longer than mere mortals could ever conceive.

None of that suffering compares at all to watching Persephone walk away, her hand in Hekate’s and so many questions in her eyes.

It is torture that I cannot answer them. I did this. And I vow if she does not return to me, I will end it all. The only words that keep me from torment are those of the Fates. I must let her go but I fear too much. It is a sickness.

The pain is unimaginable.

It is so great that at first it does not feel like anything but an empty space.

But Persephone glances back at me one last time, and there is nothingbutpain.

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