Page 10 of Hades and Persephone: Crown of Souls

“Because I need to ravish you.” His eyes pin mine, drinking in the heat that blooms under my skin. I wish I could blame it on the flames that seem to stretch for us from the hearth. His voice drops, the pitch alluring as it drips with the promise of decadent sin. “I’ve waited for thousands of years to have you here again in my home. Inourhome. In my bed. The restraint I cling to is exceedingly thin, little goddess. And I do not wish to hurt you or take more from you than you wish to give.” He nods to my plate as I struggle to find breath. “So, I need you to keep your strength. I need you to eat.”

I lift my fork once again and take a bite.

Hades’ pleased smile lights an entirely new flame. This one in the deepest parts of me. So deep, I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to snuff it out.

Chapter

Six

Persephone

“Is there electricity here?”If I could take my eyes off the view below, I would turn to look at him as he speaks.

“Not in the sense that you know it, no.” I can feel the heat of him at my back, and I can’t stop the shiver that crawls like a whisper over my skin. His hands come around to bracket my body against the thick stone railing, draped in midnight starlight. His breath is warm where it skates over the skin of my neck. “The Underworld is powered, primarily, by elements of magic.”

I point to what looks like an ancient city below. “Is that what keeps the torchlights lit? Magic?”

“In a sense.”

He chuckles when I turn to scowl at him. I accuse, “You’re being very vague.”

“I apologize.” He moves even closer, and I feel the hardness of his front against my back. Inside my chest, my heart thunders. I’m certain Hades can hear it, but he pays it little mind as he explains, “Have you heard of Hydra’s Sinkhole?”

My thoughts stutter at the abrupt introduction of yet more myth that, I’m guessing, Hades is going to claim truth to. “Wasn’t it considered one of the entrances into the Underworld?”

“It was.” Hades pulls my hair to one shoulder, brushing his lips against skin now pebbled with goosebumps. “First, it is important to note that many of the entrances, portals, doors—whatever you wish to call them—into the Underworld have been sealed now for centuries. Very few remain. Hydra’s Sinkhole, or Lake Lerna was one particular entrance famed for the beast who guarded the door. Are you familiar with Lake Lerna?”

“Um…” It’s hard to think with his mouth on my skin, but I want to know this. I want to know everything. “No.”

“Lerna, in ancient Greece, was a vibrant region vital to ancient life. The land was colored in springs and lakes and mountains. The region was rather well populated for its time, the culture rich with belief and reverence for the Gods who ruled over them. This ancient civilization existed quite happily alongside the Lernaean Hydra, who lived, mostly undisturbed and without trouble in her lair between mountain and sea. She was born in the Underworld, sired by Tartarus.” His voice softens. “She has always been a beast of judgement and honor. I tasked her with the duty to guard Lake Lerna, which hid in its depths a sinkhole into the Underworld.”

I gasp as he spins me to face him, catching my eyes with his own. “It is crucial to understand that this entrance did not simply lead one into the Underworld, but directly into Tartarus. Entering Tartarus is a dangerous thing for any soul. It is why no soul begins in Tartarus but is placed there only after extensive judgement is carried out.”

Gone is the teasing lilt to his voice when he began his tale with his lips against my skin. I fight against the shiver that threatens. “I understand. Don’t go into Tartarus.”

His hands curl around my arms. “Never enter Tartarus.”

“Okay.”

He nods, but he doesn’t look entirely satisfied. Still, he resumes his tale and I cast my gaze back to the city below. “For generations, the village that settled in the region and the Lernaean Hydra, coexisted peacefully. Until the youth in the village thought it intelligent to challenge her. I know now the idea came not from them, but from scheming Gods who whispered such ideas into their ears.”

“Why would they do that?”

Hades’ eyes are hard. “There were few who wanted access into the Underworld, into Tartarus where the Titans were imprisoned. Access, I refused to grant.”

“For what purpose?”

He peers into the distance, but his jaw pops as he grinds his teeth. Low and dangerous, he finally answers, “Centuries later, and I still do not know.”

My mind is whirling.Why would the Gods have wanted access to the Titans they fought so hard to contain?“What happened with the village youth?”

“They were slain,” Hades says simply. I flinch at the horror of it. “She guarded the whirling center of the lake, where no swimmer who dared to venture would have survived the pull into the Underworld. Into Tartarus. She did as she was born to do. She guarded the portal, again and again. By ending their mortal lives herself, she saved them from the eternity of torment they would have known had she allowed them to slip, alive, into the bowels of the Underworld. When she served them their swift deaths, she gifted them the right to arrive in Souls Landing, where they would accept their death by drinking from the River Acheron. She slayed challenge after challenge, year after year, until the village no longer saw her as the protector she was, but a vile beast. An abomination. A monster.” Hades shakes his headsadly. I’m not sure who I feel more sympathy for. The youth, so foolish. Or the Hydra.

“What happened?” I sense there is no happy ending to this tale.

“The people called to Zeus. They begged him to end the Lernaean Hydra’s reign of death.”

Every inch of my body is cold as the myth comes alive in my mind. I whisper, “He sent Hercules.”

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