Page 15 of Hades and Persephone: Crown of Souls

I shake my head and, shamefully, sputter, “Wh—why would they be celebrating me?”

Hades rises fluidly from the bed. He pulls the sheet from the tangle, but it dangles from his large hand as he moves, entirely unbothered by his own nakedness. I can’t help but take in every inch of him, including the inches that stand erect between his legs, bobbing with every step he takes toward me. He wraps me in the silken fabric that is both warm and cool, before guiding me with his large body to the balcony. Once outside, Hades lowers himself onto a patio lounger, tugging me onto his lap. Even as he settles me against his broad chest, I can feel the thickness of his desire against my spine.

I wiggle. He hisses a breath into his lungs. “Ignore it.”

“That’s kindahard.” I snicker at the play on words.

Hades sighs, but it’s full of amusement he can’t hide. He pulls in breath to say something, but a loud cheer from the city below interrupts us, drawing our attention to the very raucous celebration.

“You said they are celebrating me,” I hedge.

“Yes.”

“I just don’t understand why. How do they even know I’m here?”

“The entire realm knows you are here.”

“But—”

“It can sense you. Itknowsyou.” His large hand palms my belly, dragging slowly up my torso to still between the valley of my breasts. I may be laying atop him, but my body is quiteliterally within the cage of his. His thick thighs bracket my own while his arms may as well be bands of iron wrapped around my torso. The heat from his bare chest bleeds through the silk sheet he’s enveloped me in, and I can feel the steady thud of his pulse. Hades’ lips tease my temple. “The Underworld knows your soul.”

“But how?” The words are a mere whisper. A fissure of curiosity untethered from the very soul I harbour. I desperately need it quelled.

He’s silent for a long moment as the city below exudes life and happiness. Live music drifts through laughter, and I am helpless to do anything but move just an inch closer, snagged by the prison of his arms, to peer through the columns of the obsidian balcony railing at thelifebelow.

“You birthed much of what this realm is today, Persephone.”

At his words, the party below is momentarily forgotten. I twist in his arms to look at him, confusion and disbelief at the forefront of every thought. “I don’t?—”

“I am certain by now you realize that there is truth to every myth, yes?” He’s waiting for a response. All I can do is give him a stilted nod. “The myth of Hades and Persephone is no exception. It is true. I saw the girl, the young Goddess, my niece, in a garden of flowers. She’d been collecting blossoms from the garden, one after another, after another. Of course, I’d known my sister birthed a child by our brother, Zeus, but I’d never seen the child. I had never cared to. The Underworld was a dark and desolate place, you must understand. It was not what it is today. The souls not sequestered to an eternity in Tartarus wandered the dark lands without purpose or place.Iwandered. My only purpose was shrouded in death. My entire being consumed by torment.”

He sounds so sad to admit the hideous truths of his past. But I still don’t know what those truths have to do with me now.

I’m so confused, and I would be lying if there wasn’t a part of me that didn’t cling to the idea that all this—every fantastical detail of my time in this magical place—was simply a fabrication of my mind.

Hades continues, “I was an angry God. I had spent centuries in the belly of my father with my siblings, only to be freed by Zeus.” His lip curls at the mention of the God of Thunder, his brother. There is real animosity in the rumble that rises from the deep of his chest to leak into the space between us before he speaks again. “The war that followed was one that nearly saw civilization end. Both human and God. It was brutal. Death was rampant, surrounding me, even before I became the God of Death. Before I swallowed the entity of Tartarus. Before I regurgitated it into the realm we know today as the Underworld.”

“You—swallowed—Tartarus?”

Hades nods. “Tartarus was a Primordial God, born of Chaos. It was not contained by flesh and bone, as the powers the Olympians today are contained. And the darkness of this particular beast was far too dark to exist in the world that had been crafted. From its darkness, monsters rained suffering and torment that spilled onto the innocent. Something had needed to be done. Borders had needed to be made.”

I shake my head. I’m suffering from information overload, and yet I want more. Need more.

I need everything.

“I’m not sure I understand. H—how you swallowed…”

“The Primordial Gods simply are. It all began with Chaos, the first of the Primordial Goddesses. The mother of all. She is matter. It is from her that everything forms.”

“Okay…”

Hades offers a small smile. “From Chaos, Tartarus, Gaia, Eros, Erebus, Aether, and Nyx were born. They are Purgatory,Mother Earth, Love and Attraction, Darkness and Shadow, Light, and Night, respectively. Together, they made the world as we know it. They began as, you might call them, spectral entities. They were the thing that they were. For example, Nyx was night and all that encompasses it. Her form is literally the form of the night, encompassed by midnight, moonlight, and starlight.” He pulls in a breath. “We’re getting off topic. But now that you have a basic understanding of the Primordial Gods and Goddesses, and how we began, you can grasp the events that transpired. These Primordial Gods and Goddesses bore children who were also known as Primordial Gods and Goddesses, but they were second tier, in a way, and they held the ability to possess corporal forms. It was from them that the truly corporal Gods and Goddesses came to be. You would know them as the Titans.”

I shiver, and Hades pulls the sheet tighter around me. His eyes ask me if I am okay, if he should continue. I tell him, “I’m a little rattled.”And a lot confused. “But I’m fine.”

He smirks. “But are you keeping up?”

“Yes,” I lie. I shrug. “Sort of.”

---