Page 32 of Hades and Persephone: Crown of Souls

I am hers.

“Persephone?” My voice sounds rough as it falls to break the sounds of the rushing Lethe. “Talk to me, little goddess.”

In my arms, against the wall of my chest, she finds the energy to flinch.

Inside my chest, my heart stills.

Her eyes flutter open, and as I suspected, the bright green I’ve come to know has been overtaken by threads of malachite. The faintest flush of red blooms in her cheeks as she draws in a deep breath. Her tongue pokes out to wet the deep paint of her lips and she shudders.

“I remember...”

I stiffen. Darkness rolls like shadows in the night from the brothers who stand sentry over this scene.

I hesitate to ask, but I need to know. “Everything?”

She lets her head fall back against my chest again, as though the effort to lift it simply takes too much. “I remember my death.”

Chapter

Sixteen

Persephone

I’d dreamedof my death before I’d known of my connection to the Goddess Persephone. It’s still hard for me to connect myself to her. In my mind, I continue to be a completely other entity to the Goddess who came before me.

Reincarnation feels so—impossible. Implausible. I just can’t convince my mind to wrap around the idea. Perhaps it has something to do with the engrained beliefs of my upbringing. I can’t be sure. All I know is there is a large chunk of my mind that is still in denial to everything I’ve been shown. To the truth of a history I’ve always believed was nothing more than rich myth.

“You remember your death?” My eyes drift to the two men who’d joined us before locking on the pale one.

He stands so still; he could be carved of stone. In fact, he kind of looks as though he is carved of stone. He’s so pale; his skin is tinted with hues of gray. Even his hair is colorless, but his eyes are black as night. Bottomless.

I swallow hard. My throat is painfully dry and so raw it burns. “Yes.”

I frown, because although my dream had been informative, this had been something else. Something more. I saw not only my death, but the memories that had flashed before my end. I may not know everything, not yet, but I’d been given more pieces to the complex puzzle that was my past life.

“What do you remember?” Hades asks behind me. His voice is smooth, but there is an undercurrent of rage in the depths. I can’t help myself as I twist in his hold to peer up at him.

With just one look at his face, a few pieces of that complex puzzle click into place. Horror is a whip that lashes viciously into the wounded organ of my heart.

His words echo in my mind.The hunger is a consequence I must bear.

The whip drops again across my heart.I will work endlessly to feed it. And if I am not enough…

Another whip falls. I’m bleeding internally now.I will see to it that you never carry the weight of the burden that is mine to carry.

My heart cleaves in two.There is no pain I will not suffer for you, little goddess. There is nothing I will not stand witness to, if it brings you relief. There is no torment I would not bear if it meant you find the pleasure you crave.

The pieces of my puzzle snap into place click after click, with fall after fall of a vicious whip. Demeter’s cruel voice overtakes the sad echo of Hades’ desperate acceptance of the worst kind of betrayal.Does he see you yet, my daughter?

“Have you slept with the golden boy in front of him?”I flinch at a memory I’d much rather forget.“Does he watch, calmly, as you share your body with another?”

Just as I’d wanted to cry then, I want to sob now.“Yes.”

“And what did I tell you, dear daughter?”

“That if he could watch me with another, he did not love me.”

Flashes of her malicious tutelage ride the echo of this agonizing memory, giving me glimpses into the manipulation that soured my ancient relationship with this ageless God. Whispers play loudly in my mind now. They are clearly a mockery of motherly affection, but I had been innocent to the danger of them so long ago.

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