Page 66 of Hades and Persephone: Crown of Souls

“So touchy.” Black eyes taunt her as the icy wind picks up. “Demeter visited the Moirai. Your birth, your creation, was sanctioned by them.”

“By the Fates?”

“Such a new age title for a trio of Goddesses who predate even the Mother Goddess, herself.” Hecate’s lips curl. “I imagine they loathe the disrespect.”

“This isn’t a history lesson on the Gods, Uranus. Get to the point.”

His eyes remain fixed on the little goddess in my arms. “There are no true tales, my child, in which craft their beginning. Only threads of a web they weave, too sticky and intertwined for even the Gods to separate. But you see, I’ve had some time to think. To consider. To unspool their sticky web and retrace the threads of their will.” He steps as close as the shield of magic that protects us will allow. The curl of Hecate’s lip shows a flash of white teeth. “We trusted their part in our plans, for we had no other choice. They are life and they are death. The thread of your cord must be spun as all other lives are spun, and we foolishly put our faith in them, certain they were sympathetic to our cause.”

“They weren’t?” Persephone dares ask. “They fooled you, didn’t they? They are the reason I was giftless. The reason I held none of the power you were promised.”

“How were we to know they would turn on us before we’d ever put our plans into place? How could we know the limits they would weave into the power we bestowed to you?”

“Get on with it,” I growl when Persephone shivers again. Even the heat of my God, which syphons from the pits of Tartarus, is not enough to keep the chill of this icy land away.For I created this cold to do far worse than nip at the flesh of the living. My intent had been to burn the immortal soul with the merciless bite of frost.

“Demeter realized early on that Persephone’s ability to create was stunted, somehow. She began her tests with the young goddess as soon as she could walk, filtering her through the crowds of the people who worshiped, allowing the gentle strokes of loving hands to move across the child’s skin, watching as they shovelled food into their mouths with pitiful smiles on their face as they thanked the Goddess for their full bellies. The child grew to love the people, and then she made Persephone watch as she tore it all away with winds that whipped through lands of harvest. She made the girl watch as knees split from prayer and pleading, blood staining stone as people begged for Demeter to relinquish her ire. She was forced to sit and watch as Zeus again demanded sacrifice, and the hungry led prized animals to their altars. She watched as blood spilled from beast and then child. And she mourned. But she remained giftless.”

“You are despicable.” The grief in her words cuts through me like a blade. “Evil.”

Uranus wears her accusation with pride. “The price of power, my child.”

“Evil is not the price of power. It’s corruption. True power doesn’t need or want to strip the flesh from the backs of those who have less. It does not play life like a toy. True power is unity. It is love and honesty and connection, and one day you will watch as true power comes together and destroys you all. You’ll see it first, in the souls of the people. They will come together, they will rise above the obstacles and governments you’ve built andconnect. The weight of their power will suffocate the evil that has held them all down. It will starve them all of the power they think they have, and the lesser Gods will see. They will seethe power of their people and they will know the path to your destruction.”

The words she speaks ring in the icy wind like the chimes of a promise, engraving the words into the very spirit like the writings of a prophet. The day will come where her promise will come to pass. I can feel it as honestly as Uranus, for in that moment, I watch as quick fear the like I’ve never seen, flashes in the black soul that peeks through his eyes.

“Careful the words you speak, little fool. Power doesn’t like to be threatened.”

I tighten my hold on Persephone, projecting my voice above hers to conceal the retort that dares fall from her tongue. “If you have nothing of use, Uranus, we will leave you to your prison.”

My threat is enough to have his hateful eyes spearing to me. At least they aren’t trying to fillet her anymore.

“You made a deal.”

“That I will honor only if you honor your end. As of now, I have nothing I can use to defeat Demeter.”

A low sound of menace crawls up Hecate’s throat from the soul she restrains. “It was not until much later, as the giftless Goddess turned from child to woman, bleeding for her first time, that Demeter realized why her gifts had not formed. In the scent of her blood was another, familiar, although diluted scent. The scent of a soul she loathed.” Uranus’ eyes stay fixed on mine as cold realization spills into me. “The games the Moirai play are long and woven with deceptions. It’s no wonder we are what we are, after all.”

“What did she smell in my blood?” Persephone does not have the information I have—the knowledge I possess—to know without this explanation.

Still, when I hear the words from Uranus, knowing makes it no less chilling.

“She could smell the soul of Hades, for the Moirai had woven his soul into the fabric of your own upon your creation. This weaving could never be undone and was never seen before.” He chuckles deep and low. The sound is one touched by dark madness. “Oh, how I heard she raged when she realized. For years. And then she planned. She changed the way she trained the giftless Goddess, knowing that it would be with you that her power would finally surface, she prepared her for the time you would finally catch her scent.”

“What do you mean, she changed the way she trained me?” I can feel the tension that pours from her, hot enough to singe the cold air and heavy with dread.

Uranus’ black orbs land again on Persephone.I hate watching him look at her.“Demeter is the master manipulator. She makes even me look lacking. But her teachings really were genius. She used Zeus, plenty. He was happy to oblige in any way that meant your powers be unlocked and granted to him. He began to spend time with you, stroking that needy heart that longed for love and affection, but never giving too much. Always leaving you hungry for more, verging on desperation, right alongside Demeter. In her play for Zeus’ affection, Demeter took lovers, and always sent them away with practiced pain in her eyes. You were conditioned to believe that you had to work harder, to be better, to catch the heart of the one you wanted. To show them what you were worth, for nothing would destroy a God who had met his soul mate, quite like watching her with another would destroy him.”

Uranus laughs as the darkest piece of my puzzle falls into place with a chilling kind of snap. If I weren’t holding onto Persephone, my Gods’ beast would have shredded my skin in an eruption of rage.

The goal had always been to destroy me, and the little goddess who held part of my soul was the weapon of my ultimate destruction. I brought her gleefully into my own home.

“I don’t understand,” Persephone whispers hoarsely, but I think she might, in a disjointed way.

“As you continued to grow into a woman, the scent of Hades’ soul in your blood grew stronger. Your body called to his, and she knew she had to show you success, for the time was close. She took her last lover, and in a play of jealous rage, Zeus finally snapped. He took the life of her lover and vowed himself to her for eternity, even forsaking Hera. To you, Persephone, it looked like Demeter’s years of sacrifice had finally reaped reward.”

“Oh, myGod.” Persephone covers her gasp with her hands. I feel the echo of those words, the aching grief and soul-stripped agony of them imbed my own soul like thorns bleeding slow toxin, never to be plucked free.

It fucking hurts.

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