Page 7 of Hades and Persephone: Crown of Souls

“In their Cerberus form, they are a deadly beast.” His lips twitch, probably at my wide-eyed horror. “They prefer their dog form.”

“Oh.”

“Jas and Prim are guarding the House of Cerberus. Theirs is the first house the souls who enter Souls Landing pass through in the travel of the Acheron.” Hades’ eyes land on Noc. “Join the girls.”

With a quick lick to my hand, Noc disappears into the shadows.

I tuck my hands into my lap. “Why did you send him away?”

“They’ve been away from their post for too long in the living realm. There is work to catch up on.”

I nod, but my gaze drifts to the room that surrounds me.

I can feel his eyes on me, but I can’t look away from the impossibility before me. The room is cast in a thousand shadows, but the wood table gleams under the firelight of three gothic candelabras that easily stand at more than half my height.

The shuffle of feet draws my gaze from the sharply curling iron to a curvaceous, beautiful woman. She gives the smallest of bows, tightly curled hair falling to cover her chest which has been concealed by a black, high-necked dress in a lovely, Grecian style.

She greets warmly, “My King, it is so good to have you home.” Her eyes shift from Hades to me. Her smile widens and she shuffles closer, her hands knotting at her belly with what I assume is anxious excitement. “My Qu?—”

“Persephone, for now, Maya,” Hades warns rather firmly. My gaze snaps to him at his tone, but not before I see the woman nod obediently. His tone softens, “For now.”

“Of course, my King.”

“Hades, Maya,” he corrects warmly.

Her eyes flick to me and back to him. I think she is meaning to please him and feels that she is failing. A stain of emotion paints her cheeks, the flush of it deepening in her chest. She offers another shallow bow. “Hades. I will have the kitchen prepare you dinner, yes?”

Hades nods. “Thank you.”

With another look to me, another shuffle of her feet as though she wishes to move closer, to speak, she sucks in breath and whirls. For a moment, she is a picture of black material and dark curls before she disappears into the shadows.

Frowning, I give my attention back to Hades. “What was that?”

“She is excited.”

I feel my frown deepen, feel Hades watch as my mind works. And then I place it—Maya’s name. “Maya—as in the Maya who kept your penthouse in the Tower?”

Hades sits back in his high-backed, black velvet chair. The sharp wood carving that frames the cushion is thick and vicious. He is the picture of darkness. Everything about the power that lurks under his skin, inside his body, says he is a threat. He watches me with exposing intensity, fishing every emotion that dares swim through me from the depths only to fillet it to the core—forcing me to see all that lingers inside.

Yet somehow, I know I have never been safer than I am now, with him.

He angles his head just slightly, those dark eyes seeming to see beneath his shirt I wear. “She is the same Maya who tends to my earthly residence, yes.”

Earthly. I’m still not certain I am not dreaming.

And yet…

“How can that be? If what you say is true, and we’re now in the Underworld, how…” The table beneath my fingertips is smooth and cool to the touch, even under the glow of firelight. Even though it is all so fantastical, it feels so real. So tangible. “Can you just—I don’t know—pop between realms?”

His lips twitch. I don’t know how, shrouded in shadows, he can be even more alluring than before. Maybe because this is his natural environment. The predator is always more powerful in his natural element.

“No, I don’t simplypopbetween realms. There was once a time when I possessed the strength to do such a thing, but teleportation between the realms was lost to me when you were stolen from me.” I shift in discomfort at his words. They tug at something deep inside my mind. Something that is there and not there, but I shiver all the same. I still can’t recall how I came to be here. The events that transpired to bring me to this place. “I use ancient portals to move between the Underworld and the Middle Realm, also known as the Living Realm or Earth.”

“So, this isn’t Earth?”

“This is a realm of its own.”

“But—I thought it was under the earth?”

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