Page 71 of Hades and Persephone: Crown of Souls

“Monogamy is not something the Gods practice. Although jealousy has always been our way.”

“If monogamy isn’t something the Gods practice, how could Demeter have known it would hurt you so much to share me?”

“Monogamy is reserved for the souls who find their true mates.” Hades shifts, appearing almost uncomfortable. “A true soul mate is split in the very beginning, when they are first created. When a true soul mate finds each other, it is the coming together of two souls that were always intended to be one. They do not long for any other. In fact, we have observed great pain between soul mates when one strays, pain that is so debilitating, it can reap death not only for one, but both. It is not like the way of the souls today, who are so plentiful it’s nearly impossible to find one’s true other half. It is why so many today stray with very little long-lasting consequences. They may love their partner, but their partner is simply a mate, like the mates Gods take. The rare few who truly find their soul mates—they don’t stray.”

“But I am your soul mate.” My fingertips touch between my breasts, and Hades’ eyes follow the movement. There is something there in his eyes. As though they are a mirror of the pain I feel deep in my chest.

“Gods do not have soul mates, Persephone. They’ve never had them before. If they had, a great number of problems we’ve suffered, problems we’ve extended to humanity, would have been eased.” He pulls in a sharp breath but speaks with a calmness that is entirely deceptive of the rage that flickers in the deep of his eyes.

“Demeter knew I would not realize that you were my true soul mate. Knew I would never understand that the agony Isuffered would extend to you. Knew that I would not understand the pain of your straying. And she knew this because she knew I knew that there had never been Gods who truly shared souls. Not before us.”

“But I am your soul mate?” I say desperately, needing to hear him say it. Admit the thing that he does not believe is truth, can in fact, be real.

His eyes settle on mine, peering deep into the green. So deep, I think I feel the stroke of his gaze on my very soul. “Yes, little goddess. You are my soul mate.”

The relief I feel is so heavy, and yet so relieving. I struggle to just catch my breath, taking a moment to focus on breathing. “And the Fates did this to us?”

“They did.” A muscle ticks in his jaw.

I frown, taking into consideration for the first time that he may not want this. That it might not mean the same thing to him as it means to me. “Are you unhappy?”

“No. You are mine. Entirely mine, little goddess. And you will be for eternity. How could that ever make me unhappy?”

“You seem tense.” The words are a whisper that leak my insecurity.

Hades responds. He catches me around the back of my neck. This time it’s him who rises onto his knees. Like this, he towers over me. The broad width of his shoulders curve in as though to conceal me in the breadth ofhim.

The simple act has a flutter of needy quickening spilling into my belly. I know he catches the scent of that need when his face darkens, nostrils flaring.

His voice is pitched low, revealing centuries of his own insecurities in the words he speaks. “I always thought this need that lived within you, this demand to be filled, was a demand born of darkness. The darkness I planted inside you when I took you for my own, against your tears and pleading.” A sigh of painand regret washes over my face, even as I inch closer to him, aching to ease the blade of that guilt he’s carried for far too long in the deep of his heart. “I don’t understand how, if it’s not a response to that darkness, your body still hungers so ravenously now as it did then to be filled.”

I shake my head slightly. I understand this need no more than he understands it.

“I don’t understand this hunger—this need,” I tell him. “And I can’t remember all of the life I lived before. But I do know that I never wanted anyone but you. In all the times I ached for—” I pause, searching for a gentler word than the crude reality I can’t seem to speak aloud, and settle on, “Connection—I only ever wanted to connect with you, Hades. That much, I know with certainty.”

Sex is too baseless a word, too simple for the need that grows inside me. Sure, sex is, technically the word. But it’s so much more. I feel, deep down even though I can’t make sense of it, that it’s more than simply fucking. I think my soul knows that in submitting to this baser need, it’s the closest it will ever come to touching his soul.

After a long moment where he doesn’t move at all, Hades rests his forehead against mine. He draws in the breath that I breathe before lowering his mouth to mine to steal some more. When I feel dizzy with lack of air, he pulls back to gaze into my eyes.

His voice is deep and rough when he says, “I lived an eternity before you, but my life didn’t begin until the moment I had you in my arms. I loved you even when I believed you couldn’t love me. You have been my queen, my other half, far longer than I knew the Moirai crafted mates of our souls. You will be my mate, my other half, until the end of time.” His lips touch mine again, whisper soft. “You are my everything, Persephone.”

Holding his face between trembling hands, I tell him, “I love you too, Hades.”

He laughs, but there’s a ring of something darker to it. Something I’m not certain I understand. It’s sad and longing and yet so happy all at once.

“Hades?”

He chuckles. “So perceptive for a human.”

“I’m not just a human.”

“Your body is human. Your mind is human.”

His eyes chase my tongue as I wet my lips. “My soul is goddess.”

“Yes.” Darkness pours from him, threatening to defeat even the light of the sun that sits high in the sky. A shiver rises on my flesh. He kisses me again. “But you are still vulnerable. Your mind is still fragile.” He drags his lips along the line of my jaw, drawing yet another shiver of need from the depths of me. “Tell me, Persephone, do you remember how you came to be in the Underworld?”

Sharp teeth graze the lobe of my ear and I shudder as I breathe, “No.”

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