Page 72 of Hades and Persephone: Crown of Souls

“Try,” Hades encourages in that decadently dark rumble.

“I—” The memory is there but wrapped in a shrouded shadow of dark mist and smoke. Fragments slip through the stitches to taunt recognition with images that make little sense.

I remember feeling itchy in my skin, staring up at the ceiling as Willa snored. I couldn’t sleep. There’s darkness and stars and Addison at my side.

The memory of Addison like that, moving close—it sparks something else inside me. Something far, far darker than I am ready to feel.

I am jolted bygrief.

“Hades,” I cry out as yet another memory, hazy as though I’m watching through a sheet of ebony gauze, plays out like a video on a screen.

Addison—crawling toward me over ancient stone as blood dripped from his eyes, his nose, and mouth. Ribbons of liquid red veined over his neck, dripping from his ears. He was screaming, but I couldn’t hear him over the shriek—the same shriek I’d heard in the memory of a past life. The shriek of Demeter, and the terrible beastly thing she morphs into in her rage.

My fingertips curl into the flesh of Hades’ chest, nails biting into skin as I gasp.

“What happened?”

“Do you remember?”

“No.” I shake my head, still gasping. I feel as though I’ve ran a marathon.

“You and Addison visited the dig site together in the middle of the night.” His words jog the memory, as though they are the key to unlock it all. “Demeter found you there with him.”

“She—” I can see it now. The curtain of black gauze has been pulled to the side. The memory rushes toward me—through me like a tidal wave. “Oh, my God. Is he—is he okay?”

“No, little goddess,” Hades says softly. There is concern and worry in his eyes. “He died that night.”

My hands tremble now against his chest. My entire body trembles. “Is he—is he in the Underworld?” Hades nods slowly. My eyes close against the sting of tears, because Addison was so bright and so beautiful.

He was always so sunny, so loving and happy, like a puppy.

And now he’s justgone.

“Addison was Adonis reincarnated,” Hades tells me gently. “He will have another chance at life, if he chooses it.”

I’m really not surprised. All the visions I’d had of Addison in a time well before the one we lived—it makes sense now. It makes so much tragic sense, but that sense doesn’t make it better. Knowing that he will live again, if he chooses to, doesn’t make it better that those who loved him in this life, his parents—they will mourn him for the rest of their time in this life.

“I feel like I’m going to puke.” Pushing away from Hades, I pull the sheet higher to cover my nakedness. “I need—I need to call my parents.”

“That’s not possible, Persephone.”

My head snaps in his direction. “Why not?”

“Persephone,” he begins, but I interrupt him with frantic words.

“You said I wasn’t dead.”

“You’re not.”

“Then why can’t I call my parents?” Even I can hear the fear in my voice. The frantic terror of a reality I’m not ready to accept.

“The temple you and Addison were in collapsed. They were able to excavate enough to find his body, but the rubble has since been deemed unstable. Minthe testified that she saw you and Addison leave the house together. Security cameras near the dig site confirm you were there, and you have been declared dead.” Dread sweeps through my body, threatening to consume me. “The archaeology program has been suspended. All students have returned home. There has already been a funeral for you in Alberta. Your parents have accepted your death, even as they continue to grieve.”

The sob that caught in my throat in the beginning of his speech breaks loose. Grief and pain spill into the space between us as my mind shuts down. Proving itself to be the fragile thing that Hades claims it has always been.So human.

“But I’m not dead.” The protest is weak.

Hades gathers me into his arms, even as I try to push away. He doesn’t let me, and I am not strong enough to break free. “Shhh, Persephone.”

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