Page 5 of Hades and Persephone: Crown of Souls

Her brows draw together in a deep frown as she pulls the corner of her bottom lip into her mouth, latching onto it with her blunt little teeth. She sucks it in thought.She’s riveting in all that she does.

She releases her lip to ask, “I can’t remember anything before—before this. I was—I was at the house with everyone. In—in bed.” Her nose scrunches with concentration. Noc nudges her hands with his nose. Absently, she pets him. “Willa was snoring…”

I watch her struggle with memories that won’t come. Not yet. Although her soul is that of an ancient and powerful goddess, her mind and body are entirely human. And the human mind is a fragile, fickle thing. It dislikes change and, contrary to their obsession with fantasy in fiction, the human mind abhors the fantastical when it contradicts reality to such an extreme. It is not abnormal for it to entirely wipe away memory in favor of what it perceives as sense. In favor of comfort.

Her eyes lift again to mine. “I don’t remember. I don’t remember what happened after that. After I was in my bed next to Willa. I just know something happened.”

Oh, something most definitely happened.Fucking Demeter happened.

I could tell her, could reveal the truths that would force her mind to face the reality of her recent past. Perhaps she couldenlighten me to that which occurred in the moments before I arrived with Cerberus. Perhaps she knows what it was Demeter wanted with her in the temple where one of the Underworld’s most famed portals once stood.

Or perhaps it would be too much too soon.

I rise from the bed, extending my hand toward her. “Come. I’d like to show you your new home.”

I think she is going to refuse me, but she surprises me when she pulls her hands from Noc to place her hand in mine. She rises, moves to the edge of the bed, and pauses before me. She isn’t much taller than me like this, tiny little goddess.

I tip my head back just a fraction to meet her eyes as she speaks, “I don’t know if this is real or if I’m just dreaming. Maybe I’ve slipped into the prison of my mind, and I’ll never escape. Maybe I’m in a coma.” Her lips tremble, just a bit, but her eyes stay fixed on mine. “Either way, I’m happy that wherever I am, I am here with you.”

Chapter

Four

Persephone

“Is this a literal castle?”Hades’ eyes drop to the finger I’m now pointing down the length of my body to the cobbled floor. His lips hitch with just a hint of a grin, and he nods once. Noc lingers close, his eyes watching.

“Yes.”

“Wow.” I move my hand to the thick black stone banister head that wraps in on itself like the coil of a snake. It is not smooth or polished, but ripples with uneven grooves as though inspired by the cords of a rope. It invites me to take the first step down the long, wide, curving stairs that lines a pillar of stone from which the center is a column of what looks like falling embers. I’ve never seen anything like it ever before in my life. The falling embers remind me of the falling sparks I’d made wishes on outside the Tower of Pluto, from the ring of fire that circled Hades’ Tower.

“I’ve never been in a castle,” I murmur, I think to myself. I’m distracted, captivated by everything.

Despite the darkness of the long corridor we travelled, vines of darkest green, sprouting pearlescent white flowers had crawled through the flame-cast shadows on the walls. Flames danced over obsidian liquid that sat in a shallow cups of burnished gold, bolted to the stone walls by intricately curled handles.

The vines stretched through the flame-lit darkness as though they’d been planted between the cracks in the stone of the wall. Like weeds in a walkway, only enchantingly beautiful. Beneath the vines that crawled, young and thin across the stone are impressions—carvings—of other much larger vines.

Hades sees me gaze at the walls, analyzing the intricacies of the stonework. “Fossils.”

My eyes snap to his. A chill slithers over my bones like the very vines that slither over stone now. “What?”

“Fossils,” he repeats.

I shake my head, lost. “I don’t understand.”

“Evidence of life. Ancient, but never forgotten, life.” His eyes shift to the carvings that cover the stone, smiling softly at the new growth that has sprouted between the antiquated cracks. “But it’s already coming back.”

The chill turns to a shiver that snakes along my spine. I loosen my grip on the banister to step back from the stairs where the stonework of vines and flowers continues, etched, surely, by blade.

He can’t truly mean to tell me these faint lines in the stone are, in fact, fossils. Still, I ask hoarsely, “Coming back?”

Hades’ dark eyes shift to mine. “The Underworld knows you are home.”

Something tickles inside my heart. A flutter of warmth I can’t begin to understand.

“I’m not sure what you mean.”

I think my face may be flushing with the same emotion I feel invading my heart. Or maybe it’s because Hades is looking at me as though he’s trying to seeinsideme. Noc too, in fact.

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