Page 28 of The Queen & the King

I sigh. “So I’ve heard.”

“Would you accept me as one?” he asks, and there is something so endearing about his uncertainty.

“My mother would never allow it,” I reply, my heart sinking.

Hades’ lips twitch, and his eyes sparkle. “She wouldn’t have a choice. Your mother made a mistake when she announced it in the paper.”

Nineteen

Hades

IAM ASKING FOR PERMISSION TO DATE MY WIFE.It is ironic, though the true twist is that besides a single dinner in my penthouse, I’ve never taken Persephone on an actual date. Maybe this is my chance to make things right. To have the romance we should have had. The one she deserved.

“I worry she will just speed along with the current front runner.”

I frown. “The current front runner?”

“Adonis.”

“Adonis?” I snarl.

Fucking immortal dick. He is stuck in the past. He stole lust dust from Aphrodite. Then the prick turned around and used it on Hera until he convinced her to give him ambrosia, making him immortal. Hera’s pride and stubbornness refused to allow her to admit that she had fallen for such a ploy. So she pretended it was all planned and even shielded the prick from Zeus’s wrath. This only emboldened him, and he enjoyed feeling immune to consequences even gods faced. No one ever crossed the Queen of the Gods.

“You know him?” Persephone asks, her eyes wide and vulnerable.

This version of Persephone is so different from who I know her to be. Demeter had stripped her down to the barest studs, and it made my stomach roll to see it. Even if this is the time I never got with Persephone, the side I never got to see.

“He stole something from an acquaintance of mine.” I grind my teeth. “Did he… did he touch you?”

Lust dust didn’t just affect the person wearing it. Even gods fall to its potent pull. It took away consent from everyone in proximity.

She shakes her head. “Not really.”

I search her eyes. “You didn’t feel compelled?” Also, what does ‘not really’ mean?

Persephone scoffs, and my lips twitch. “I felt compelled to get away from him.”

“You did?” My smile widens. I don’t know why I had expected anything else from my queen.

“Yeah. He’s the worst.”

I laugh deeply. “I should have known you’d be immune.” This is Persephone, after all.

“That must have been why he was so angry.”

My laughter dies. I reach out to touch the bruise on her cheek. “This is from him.”

She pulls away from my touch, the sparkle in her eyes dimming. I don’t know where it comes from, but I suddenly know what marred her. I know that prick backhanded her. Even inside the dream, I can sense the swirling darkness crawling higher up my arms.

“It’s nothing,” she whispers.

“It’s everything,” I whisper back.

She presses her lips to mine in a frantic bid to change the subject. It won’t matter. He crossed the God of the Dead, and noprotection, no matter how powerful, will stop me from exacting retribution. I need to be smart about how to strike. I need to be cold and calculating. Two things I was once famous for, yet now they feel like butterflies caught in a net with gaping holes.

“Hades. It’s time,” Melinoë calls, breaking through the haze of desire and my plans for revenge.

“I’ll be back, my spring,” I promise her before pulling back and stepping out of the dream.

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