Page 51 of The Queen & the King

“I missed you,” I whisper.

Her other hand rests on my chest. Does she feel my heart slamming against it?

“You dream of my home,” I add, slowly opening my eyes, trying to gauge what she remembers.

It’s our home.

I gesture to the garden. “This is outside my palace.”

She looks around, her eyes flashing. “But… I’ve never been to your home.”

The words shouldn’t hurt me. I am not expecting her to remember, yet I wish she did. I kiss her softly, covering the waymy heart is breaking. “Yet you dream of it.” Because you belong there with me.

“It’s beautiful,” she whispers against my lips.

“Would you like to see more?” Maybe something will break through the wall in her mind without ripping it apart.

She nods, and I take her hand, leading her through the roses. The black petals brush against us, seeming to bow before their queen. Cerberus stays at Persephone’s side, his heads level with her shoulder.Each time he glances at her with one head, she places a kiss on his nose.

Please remember, my spring. We need you.

I lead us toward Asphodel, the golden fields and orchards appearing from the dream. She remembers them all so clearly, every reaching flower, every piece of golden wheat. It’s so clear in her memory and reflected in the dreamscape she creates every time she sleeps. She mirrors the reality perfectly.

“This is Asphodel,” I whisper. “The meadows of the afterlife… a paradise.”

“This is truly stunning.” She looks around, her eyes wide with awe.

I pause next to one of the trees, touching it. “Look familiar?”

“Why would it?” she asks, and again my heart sinks. “But… maybe…”

My hope foolishly soars again, the constant ascent and descent of this foolish heart. “Touch it.”

Persephone reaches up and touches a leaf. It turns gold, and an apple on the same branch ripens before dropping into her hand. She smiles fondly, offering the apple to me.

Instead of taking it from her, I bite into it, my eyes locked on hers.

Her eyes darken in response. She lifts the apple and takes a bite from the exact location I had.

There you are.

I wipe a drop of juice off her lip, but before I can lick it off, she sucks my thumb into her mouth.

What. A. Menace.

Thirty-Two

Persephone

SOMETHING ABOUT THIS PLACE IS SO FAMILIAR.The same as every place I have visited in these dreams, yet being here with Hades like this, I have the strongest sense of déjà vu. But how could I? I’ve never left Olympus. That feeling in my stomach twists again. I feel like I’m missing something, but I can’t zero in on it now. Not while I’m looking up at Hades, sucking on his thumb, and feeling more desire than I maybe ever have.

“Menace,” Hades growls, his nearly black eyes trained on me.

The term makes me feel warm and comforted, but it also makes me want to be mischievous, to misbehave in a way I’ve never dared before. I want him to call me that. I want him to growl it in my ear after I’ve just done something bratty.

Fuck.

I lightly bite the pad of his thumb, needing more reactions from him.

---