Page 78 of The Queen & the King

Persephone

Hope he enjoys a night of incarceration.

I smirk. There is no love lost between the two of them. I suppose she was right. Zeus could wait, and he’d be a wildcard the second we released him.

So, instead, I fall back asleep to the sound of an echoing storm.

The next morning,I dress carefully before shadowing to the Halls of Night. If I am going to bring Persephone home, we need to strip Gaia’s power from Demeter. Not to mention, it would handicap my father’s side of the war. If that means I go to the Primordials with my hat in hand and humbly ask for help, then I will do it. There is little I would not do to get her back.

“Nyx? Erebus?” I call quietly, walking into the hall.

The black marble beneath my feet turns to an image of space far from this planet, projecting constellations across the entire room. The stars illuminate the room better than most lights. Nyx glides through the double doors, her black dress trailing behind her. “Hades. Did you bring my son?”

“I did not, but I do have a question for you.”

The stars dance around us, some flaring angrily. “Something the almighty God of the Underworld doesn’t know? How intriguing.”

I mask a wince at that. “If Gaia’s power is returned to the earth… what happens?”

Nyx glances at me before tilting her head back. She stares at the dome above us, and the night sky reflected on its surface. “Have you ever pondered the stars, Hades?”

I follow her gaze, watching as the night sky turns to galaxies, universes, and things even I’ve never seen and will never understand.

“No,” I answer honestly, watching the dome of infinite realities and nights play above us.

“When a star dies, the power, the matter, doesn’t die with it. It remains.”

I tense, watching the dome light up as a star turns into a supernova, then slowly morphs into a black hole, consuming everything around it.

“An imploding star is a dangerous thing,” Nyx continues. My eyes lock on the dome above us. “An imploding goddess, even more so. When Gaia was killed, her power was absorbed by another. However, it has since changed.”

My head snaps toward her. “Changed?”

Nyx’s gaze remains on the stars. “Gaia spent millennia with her power. She honed it, cared for it, and used it only to keep the balance. The power was like a gentle wave, ebbing and flowing with the natural order.”

My brows furrow. What does she mean? What has happened to Gaia’s ability?

“Demeter is not using the power with anything other than malice, so the wave crests and crashes. If you return the power like it is, that dying star will consume everything in its wake.”

I don’t have to look at the ceiling to know the black hole has devoured the entire universe above me. Persephone said her mother couldn’t hold Gaia’s power for much longer, and now, if we release it back into the world, we could destroyeverythingalong with it. Demeter is an explosion about to go off. My mind whirls, trying to come up with a solution.

“Without her tie to the Underworld, Persephone could absorb a portion of it, lessen the impact,” I murmur. It could buy us some time.

I rub my chin, feeling the growth of stubble under my hand. I continue thinking out loud, “But when she’s bound to the Underworld again, she won’t be able to hold even a fraction of it.”

She’s cracking.

I look down at my gloves, realization sliding down my spine with an icy finger. These tattoos are not a result of my power. It was never me. I tug off my gloves, letting them drop to the ground. The darkness has reached my chest now, and I finally notice the swirling tattoos inked on my skin are no longer random, intricate designs of darkness. They arevines.

Persephone unlocked a part of the Underworld when she became queen, and when our bond broke, the power needed to go somewhere. I’m absorbing her tie to the Underworld, and it’s overwhelming me.

“Perhaps it is time to give it back,” Nyx whispers from my shoulder.

I stop myself from jumping in surprise. When had she moved?

“How?” I ask, watching the vines dotted with tiny black thorns and roses grow and tighten over my skin.

“Have you considered that the reason you cannot control the tie is that it does not wish to be held by you? That if you released it, not only would it not be lost forever, but it may find its way back to its rightful wielder, no matter the distance?”

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