Page 93 of The Queen & the King

Fifty-Three

Hades

I’M DREAMING. I HAVE TO BE. SHE’S NOT HERE, SHE CAN’T BE. I rub my thumb against my fingers, my brows furrowing. Wait, I can feel this…

The sound of her feet isn’t muted as she runs to me, eating up the space between us. Even the colors of her cheeks, the light rose flush vivid, not dimmed. Her dark hair flashes with the fire twined through it. Her body is slightly slimmer, no doubt from that fucking bitch starving her, and what the fuck is she wearing? She has on a shapeless summer dress that’s torn in places. It’s an outfit that is verynotPersephone, one I would never dream of her wearing.

This… isn’t a dream.

She slams into me, throwing her hands around my neck, and her scent hits me like a freight train. It’s not muted. It’s completely familiar, and it makes my chest ache as it surrounds me, clouding my mind.

This isn’t a dream.

My eyes mist, and I wrap my arms around her, burying my face against her neck. The heat of her skin, the softness of her hair sliding over my cheek. It’s all real. She presses into me. Myhands shake as I dig my fingers into her hair. I inhale her scent again, tears sliding down my face and hitting her neck.

She’s home.

She whimpers slightly, her hands scrabbling at me, trying to pull me closer. I wrap my arms tighter around her, knowing I am crushing her, but I need to merge us into one person, breathe the air from her lungs, inhale the scent of her soul.

“You’re here,” I sob brokenly into her neck.

She nods, her voice equally clogged. “I’m here. I’m home.”

I kiss her neck, tasting my tears against her skin. Her perfect pomegranate taste. Fuck. It isn’t muted by the dream or clouded by scents of Olympus or the sea. It isher.It is everything.

“It’s you.”

Persephone nods again, kissing along my jaw and over my face, taking her time to inspect me. She is just as desperate to assure herself this is real. I don’t know how long we stand there, frozen in that moment, before the thud of enormous paws comes from down the hall. Cerberus must have come to investigate the commotion. I can’t pull away from her, even as Cerberus barks and bites Persephone’s dress, trying to gain her attention. She pulls one arm away from my neck. Her legs are still wrapped tightly around my waist, but she reaches out to hug one of Cerberus’s heads. I rub my tears against her neck, though my voice is still filled with them.

“He missed you so much,” I whisper.

She kisses his head and smiles, her eyes shining. He pushes against my hold, even biting my hand to get me to put Persephone on her feet. She laughs, wiping away her tears and untangling from me to focus on Cerberus.

“Hi, marshmallow! I missed you so much!” She kisses each of his heads, scratching between the ears of one. He sniffs her for a moment before lunging at her, flattening her.

“Cerberus!” I scold.

“Berry!” She laughs. Cerberus collapses on top of her and growls at me when I try to help her up.At me!He is like a protective mother hen with a new chick.

I wave my hand, my shadows lifting him, holding him suspended as I pull Persephone to her feet. “Behave, you menace.”

She keeps her hand in mine and squeezes. For the first time, I truly look into her eyes, and dread, unlike any I’ve known, courses through me. Those clear summer eyes, the blue with the sun around her pupils, are marred. The bottom of her irises are turning a familiar, terrifying green.

She looks away. “My mother is dead.”

“Persephone,” I whisper. “We need to get it out of you.”

Those terrifying green eyes belonged to Gaia. Persephone has absorbed the Primordial of the Earth’s power, and it is already ripping her apart. She is far too powerful to take on anymore. How long does she have? Did returning to the Underworld, to me, give her back even more power?

She cups my cheek, stopping my inward spiral with a simple touch of her fingers. “I’m going to release it. Gaia is going to show me how. But we need to eliminate your father as soon as possible.”

What did my father have to do with her mother? Was he the one who killed her? The green is growing in Persephone’s eyes, overtaking it.

“He can wait, this can’t. We need to get this power out of you.”

With this Primordial power, we could win the war. Persephone could wave her hand and imprison my father without a second thought, but in that moment, she could die.

I will take losing the war, my crown, my kingdom, and my life. If it means she lives.

---