Page 52 of Queen of Shadows and Roses
‘Persephone, your magic embodies everything, both light and dark: death and rebirth, healing and killing. Despite the potential for misuse, your goodness consistently triumphs over the darkness. You relish defending the living and the spirit… Your goodness outweighs all that is dark. You need your shadows as much as you need your life-giving light. Without light, there can be no shadow; it’s a balance within you.’ I licked my too-dry lips and processed his words. ‘Tee told me you are struggling to summon it—your shadow magic. It is buried deep.’
I wrapped my arms around myself. ‘Extreme emotions, mainly anger and sometimes fright, are the only times I feel it.’
‘Which means it is still not contained. Still dangerous.’ He paused. ‘I shall assist you in controlling your shadow magic. We can practice.’
I took a shaky breath. ‘You will?’ He nodded, and the flicker of a smile made my next breath catch.
He helped me to my feet. ‘Come on, Lady Persephone. Let’s go and fill this world with more life.’
For the remainder of the walk, I was lost in thought about his earlier words: the reason behind the war, his loss, and his pain. I could sense the sadness within him. Sorrow welled inside me, slicing through my chest. He blamed himself for losing Persephone and, most likely, instigating the war. This god was not at all what I’d expected; I was beginning to see the layers beneath his arrogant, grumpy exterior.
After walking in silence for about twenty minutes, we arrived at the river, and his gaze swept over the explosion of colour thatmy flora magic had created. The smile on his face made him compellingly beautiful. My stomach dipped and curled, and I stared at him for gods knows how long, as if I were nine kinds of crazy.
‘You’re staring at me,’ he said without looking in my direction.
‘I’m not.’ My gaze turned to the riverbanks.
‘You lie so prettily,’ he said, his gaze returning to my face. Those bottomless pools of blue flashed with golden aether, and the muscles low in my belly tightened.
‘I will shadow-walk you across the river.’ Before I could answer, his arms were around me, pressing me against his hard, lean, muscular body. Shadows engulfed us, and in a heartbeat, we were there—no nausea this time. I felt safe, wrapped in the shadows with him. He didn’t let me go; instead, he held me for what felt like a small eternity as I fisted my hands in his shirt and breathed in his scent like a total creeper. He released a jagged breath and stepped away from me.
‘Work your magic, little goddess.’
‘What?’ My gaze remained fixed on him, but his jaw hardened.
‘Your magic.’ He motioned to the surrounding barren and sparse land, his face devoid of emotion. My eyes peeled away from him, leaving me feeling like an utter goober.
Gods, I needed to get a grip on myself, but his rapidly changing signals were giving me whiplash.
Bending down and placing my fingers in the dirt, I unleashed my flora magic. Tingling sensations rippled through me, dancing along every nerve ending, and the area began to bloom as far as the eye could see.
‘Asphodels,’ I whispered as I stood, drinking in the sea of blooms: elegant, slender plants, three feet tall, with numerousleaves and millions of starry, white flowers, like windmill sails, swaying in the gentle breeze.
‘Yes. You have restored the Meadows of Asphodel, Persephone. When you first arrived here with your flora magic, it was like the first flower blooming after the long vestiges of winter. You promised the warm summer days ahead.’ At his words, tears misted my eyes and choked my throat. ‘Asphodel derives its name from a Greek word that signifies sceptre.’
‘Why?’ I croaked.
‘It is a sigil of the Underworld, primarily associated with you. Before you came here, most souls were left to wander the barren lands, but you changed that.’
‘Me?’
He nodded. ‘You decided that not only heroes deserved Elysium, but that every day, upright humans also deserved paradise.’
‘I did? I madethatdifference?’ I blinked at him momentarily, and he gave a lopsided smile.
‘You transformed these barren lands into something beautiful when you first arrived.’ His gaze lifted to mine, and I swallowed roughly as tears crowded my throat. ‘The souls traverse these meadows; the beauty soothes and calms them, or it did before you disappeared.’ He paused for a long moment. ‘And shall do so again.’ He shrugged unrepentant ‘Then they enter Elysium. Well, most of them do, thanks to you. Some, however, find themselves in Tartarus.’ I shivered at the thought of that creepy-ass place. ‘And some souls remain here to wander, stripped of memories. Those souls do not deserve Elysium.’
‘Who decides who is deserving or not?’
‘Minos, Rhadamanthus, and Aeacus. These are my demigod ministers, who once established law and order on Earth. Hecate or I occasionally find ourselves summoned to judge.’
‘Oh,’ I hummed, not quite sure what else to say.
‘Thank you,’ he whispered, and those pools of sapphire swirled with gold.
I stepped towards him and placed a hand on his cheek as I looked up into those blue eyes, swimming with warm sunlit currents of aether. He lowered his lips to mine—the kiss was long, deep, and languid. A fang grazed my lip, causing my nipples to harden and my toes to curl. He pulled away and took a step back.
I touched my lip. He’d drawn blood.With a smouldering look in his eyes, he grasped my hand, lifted my finger, closed his lips around it, and sucked. The pull travelled all the way to my clit, like molten lava. Holy damn. I inhaled sharply, meeting his gaze, and a fire sparkeddeepin my belly.
