Page 39 of Queen’s Sacrifice

CHAPTERTHIRTEEN

HADES

The next morning, I’m stroking Persephone’s nude stomach. She is still lying beside me and drowsing. She did crack an eyelid and croak good morning to me before promptly resuming her doze, though.

Tracing may fingertips from her belly button up the stretch marks that now line her stomach, I purse my lips. Penny stirs, her eyelids lifting halfway.

“Gross, huh?” she asks. She wrinkles her nose. “As if I will ever forget that I bore a child…” She tsks. “The little priss gives me stretch marks.”

“Ye won’t hear me complaining about the marks.” I drop a kiss on her bare belly, and she squirms. “It just means that my daughter was here.”

“Hades!” She playfully bats me away. “I made a deal with my body. No more big physical changes that seem to happen overnight.” She screws up her face. “So far, it doesn’t seem to be listening to me at all.”

She pulls a face, indicating her breasts. “These things were the first changes, but they just keep… growing! I feel like any minute, I’m going to blow a cork out of each of my nipples and milk come will shooting out.”

I raise my brows. “Ye make that sound like a bad thing. I think it could be kind of sexy.”

She hits me with a pillow as she cringes. “That’s awful!”

“Ye can’t get mad at me for thinking that you’re sexy.”

Penny cuts her eyes at me. “Yes, I can.”

A knock sounds on the cabin’s front door. Tensing, I turn toward the sound.

“Who knows we are here?” Penny asks, drawing on a robe.

I shake my head. “Can’t think of anyone.” Grimly, I peek out of the bedroom door. Because of the angles between here and the front door, I can’t see the person responsible for knocking. “Do me a favor. Get dressed just in case.”

She nods as I pull on slacks and a button up. While I’m stuffing my feet into my combat boots, the knock comes again.

“Hades? Persephone?” my mother’s voice calls out. “It’s Magda…”

As if there was a chance in the world that I wouldn’t recognize her voice. Hastily tucking in my shirt, I close the bedroom door behind me and hurry to yank the front door open.

My mother looks mildly surprised, tucking a loose strand of hair back. She’s holding a black leather medical bag and looking at me with a strange expression. Like she’s shocked but pleased to see me here, even though she knocked on my door and not the other way around.

“For fuck’s sake. Do you want to broadcast to the entire world just where we are?” Casting a glance around to make sure there is no one watching, I gesture for her to come in.

Magda enters and I am quick to close the door behind her. She fidgets, swallowing.

“Are ye hiding from someone in particular?”

Crossing my arms, I ignore her question.

“Is there a reason you are here, Magda?”

Penny pokes her head out of the bedroom, warmth lighting up her features when she sees Magda. She steps out, wearing a loose black caftan and nothing at all on her feet.

“Magda. So nice to see you.”

Magda clears her throat, her gaze sliding between us. “I came to follow up with Persephone. Ye know, make sure she was getting over her illness.”

Frowning, I narrow my gaze. “Seems like a paltry excuse at best.”

Penny intercedes immediately.

“Hush, Hades.” She goes over to Magda, taking her by the elbow and leading her to the couch. “Thank you for your concern. I’m feeling much better. Without medical intervention, I’m not sure I could say the same, though. So thanks for that as well.”

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