‘Don’t keep things from me,’ I say. ‘Ever again. Especially things about me.’
‘I won’t,’ he says. ‘Do you need me to swear it?’
‘You don’t need to swear everything, Hades. I’d like to be able to trust you without binding you to your word.’ I sigh. ‘You have to understand how difficult it was for me to agree tomarriage – the things I needed to get over to ask you to marry me. If you had an ulterior motive then I wasn’t taking back control at all – marriage was exactly the trap I’d always feared. I was right to be angry but I think that’s why it hit me as hard as it did.’
‘I’m so sorry, Persephone. I never wanted to make you feel that way but I can certainly see how I did. I apologize. I should have told you my suspicions right away.’
‘Thank you.’ I nod. ‘And thank you for giving me the time to move past it. I suppose it doesn’t change anything. Even if I’d known I was capable of this, I still would have married you. No power would have allowed me to stay if Zeus had decided I needed to leave. He ripped the domains from the Titans and handed them to the gods. He might not have been able to take my power, but he still could have torn me from Hell and married me off elsewhere if he’d wanted to.’
And he could have hurt Hades. Which I would have done anything to prevent. Goddess of life or not, I might have gone with Zeus gladly if he promised to leave Hades alone – marriage is an easy thing compared to that.
‘Honestly,’ I say, sighing, ‘marriage is probably the perfect answer.’
His eyebrows shoot up. ‘It is?’
‘Yes,’ I say, struggling around words that feel heavy, laden with the confessions I wish I could put into them, all the care and love – whatever kind of love it is. ‘If I knew I had this power that connected me to this realm? I … I don’t wantyourpower, Hades. I don’t wantyourcrown oryourthrone. I want to find my own that lets me sit by your side. I want to rule this realmwithyou. Frankly, I think we’re better together. Webalance each other out. So, yes, marriage seems to be the answer whichever way you look at it.’
‘Well, I’m glad to hear I haven’t trapped you in a marriage you don’t want,’ he says. From the look on his face, that’s what he’s been worrying about for days. ‘I didn’t want to be the reason you were unhappy.’
‘You’re not. I … Listen, this marriage might be a ruse, but it’s an enjoyable one.’
He smiles, not his regular mocking smile but something slighter, more intimate, like there’s a joke only he gets.
‘No more stupid arguments, okay?’ I say.
‘Stupid argument? So you acknowledge it?’ The mocking grin is back.
‘Shut up.’
‘Witty retort. You should challenge Thalia to be the Muse of comedy.’
‘One more word and I’ll be challenging Melpomene for Muse of tragedy.’
‘Oh, wife, how I’ve missed you.’
A blush starts creeping up my skin. Oh Fates, not this again.
‘Don’t lie to me again and you won’t have to miss me.’
‘I wouldn’t dream of it.’ He raises his hands in fake surrender.
‘Good. Come with me. We have work to do.’
Back on the ledge overlooking the humans, I tell Hades my plans. We scan the plains and I’m unable to really believe what I’m seeing. So many souls and none of them ambling around as their memories decay.
‘So I’m thinking we divide the afterlife into three separate parts,’ I say. ‘We have one part that’s paradise. I’ll create all thethings you’ve painted and make them real, and we can keep building as we think of more things, an ever-expanding world of promise and hope. One that might entice a human to make moral choices, unlike what the gods of Olympus encourage. The paradise can have different parts for different people, so those who long for mountain ranges can have those and people who want to play petteia all day can do that.’
‘What if they want to play petteia up a mountain?’
I pinch the bridge of my nose. ‘Maybe I haven’t forgiven you for lying to me. There were actually quite nice parts about you not talking to me.’
‘I’m terribly sorry. Continue.’
I can see from his smirk that he’s not sorry at all. And I’m even more annoyed to find I’ve somehow moved closer to him during our discussion. Our sleeves are brushing. Now that I’m aware of it, it’s the only thing I can think about.
‘And then … you know, um … most humans aren’t really all good or all bad, so we can create a place that isn’t terrible but isn’t exactly exciting either. It’s like … I don’t know, just being fine for all eternity. Like this, actually. I’m thinking it could just be this field of asphodel – peaceful but not really much of anything. And then there’s a place for the worst humans.’
He hasn’t moved away from me. Is he aware of how close we’re standing?
