It’s not a lie that I adore this world – but, looking intoHades’ eyes, I know it’s not what I would mourn the most if I had to leave.
Gods, how am I supposed to marry a man I am on the brink of falling in love with?
He nods, slowly.
‘Very well,’ he agrees.
I want to scream in delight and crush him in my embrace and break down with heaving sobs. It’s too much. I feel like I’m suffocating.
His hands are still on my face and his thumb wipes away a tear that I didn’t realize had broken free.
‘Persephone,’ he says gently. ‘I’d do anything you asked of me. But are you sure you’re okay with this?’
So I start our marriage off with a lie: I nod. When he doesn’t look convinced I force a smile. ‘Sorry, sorry. I was just so scared about them taking me back. Thank you, Hades! Thank you so much. Fates, this is perfect! Imagine how angry they’ll be when, on the cusp of them finding me, we announce our engagement. We should do it today. Oh, this is going to be so much fun.’
It’s one of the best performances of my life. But Hades doesn’t look like he believes me.
‘All right, I trust you,’ he says after a moment. ‘But I hope you know what this entails – I’ll summon the court and I suppose we’ll see how well we can convince them we’re wildly in love before we try it with the Olympians.’
I swallow, unable to meet his eyes. When I finally manage to glance up at him, his eyes are lit with a challenge.
‘Well, Persephone, I hope you’re as good a liar as you claim.’
HADES HAS THE NYMPHS WORKINGon a thousand things at once while I rush to ensure all is well enough with the humans that I can temporarily leave them to plan a wedding. I’m trying to think about anything, really, other than the threat my father has just made. Or that I am, despite a lifetime trying to avoid it, engaged. Even now, just thinking the word ‘marriage’ has my stomach in knots.
No, I think of anything but those things.
So I repair souls and discuss versions of paradise, and I gather with my regular group of mortal women and tell them I have changed my mind and accepted his proposal. I let their chatter wash over me, relax me, and just being out among these souls I feel calmer.
I can’t leave this place. These people are no longer fading to raw husks of memory; they’re whole, impossibly alive in the Underworld, and they’re wonderful. I can’t imagine not seeing them again, talking to them again – I love them and this world, and to stay here I’d give up my freedom, give up any dream of seeing Sicily again. I’d even give up any chance of my mother’sapproval. And maybe I’m not wholly convinced by the time I return to the palace but I’m ready to lie through my teeth, even to myself.
I’m so distracted that I don’t notice Styx until I nearly collide with her in the hallway.
‘Would you care to explain why I’ve been summoned to court this evening?’ she asks.
‘Well … Hades and I might be getting married.’
‘Right.’ She nods. ‘I’m sorry, how drunk was I the other night?’
‘Very. But this happened this morning.’
I tell her everything that happened in one breath.
I expect Styx to swear or make some sarcastic comment or insist that marriage isn’t the solution.
Instead she asks me how I feel about it all, and I burst into tears. ‘I’m scared,’ I admit. ‘What if this doesn’t work? What if the marriage infuriates them more?’
‘I don’t think they can be more infuriated,’ she says. ‘You literally have nothing to lose.’
‘I have everything to lose.’
‘Well, you’re losing it anyway. I think it’s a great idea – the only way to placate them on the surface while riling them beneath. Theywillbe infuriated – is that not entirely the point? You’ll have thwarted them at the final step.’
I nod slowly. ‘Yes, yes, I suppose so. I also can’t think of anything else to do.’
She shrugs. ‘Marriagewillafford you some protection. Being the queen of Hell will afford you more.’
I hadn’t even thought of that. Fates, how had I not even thought of that?
