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"Never, beloved."
She led him to her bed. While she stroked him he explored her body. The chemise was so thin that it felt like she had been wrapped in mist. He found her nipple, teasing and suckling it through the transparent material. He remembered the touches that brought her pleasure, and he did not need her to guide his hand. She responded to him as if they had been lovers for centuries. Suddenly she sat up and pulled the chemise from her body. When he moved to take her back into his arms, she stopped him.
"What is it, beloved?"
"I want you to do something for me."
"Anything," he said.
"I want you to make love to me with your eyes closed. Pretend you cannot see my body." She peered into his face as if she were searching for an answer written there. "Can you make love to me without looking at me?"
He smiled and closed his eyes. Blind, he opened his arms to her and she fel into his embrace. Surrounded by her scent and touch, Hades existed in a world of Persephone's sensations. Without seeing her, he had to pay more attention to her smal sounds and fol ow the flow of her hips and the movement of her body. When her breathing quickened and his name sighed from her lips he did not need to see her flushed face to know he was bringing her pleasure. In his soul he felt her need and Hades responded with caress after caress. And then he fil ed her body and they rocked together in an ancient rhythm that needed no sight or sound - only feelings. Later she nestled against him, her head resting on his shoulder. He didn't know it yet, but he had helped her to make her decision, and now that she had made it, she felt at peace. Whatever happened next, she would survive it. Nothing could ever be as terrible as the black nothingness of Tartarus. With Hades' help, she had found her way free of that ultimate nightmare, and now she must be free of al the lies remaining in her life. She wasn't wil ing to hide the truth from him any longer. Demeter's anger be damned, she would tel him. He deserved to know everything. He loved her soul.
"Hades, I have to tel you something."
The God smiled. "May I keep my eyes open?"
Lina laughed softly. "Yes."
She sat up so that she was facing him, the silk sheet wrapped around her naked body. Hades grabbed a few pil ows from the disheveled bed, and propped himself comfortably against the padded headboard. He raised his dark eyebrows questioningly.
"I didn't mean to go to Tartarus. It was an accident. I was too upset to realize where I was until it was too late."
Hades frowned. Just the thought of how close she had been to losing her soul made his stomach tighten. "I know, beloved. You don't have to explain it to me. It was my fault. If I hadn't hurt you - "
"Sssh..." Lina leaned forward and pressed a finger against his lips. "Let me finish." The God looked uncomfortable, but he remained silent.
"Tartarus was," she shivered, "horrible. It cal ed to me. It knew things about me - every bad thing I've ever done, or even ever thought about doing. Every mistake I've made. It caused me to lose myself. I could feel it capturing my soul. There was nothing I could do." She took his hand and laced her fingers with his. "Then I heard you. You cal ed me back. Me, Hades. The real me - the soul inside the body."
"I had to get you back. I love you," he said.
"And I love you, too. But you need to know more than that. I am not who you think I am. I am not
- "
" Enough, Persephone!" Demeter's voice cut through Lina's words. "Your time here is finished. You must return."
Appal ed, Hades shot from Persephone's bed. Giving no thought to his nakedness, he faced the Goddess who had materialized in the middle of his beloved's chamber.
"What do you mean by this intrusion, Demeter?" he chal enged. "This is not your realm. You have no right to trespass here."
"You dal y with my daughter, Lord of the Underworld, and I have come to reclaim her. I am her mother. That is al the right I need."
"You are not my mother." Lina enunciated the words carefully so that there could be no mistaking what she was saying. She stood next to Hades, clutching the sheet to her breasts. Demeter sighed. "Let us not play these childish games, Daughter. Your adventure has ended. It is time you return to your own reality."
"I know I can't stay, but I won't leave without tel ing him the truth. He deserves to know. He loves me."
"You are being a young fool," Demeter said.
"As you know very wel , I am not young. And let me tel you once and for al , I am not a fool, either." She faced Hades and looked into his eyes. "I'm not real y Persephone. My name is Carolina Francesca Santoro, but most people cal me Lina. I am a forty-three-year-old mortal woman who owns a bakery in a place cal ed Tulsa, Oklahoma. Demeter exchanged my soul with her daughter's." She glanced at
Demeter and her mouth twisted into a sardonic smile before she looked back at the God. "She said she would help me out with a problem I was having, and in exchange I needed to do a little job for her in the Underworld."
The God's eyes widened.
"Remember when you overheard her reminding me how immortals love? She wasn't reminding me, she was explaining it to me because I'm a mortal. The whole thing was new to me."
"You are not the Goddess of Spring?"
"No, I am definitely not the Goddess of Spring," Lina said. She was so relieved to final y be tel ing the truth, that she didn't notice that Hades' face had gone expressionless.
"So it has al been a lie," Hades said.
"I wanted to tel you, but I gave my word to Demeter that I would keep my real identity a secret." Lina tried to touch his arm, but Hades flinched away from her.
"The things you said to me... what we did together. It was al pretense?"
"No!" Lina felt her stomach knot as she watched Hades withdraw into himself. She reached out to him, but again he moved away from her. "I meant everything I said, everything I did. It's just this body that is a lie. Everything else has been real. I love you; that is real."
"How can love be based on a lie?" he said coldly.
"Please don't do this," she pleaded with him, trying to reach the man inside the God. "Don't let us part like this. We can't be together. I have to return to my own world, but let's not make hurtful words what we remember when we're apart."
"Do not beg for his love like a common mortal, Carolina," Demeter's voice interrupted Lina. "There is enough Goddess within you that you should have more pride."
Lina spun to face her. "You caused this! He does love me, he just feels betrayed because of your insistence on maintaining a lie. I don't blame him - how could he feel any other way right now?" Demeter raised on arched eyebrow. "You believe he loves you, Carolina Francesca Santoro? Then let us test your belief in this immortal's love."
With a flick of her wrist, Demeter showered Lina in golden sparks. Lina felt her body tremble and she was suddenly horribly dizzy. She closed her eyes, fighting against nausea. Then there was an odd settling feeling, like she had just stepped back into a comfortable pair of jeans. Before she opened her eyes she knew what she would see.
Across the room, the ful -length mirror - the mirror she had preened in just that morning -
reflected a new image. Lina's body was her own again. Gone was the lean young body of the Goddess. Lina's curves were fuller, and she was older and decidedly not perfect.
"You are a mortal." The God sounded strangled.
Lina shifted her gaze from the mirror to Hades. He was staring at her, his face a mask of shock and disbelief.
"Yes, I am a mortal," she said. Squaring her shoulders she dropped the sheet, exposing al of herself to him. "And I am also the woman who loves you."
Hades averted his face, and refused to look at her. "How could you have lied al this time?"
"And what good would the truth have done?" Demeter broke in indignantly. "You would have shunned her as you do now." Her tone turned sarcastic. "At least you final y possessed the body of a goddess, Lord of the Dead. The irony is that you have a mortal to thank for it. No true goddess would have you."
Hades clenched his jaw. While Demeter had been speaking his face had become very pale. When his eyes met Lina's she saw only anger and rejection reflected in their darkness.
"Leave my realm," he commanded in a voice that raised the hair on Lina's arms.
"Come, Carolina. Your time here is finished." Demeter moved to Lina's side and covered her with her cloak. Without another word, the Palace of Hades faded from around them.
