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“Persephone!”
As she walked, she pulled on her clothes. He hurried to catch up with her, exposed in the hallway outside the baths.
“Fuck!”
When he reached her, he grabbed her arm and pulled her into the throne room. He shut the door, and pushed her into it, caging her with his arms. She pushed against his chest, but he didn’t budge.
“I want to know why!” she demanded, her voice was thick with tears, and Hades hated that he had caused this pain. Hated that he was the reason she was broken, but he sensed something else inside her, something powerful waking the angrier she became.“Was I an easy target? Did you look at my soul and see someone who was desperate for love, for worship? Did you choose me because you knew I couldn’t fulfill the terms of your bargain?
“It wasn’t like that.”
It was something so completely different. If he could only explain, but he didn’t want to start with the Fates because even though they had woven her into his future, he would have still wanted her. When he looked at her, he saw her power, he saw her compassion, he saw his queen.
“Then tell me what it was!”
“Yes, Aphrodite and I have a contract, but the bargain I struck with you had nothing to do with it. I offered you terms based on what I saw in your soul—a woman caged by her own mind.” He knew what he said next would piss her off, but she needed to hear it.“You are the one who called the contract impossible, but you are powerful, Persephone.”
“Donotmock me.”
“I would never.”
She snarled,“Liar.”
There were few things he hated more than that word.
“I am many things, but a liar I am not.”
“Not a liar then, but a self-admitted deceiver.”
“I have only ever given you answers,” he said, growing angrier by the second.“I have helped you reclaim your power, and yet you haven’t used it. I have given you a way to walk out from underneath your mother, and yet you will not claim it.”
“How? What did you do to help me?”
“I worshipped you!” he snapped.“I gave you what your mother withheld—worshippers.”
If Demeter had introduced Persephone to society upon her birth, her powers would have blossomed, she would have had alters built and temples erected in her name, she would have risen in the ranks, surpassing Olympians in popularity. Of that, he was certain.
She blinked up at him.
“You mean to tell me you forced me into a contract when you could have just told me I needed worshippers to gain my powers?”
It was not that simple, and she knew it. She had rejected Divinity as if it were the plague. He did not believe she would have done anything with that knowledge but hide, fearing the unknown.
“It’s not about powers, Persephone! It’s never been about magic or illusion or glamour. It’s about confidence. It’s about believing in yourself!”
“That’s twisted, Hades—”
“Is it?” he said, cutting her off. He did not wish to hear her tell him how terrible he was, how deceptive he was, how much of a liar he was.“Tell me, if you’d known, what would you have done? Announced your Divinity to the whole world so that you might gain a following and consequently, your power?” She knew the answer, and so did he.“No, you’ve never been able to decide what you want, because you value your mother’s happiness over your own!”
“I had freedom until you, Hades.”
“You thought you were free before me?” he asked, leaning toward her.“You just traded glass walls for another kind of prison when you came to New Athens.”
“Why don’t you keep telling me how pathetic I am?” she spat.
“That’s not what I—”
“Isn’t it? Let me tell you what else makes me pathetic. I fell for you.”
