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Hades raised a brow.“Murderous thoughts already, Hecate? It isn’t even noon yet.”
She smiled.“I am more creative at night.”
Hades chuckled, and they fell into a comfortable silence. Hades, lost in his own thoughts. Hecate, staring at the moon. After a moment, she asked him again,“What troubles you?”
“The Fates,” he said.
“Oh, the besties. What have they done?”
“They have given me a wife,” he said, raising both his brows.“Demeter’s daughter.”
Hecate laughed and quickly covered her mouth with her hand at Hades’ arched glance.
“S-Sorry,” she said, and cleared her throat, composing herself.“Is she horrible?”
“No,” Hades said.“That’s probably the worst part. She is beautiful.”
“Then why are you so glum?”
Hades explained the trajectory of his evening in as few words as possible—Aphrodite’s bargain, seeing Persephone for the first time, realizing his primal reaction to claim her was unusual, and uncovering the thread that connected them.
“You should have seen how she looked at me when she realized who I was. She was horrified.”
“I doubt she was horrified,” Hecate said.“Surprised, perhaps—maybe even mortified if her thoughts were anything like yours.”
Hecate gave him a knowing look, but Hades was not so sure. Hecate had not been there.
“I have never known you to back down from a challenge, Hades.”
“I haven’t,” he said. He had done the opposite—he had, essentially, bound her to him for the next six months.
Hecate waited for him to explain.
“She played me.”
“What?”
“She invited me to her table for a game, and she lost,” Hades explained.
By tomorrow morning, his mark would appear on Persephone’s skin, and when she returned to him, he would offer her the terms of their contract. If she failed, she would be a resident of the Underworld forever.
“Hades, you didn’t.”
He just looked at the witch-goddess.
“It is Divine Law,” he said.
Hecate glared, knowing that was not true. Hades could have chosen to let her go with no demands upon her time, and he had chosen not to. If the Fates were going to connect them, why not take control?
“Do you not want her love? Why would you force her into a contract?”
After a moment, he admitted aloud,“Because I did not think she would come back.”
He did not look at Hecate, but her silence told him she pitied him, and he hated that.
“What will you ask of her?” she inquired.
“What I ask of everyone,” he said.
