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A wicked smile crossed Hades’ face, and suddenly, he thought he understood why she was here, why she was leveling these accusations at him—because she was now one of his gamblers.
“I see to the soul,” he said.“What burdens it, what corrupts it, what destroys it, and I challenge it.”
“You are the worst sort of god!”
Hades flinched.
“Persephone—” Adonis spoke her name, but his warning was lost over Hades’ reaction.
“I am helping these mortals,” he argued, taking a deliberate step toward her. It was not his fault she did not like his answer.
She leaned toward him, demanding.“How? By offering an impossible bargain? Abstain from addiction or lose your life? That’s absolutely ridiculous, Hades!”
Her eyes had brightened, and he noted that her hold on her mother’s glamour had faltered the angrier she became.
“I have had success.”
She would know that if she was not so eager to only see the bad in him. Wasn’t that the mark of a good journalist? Understand and interview both sides?
“Oh? And what is your success? I suppose it doesn’t matter to you as you win either way, right? All souls come to you at some point.”
He moved to close the distance between them, his frustration boiling over. As he did, Adonis stepped between him and Persephone, and Hades did what he had wanted to do since the mortal stepped into his office—he paralyzed him, sending him to the floor, unconscious.
“What did you do?” Persephone demanded and started to reach for him, but Hades took her wrists and drew her flush against him. His words were rough and rushed.
“I’m assuming you don’t want him to hear what I have to say to you. Don’t worry, I won’t request a favor when I erase his memory.”
She scowled at him.
“Oh, how kind of you,” she mocked, her chest rising and falling with each angry breath. It made him aware of their proximity, reminded him of the kiss he had pressed to her skin the day before. Heat curled in the bottom of his stomach, and his eyes dropped to her lips.
“What liberties you take with my favor, Lady Persephone.” His voice was controlled, but he felt anything but composed on the inside. Inside, he felt raw and primal.
“You never specified how I had to use your favor.”
“I didn’t, though I expected you to know better than to dragthismortal into my realm,” Hades glanced at Adonis.
Her eyes widened slightly.“Do you know him?”
Hades ignored that question; he would come back to it later. For now, he would challenge her reason for coming to Nevernight to begin with.
“You plan to write a story about me?” He felt himself leaning in, bending her backward and holding her tighter, sealing their bodies together. He was certain the only way he could get closer to her was if he was inside her, a thought that made his stomach feel hollow and his cock hard.“Tell me, Lady Persephone, will you detail your experiences with me? How you recklessly invited me to your table, begged me to teach you cards—”
“I did not beg!”
“Will you speak of how you flush from your pretty head to your toes in my presence and how I make you lose your breath—”
“Shut up!”
It amused him that she did not want to hear this—all the ways she communicated her desire for him, all the ways her body betrayed the words that came out of her mouth. Her body was supple beneath his hands, and he knew if he trailed his hand between her thighs, she would be hot and wet.
“Will you speak of the favor I have given you, or are you too ashamed?”
“Stop!”
She pulled away, and he released her. She stumbled back, breathing hard, her pretty skin flushed. Though he did not show it, he felt the same.
“You may blame me for the choices you made, but it changes nothing,” Hades said, and felt he was challenging the real reason she came here—to tell him his bargain with her was unfair, for retribution.“You areminefor six months, and that means if you write about me, I will ensure there are consequences.”
