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“Well, that was easy,” said Hermes.
Then he jerked on Okeanos’s arm, tearing it from his body as if it were nothing but paper. While the demigod writhed, Hermes tossed the limb aside, and it landed with a wet thud on the floor in front of Hades.
He met Hermes’s gaze, whose face was spattered with blood, and spoke over the demigod’s guttural cries. “Do what you wish with him,” Hades said. “But I want that warehouse destroyed, and while you’re at it…burn that club to the ground.”
“You got it,” said Hermes as he took Okeanos’s other arm in hand, but before he could tear it from his body, Hades left.
Hades disrobed and climbed into bed beside Persephone. He lay on his side, watching her sleep, thinking about what Okeanos had said. The news that Demeter hadbeen behind the attacks on Adonis, Harmonia, and Tyche would likely devastate Persephone.
It was one thing to suspect her mother’s involvement, another to have it confirmed.
There were times when Hades wondered how someone could possess this kind of hatred for anyone, but Demeter continued to maintain it for him, and all because the Fates had woven his destiny with Persephone’s. Something he considered a gift was Demeter’s greatest curse.
Persephone stirred, and Hades’s heart raced as she faced him. He recognized how often he had taken this for granted, and he never would again. There was a part of him that was angry he could not simply live in the knowledge that she would be beside him forever.
“You’re awake,” he said, his voice quiet.
She smiled, as if she were amused. “Yes. Have you slept?”
“I have been awake for a while,” he said, though he had not slept at all. He reached between them and brushed her lips with the tips of his fingers. “It is a blessing to watch you sleep.”
She shifted closer, and he wrapped his arms around her as she laid her head on his chest.
“Did Tyche make it across the river?” she asked.
“Yes, Hecate was there to greet her. They are very good friends.”
They were silent for a moment, resting in each other’s warmth. He would have liked to stay like this forever, buried beneath Persephone’s weight, but he knew they were running out of time. The attacks on the Divine were escalating, and Persephone was still not ableto control her power. He thought of what Hecate had said in the aftermath of the club.She would have been fine had she channeled it correctly.
“I would like to train with you today,” he said.
“I would like that.”
Hades frowned, doubtful. “I don’t think you will.”
He had no intention of making this fun. When she faced him, it would be as if they were enemies on the battlefield.
She would not even know him.
Persephone pulled away to look at him.
“Why do you say that?”
He studied her for a moment, then his eyes fell to her lips.
“Just remember that I love you.”
She shifted on top of him, sliding down his length until she had consumed him. There were no words as they moved together, nothing spoken beyond their quickening breaths. He lost himself in her, knowing that when he surfaced, things might not be the same again.
Persephone’s gaze touched every part of him. Hades could feel it tracing over his body, burning his soul. It would make this harder for her, worse for him. He could already see uncertainty moving behind her eyes. She did not know what to make of his flat affect. He had never been indifferent to her, but they had entered a space where teaching her meant showing her a harsher power—the terrible truth of the gods.
She was afraid to hurt people.
She could not be afraid to hurt the Divine.
“I will not watch you bleed again,” he said. It was an oath to her, a promise to himself.
“Teach me.”
