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“The prophecy states that your marriage will produce a god more powerful than Zeus,” said Hera. “A child born of this union would be a very powerful god—a giver of life and death.”
Hades ground his teeth.
“There is no child. There will benochildren.”
Poseidon offered a humorless laugh. “Even the most careful of men have children, Hades. How can you possibly ensure that when you cannot even get through a dance without leaving to fuck?”
“I do not have to be careful. It is the Fates who have taken my ability to have children. It is the Fates who wove Persephone into my world.”
Hera tilted her head as if she were curious, her eyes on Persephone. “Do youwishto remain childless?”
“I want to marry Hades,” Persephone answered. “If I must remain childless, then I will.”
Hades swallowed hard, noting how she didn’t offer an outright no, and suddenly he felt like he was taking something away from her.
There was another beat of silence before Zeus looked at Hades. “You arecertainyou cannot have children, Brother?”
“Very.”
The Fates rarely reversed their decrees. In fact, Hades could not think of one instance when they had.
“Let them marry, Zeus,” Poseidon said, almost dismissively, as if he were bored of this. “Obviously they wish to fuck as husband and wife.”
“And if the marriage produces a child?” Zeus asked. “I do not trust the Fates. Their threads are ever-moving, ever-changing.”
“Then we take the child,” Hera said suddenly, her voice devoid of any emotion, likely because it wasn’t the first time she had tried to solve a problem by stealing away or disposing of a child.
Though they had established that Hades could not have children, Persephone’s fingers squeezed his hand, nails biting into his skin. He understood—it felt like a violation all the same.
“There will be no child,” Hades said again, the words slipping between his gritted teeth. His hatred for everything this meeting stood for burned his blood, and he hoped Zeus could feel that in his stare.
After what seemed like an eternity, Zeus spoke. “I will bless this union, but if the goddess ever becomes pregnant,” he said, his eyes slipping to Persephone, “the infant must be terminated.”
It was enough.
Hades called up his magic and teleported to the Underworld just as Persephone swayed and fell to her knees, vomiting at his feet.
CHAPTER XL
HADES
He knelt beside her and took her into his arms, brushing her hair from her face.
“It’s okay,” he said, though he didn’t believe his own words. He understood why this was devastating, even given that they would not…couldnot have children. It was the violation of the whole thing. They had to admit to things that should have remained between them.
“It’s not. It isn’t,” she sobbed. “I willdestroyhim. I willendhim.”
“My darling,” he said. “I have no doubt. Come, on your feet.” He urged her to her feet and took her face between his hands, holding her teary gaze. “Persephone, I would never—will never—let them have any part of you. Do you understand?”
She nodded, taking a breath but clearly overwhelmed, so he took her to the baths and helped her out of her dress and into the tub. She sat with her knees to her chest and seemed to relax the longer she remained in the warm water.
Hades lowered to his knees beside the pool and ran soap and water over her skin. He worked slowly, in time with her breaths, which became deep and shallow, and then her hand came down on his wrist, halting his touch as it passed over her breasts.
“Hades,” she murmured, her eyes falling to his mouth.
The tension between them was thick and burning, and they seemed to move at the same time, each of them dragging the other closer. Their lips collided in a hard kiss that sent a wave of heat straight to his groin.
“I want you,” she said, gripping him tight.
