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That should remind him who he’s dealing with, Hades thought to himself, briefly pausing on the porch as the door fell shut behind him. The wood cracked lightly with the force of hitting the frame, but with barely a thought from Hades the cracks and gaps stitched themselves back together, and the door was intact once again.
With the purpose of his visit finished, Hades drained his wine, letting the goldenkylixdrop from his hand and disappear before slamming onto the stone stairs that led down to the grassy ground.
As he walked away from the house, Hades rolled his neck, reveling in the sharp, pleasant stretch that lanced down his neck toward his shoulders as he did so. Stretching his shoulders back, he cracked his knuckles and peered over the cliff edge down to the raging waters of the Mediterranean.
The harsh wind whipped his hair around wildly, making hischitonbillow to the side to expose one powerful thigh to the elements.
Without looking back at the house, Hades walked off the edge and plummeted toward the sea.
2
YOUNG LOVE
Just as the sun came out from hiding behind a puffy white cloud, Persephone jumped out from the tree she hid behind. She pounced onto Pelops’ back and tackled him onto the grassy ground. They rolled into the dip between two small hills, the grass and dry twigs lightly scratching her exposed skin.
Pelops pulled himself out of her arms and sat back on his ankles to look at her. His face broke into a wide grin at the sight of her hair matted with bits of earth, grass, and twigs. He laughed while carefully untangling it for her, resting a hand on her shoulder as he did. Her face warmed at his touch.
Despite spending most of their days together for the past few years, Persephone always balked at his closeness, her stomach always twisting with nerves. She hid behind the mass of curls that had come loose in their tumble, letting him gently tug the chunks of grassy dirt and twigs free from the strands, until heat no longer radiated off her face.
As soon as she tossed her hair behind her shoulders he grabbed her face with both hands, and pulled her flush against him, kissing her hard. The warmth, pleasant this time, returned across her face and chest as she slowly laid back in the grass, bringing Pelops with her.
Instead of following her lead though, Pelops pulled away and quickly dropped his hands from her face, staring blankly into the forest behind her. She followed his gaze, looking for the wildlife that tore his attention from her, but only saw leaves waving in the breeze and rough brown bark covering the bodies of the trees.
“I have something that,” he swallowed and glanced around, looking anywhere but at her, “I need to talk to you about.” His eyes turned to her again, but Persephone wasn’t looking at him anymore. She had laid back onto the grass, closing her eyes to bright blue sky, the sun warming her face.
“I know,” she said, her eyes closed, “me too.” She shifted her legs, crossing her ankles and uncrossing them; fidgeting with the hem of her shortchiton, tugging it down her legs, though it didn’t stretch any further than halfway to her knees. “I think it’s time we get married.” She peeked at him from the corner of her eye, straining to see his face and act nonchalant all at once.
Sweat broke at his hairline, the tiny beads framing his face and disappearing down his neck. Persephone shut her eyes again, and struggled to keep her voice steady as she repeated, “It’s time we get married,” with more confidence. Pushing herself up onto her elbows and letting her neck drop between her shoulders in as casual a way as she could, Persephone listened to the speed of his breathing increase.
“I’ve actually been trying to mention it for awhile, but every time I’ve started to bring it up you’ve run off somewhere,” she said. She opened her eyes and lifted her head to look at him. “It’s just that,” she swallowed, her throat suddenly dry, her tongue sticking to the roof of her mouth. She tried again, “It’s just—”
“That you love me and I love you and when people are in love, especially girls of your age,” he gestured toward her, his wrist loose, “they get married,” Pelops interrupted, his voice hard. His mouth was set in a harsh line, his jaw clenched tight and his eyes hardened as they made eye contact.
Persephone ignored the comment about her age, her attention immediately drawn to the irritation lacing his words. He was angry. She had thought this was clearly the next step, it was the natural progression of relationships. Sure, he had voiced concerns about marrying her before, about how some maidens become wives while others’ maintained long-term partnerships never to result in marriage; but with everything they’d done with each other this summer, everything they’d done to each other this summer…
Persephone raised an eyebrow in question, too afraid to use her voice lest it betray the heartache building up in her chest, and stabbing the back of her throat.
The sun was hot and high in the sky. Not a single cloud dotted the sky to break up the scorching heat from the mid-day sun beating down on them. Yet, the heat in her face had nothing to do with the sun, nothing to do with the relentless heat of the summer weather. Embarrassment flooded her cheeks, colouring her face and chest while they sat in silence for an eternity.
She would give anything for a breeze right now. For a wild, out-of-season winter storm to send them running to their respective homes. To get away from the piercing green eyes across from her, staring into her, watching her as she frantically tried not to fall apart.
Her hands shook slightly as she took his in them, holding them to her, and she stuttered out, “I – I just thought – thought that we – you and me – were,” she shook her head, her eyes darting from side to side as she tried to finish her thought. “I thought we were in love.” The words were choked, barely understandable to her own ears but she knew Pelops had understood. Knew from the way his face dropped, her eyes staring intently on her hands grasping his own.
“We are. I love you,” he said, his voice cracking on the word ‘love’. Then he slowly pulled his hands from under her grasp, placing them in his lap.
A soundless sob wracked through her at his movement, her back hunching forward and pushing the air from her body. She stared at her hands, twisting them together while blinking back the tears burning her eyes. She focused on the part of her nail that met the skin of her finger, picking at it and pulling the skin up, resisting the urge to tear it off with her teeth.
Blood beaded out from the corner she’d picked off, filling the unoccupied space. Persephone watched it fill the small hole she’d carved out before wiping it away with her thumb and watching it refill again. Anything to keep her eyes busy, her mind busy. Anything to not think about the man sitting with her – the man telling her whatever they had was over.
Until his hand lightly gripped her chin and forced her to look up at him again, into the most beautiful eyes she had ever seen. “Persephone,” he said, her name in his mouth felt like being pricked by a thorn all over her sensitive skin, and she had to bite down hard to keep from crying. “You should know—”
“Stop!” A voice sang from behind Persephone as the nymph it belonged to sauntered into the clearing. “We have arrived and Melia would rather not see the sexiness that goes down between you two when we’re not around. Though,” she continued, “personally, I wouldn’t mind.”
Persephone could hear the wink in Elektra’s voice, and laughed a little, glad her friends had arrived to break the depressing mood. She half-turned toward them, smiling widely, watching Melia trudge behind her sister as they made their way down the hill and into the dip she and Pelops were occupying.
Melia had far more baskets than Elektra, who was carrying four travel-sizedamphoraeas her sister hunched over with the weight of her own baskets.
Laughing at the imbalanced struggle – typical of Elektra to leave it all to her sister – Persephone moved to help them, but fell back to the grass with a quiet yelp of surprise
