Captured (Shadow Guild Hades & Persephone #3) - Linsey Hall Page 0,61
Hades in the main living room. He was dressed in his house armor, the sturdy leather uniform that was his idea of casual attire. Echo sat on his shoulder, and though Hades looked a bit disgruntled about it, he tolerated it. The bat had taken a real liking to him, and I was pretty sure Hades was developing a fondness for Echo as well.
“Come on.” I grabbed a roll off the breakfast platter that was spread out by the door, then headed out into the hall.
He joined me, and together we walked through the castle. We hadn’t fully figured out our living arrangements yet, but because our worlds were connected by a portal, it wasn’t difficult for us to live together. I was still getting used to it, but I found that the only place I wanted to be was by his side.
We reached the main hall without seeing Lucifer. That would have been unusual once upon a time, given that he’d been my shadow. But he’d disappeared after the battle for the Crown of Destiny, and we hadn’t heard from him since. He’d survived, at least. Like everyone had, thank fates. There had been some grievous injuries, but no deaths.
Hades nodded at the guards by the door. They looked as afraid of him as ever, which was fine. It was the way of things here. At least I’d gotten him to move torture square away from the main road. And the food was better since I’d fixed the crops.
As we descended the castle stairs, I felt the weight of the crown on my head. A similar crown rested on Hades’ brow.
As usual, people appeared at their doors to watch us pass, and I leaned toward Hades. “You’re going to have to get them to stop that. It’s a bit weird.”
“They’re pleased to have a queen. Can you blame them?”
I sighed. “It’s not official yet.”
“That crown says otherwise.”
We were two halves of the same whole.
I gripped his hand, smiling at the Night Wolves who sat on the library steps. Fortunately, my grandmother had been right. Everyone who’d been frozen had forgotten what had happened to them—even the supernaturals.
It was damned weird to share that memory with only twenty people, but I was grateful it was over and the Earth had returned to normal. Honestly, it was better for me. I didn’t want to go down in the history books as the girl who’d released a Titan and frozen the Earth.
We ascended the stairs, and I caught sight of Cerberus sitting in the large courtyard behind the library. He’d taken to visiting more often, and that was his favorite place.
The main library was silent and dark as we entered, but the spiders skittered closer to watch us, their brilliant, jewel-colored bodies glinting in the light.
Together, we went through the portal. The ether sucked us in and spun us through space. We emerged in the library on the other side.
The beautiful wooden shelves of books beckoned, gleaming leather spines illuminated by the candles floating in the air. A fire burst to life on the hearth, and beams of sunlight streamed through the windows to dance on the tile floor.
I turned to Hades. “You kidnapped me from this very library not long ago.”
He had the grace to wince. “Not the most auspicious start, but we’re here on better terms now.”
“Much better.”
He pulled me to him, pressing a kiss to my lips. Warmth flowed through me, filling me to the brim. I leaned back and looked up at him. “I wouldn’t have wanted to miss this for the world.”
He smiled down at me. “To me, you are the world.”
~~~
Thank you for reading the story of Hades and Seraphia! My next series—staring one of their Guild City friends—will be here in early 2021.
In the meantime, click here to join my Facebook if you want to discuss the book with fellow readers or hear about other fun book stuff.
Acknowledgments
Thank you, Ben, for everything. There would be no books without you.
Thank you to Jena O’Connor and Lexi George for your excellent editing. The book is immensely better because of you!
Thank you to Jes Ireland at Black Bird Book Covers for the beautiful cover art and Orina Kafe for the amazing typography. Thank you to Laurel Schroeder, my amazing narrator. Thank you to Susie for your eagle eye in catching typos.
And thank you to the FireSouls, my Facebook group of awesome readers, for always being there for me :-)
Author’s Note
Hey there! I hope you enjoyed Captured. As with all of my other books, there are some places where I drew from history and myth, and some places where I changed it to suit the story. The myth element is fairly obvious in Captured, but during the course of researching for various elements, I did find some new and interesting elements. One of those was the Astra Planeta. They were the children of Eos, the goddess of the dawn, and Astraeus, the Titan of astronomy. They were the gods of the five wandering stars, which we know as planets. Phaethon, who represented Jupiter, and Pyroeis, who represented Mars, appeared in the book. Their three companions were Phainon, for Saturn, Eosphoros for Venus, and Stilbon, for Mercury.
Prior to Covid-19, much of my research involved travel. But as we all sadly know, that is not possible now. So I turned to Google Maps, which led me to some extremely cool archaeological sites in Cyprus. The adventure to visit Demeter was inspired by the archaeological ruins at Amathus on the southern coast of Cyprus. Amathus was an ancient royal city until roughly 300 BC. It was actually a cult city that worshiped Aphrodite, but I stole it for Demeter. The city is spread out over the hills on the coast, and the great cauldron that Seraphia finds was based upon a similar stone vessel that was found at the site. It has been dated to the 6th century BC and is six feet tall and 14 tons in weight. Absolutely massive. The original is now in the Louvre in Paris, but a replica sits at the original site in Amathus. It is decorated with bulls to represent Aphrodite and was likely used to hold the water used for rituals at her temple. I changed it to be decorated with wheat for Demeter. The city is also known for its mosaic floors, which also appeared in the book, however the real mosaic floors from Amathus are actually from an early Christian Basilica.
That’s it for the history and myth in this book. Thank you for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the story of Hades and Seraphia. There will be more from the Shadow Guild in in early 2021.
About Linsey
Before becoming a writer, Linsey Hall was a nautical archaeologist who studied shipwrecks from Hawaii and the Yukon to the UK and the Mediterranean. She credits fantasy and historical romances with her love of history and her career as an archaeologist. After a decade of tromping around the globe in search of old bits of stuff that people left lying about, she settled down and started penning her own romance novels. Her Dragon’s Gift series draws upon her love of history and the paranormal elements that she can't help but include.
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. All reference to events, persons, and locale are used fictitiously, except where documented in historical record. Names, characters, and places are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.
Copyright 2020 by Linsey Hall
Published by Bonnie Doon Press LLC
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form, except in instances of quotation used in critical articles or book review. Where such permission is sufficient, the author grants the right to strip any DRM which may be applied to this work.
ISBN 9781648820069