around me.
Panic engulfed me, every frazzled part of me expecting to come face to face with the flaming river of Tartarus and my vines tore from my palms before the light had even cleared from my eyes.
But the scene that came into focus before me wasn't dark and fiery at all. It was bright and warm and breezy. And beautiful.
'Zeus?'
I was in the breakfast room on Zeus's mountain.
'I wouldn't try using those vines on me,' his voice sounded behind me. I whirled, and gasped. He was shirtless, in the older, dignified form I'd seen him in a few times before. And this close it was impossible not to see how much better it was than the blond surfer boy form. If the angles of his face, the corded muscle across his chest, and the tightness of his abs weren't enough to make my breath catch, then the gleam in his eyes was. He oozed sex. Like it was actually pouring from his body.
'Stop. Now. I was told gods weren't allowed do this,' I said.
'I have no idea what you mean,' he said, stepping closer to me. I stepped backwards. 'I've brought you here to talk with you. On matters of grave importance.' He licked his lips, and my chest heaved. Focus, Persephone!
'You told me you wanted me to win last time I was here. Why?'
'Because my brother is not the god he used to be. The Underworld has changed him.'
'You did that to him, not the Underworld!'
'We all have our burdens, Persephone. Do you think it is easy for me to control the skies?'
'I don't believe it is as hard as controlling the dead,' I retorted. Zeus tilted his head, regarding me.
'I'll admit Leo has some benefits over Virgo,' he said eventually. 'Come with me.' He held out his hand, and I shook my head.
'No.' My left foot moved against my will. 'Bastard,' I snarled.
'I won't make you do any more than move your feet, feisty little goddess,' he smiled at me, then gripped my hand. With another flash we were gone from the mountain, standing instead on wooden planks. Wind suddenly rushed across me, blowing my hair around my face. We were moving, and as I looked around myself I stumbled. We were on a ship, and the sails billowing in front of me were shining like metallic liquid. Clouds flew past us on either side, spirals of glittering dust corkscrewing through the sky.
An overwhelming sense of freedom filled me, and I held my arms out as we soared through the sky. I felt like my worries were peeling away from me in the cool wind, the past, future and everything in between paling against the bliss.
With an abrupt flash, the wind stopped, and I blinked around at a courtyard garden. I gazed up at the most incredible trellis, covered in roses of every color I could imagine, the thorns shining gold.
'Beautiful, aren't they?'
'Yes,' I breathed, turning. Zeus was standing in front of a tall fountain, dragonflies the size of birds darting above his head. I could see Mount Olympus behind him, more of the flying ships cruising around it. 'Where are we?'
'One of the mansions that ring Mount Olympus. You created them.'
'What?'
'The gold-thorned roses. You created them.' I blinked at him, and he laughed softly. 'Olympus may have forgotten you, Persephone, but you left a legacy deeper than even Hades knows.'
'Why have you brought me here?'
'You need to know that the Underworld is not the only place that would welcome you.'
I frowned at him.
'You're trying to... make friends with me?'
'You are not meant to be kept underground, Persephone. You were born of light and nature. Not darkness and death.' Fear started to prick at the calm enveloping me. He was right. No matter my feelings for Hades, I couldn't live in Virgo. I couldn't live in the darkness, with that barren landscape the closest thing to nature I could get to.
'Are you telling me I can visit places like this when I am Queen of the Underworld?' I asked, a sick feeling in my stomach. That wasn't what he was telling me, and I knew it wasn't.
'No, Persephone. I'm telling you that you were never meant to be Queen of the Underworld. A Queen, yes. But not of the dead.'
'I love Hades,' I said, the words flying to my lips.
'I don't doubt it. But that doesn't change the fact that you can't live in the Underworld. Look at what it has done to Hades. And he is much,