than that, and after all these years, you know how to resist a beautiful woman.”
“Resist,” he scoffed. “It’s not resisting anything at all. My time with Minthe has passed, and she always thought the temptation of her physical form would be there. I saw into her heart and her very soul, and I knew I didn’t want her. Physically. Emotionally. Any of it. No temptation remained because her beauty died in the wake of her true face.”
Thanatos paled with every word, watching Hades’ mouth as though he couldn’t believe the words were real. And perhaps he couldn’t. Thanatos was one of the Olympians, after all, and the temptation of the female form was often too much for his kind to bear.
He was not like them, however. A naked woman could be found a thousand times over in this world. But a woman with a heart pure and shining as a diamond, that was what he had searched for his entire life.
Hades stood up from his desk, all the paperwork he needed to do forgotten. It would be there tomorrow for him. Just like it always was. “Where is Persephone now?”
“We think she’s down by the Lethe.” Thanatos stepped outside his office and into the hallway. “Although last I heard, someone saw her walking toward Tartarus.”
What was it with his wife and her obsession with that place? Tartarus was off limits for everyone, even he didn’t step inside it often. Yet, she seemed to be more interested in the Titans than she was in her own kind.
He sighed and strode out into the hall. “I’ll find her. Leave it to me.”
“Do you need me to do anything while you’re gone?”
Hades turned around sharply, surprised Thanatos would ask. His friend stood there with confidence in his eyes, assured that anything Hades asked him to do, he could complete. And Hades realized he wasn’t alone. He’d never been alone.
How strange to realize that his friends were capable of helping him. He didn’t have to shoulder the burden of the entire Underworld on his own.
“Yes, actually,” he replied, words slow. “There are a few heroes in the Elysian Fields who would like to petition for a second life. They believe they could do more good in the mortal realm, and I’m unsure if I want to allow them to do so.”
“And you trust me to make this decision?”
Hades frowned, rolled the thought around in his mind, then nodded. “I do. You’re the God of Death, Thanatos. You were the one who killed them and brought their souls here. If you believe they can do more good for their own kind, then let them.”
Thanatos bowed. “Your will shall be done, my lord.”
They parted their separate ways, and Hades felt lighter. As though some of the stress, responsibility, all the hardship of his position here, wasn’t quite so bad. Now, he just had to find and deal with his poor wife, who likely thought she had destroyed something he loved.
A past love wasn’t so bad. Minthe had her time in the Underworld, and she should have learned how powerful her actions were.
He strode across the black sands and found Persephone seated before the mouth of Tartarus. She had her arms wrapped around her knees. The plain black peplos she wore spilled out around her like a puddle of ink. At her side, Cerberus sat standing watch, making sure she did nothing foolish, like plunge into the darkness of Tartarus.
He stood there for a while, watching her as she stared into the mouth of a once great beast. Persephone barely even blinked. Clearly, she wasn’t looking at Tartarus. She was lost in her own head and mind, thinking of what she had done and what that would mean for her.
Unfortunately, he also knew the dangers of his wife thinking like that. She would overthink every word she had said, and then he would have to pay the price later.
Walking up to her side, he sat down in the sands beside her and leaned back on his hands. “Hello, my love.”
She flinched, curling into herself a little more. He noted how she curved around the swell of her belly. Even when she was angry at herself and her own actions, she still made sure their child was safe and sound.
She’d be a wonderful mother. And he hated to see her so upset.
“Hello, Hades,” she whispered, pressing her lips against her forearms that were wrapped around her knees. “How are you?”