Her eyes filled with tears, but she doggedly refused to let them fall down her cheeks. Persephone continued staring ahead, without looking at him or Cerberus, and then he realized she was holding her breath to prevent sobs from rocking through her form.
Sighing, he leaned over and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She let him tug her into the safety of his hug, then burst into tears.
Hades resolved to let her cry this out before he asked her any more questions. Persephone already had a trying day, and the pregnancy wasn’t making her handle such situations well. She tried very hard to be a good person, no matter how difficult it was, and turning Minthe into a plant was likely weighing on her shoulders.
She leaned back once his shirt was well and truly soaked. Rubbing her face, she swiped her hand under her nose and then blubbered, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”
“Sorry about crying or stomping Minthe into minty goo?”
Apparently that wasn’t the right thing to say. Persephone burst into tears again, curling into a ball as she pressed herself against Cerberus’s side. The dog glowered at him, glaring as though this was all Hades’ fault, when in reality he’d done nothing to cause this.
Maybe that wasn’t true, actually. He should have taken care of Minthe the first time his wife complained about her. Not allowing it to have risen to such horrible heights.
He sighed again and tugged her back into his arms. “Persephone. Persephone, stop this. Stop crying.”
“I can’t!” She slapped a hand against his chest. “I just killed someone and you are making jokes!”
Yes, he was. But they were both gods, and they knew how fleeting life was for everyone but their own kind. Minthe could have cried herself into a river. She could have been raped by another Olympian and forced to bear a monstrous child. As far as the stories of her kind went, being turned into a plant wasn’t that bad.
He pressed his lips against the top of her head and smoothed his hands down her back. “I’m not mad at you, Persephone.”
“You should be.” She sniffed hard, then wiped her nose on his shirt. “She didn’t deserve that. I don’t even remember doing it. I was so angry she would call me a child. That I couldn’t ever understand what you wanted, and that she was the only one who could satisfy you. I just... I just...”
He grew angry at the suggestion. There was a time when Minthe had been what he wanted. Back when he was angry and trying to grow into a different person, but still clinging to the past. He was so angry all the time when he was in love with Minthe.
Hades stared into the opening of Tartarus and saw what Persephone did. A reflection of all the things he’d done wrong in his life.
“Minthe was stuck in the past,” he murmured. “Centuries ago, I wouldn’t have been worthy of you. When I was so angry at my fate and the world, that the only person who could soothe that ache was someone as broken as I was. We were bad for each other, and we made each other’s lives worse.”
“Don’t make me pity her,” she said.
“You should. I know you’re capable of great empathy, my love, and Minthe was a broken woman who never wanted to change. She lived in that darkness and spread it wherever she went. That poison is dangerous and sometimes addicting.”
She pressed a hand to her face, hiding her eyes from his gaze. “And instead of helping her, I turned her into a mint plant and stomped on her. I can still feel how sticky she was on my heel.”
Bleh, what a horrible thing to remember. He could only imagine that was weighing on her mind and her soul.
Hades smoothed his hand down her back again, drawing her even closer to him. “I don’t blame you.”
“I don’t know why I did it. I’m not like the other Olympians.” She shuddered. “Punishing her felt wrong and so very right at the same time.”
“When are you going to realize we all have a little Olympian in us?” Hades gestured to Tartarus. “We have them in us, too. Dangerous gods. Terrifying monsters. Just because you have the ability to be cruel, doesn’t make you any less kind.”
She tucked her face into the crook of his neck, and he held her until she cried herself to sleep. He stood with