it wasn’t a hunt at all. It was a three-headed dog chasing men.
She should have put two and two together when she first saw him. Kore recognized the signs now. How he stood with an air of command that rivaled Zeus himself. How his dark hair and the angular features of his face didn’t match with the paleness of his skin. How the calluses on his palm hadn’t felt like a warrior, but a scholar.
She whispered his name, mostly in fear but also in awe. “Hades?”
He bowed. “I should have told you my name when we first met. I’m afraid I didn’t know I was speaking with a goddess.”
No, it wasn’t right for someone like him to talk with her. Especially not for him to stand before her when she’d almost kissed him at a party. Gods, she really was just a child.
She’d almost kissed the God of the Underworld. The Unseen. The most terrifying Olympian to ever live. Mortals wouldn’t even say his name in fear it would open a portal and he would drag them down into the depths himself.
And she’d almost kissed him.
Kore felt her cheeks pale. She dropped onto her knees before him and held her hands over her heart. “Lord Hades. My sincerest apologies for not recognizing you. I am but a child, and it was my first time in Olympus.”
She heard his swift intake of breath before she heard twin thuds against the ground. “No, goddess. You kneel to no one.”
The Lord of the Underworld was on his knees before her. Kneeling as though he were a mortal worshiping at her altar.
Eyes wide, heart in her throat, she asked the question burning in her chest. “Why shouldn’t I kneel to you?”
Hades reached forward like he was going to touch a lock of her curled hair, only to let the hand drift back to his side. “I know you don’t see the power you have, or the way the magic of the gods burns in your chest. But I do. You are a goddess equal to me.”
Hesitation stilled his voice, stifling remaining words, as though he wanted to say her name but didn’t know if he was allowed to ask.
She leaned forward and caught his hand in hers. She drew it up between them, holding his calloused fingers close to her heart. “Kore,” she whispered. “My name is Kore.”
“It doesn’t suit you,” he replied. “You deserve a name that resonates with the humans. A name that means something more than just Maiden.”
“But that’s what I am.”
He squeezed her fingers in his, then drew her hand to his lips. She watched with rapt attention as he kissed each individual finger. The heat of his mouth sank through her skin until she could think of nothing else. Nothing but the startling warmth of his touch, and how impossible it seemed that a god of the grave could burn.
“You are more than just a station in life,” Hades corrected. “And I would tear the stars from the sky to see what you are capable of, Kore.”
That dark emotion in her chest swelled. She recognized it these days, as it always raised its ugly head when she was angry or afraid. In this moment, she was neither of those things.
But the darkness recognized him, or perhaps some part of herself bloomed at his words. She wanted to know what she was capable of as well. She wanted him to rip the stars from the sky just to see what the sudden night would feel like.
Kore opened her mouth, parting her lips on a gasp or words she didn’t know yet. Nothing fell from her tongue, however.
Between their fingers, his heat gave life to something growing from her very palm. She unfurled her fingers, held between his and revealed a narcissus flower that stretched its stalk toward the rising moon. Silver leaves unfurled and sparkling pollen fell as it dusted their palms with magic.
“Beautiful,” he growled. “Remarkable.”
No one had ever said those words about her magic. She was just the daughter of Demeter. Nothing more than a nymph-like goddess who could make plants grow and wither. That was all.
Hades saw something more in her power. He saw something more in her, and every spark of magic inside her reached out for him. She wanted to discover what else was possible.
He met her gaze and for a brief heartbeat she saw herself in his eyes. The reflection in the dark pools of his gaze was a marvelous young woman with so