a risk. Her mother might find him, and then they’d both be in trouble. Hades might be powerful, but Demeter’s wrath was known among the Olympians.
Still, when she looked up, he was standing before her. Completely at ease with the risk he was taking and without a care in the world.
He wore his grey peplos, the edges embroidered with new scenes. This time she could see all the rivers in the Underworld weaving around the fabric. Each river was filled with souls, some screaming, others looking forward with hope in their eyes. She supposed if death was inevitable for humans, that some must not fear it.
She couldn’t imagine living such a life. Especially not when the Lord of the Underworld stood before her with a burning gaze that nearly razed her to the floor.
“Kore,” he said, and his voice was a thunderous crack like the sky splitting open. “Did you keep our secret?”
Our secret.
She was more than just a little girl to him. She was the secret keeper of something they had done together. Something they had hidden.
Clearing her throat, she nodded. “No one knows anything about what happened. Artemis thinks Dolus had something to do with it.” The rose color before her eyes faded, and she narrowed her gaze with a suspicious look. “Did you have him lie for us?”
Hades leaned against the wall beside her window, forcing her to stretch out so she could still see him. His face was in a lovely profile and she noted all the details she’d once missed. The sharp edge of his nose was a little too pointed. His forehead was broad and flat, but his jaw was sharp enough to rival a knife.
If he hadn’t been right beside her, she would have sighed and pillowed her cheek on a fist while she stared. He was so handsome. So impossibly good looking, but different than the other gods.
Kore had fawned over Apollo her entire life. His blistering beauty was too far from her to ever reach. He was a safe man to dream about because he would never cast his glance to the insignificant nymph daughter of Demeter.
Hades was handsome but dangerous. He made her heart flutter every time he glanced at her with those dark eyes. He knew the way her pulse beat at her skin, like every nerve in her body had come alive just by his proximity.
Hades was real.
He was close enough to touch and sometimes, she thought, he wanted her to touch him.
That was more than any man had ever given her. Any god had ever given her. The dark side of her power wanted her to take advantage of that. To spread her wings and draw him deeper into her arms and body so she could finally know what it felt like to be a woman.
With that surge of desire and power came a new thought. She leaned on her elbows and quietly asked, “Why are you here, Hades?”
“Because of you.”
She should have stayed quiet. Just like her mother, he was the kind of god that could wipe her from the earth. His power was so great even Demeter would have a hard time fighting him. If he wanted to kill Kore, remove her memory from everyone’s mind, then he could.
But she didn’t think he would. And that made her bold. “I don’t know why you’re so interested in me. You thought I was a nymph before. Then you met with me to prove that I’m a goddess, but why now? Why are you here?”
He at least had the decency to look embarrassed. “If I had the answer to that, Kore, I would have told you by now. There’s something about you that calls to me.”
She shook her head. “No, I don’t think that’s it. Romance is wonderful and your words are beautiful, but that’s not the way of the gods. We are not mortal, Hades, and centuries of time wears away at our ability to see the good in life.”
“Is that what immortality does?” He reached up and brushed a strand of dark hair away from his eyes.
An emotion flickered in the depths of shadows within his eyes. She didn’t know what it was, or what to name it. But she could see that he knew more about immortality than she could ever dream to understand. He had seen the beginning and end of gods. He had seen the ichor drain from their veins until there was simply no gold left within them.