Snow covered the ground in a fine blanket of silver and white. Frost covered leaves glistened in the sunlight and her breath fogged every time she exhaled. It was beautiful, but also terrifying to see her warm homeland turned into something so different. All from a goddess who was angry that her daughter was staying with her husband for a time.
Hermes brought them down near her mother’s temple and held onto her waist until she was balanced. “Good?” he asked.
“No, I’m not good.” She looked to Demeter’s golden temple and let out a sigh. “I don’t think I’ll be ‘good’, as you put it, until I’m back in the Underworld.”
He gave her a bright grin. “Seems like you took care of that for yourself when you ate that pomegranate, my dear. No matter how hard your mother fights for you, those seeds will send you back to the Underworld.”
“I’m sure Zeus will be livid,” she murmured in response. Unfortunately, he was the only one who could force her to remain here. At her mother’s side.
Hermes shrugged. “Doubtful. He wants to wash his hands of this nonsense, and Demeter will have to deal with it from here on out. Even the gods can’t prevent the dead from returning to their lands.”
“The dead?” Persephone frowned, but Hermes was already gone. Whatever questions she might have asked faded into the chilled morning light.
She took another step forward, her feet crunching across ice. She didn’t remember a river being here before, and it was unlike Demeter to want more water in her realm. Her mother didn’t like the nymphs being so prevalent as it was.
Bending down, she pressed her fingertips against the ice and felt it warm to her touch. So warm the ice even cracked a little, almost as though it knew her. As though the river was trying to tell her something.
Demeter’s voice drifted through the icy air. “It’s Cyane, if you don’t recognize her.”
She stood in the center of the field, appearing as if she had been blinked into existence. Beautiful and timeless as always, her mother wore a gold robe that looked as though molten metal had been poured over her body. Her wheat colored hair spilled over her shoulders in perfect ringlets that framed the sadness in her expression.
If anyone else had looked at her, they would have thought she was the picture of melancholy. A mourning mother who had finally been given a chance to be reunited with her daughter.
Persephone knew better. This was just another of her mother’s tricks.
“Cyane?” She looked up and realized with horror what her mother’s words meant.
Cyane had seen Persephone stolen away to the Underworld, and Persephone was her dearest friend. They had grown up together, side by side, and the idea of Persephone leaving for an eternity was certainly one of the few things that would force an oceanid to make a tough decision.
She’d only heard of such things happening in the worst of circumstances. An oceanid who lost a lover, a parent, but never a friend.
Cyane had cried herself into a river. She’d turned herself into a body of water rather than live knowing that Persephone would never return.
“Why?” she asked. “Why would she do that?”
“Because she knew her dearest of friends, the sister of her soul, would spend the rest of her days in the clutches of a villain.” Demeter held out her arms for Persephone to come and hug her. “Daughter, we were all worried sick.”
She stroked Cyane one last time before promising herself that she’d fix this. Someone must be able to turn the oceanid back into her physical form. They must be able to undo this mistake.
Persephone did not hug her mother. Instead, she strode forward and stopped five feet away. Strong and proud. “You summoned me. I heard what you’ve been doing, mother, and it has to stop.”
“Kore.” The word was said with the sharp snap of a mother scolding her child. The whip crack word might have once made Persephone flinch, but she was more than just a maiden child now.
She was the Queen of the Underworld. She had survived and experienced so much more than just Demeter’s wrath.
And she had her own power now.
Eyes flashing with the darkness burning in her soul, she held her temper in check. Instead, she merely replied with, “My name is Persephone now.”
“Yes, I’ve heard the horrible name he gave you. The things he’s done. You’re Kore here.” Demeter dropped her arms.