Persephone because that is my right as queen.” She would not budge on this. Her mother had to acknowledge that her daughter was different now, and that Persephone wasn’t under her thumb.
At least the snow around Demeter’s feet had melted. Tiny patches of wheat were growing between her toes and already stretching up to her waist. Demeter touched a finger to one. “I will not call you by any name another has given you.”
“Then I will return to the Underworld.”
The tendrils of wheat plants shriveled. Black blight caught on their edges and they drooped to Demeter’s feet. “You will do no such thing, Kore.”
There it was again. That name which she had made painfully obvious was no longer hers. Why couldn’t her mother understand that? Persephone was a queen, a woman in her own right, and no longer the maiden.
She understood Demeter had missed her. Mount Olympus, Persephone had missed her mother too. This was her home and the place where she’d turned from child into girl.
Demeter deserved one more chance. After all the woman had done for Persephone, she’d give her one more chance to call her by the right name. “Mother,” she said. “My name is Persephone. I know you don’t understand why I changed it, nor do I expect you to like it. But I do expect you to address me by the correct name.”
Demeter’s hands flexed at her side. “Kore, I think you’ve been gone from the meadows for too long. You are tired, and you should rest before we have this conversation.”
That was it.
Persephone wasn’t a child anymore, and she knew Demeter was aware of that. Considering Persephone was also married, Demeter must know the name no longer fit. And though she might want to argue it, Persephone was a woman in every sense of the term.
A blast of dark power emanated from her body. It swelled, spilling off her like the boiling waters of the Styx and pouring over the meadow. Ice and snow crackled, sizzling instantly with the heat and flooding the land with so much water it rose to her ankles.
“My name,” she growled, her voice a rumble of thunder like her father was speaking through her body, “is Persephone.”
Demeter’s eyes widened, first in fear, then in anger. “That is not the name I gave you.”
Gold sparkles were already forming in her mother’s palms. Sometimes, the magic looked like pollen when she wielded it. And people could only see the power when Demeter was particularly angry. Otherwise, she used the plants to fight her battles for her.
“Do not make me fight you, mother,” Persephone replied. She kept her voice steady and calm. Demeter would never know how much she was shaking.
She didn’t want to hurt Demeter. And she certainly didn’t want to know who would win in a fight, because she would be victorious. Persephone might not have been very powerful when she lived here, but she was now.
The Underworld had given her more confidence in her powers. More than that, she was filled with the magic that had sunken into her skin from being in close proximity to all those rivers. All the life that grew within the Underworld.
Or perhaps it was something more. Something she’d never experienced until the humans worshipped her here in the mortal realm.
She remembered the words Pirithous had said. How he had been so adamant that the mortals thought she was the goddess who would ensure their journey to the Underworld was pleasing. How the mortals were praying to her day and night.
That was something that could give her more power. It was more than what her mother would get.
She narrowed her eyes and glared at Demeter with renewed purpose. “I know what the mortals say about me, and they are right. I am a goddess now, one who is equally powerful and I will not have you try to step on me, mother. I am here because I want you to stop this foolish punishment of the mortals. But I will go back to the realm that is rightfully mine.”
“Your realm is this one,” Demeter growled. Her eyes flashed a brilliant yellow. “The Underworld is one that was only given to you by a monster, and he has no right to keep you there. I thought you’d be happy to have me finally take you away from that dark place.”
“I found solace there. I found my people.” She let the power build in her palms until blue flames licked between her fingers and up her