All the air in his lungs blew out in one giant rush. “Yes,” he breathed. And the relief in voicing that eased a knot he hadn’t realized was in his chest. “Yes, I miss her so much it’s hard to breathe sometimes.”
Dido chuckled. “Yes, it can hurt like that. But she will return, won’t she?”
He hoped so. The pomegranate she’d eaten would ensure that, but it also wasn’t foolproof. Zeus could still step in, and Demeter seemed to have him wrapped around her fingers. There were many who could figure out a way to keep Persephone where she was. And away from him.
So, instead of responding with confidence as he might have liked, Hades shrugged. “I hope so.”
“I do too.” Dido smiled, and the sorrow disappeared from her eyes for a few moments. “I quite liked her.”
His eyebrows lifted. They had met before? When had Persephone come to the Mourning Fields of all places?
Before he could ask for clarification, another voice cut in. “Of course you liked her, Dido. She was a simpering little girl who pined over an older man. She's basically you.”
The spirit shimmered, shifted, and then disappeared from sight. Dido would return to the roots of her tree, licking her wounds in the shape of words. He’d seen them strike her, hitting against her very soul and tearing holes in the fabric of her being.
Spirits were more sensitive than humans. Where there was a physical shield between emotional wounds when they were alive, here in the Underworld, even words could hurt.
Angrily, he turned toward Minthe with fire burning behind his eyes. “What do you want? That was cruel.”
She leaned against one of the trees, all lithe body and lean limbs. She was damned beautiful to him once, but now, all he saw was a woman who wanted to tear down those who stood in her way. And everyone stood in Minthe’s way.
She wore a slinky black covering, the shear fabric barely covering any of her skin. When she stepped toward him, it slipped from her right shoulder and bared her breast to his gaze.
“No one will know,” she said. “Dido doesn’t talk to anyone.”
“It doesn’t matter if someone knows you were cruel,” he grumbled. “You shouldn’t do it.”
“Why not? They’re dead already.”
Therein lay the major issue when they were together. She didn’t look at the dead as anything other than that. Dead. Mortals weren’t entertaining unless they played some part in the game of her life. Dead mortals couldn’t do much other than be dead.
“You never understood our purpose here,” he muttered. Hades reached a hand forward and touched the lingering trail of Dido’s soul. “We’re supposed to make this easier on them.”
“And why shouldn’t we make life easier on ourselves?” She stepped too close and pressed her hand against his chest. Smoothed her fingers over the plains of his muscles, then dug her nails in deep. “I know you’ve been suffering since your wife left you. What a horrible thing, to have a woman leave a man so great.”
“She didn’t leave me.” Hades wondered what Minthe was getting at. She always said things with purpose so...
“Hades.” Minthe stepped closer, pressing her chest against his and interrupting his thoughts. “She left you. We all saw what happened. She could have stayed if she wanted to, you even offered the Titans for her and she didn’t take them. Obviously she wanted to go.”
The words wiggled through his mind, digging into the soft underbelly where he worried Persephone really left because she wanted to. Because she didn’t want to be with him.
But he had to have faith that she wouldn’t do that to him. Not after everything they’d survived together.
And since when did he trust Minthe, of all people? She didn’t have his best interest at heart. She never had. So assuming these words were even remotely true would go against everything he and Persephone had built. Their relationship might not be stronger than a Titan, but he knew a good woman when he saw one.
Minthe was not one of those women.
He stepped away from her, holding up his hand to prevent her from following him. “Stop. I know what you’re trying to do.”
“Trying to do?” She frowned, then pursed her lips. “I’m not trying to do anything, Hades. All I have ever done is support you and this woman is breaking your heart.”
“Breaking my heart?” Hades could hardly believe the words she was saying. Did she think he would stand here and listen to her