“No, it’s true. You’re not.” He looked me up and down. “Pretty thing, but off limits. Therefore, not interesting.”
“Ew. As if I would ever.”
“Oh please, I would rock your world.”
I stepped around the cocky fallen angel, heading away from the apothecary’s house. I had a plan now. A possibility.
Lucifer joined me, his stride quick. I dodged far away from the pomegranate tree, even though passing close would be a quicker way to get back to the castle.
“Avoiding the tree, I see,” he said.
“That tree is meant to keep me here if I really am Persephone. So yes, I’m avoiding it.”
“It’s not as though the seeds are going to fall into your mouth as you walk by.”
“Better safe than sorry.” I shot him a sidelong glance. “Your friend is a bastard. You know that, right?”
“I’m also a bastard.”
“That, I believe.” I reached the door to the castle and turned to face him. “But you won’t defend him, will you?”
“There’s nothing to defend.”
“Then he’s not your friend?”
“He’s my friend.” He shrugged. “As close to one as I will get. I am not his. He has none. Couldn’t even conceive of one if he tried.”
“Like a sociopath.”
“A high-functioning one, perhaps.” He grinned. “Who am I kidding? He’s stone cold. As bad as you expect. Worse, in fact.”
Shit.
I’d been afraid of that. Deep down, I’d been hoping that he would say that Hades was just misunderstood, and it was all a mistake.
Of course not.
“Do you feel joy?” I asked.
“I can.”
I thought of Kerala. “But no one else here does.”
He shook his head “I don’t think so. This place is forever cast in shadow. Gray and cold and lonely and sad.”
“Hades’ shadow?”
“He’s so powerful that yes, I assume so.”
The idea was terrifying. His moods dictated the entirety of this world. Thousands of people, all living a ghostly existence of gray nothingness. Because of him.
9
Hades
That morning, the lure of the mirror was too powerful. After the meeting with Persephone, I’d been unable to get her out of my head, and sleep had not been easy.
I strode to it, flashing my hand in front of it to ignite the magic within. Soon, it revealed an image of Persephone and Lucifer, walking down the hall, side by side.
My jaw clenched, but I forced it to relax.
It bothered me naught that they were together. Why should it? I’d asked him to follow her, after all. Yet he wasn’t leading her back to her chambers. I watched, waiting to see where they would go.
Finally, they turned into one of the many small libraries dotted throughout the castle. Of course she would be drawn to the library. I knew little about her, but she had spent a lot of time with books on Earth.
She would be there until I needed her, no doubt. I turned from the mirror and continued to dress. The journey would be difficult and cold. We’d need to be prepared.
An hour later, after preparing our equipment and readying my mount, I sought her out. I couldn’t recall ever visiting this library, though there were many libraries scattered throughout the castle, and I had my favorites. As I approached, my heartbeat quickened, an annoying physiological defect that I would need to address.
The library door swung open at my arrival.
Lucifer was gone, but Persephone sat on the couch, bent over a book, reading ravenously.
“Persephone.”
She jerked upright, eyes flaring wide as they met mine. “I didn’t hear you come in.”
“I wasn’t exactly silent. Why are you here?”
“I enjoy books.”
“Why?” I too valued them. But enjoy?
“I’m a librarian.”
“That’s a half answer.”
She shrugged. “Books have entire worlds inside them. Magic and strength and inspiration and joy. What’s not to love?”
I frowned at her. Love? “Books have knowledge.”
“And knowledge is power,” she finished. “I assume that’s why you like them? For the power?”
“It is the reason I value them, yes. And you value them for the same reason. You also value knowledge and power.” That much, I knew about her.
“You value the knowledge and power conveyed by these books?” She stood and approached me, showing me the cover of the book she held.
Tales of Aphrodite.
She stopped in front of me, and I reached for the book, flipping it open to read a few passages. My mouth went dry. The passage described a woman and a man. He knelt at her feet, pressing his mouth to the soft skin of her stomach. Moving lower. Worshiping her.
I swallowed hard, flipping through the rest of the book, finding more passages in even greater detail.