hidden so long, avoiding friendships and emotion to keep my magic under control that I’d forgotten how it felt. Hell, I’d never really known what it was like to have friends.
But Hades had found me, and avoiding them had been pointless. No longer necessary.
So I would stop.
Carrow and Grey joined us, the entire Shadow Guild together. Yet my mind wasn’t fully here, nor my heart. There were still so many questions. About my origins, about my magic.
I might be a goddess.
I had no idea what that truly meant, but I definitely didn’t feel up to the task. Did I really have that kind of magic? And had someone truly bound it, like the Apothecary had said?
And Hades…
I knew he was dangerous. Knew he was bad. Just like I knew I’d be going back there.
The pomegranate potion would see to it.
Seraphia
That night was the first I spent in my bed. My real bed, the one in my flat, the one I hadn’t slept in for weeks. Despite my exhaustion, it took ages for sleep to come.
When it did, it brought dreams of Hades. Dreams so real that I knew he was with me, his form shadowy and vague.
When I woke, with the moon high and the night dark, he stood at the end of my bed. Just a shadow of him. The curve of his shoulder, the plane of his chest.
Watching me.
His scent wrapped around me, firelight and ash. I drew in deeply, unable to help myself, and felt the pit of my belly quiver.
“Hades.” My voice shook.
“You’ll come to me, Persephone.”
“My name is Seraphia. You called me that before.”
“That was before you left me. Before you hit me with a bomb that tore a hole in my middle.”
I drew a shuddery breath, feeling the depth of his anger. It ignited my own. “You have no right to be mad. You stole me from this life. Of course I would fight to return.”
For a long moment, he was silent. I wished I could see him better—his features, his eyes. Those lips—to see if they were full and soft or compressed in anger.
My money was on anger.
“You showed me a taste of the divine, and I want it back,” he said.
“You want me, you mean.”
“I do.”
“To wreak untold havoc for you.”
“For far more than that.” There was a roughness to his voice that sent a shiver across my spine.
“I’m not coming back.”
“You will.” With that, he disappeared.
And the worst thing was, I believed him. He wasn’t the man I’d first thought him to be, but I couldn’t trust him. Couldn’t love him. There was too much broken inside him. Too much for me to fix.
But I would be going back. Soon.
~~~
Thank you for reading! Book two will be here in November.
Want to find out how Hades feels about Seraphia now, and how she’s doing in Guild City?
Click here for a deleted scene that didn’t quite fit into the main book. It features a sneak peek of C.N. Crawford’s world from The Fallen, which is now available on Amazon. Click here to get it.
Infernal and The Fallen were part of a joint project in which we both wrote our own interpretations of the Hades myth. If you want more Hades inspired fantasy romance, you should check out The Fallen. Turn the page for chapter one.
Excerpt of The Fallen by CN Crawford
When I was a kid, I dreamt of living in the castle that loomed over our city, a place of magic and intrigue. As I got older, I started to learn that even the slums had their own kind of magic. If you knew where to look, you could feel the power of ancient kings thrumming under the stones beneath your feet.
Tonight, warm lights shone through some of the windows through the fog, and the sound of a distant piano floated on the wind, winding between narrow alleys. No one was out here, just me and the salty breeze, the shadows growing longer as the sun slid lower in the sky. The mist curled around brick tenements that groaned toward each other, crooked with age. Fog skimmed over the dark, cobbled street.
I didn’t care what anyone thought—this city was beautiful.
I shoved my hands in my pockets, glad the day was over. Like every Friday night, I was heading for the Bibliotek Music Hall. Some lovely chap would buy me a drink. I’d dance till the sun came up and the blackbirds started to sing.
I knew every alley, every hiding spot, every haunted corner