and not just because the brain is incapable of processing the written language in its sleep. I dislike dreaming. With a frustrated sigh, I set down the book, careful not to wake Persephone sleeping beside me even though I knew she wasn’t actually here.
My whole body hurt enough that the novelty of feeling physical pain was lost on me. The pain and the dream meant something important, something bad. A deep sleep like this meant I’d lost consciousness somehow. What could hurt me?
Beside me, Persephone sighed and moved closer. Yeah, something was wrong. However ambivalent I tried to be in the waking world, the scenarios that played out in my head when I pictured us in bed never featured Persephone sleeping or me reading. In dreams at least, I deserved more action.
I studied her sleeping form, struck by how still she was. Awake, Persephone was in constant motion, so full of life she almost glowed. Beautiful, but sometimes that never ending motion made it hard to just look at her. Brushing a strand of hair from her face, I wished I could feel happy, at peace, or what not. Shouldn’t I? We were together after all, with all our secrets and hang-ups out in the open at last. Instead, all I felt was dread and fear and pain.
Something was horribly wrong.
She opened her brilliant green eyes and smiled. “Hades.”
A shiver went through me at the sound of my name passing through her lips. She sat up, the thin sleeve of her blue nightgown slipping down her left shoulder as she moved. I pushed it up her arm, fingers trailing over her smooth skin.
Her breath caught, a pained sound. I frowned. A deep purple bruise spread from beneath my fingertips, staining her sun-kissed skin.
“How could you?” she whispered.
I glanced up to her in confusion and drew in a sharp breath. My gaze darted from her face, puffy and criss-crossed with lacerations, to her nightgown, torn and bloodied, to her arm hanging limp at her side, the bones poking through the skin at odd angles. “Persephone! What—”
“You didn’t stop him.” She cried out in pain and hunched forward. I caught her, cradling her bruised and battered body in my arms while blood soaked into the mattress. When I tried to heal her, nothing happened.
Powerless. She was dying in my arms and for the first time in my entire existence I was powerless against death. My chest felt tight against my racing heart. “Persephone?” Clutching her to me, I jerked my gaze around the room in an irrational quest to find something, anything that could help her. I knew I was dreaming, but it didn’t matter. Nothing mattered except the limp, bleeding girl in my arms.
Her bright green eyes were fixed on me in accusation. They flickered then dimmed as her last words echoed around the room.
“How could you?”
Chapter V
Aphrodite
Hades groaned and shifted positions. I shook his shoulder.
“Hades?”
His eyes snapped open. He bolted up and glanced around the park, gaze falling on a nearby patch of scorched earth. A myriad of emotions flickered over his face, too fast for me to identify. Looking at me, his gaze hardened in rage. “Where is she?”
My voice shook as I held out the necklace. “Zeus will take the Underworld in exchange for—”
I found myself on the ground, Hades’ hands wrapped around my throat. Agony spread from his fingertips as they dug into the sensitive skin around my neck, crushing my windpipe. Power pulsed from his hands, setting my entire body ablaze with pain. Beneath me the ground crackled and shriveled. Leaves turned dark with decay.
I screamed, or tried to, but all that came out was a strangled yelp.
“Let’s try that again. Where. Is. She?” His voice was dark and dangerous, and there was murder in his eyes.
“With Zeus,” I squeaked. I couldn’t breathe. I pried at his hands, scratching against his iron fingers so hard my nails bent and broke. Hades didn’t budge.
“Where?”
“I don’t know.” Oh gods, it hurt.
“But you can contact him?” He loosened his grip on my neck a fraction.
“Can’t—” Coughing, I cleared my throat. My neck burned, and my voice sounded hoarse and scratchy. Pushing away from him to make space to breathe only farther entrenched my body in the damp dirt. Wet leaves clung to my legs, unbothered by my pathetic attempts to kick free. Oh, what’s the point? I went still beneath him when I realized there was no reason to struggle against someone so much stronger than me. As a