she gave a dramatic sigh, flipped her hair, and stormed out of the room. Adonis took a quick look around and followed her.
“Not a word.” Demeter held up one finger and regarded me with icy cold eyes. “I’m not interested in your opinion. But you—” she turned to Hades “—I’m surprised you could resist commenting on that little displa—”
She broke off with a surprised gasp. I followed her gaze and felt my stomach twist in fear. This didn’t happen. It just didn’t happen. Hades lay unconscious in a crumpled heap on the wooden floor in a pool of blood.
Chapter XXIV
Hades
Persephone’s breath was hot in my ear. Her nails dug into my back. My hands ran down her body…
“Oh, Hades,” she moaned.
“Um… Wow.” The voice came from across the room.
I pivoted, changing the dreamscape around me. By the time I faced the door, I was standing in my library fully clothed, facing Persephone, the real non-dream version. She stood in the doorway, slack jawed.
“Persephone!” Crossing the room in an instant, I gathered her in my arms, joy and relief rushing through me in equal parts. “Gods!” Her body, whole and solid, fit against mine in a way dreams could never get right. I’d been so worried I’d never hold her again, never see her again. “Are you okay? Where are you?” When I pulled away, I kept my arms wrapped around her waist because I couldn’t bring myself to let go. “Physically, I mean,” I added, when she looked confused. Dreamwalking got complex whenever a distinction had to be made between the mind and the body.
She didn’t answer. I looked her up and down, gaze snagging on her necklace.
A small green spiky plant hung in a metal basket, the red bud of a flower just beginning to blossom. The glass-blown pomegranate seed that hung from the basket was a token of my realm. It was a perfect conduit, representative of her lineage and marriage with a piece of each realm in one neat package. But that wasn’t why she wore it here.
It meant something to her because I gave it to her. I meant something to her.
Even after everything that had happened to her because of me, she still went through the trouble of replicating that necklace in her dreams. Clearing my throat, I jerked my gaze away from the necklace. No apparent injuries, but there was no telling if that was reflective of reality or how she saw herself at the moment.
Something was wrong. In my relief I hadn’t noticed she failed to return my embrace, but now I saw how rigid she held herself in my arms. There was a look I didn’t recognize in her eyes.
Persephone was an open book. I never had to guess how she felt or what she was thinking. It was all right there. But now her expression was guarded. And there was something else in it. Fear.
Of me?
Was I really dreaming again? Would she fall to pieces like in that horrible nightmare? No. She was real, she was here, I could feel it. “Persephone?” I reached out to caress her cheek.
She flinched. “Don’t.” Her green eyes searched my face. “I should be able to tell.” Her voice broke. Persephone tried to pull back, but I held her fast.
My arms dropped, and I stepped away for good measure. There was no telling what she had gone through, so if she needed space, I was happy to oblige. “Tell what?” I wanted to reach out to her, to demand to know what Zeus had done and how I could fix it, but I didn’t dare. “Persephone.” It was a fight to keep my voice calm. “Tell me where to find you.”
She looked away and I jerked toward her, almost unable to restrain myself from reaching for her. Persephone flinched.
“Hey, it’s okay. Wherever you are, I’m going to find you and bring you home, okay? But I need you to point me in the right direction.”
“Stop.” She took a deep, shuddering breath, sliding her air plant pendant back and forth on the chain of her necklace. “I should be able to tell him from you. If you’re not him, if you’ve taken that from me, if you’ve broken us that badly…” Iron glinted in her eyes, hard and unfeeling. “Then you won’t have to find me. I haven’t come into my powers yet, but I will. I’d be afraid of that day if I were you.”
Comprehension bubbled up within me like bile. I was going to