than one realm?'
'Funny you should mention that,' she said. 'No.' I waited for her to go on, but she stayed silent, our sandals on the glass tunnel the only sound.
'Why is it funny?' I prompted eventually.
'Talk to Hades about it. I'm sure you'll understand it better coming from him.' I rolled my eyes, but the truth was that I was secretly longing for any excuse to talk to him.
Twelve
Hades
Why was she not here yet? The last time I had seen her, Persephone had been as white as the marble beneath my feet, the black poison from that cursed snake most of the way up her leg. Even with the ability to go anywhere instantly, I hadn't dared try to find the antidote. I hadn't known how much longer she had before the venom reached her heart, and then it would be too late.
Dread coiled its way through my chest at the thought of her death. This is why she was sent away! This was why I'd ripped a part of my soul out - to keep her safe. And now, here she was, at death’s door every other damned day.
I realized the temperature was rising and took a slow breath, calming myself. Poseidon was acting cagey since the Trial, and I hadn't seen Zeus yet. Both would goad me tonight, I was sure. I needed a better handle on my temper. I needed to see Persephone, alive and glowing and healthy.
The feast in her honor was being held in the courtyard of a small dome, and it was decorated beautifully. A huge circular pool filled the middle of the pale brick ground, and female merfolk and ocean sprites splashed and played and batted their eyelashes at the other guests. Not that anyone was looking at merfolk's faces; they were all as naked as the day they were born. I barely noticed them as I scanned the dome yet again. Many lesser gods were present, talking and laughing under twinkling golden lights, the blue of the ocean casting a favorable light over them.
'She'll be here soon, Hades,' I heard Hera say in my mind. I looked sideways down the row of thrones at her, but her gaze was fixed on the crowd.
'I know,' I answered gruffly.
'I spoke with her, you know. After the masquerade ball.' My heart skipped a beat. 'She is an enigma. So much of your fierce Queen has been buried too deep to resurrect.' I thought of Persephone's own words, and anger and pain gripped me. I've let other people treat me like shit for years, because I've never had any strength. I'd done that to her. She had been one of the strongest women I'd ever known, and I'd left her defenseless and alone.
'She will not be in Olympus long,' I said to Hera, forcing my emotions down. This was the way it had to be. I had already accepted that twenty-six years ago.
'I wouldn't be so sure about that. Strength born from overcoming trauma is very different to blood-born arrogance. It is true strength.'
'What?'
'Her experience as a human has changed her. Instead of being born to power, she's had to earn it. And the more we put her through, the stronger she may become. Stronger even than she was before.'
'No,' I snapped, but conflicting feelings of excitement and fear rippled through me. Stronger than she was before? Was Poseidon right to fear her? But imagine her with true power, ruling by my side...
My body responded immediately to the vision blossoming in my mind. Persephone on the Rose throne, resplendent in one of her fierce black corseted gowns, an onyx crown atop her head and black vines coiling from her palms as she glowed with power. Arousal throbbed through me.
She walked into the dome at that exact second and she couldn't have looked less like the woman I was imagining.
She was wearing a yellow dress, with white daisies on it, and she was wide-eyed with awe. She looked delicate and young and vibrant and innocent and... And I wanted her even more.
Her eyes found me almost immediately, and a bolt of something deeper than desire tore through me. I couldn't handle it. All my resolve to avoid her and merely lust after her from afar disintegrated, and I was standing in front of her within a second.
'Oh! Hello,' she said, and I could hear the nerves in her voice. Was she still afraid of me?
'Hello. I'm glad to see you looking so... healthy.'
'I hear you are to