The Passion of Hades - Eliza Raine Page 0,32

felt my bed behind me, and sat. Hades flicked his hand without his gaze leaving my face, and a new door appeared behind him, in place of the shattered one.

'Why did my vine try to steal your power?'

'All gods have weapons, Persephone. That is yours.' He approached me slowly, then waved his wrist again, a goblet appearing in his hand. He offered it to me and I took it with shaking hands. Without even looking inside it, I gulped it down, the sluggishness slowly receding as I tasted wine.

Hades sat down on the bed beside me. 'We all have different types of power. Your black vines are aggressive. But you have other powers too. Like the green vines, that give life to things that grow.'

I stared at him, tangled emotions still bubbling inside me.

'The blue light around you when you killed that man. The one that turned into corpses...' He nodded.

'That is my aggressive power. I draw it from the dead.'

I shuddered. It sounded like something from a horror film.

'Who left that doll on my doorstep?'

'I don't know yet. But I will find out.' His jaw was tense and his eyes glittered with ferocity.

'Is the note on it true? Was I a murderer?'

'No, Persephone.'

'But I stabbed that man.'

'He was choking the life from you. Anyone in this world would have reacted as you did, and anyone in your world too.'

'Not if they deserved to die.'

Heat seared around me, Hades’ eyes turning from silver to electric blue.

'Don't you dare say that, Persephone. That piece of shit who tried to kill you, and his friends, are enemies of mine, not yours. Once again, you are being targeted as a result of my misdeeds. I am sorry.'

Hope blossomed through me at his words. Could that be true? I drained the rest of the wine, trying to order my chaotic thoughts and slow my racing pulse. Hades would find whoever had left the doll. And the voice in the garden had given me a somewhat vague plan, but a plan nonetheless, to get my memories back. Right now, my most pressing issue was these damned vines.

'You said you would teach me to use my magic,' I said, handing him back the goblet. His eyes melted back to silver, the temperature dropping again.

'Yes. And I will teach you to fight. Starting now.'

'Now?'

'Yes.'

Fifteen

Persephone

'So how is it you keep showing up when I need you?' I asked as I walked alongside Hades through the blue torchlit corridors. I had insisted we walk to the training room. The less flashing about, the better, in my opinion. I felt small as we walked, his broad shoulders filling the space and his height so much greater than mine. But I felt safe, rather than intimidated.

'I told you, your power is like a beacon to me.'

'What does it look like?' He looked sideways at me.

'Green light.'

'You and Hecate both glow blue,' I said.

'Yes. Most of the time. That's the color I chose for Underworld power.'

'Who chose green for me then?'

'Your mother. She chose green for all nature powers.'

My steps faltered. My mother.

'But I already have parents. At home.' My words were slow and Hades stopped walking, turning to me.

'I know. But before that... You had a mother here. The goddess of the harvest,' he said gently.

'Demeter?' I asked slowly, remembering my classics lessons.

'Yes.'

'Where- where is she now?'

'She hasn't been seen in Olympus since not long after you were born.'

'Oh. Who was my father?'

'Nobody knows.'

So to add to the long list of things my head wouldn't properly process, I now had the fact that my parents weren't really my parents.

I expected to feel sadness, or anger, but instead all I felt was a kind of hollow indifference. I mean, on some level I must have realized I had a family in Olympus when I accepted that this place was real, I just never properly put the two together or let myself consider it. What did it matter? As far as I was concerned, my real family were in New York, safe and sound, and there was no way I would ever entertain the idea of anyone else being my parents or brother. Maybe I was birthed elsewhere, but that was just biology.

'Who brought me up, if my mom and dad were missing?' I asked Hades.

'Wood and forest nymphs. On Taurus.'

'Taurus? Who owns Taurus?'

'Dionysus,' Skop answered in my head at the same time Hades said the wine god's name. I looked down at the little dog.

'So that's why you're here? That's why Dionysus