I brace myself and step farther into the room, letting the door close softly behind me. Persephone looks up, and the haunted expression on her face has me immediately moving to her. “What’s wrong?”
“Besides the obvious?”
I sit on the couch next to her, close enough to be an invitation if she wants it but far enough away to give her space if she needs it. I’ve barely settled when Persephone crawls into my lap and draws her legs up until she’s balanced on my thighs. I wrap my arms around her and rest my chin on her head. “What happened?”
“Hermes delivered a message from my sisters.”
I’d known about that, of course. Hermes might have an uncanny ability to slip past my guards, but even she isn’t able to dodge the cameras completely. “You called them and the conversation with your sisters upset you.”
“I guess you could say that.” She relaxes by inches against me. “I’ve just been sitting here, stewing in my self-pity. I’m a selfish asshole who threw this whole mess into motion because I wanted to be free.”
I’ve never heard her sound so bitter. I give her back a tentative stroke and she sighs, so I do it again. “Your mother wasn’t forced to take the position of Demeter. She went after it.”
“I’m aware.” She traces my buttons with a single finger. “Like I said, it’s self-pity, which is nearly unforgivable, but I’m worried about my sisters and afraid that I made the situation worse by taking off instead of just going along with my mother’s plans.”
I’m not sure what I’m supposed to say to make her feel better. One of the side effects of being an only child and an orphan is that I don’t have much in the way of social skills. I can intimidate and threaten and rule, but comfort is beyond my expertise. I pull her closer as if that’s enough to gather all her scattered pieces together again. “If your sisters are half as capable as you, they’ll be more than fine.”
She gives a shuddering laugh. “I think they might be more capable than me. At least Callisto and Psyche. Eurydice is still so young. We’ve kept her sheltered over the years, and now I’m wondering if that was a mistake.”
“Because of Orpheus.”
“He’s not a bad guy, I guess. But he loves himself and his music more than he loves my sister. I’ll never be okay with that.” As she speaks, she relaxes, the last of the tension bleeding away. A distraction was all it took. Maybe I’m not nearly as bad at this comforting thing as I thought. I file away the information for later, even as I tell myself that it’s worthless. The clock is already running out on us, for all that we have the rest of the winter. After that, it won’t matter that I know how to comfort Persephone when she’s upset. She’ll be gone.
It’s tempting to use sex to distract her, but I don’t know that it’s what she needs right now. “Would you like to get out of here for a little bit?”
The way she perks up confirms this was the right call. Persephone turns those big hazel eyes on me. “Really?”
“Yeah, really.” I stifle the urge to tell her to dress in warmer clothing. We won’t be going far, and the last thing I want right now is to push her too hard on anything, not when she’s already feeling so fragile. I ease her off my lap and hold her hand while she stands. “Let’s go.”
Persephone beams at me. “Is this another secret like the greenhouse?”
I still can’t believe how intimate it feels to have shared that with her. Like she’s seen a part of me that no one else gets to. Instead of turning away, she seems to understand what that place means to me. I shake my head slowly. “No, this is something else. A little peek behind the curtain of the lower city.”
If anything, her eyes light up even more. “Let’s go.”
Fifteen minutes later, we’re holding hands while walking down the street. Part of me wonders if I should take my hand back, but I don’t fucking want to. I like the feeling of her palm against mine, our fingers linked together. I lead her east away from the house, setting a pace that won’t tax her overmuch. No matter what else is true, Persephone hasn’t fully recovered from the night that brought her to me. Or maybe I’m just looking for an excuse to take care of her.
We walk in easy silence, but I can tell her thoughts are still occupied with her sisters. I have nothing to say that will actually comfort her on that note, so I set myself on providing an experience that will get her out of her head a bit. “We’re almost there.”