She texted back: Sounds great.
She was going to need a lot of alcohol to forget this day.
CHAPTER XIII – LA ROSE
Persephone and Lexa took a taxi to La Rose. It wasn’t her preferred method of travel. She felt like they were a game of chance. She never knew what she was going to get—a smelly cab, a talkative driver, or a creepy one. Tonight, they’d gotten a creepy one. He kept taking long looks at them in the rearview mirror, and had become so distracted, he’d had to swerve hard to miss oncoming traffic.
She glared at Lexa, who had insisted they couldn’t arrive at La Rose on a bus.
Better that than dead, she muttered now.
“Five articles about the God of the Dead,” Lexa said dreamily. “What do you think you’ll write about next?”
She honestly didn’t know, and right now she didn’t care to think about Hades, but Lexa wasn’t going to let it go.
She gasped—it was the sound she made when she had an idea or something terrible was happening. Persephone was sure that whatever was about to come out of her mouth was probably both.
“You should write about his love life.”
“What? No. Absolutely not.”
Lexa pouted. “Why not?”
“Uh, what makes you think Hades would share that information with me?”
“Persephone, you’re a journalist. Investigate!”
“I’m not really interested in Hades’ past lovers,” Persephone said, looking out the window.
“Past lovers?” her best friend questioned. “That makes it sound like he has a current lover…like you’re the current lover.”
“Uh, no,” Persephone blushed. “I’m pretty sure the Lord of the Underworld is sleeping with his assistant.”
“Write about that!” Lexa encouraged.
“I’d rather not, Lexa. I work for New Athens News, not the Delphi Divine. I’m interested in truth.”
Besides, she’d rather not learn whether that was true. Just thinking about it made her sick.
“You’re pretty sure Hades is banging his assistant—just get it confirmed, and it’s truth!”
She sighed, frustrated. “I don’t want to write about trivial things. I want to write about something that will change the world.”
“And bashing Hades’ godly antics will change the world?”
“It might,” Persephone argued, and Lexa shook her head. “What?”
Her friend sighed. “It’s just….all you did in publishing that article was confirm everyone’s thoughts and fears about the God of the Dead. I’m guessing there are other truths about Hades that weren’t in that article.”
“What’s your point?”
“If you want your writing to change the world, write about the side of Hades that makes you blush.”
Persephone’s face heated. “You’re such a romantic, Lexa.”
“There you go again,” she said. “Why can’t you just admit you find Hades attractive—”
“I have admitted—"