“I could hardly deny her request when she had razor-sharp thorns pointed at my nether-regions.”
Persephone wanted to vomit, but she glanced at Hades and noted that despite the anger clouding his face, he seemed a little proud.
“So, we struck a deal. A bargain, as you like to call it.”
Hades eyes darkened.
“She asked me to heal her little friend, and in exchange, she provides me with...companionship.”
“Don’t make it sound gross, Apollo.”
“Gross?”
“Everything that comes out of your mouth sounds like a sexual innuendo.”
“Does not!”
“Does too.”
“Enough!” Hades voice cracked like a whip, and when Persephone looked at him, she saw fire in his eyes. Though he addressed Apollo, his gaze didn’t leave her, and she felt it tear
away all her layers, exposing the raw and real fear she felt beneath. “If you are no longer
in need of my goddess, I would like a word with her. Alone.”
“She’s all yours,” Apollo said, who had the good sense to evaporate and say nothing else.
Persephone stood still, staring at Hades. The silence on the floor of Nevernight was tangible. It set heavy on her shoulders and pressed against her ears, and when his voice erupted, burning away the quiet, it promised pain—she could already feel her heart
breaking.
“What have you done?”
“I saved Lexa.”
“Is that what you think?” He seethed. She could see tendrils of his glamour coming off him like smoke. She’d never seen him lose control of his magic.
“She was going to die—”
“She was choosing to die!” Hades snarled, he advanced upon her. His glamour fell away, and he stood before her, stripped of his mortal form. He seemed to fill the room, an inferno,
spreading his heat, his anger billowing, eyes inflamed. “And instead of honoring her wish,
you intervened. All because you are afraid of pain.”
“I am afraid of pain,” she snapped. “Will you mock me for that as you mock all mortals?”
“There is no comparison. At least mortals are brave enough to face it.”
She flinched, and her anger ignited, a searing pain erupted from all over as thorns sprouted from her skin.
“Persephone.”
He reached for her, but she stepped away, the movement was painful, and she inhaled between her teeth.
“If you cared, you would have been there!”
“I was there!”