Persephone

by Kitty Thomas

  Persephone

  Digital Edition

  Copyright 2017 © Kitty Thomas

  All rights reserved.

  Digital Edition License Notes

  This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be resold or shared. If you did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please purchase your own copy. Respecting the hard work of this author makes new books possible.

  Publisher’s Note:

  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Neither the publisher nor the author endorses any behavior carried out by any character in this work of fiction or any other.

  Persephone

  Table of Contents:

  Front matter

  About Persephone

  Persephone

  Also by Kitty Thomas

  Author's Note

  Acknowledgements

  Dear Readers,

  Persephone and Hades is my favorite myth, which, if you’ve read many of my books probably isn’t a huge shocker. I’ve read probably every version out there and now here is my version of it. If you are familiar with classical mythology, you will realize that I’ve taken several liberties with various aspects of the story as well as some aspects of the underworld.

  The biggest difference is the absence of Demeter. Nearly every version of the myth somehow ends up making what should be Persephone’s story about “how her mother has suffered”. Demeter so strongly overshadows everything that I removed her entirely so Persephone can have her say.

  I hope you enjoy my retelling of this myth. Thank you for reading and supporting my work!

  Kitty ^.^

  For M.

  Chapter One

  “I don’t know how you do that. It’s damn near magical,” Lynette said as she stared in wonder.

  “Do what?”

  “That.” She pointed at all the flowers around the shop as if this should be obvious to any thinking person. “The way you take nearly dead broken things and bring them back to life. I’ve never seen anything like it.”

  “Oh,” Persephone said. “I don’t know. You just have to listen to them. They tell you what they need, but they speak very quietly. It’s hard to hear them in the city.”

  The Perfect Posie was a quaint flower shop situated between an authentic Italian sausage shop and an old vinyl record store. It wasn’t exactly the quietest or best place for plant life to flourish in Persephone’s opinion, but she worked with what she had.

  Lynette shook her head, her long, dark curls falling behind her back, hiding a black raven tattoo on her shoulder. “Fine. Don’t tell me. I’m going to lunch; do you want anything?”

  “No. I had a big breakfast this morning.” It was a lie, but if she admitted she hadn’t had anything but coffee, Lynette would start mothering her.

  “If you don’t eat something, you’ll blow away.”

  “I’ll have something later. I’m fine.”

  Lynette slipped out of the shop into the bustling New York City streets, leaving Persephone with her flower arranging. Her boss was right; the lilacs had been wilted and nearly dead when they’d arrived that morning. Lynette had been about to make an angry phone call to her supplier and order more when Persephone had taken them to a back room and just…

  What exactly had she done with them? She wasn’t sure. She gave them some flower food and water and sunlight and talked to them a little. It was what you were supposed to do. She just did it, and they’d come back. It wasn’t magic. It was common sense and patience and love. You had to love them, or the spark of life wouldn’t come back. But every time she did it, Lynette had acted as if it was something close to a goddamn miracle.

  She sighed and left the lilacs to do whatever healing it was they needed from their arduous trip to the store and stepped outside for some air.

  Persephone had been promised a beautiful perfect day today by everyone. The weather man, her chiropractor neighbor, even the bees had seemed to be in agreement, but instead, what she’d come to work in was an ugly overcast day with heavy oppressive clouds that seemed to push down on the city until it almost felt smaller somehow.

  Now the sky was clear and blue and perfect with only a few wispy clouds that hadn’t seen fit to leave yet. Each time she’d looked out the window, she’d seen a little more hope in the forecast. But she’d never seen the clouds move. They’d instead seemed to unobtrusively melt and disappear into the sky.

  It was the least foreboding day one could imagine. And yet.

  The hairs on the back of her neck prickled and stood on edge as if zapped by a jolt of static electricity. Across the street, she spotted a nondescript black sedan.

  It’s probably a bookstore customer or somebody who works in the area.

  But she couldn’t shake the overwhelming paranoia that the sedan was here for her. It felt like death coming to claim her. A long, slow shiver whispered down her spine. Just a breeze. But she wasn’t convinced.

  She went back into the flower shop and to the back room and sat next to the vase of lilacs now blooming happily in a patch of sunlight. She felt as though she were huddling. Hiding. But from what? This was so ridiculous.

  The bell over the flower shop door jangled.

  “Hello?”

  It was a deep, gravelly male voice. It was a melody, a song. It was the kind of voice that would lead you over a cliff if you followed it. And yet Persephone got up off the stool she was perched on and stepped out into the main room.

  “C-can I help you?”

  The stranger turned. He wore a black suit with a black linen shirt underneath. It was clearly professionally tailored. Not off the rack. It fit too perfectly. He had dark olive skin, eyes black as coal, and hair that was the same. He had hands that… could crush you.

  Persephone pushed that thought away.

  Every inch of him was perfect, but that smile. It promised evil things.

  While Persephone had never seen the car door across the street open, she somehow knew this man had come out of that black sedan. He was the thing that made her hair stand on end. He was the thing that made her hide in a back room with a vase of flowers as if it could protect her.

  “Persephone.” Her name rolled off his tongue like a prayer. “You have no idea how long I’ve been looking for you.”

  “How do you know my name?” Somehow, she’d made that whole sentence come out without a stutter. As it was, she was gripping the counter, her knuckles turning white—doing all her panicking for her. But her voice remained a mask of calm. For some reason, she knew the last thing she could give this man was her fear.

  He would enjoy it too much.

  “I’ve known your name for centuries. And truth be told, the rest of the world should have known it as well, my little goddess of spring.”

  Okay. This man was crazy. He spoke in riddles. Obviously, he hadn’t known her name for centuries, and what was this goddess of spring nonsense? Did that pick-up line really work with other women? To know her name, he had to have been stalking her. Watching her.

  Persephone eased her way toward the register end of the counter where there was a comforting heavy, round panic button situated under the Formica. In the city, you never knew who might come in or what they might want. It wasn’t unheard of for some meth head to burst in demanding the money from the register of small shops like this.

  Her finger eased closer to the button.

  “I wouldn’t,” the stranger said. “Don’t disappoint me now.”

  “I-I think you need to leave.”

  “Yes, we both do.” He stretched out a hand
toward her. “Come along, then.”

  Persephone took several steps back. “I’m not going anywhere with you. I don’t know you!” She tried to reassure herself that she was safe. The city was alive with activity. Plenty of witnesses. It was a bright sunny day outside. The birds were chirping. And he hadn’t pulled out a gun or anything.

  He smiled. It didn’t help. “I’m sorry. You are everything I thought you would be. I’ve forgotten my manners in the midst of my pleasant surprise. I’m Hades.”

  “That’s a name?” Didn’t it mean something like Hell? Who named their kid that? There was something else prickling at the edge of her awareness. She’d heard this name in a bigger context but couldn’t remember now in all the edging hyperventilation.

  “Oh, you must have read about me. I’m renowned. It’s a little story from Greece. Hades, god of the underworld? I know they must still be teaching about me in school, even if they gloss over all the fun bits.”

  That’s where she’d heard the name. Years ago in school.

  And no, they hadn’t glossed over the fun bits. At least she could be grateful this guy was just crazy and not actually Hades. When she’d learned mythology she’d thought that particular god had a rather dark reputation as well as a singular obsession with the queen he never found.

  This guy was hot, no doubt, but calling himself a god… well, it was a bit self-aggrandizing. And yet, somehow, she didn’t think he was just being vain. He really believed this insanity.

  He sighed. “Your father has been hiding you from me for thousands of years.”

  “My father?”

  “Zeus.”

  A hysterical laugh bubbled to the surface. Her father was a farmer out in Idaho—definitely not Zeus. She hadn’t seen her dad in a couple of years. Not since her mother died.

  Hades moved then, so fast she could hardly catch her breath. All at once, he was standing right next to her, his hand forming a death grip on her arm, dragging her from the flower shop.

  She’d hoped while he was sharing all the details of his delusional fantasies that a customer would come in, maybe a cop. Hell, she’d take a mafia goon—anyone who could get this guy to go away. But no one had come.

  Out on the street, suddenly, all was quiet. Nothing. No one. Lime-green spring leaves fluttered in breezes on the trees lining the street, and clouds began to gather again, darkening the sky as he pulled her across the road to his waiting car.

  There was no traffic. How could there be no traffic? No pedestrians. It was as if the city of New York, or at least this one street of it, had become a ghost town.

  Persephone let out a blood curdling shriek. But the only response was a flock of birds flying away from her. And now she was utterly alone. With him.

  She struggled and tried to squirm out of his grasp, but his grip was unyielding, her efforts laughable.

  This wasn’t real. I-it couldn’t be. This wasn’t how the world worked. Persephone willed herself to wake up. But the reality in front of her stubbornly remained. Solid and unyielding.

  Hades pushed a button on a key remote, and the doors to the sedan unlocked. He ignored her continued struggles and walked her calmly around to the passenger side. “Get in.”

  “N-no.”

  “Persephone, don’t try my patience further. Get in the car.”

  “No! If you’re going to kill me, you can do it right here.” In the middle of a city street where somehow all the people had disappeared and the perfect blue sky had turned dark and gray within minutes.

  He looked at her as if he found her amusing. “You think I’d search for you this long and then just kill you? That’s the kind of thing a human would do. You need to start thinking more like the immortal that you are.”

  She’d always known there were a lot of crazy people running around the city, but this guy… well she’d never really thought that crazy could come in such an otherwise polished package wrapped in a nice suit and good looks and a clean, shiny car.

  But here he was.

  After another moment, he opened the door and shoved her in. Before she could try to escape, he was somehow already in the driver’s side. The door locks clicked ominously into place.

  “I’ve got child locks,” he said, to save her the energy of trying to open her own door.

  Oh god. Oh god. Oh god.

  “Yes?” he said, amused.

  Oh. She must have said that out loud. She thought she’d only been thinking it. The terror had become so all consuming that she wasn’t sure which thoughts were still safely sequestered in her head and which ones had escaped her mouth into the space between her and her insane captor.

  Tears slid down her cheeks. “Please. Y-you need help. You don’t know what you’re doing. I-is there some medicine you should be taking? Do you have a doctor we can call?”

  Hades shook his head. “My poor spring goddess. Soon enough you will believe me.”

  “You can still let me go.”

  “Never.”

  That one word was absolute. Final.

  Persephone tried to breathe normally. Tried to think. But she couldn’t. All she could do was cry. There was no reasoning with a crazy person. If he hadn’t been so mentally unhinged then… maybe.

  As Hades started the car and pulled out onto the road, she realized there was something cold and dead and broken inside him. The temperature of the car seemed to have dropped just from him being in it. If only Lynette’s belief that she had magic were true. If only she did have some power to awaken and bring dead things to life. But, of course, that was as much fantasy as the story the man beside her had concocted.

  She didn’t know what was broken inside this man’s brain, but it would do no good to make up her own fantasies. She thought at least one of them should remain sane.

  At the end of the road, Hades turned onto another street. This one had people on it. And all at once, the sense of unreality from before faded. Rain had started to come down in pelting sheets. People hid underneath yellow and green and black and pink umbrellas, darting down the sidewalks with their heads down.

  Despite the rain, the traffic moved at an easy pace like the red sea parting for them, delivering Persephone up to whatever dark fate awaited her.

  Thunder cracked in the distance. The windshield wipers clicked gently back and forth. Finally, Hades broke his silence. “I wish I could comfort you and tell you I’m not going to hurt you, that you’ll be safe with me. But I don’t want to make promises I can’t keep.”

  Another strangled sob escaped her control. Her hands had started shaking on her lap. But otherwise, she was silent. She had to think. There would be a moment. She had to wait for that moment so she could get away.

  Then, as if Hades hadn’t as much as admitted he planned to hurt her, he said, “That hair. It’s like sunshine. So pale and blonde and glimmering. And your skin… it’s so fair with that beautiful flush of color in your cheeks, and crystal blue eyes, pure like a lake.” How long was he going to wax poetic like this? He left one hand on the steering wheel while his other encircled her wrist. “And these tiny fragile bones. Like birds. You’re everything I imagined the goddess of spring would be, like a ripe, young bud the moment before full bloom. It’s hard to believe you’re indestructible.”

  Despite his coldness, Persephone’s skin felt burned under his touch.

  She took a long, deep breath. “Please, you have to believe me. I’m not who you think I am. Whatever you believe about yourself, you can’t bring me into it. I’m not indestructible. I’m human. I’m fragile. I will break. I will die.”

  Hades released her wrist and shook his head, a look of disgust on his face. “Your fucking father. You may very well break under my hands. But you won’t die.”

  “Where are you taking me?”

  “To the underworld. Where else?”

  Okay, where was he really taking her? Some dank basement somewhere? A mysterious concrete compound? A cabin in the woods? Where did a guy like this like to hole up? It was a really
nice car. And a really nice, well-tailored suit. This guy, crazy or not, had some money. And that scared her. It was bad enough to be kidnapped by a crazy man. It was far worse to be taken by one with resources.

  He stopped in front of the Empire State Building. There was an empty space right there in front of the building for him to park. What? Persephone shook herself again. Why was he stopping here, and why on earth was there just some place for his car, as if by magic? No. She was not going to be sucked into his delusion.

  “This is our stop, Sunshine. We go on foot from here to the portal.”

  “But what about your car?”

  “It’s not my car.”

  Hades got out and came around to her side, helping her out of the car that wasn’t his car. No people again outside. The rain was still coming down hard. Maybe they were all inside, sheltering in place.

  He gripped her wrist again and led her into the building. To her absolute and utter delight, there were people inside. Crowds and crowds. And security. She was going to get away from this guy. It was all going to be okay.

  “Help me! This man kidnapped me. He’s crazy!”

  But no one moved to help her. No one even turned when she screamed.

  “I thought you might try that. You can scream all you want. They can’t hear you. They can’t see you,” Hades said. He wasn’t even ruffled.

  “H-how? How is this happening?” Just a few more minutes. I’ll wake up.

  “I told you I’m a god. My will is always obeyed. Something you will learn very soon.”

  Despite the ineffectiveness, Persephone continued to scream for help. Still no one noticed her. No one noticed that a handsome, swarthy lunatic was dragging her through the building while she fought and struggled and screamed.

  “I’d hate for you to wear yourself out this early,” Hades said. “You’re going to need all your energy where we’re going.” He dragged her down a hallway to a service elevator.

  An employee followed in behind them and pushed the button to the very top. The 102nd floor.