by Bella Klaus
“Spit it out,” Hades said.
“Who will be settling the check for the meal?”
Hades stiffened, his teeth grinding together. “Charge the food to my card.”
The manager and his security wizards disappeared.
I turned back to Hades and frowned. “Why are Mother and Samael being so stubborn?”
“Samael can be extremely petty, and your mother…” He shook his head. “Who marries that cockless sack of slime and sends agents into Hell to sabotage the integrity of my Faction out of a two-thousand-year-old grudge?”
I rested my forehead on his shoulder and exhaled a weary breath. “There’s something desperately wrong with that woman.”
Hades rubbed my back. “I’m inclined to agree. Now, let’s get out of here before someone else comes to ruin the mood.”
“Where should we go next?” I asked.
“Somewhere we can’t be disturbed.” He slid an arm around my middle and pulled me into his chest.
“Not my apartment?”
He grunted. “Not while it’s overrun with Hellcats. Remind me to contact the coffee shop and send a team of cat-whisperers to herd them out.”
I nuzzled his neck. “Thank you.”
“For what?” He pulled back, meeting my gaze with eyes that glowed brighter than the stars. “I haven’t fucked you yet.”
“For taking care of me, teaching me how to use my powers, and giving me more pleasure than I could ever wish for.”
Hades pressed a soft kiss on my lips. “There’s plenty more where that came from. Why don’t I show you another feature of your new greenhouse.”
In the blink of an eye, we sat on a bench within the domed structure with warm droplets of water showering over our heads. Thunder roared in my ears, accompanied by the patter and spatter of rain as it fell onto the wide expanse of green shoots.
The air was heavy with moisture, and my nostrils filled with the scent of wet earth. Parting my lips, I tilted my head up toward the roof, marveling at how the magic had mimicked the smell and taste of rain.
“How did you know I liked summer thunderstorms?” I hugged him tighter.
Hades tilted his head to the side, staring into my eyes with enough love in his eyes to melt my heart. “Forgive me, but it’s something Persephone enjoyed. During the summers she spent with her mother, I always knew to find her dancing in the rain.”
“Really?” I whispered.
He smoothed one of my curls between his fingers. “I noticed how much you enjoyed the pool of her garden, and assumed this was another similarity.”
“This is absolutely beautiful.”
“If I’m lucky, you’ll dance for me, and I’ll watch you twirl in the rain with naked abandon.”
I cupped the side of his face. “If I’m lucky, you’ll dance with me.”
His dazzling smile filled my stomach with fluttering butterflies. “You’d want to share something so special to you with me?”
“Of course.” I leaned in for a kiss. “Thank you again for setting up this surprise.”
The moment our lips touched, my mind conjured up the image of Hades laying me on the floor and continuing what we started at the masquerade ball. My eyes fluttered shut, and I relaxed into what was beginning to be a passionate kiss. I was so ready for him, and this time, there would be no one to walk in to interrupt us.
Hades’ tongue swiped at the seam of my mouth, demanding entry. With a moan, I parted my lips. His arm swept around my back, holding me in place, and he lavished me with a kiss so hot and wet and dominant that all I could do was surrender.
He lowered me onto my back, pinning me down, and he parted my legs with his thigh. My heart thundered. In all the time we’d been together, he’d never shown this level of intensity.
Maybe it was the battle, maybe it was the greenhouse, maybe it was his confession of love that triggered his amount of desire. Or maybe he’d been driven by my invitation for him to dance with me in the rain.
“I could have you every day like this until the end of time, and it would still never be enough,” he growled into the kiss.
My heart raced, my breaths turned ragged, and I clung to his back, digging my nails into the leather of his armor. Hades ran a hand up my thigh, over my waist, and grazed my nipple with his fingertips.
His touch was electrifying, intoxicating, and ignited a fire within me that raged for more. Then a sharp pain tugged at my insides, making us both flinch.
My eyes snapped open. “Did you feel that?”
“The wards are under attack from the inside,” Hades said through clenched teeth.
It took a second for me to realize he wasn’t talking about Mother or Samael. “Do you mean—”
“Persephone,” he growled. “She has finally resurfaced.”
Chapter Fifteen
The pain intensified, a twisting, churning sensation that felt like someone burrowing through my insides with a rusty fork. I scrambled off Hades’ lap and onto my hands and knees.
“Bloody hell.” My palms sank into the moist, warm soil, which absorbed some of the unpleasant sensations but not nearly enough. A rapid pulse resounded through my insides, making my bones rattle.
Hades grabbed me by the shoulders and pulled me to my feet. “Focus.”
“On someone skewering my guts?” I said from between ragged breaths.
“The connection you and Persephone share is unlike any other,” he said, his fingers tightening around my flesh and bringing my attention to him. “It will be deeper than the ones shared by identical twins.”
“But my soul isn’t the same as it was before,” I said through clenched teeth.
“There’s enough of the original Persephone inside you to connect with her body.” The command in his voice was clear. “Connect to that part of yourself and locate her.”
Another surge of agony hit, making me fall against his chest.
“How?” I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Focus on the source of the pain. It’s at your umbilicus, right?”
“How did you know?” I asked.
“I’ve torn enough souls from enough bodies to know how they connect.” He knelt beside me and pulled me into his chest, lending me his warmth and strength. “Now, fall into the pain and slide out through the other end. That’s where you will find Persephone.”
“Anything’s worth a try.” I sucked in a deep breath, filling my lungs with air.
It was like a meditation exercise where I concentrated on one part of my body. This time, instead of trying to fall asleep to the sound of a thunderstorm, I concentrated on the agony raging behind my belly button. Instead of shoving the feelings away or trying to suppress them, I pushed my consciousness down to the source of the pain and allowed myself to get sucked in.
Fire spread across my vision. A single flame at first, then I floated backward to find it was part of a larger ring. A larger ring that surrounded an idyllic collection of plants arranged around a pristine pool.
“She’s in Persephone’s garden,” I hissed.
“Take me there.”
My eyes snapped open, and I scrambled to my feet. “My teleportation skills are nowhere as accurate as yours.”
“But you need to learn how to activate them under pressure.” He placed his hands on my shoulders, staring down at me with piercing eyes. “Take us above the garden and float down on your wings.”
I swallowed hard. “They’re not good for flying.”
“The Fifth is under threat, and its queen needs to level up. Try to make them hold both our weight. If you fall, I will catch you.”
My stomach flip-flopped. I wasn’t even sure I could keep myself airborne, let alone a huge man who was six-four, twice as heavy as me, and with a broad, muscular frame.
“Alright.” I pictured the peaceful garden how it had looked when Hades had first brought me there, but my mind kept remembering how it currently appeared on fire.
After pushing my consciousness into that space, the re
st of my body followed, dragging Hades along for the ride.
My stomach plummeted, and the wind roared between my ears. I opened my eyes, staring out at a darkened landscape illuminated by fiery mountains that spewed out the rivers of lava. My muscles seized. We were falling. Tumbling through the air toward our deaths.
“Hades,” I shrieked.
He tightened his grip around my waist. “Use your wings,” he spoke over the wind. “If you can’t, then teleport us to the surface.”
“What happened to catching me if I fell?” My voice trembled.
He gave me a hearty slap on the ass. “Hurry up, or we’ll both end up as messes across the landscape.”
“Bloody hell!” I unfurled my wings, which flared out like the spokes of an electric parasol and filled the air with lightning.
Our free-fall slowed, but we were still drifting downward at a rapid pace. “Hades,” I hissed. “This isn’t working.”
“Persephone has ginkgo leaves and you have lightning,” he said in a voice far too casual for a man about to crash face-first into a burning garden. “Work out something that will keep us intact.”
I thickened the wing bones with more lightning, but it only made me descend faster. Pulling back the power, I imagined the tiny strings of magic I’d created with the help of the needles from my metal gloves.
Without having to weave them myself, tiny tendrils of lightning wove between the thicker wing bones, trapping the currents and suspending us in the air.
“Well done,” Hades said. “I knew you could do it.”
“No, you didn’t.” I gave him a hard nudge in the ribs.
“What was that for?” he asked with a laugh.
“Because that first time you saw my wings, you didn’t want me to use them to fly,” I said. “You mentioned something about connecting our magic so you could teach me how to create a nice feathery pair.”
Hades shook his head. “After seeing what those wings can do, I never want you to fly with anything else. Lightning is a devastating attack that kept a wanker like Zeus in power when there were better gods to take his place.”
My brows rose. “Did you ever challenge Zeus?”
Hades snorted. “After battling overground together for ten years straight against the titans, I was sick of Zeus, his sycophants, and Mount Olympus.”
I stretched out my wings. “You never wanted to leave the Underworld to rule?”
“Maybe not back then,” he muttered. “But I’ve had to step out of my comfort zone the past two thousand years. Leadership isn’t so bad with the right lieutenants.”
My wings sliced through the air, propelling us toward the blazing garden. “I can’t imagine what it was like to lose your domain, everything else you knew, and your wife.”
“The first century, Caria and I were too focused on putting Persephone together to bristle at the upheaval,” he murmured. “We had no idea Demeter and her coven were also searching for her so intently.”
“Did you ever talk to Mother?” I asked.
Hades shook his head. “You saw how she reacted to seeing me on the doorstep.”
I clapped a hand over my mouth. “She cut her hand with her short sword and threatened you with her blood.”
“She would have had no qualms about striking me dead.”
I shook my head. “The more I learn about Mother, the more surprised I am that she went to so much trouble to put me back together again.”
“This is why I’m pushing you to grow.” He wrapped his arms tighter around my middle. “There’s more to her than being a possessive mother, and I don’t want you unprepared if she ever gets near.”
“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” I muttered.
Hades chuckled. “You can be ferocious when necessary, I suppose.”
“I could beat you anytime.”
He fell silent for several heartbeats as we flew across the patch of land that linked the Asphodel Meadows to Persephone’s Garden. “I seem to recall sucking a certain young woman’s toes and rendering her completely docile.”
“Oh, shut up.”
Hades pressed a kiss on my cheek and pulled me closer to his chest. “Now, swoop down.”
Tilting forward, I pulled back my wings and descended toward the garden. “How are we going to capture Persephone?”
“If I can get close enough and make her stand still, I’ll put her to sleep.”
“That’s all?” I asked.
“That’s the best we can do without hurting her,” he said, sounding grave. “Be careful. Persephone will most likely have glutted herself on power. And her plants will give her a greater range of combat power than your lightning. Once we’ve subdued her, we can look for a more permanent arrangement.”
The scent of smoke rising from the burning garden filled my nostrils, making them twitch. “What if you find a soul in that body?”
Hades blew out a long breath. “Then she should know better than to tear up the Fifth Faction with her mass-murdering creations. At the rate of her destruction, there would be no need for the likes of Samael to slide the dagger in our backs.”
“I wish there was a way to strengthen the wards without giving her access to that power.”
“That’s why we stop her,” Hades muttered.
“Right.” I raised my wings the way I’d seen eagles do on nature shows, and swooped down toward the burning garden.
Hades still clung to my side, but by now, I barely noticed the extra weight. My gaze dropped down to the flames, which spread across the plants like a plague. Sorrow squeezed my heart in a tight grip. What a waste of innocent souls. Had she started this fire, or had it been an accident?
A shock of red hair caught my eye, followed by the sight of a blackened figure darting through a patch of trees whose canopies were ablaze. My heart stuttered. This had to be Persephone. Who else had access to her garden but the dryads and me?
I pointed down into the direction of the movement. “There she is.”
“This is the closest anyone has gotten to her since the shock of her awakening,” Hades said. “There’s no telling when she’ll resurface, so we can’t afford to let her escape.”
“Can you erect a wall around the garden?” I asked.
“I would need to make it a perfect dome, which will be impossible because of the roots.”
“Right.” I nodded, realizing that some of them could be hollow. Persephone could have used the ancient trees to walk around the Fifth undetected. “Alright, but you don’t want me to electrocute her?”
“Only as a means of self-defense,” he said, his voice tight.
The heat from the fire radiated from below, drying all the moisture from my face. I turned my gaze to Hades and asked, “If you don’t need my attack power, what can I do to help?”
“Stay close and let her come to you.”
“Fine.” I clapped my hands together. “I’ll act as the bait.”
We landed in the garden within one of its many clearings. Most of the plants had succumbed to the fire, leaving only the barest of stalks. My chest tightened at seeing the carnage in such close quarters. Most people didn’t realize this, but plants could feel both physical and emotional pain.
The flames surrounding our clearing were over seven feet tall in places, presumably from plants with a high content of oil. My gaze caught a lane of dwarf palm trees that the fire had completely consumed, and I shuddered.
“There.” Hades pointed at a blur dashing through the flames.
“Let’s go.” I raced after her, my hands balled into fists.
Hades teleported to the other side of the fire, making me shake my head. What happened to our plan to use me as bait?
A high-pitched scream pierced the air, the sound hitting me like a punch to the gut.
The dryads.
I turned in a circle, staring through the flames and trying to find the source of the sound, but it seemed to be coming from all directions. There was no sign of Hades. Now that he was in pursuit of Per
sephone, he probably wouldn’t make the effort to save the innocent little creatures.
My heart thundered, and the smoke burned the back of my throat. Where were they? Could they even leave the confines of the garden? I coughed into my hand. What if they were trapped here? When another shriek sounded from my left, I raised my forearms to my face and darted through the fire.
Practically every plant in the garden was aflame, the damage too extensive to do anything but let it burn. I raced through paths of smoldering raspberry canes, my ears ringing with tiny screams that made me stumble over my feet.
I was hearing the plants.
“No,” said a little voice from the other direction. “Please, stop.”
I whirled back toward the wall of fire.
Another voice wailed like a child, making my heart lurch. Even if plants could scream—which I hadn’t realized until now—they couldn’t form words. This had to be the dryads.
As I raced back through the wall of fire and out the other side, a tall tree fell into my path followed by another and another, filling the air with the scent of menthol. I staggered back, my mouth gaping open. What I was smelling wasn’t mint. It was eucalyptus, a tree known for exploding in forest fires.
I placed a hand over my mouth, not knowing how to proceed.
“Hades?” I said into our link.
“Kora.” Frustration filled his voice. “Do you see her?”
“No, but I can hear the dryads.”
“Where?” he asked.
I glanced around my surroundings, taking in the fire’s orange and red haze. Everything was a blur of burning plants. “Difficult to describe, but watch out for exploding trees.”
Hades didn’t reply for several heartbeats, and I wondered if he’d gotten distracted by another sighting of Persephone. I was about to send another message through our link again, when he said, “I’m going airborne. See if you can fly over the fire. Teleport away if you can’t.”
“Right.” I raced back to the other side of the garden, where the plants were smaller, mostly burned out, and less likely to explode.
I spread out my wings and tried to launch myself into the sky, but the landscape around me changed. Even though I knew I was standing still, I was also looking through another set of eyes.