It was then Persephone noticed that the woman was a nymph. She had pale, milky skin, long white hair, and bright blue eyes that made her look ethereal. Even her lashes were white.
A Naiad, Persephone thought, which was a nymph associated with water. She was beautiful, but she also looked severe, angry, and exhausted.
“Who are you?” she demanded.
Persephone was surprised, but mostly because there were few people who didn’t know who she was.
“You dare speak to Lady Persephone in such a manner?” Mekonnen’s hands tightened into fists.
“It’s alright, Mekonnen,” Persephone held up her hand to calm the ogre, who looked like he might just grind this woman’s bones into paste at any moment.
“I am Persephone,” she said. “Am I correct in understanding that you wish to speak to Lord Hades?”
“I demand it!”
Persephone’s brow rose a little.
“What are your grievances?”
“My grievances? You want to hear my grievances? Where do I start? First, the apartment he put me in is a shithole.”
Now she was confused.
“Second, I won’t work another minute at that hellhole of a fucking nightclub—”
Persephone held up her hand to stop the nymph from talking. “I’m sorry. Who are you again?”
The woman lifted her chin, her chest rose as she spoke with misplaced pride. “I am Leuce, Hades’ lover.”
Persephone felt the color drain from her face and shock settled deep in her belly.
“Excuse me?”
The nymph chuckled like she had said something funny. Persephone’s fingers curled into fists.
“Sorry, ex-lover but it’s all the same.”
“Ex...lover?” She said through her teeth, tilting her head to the side.
“You have nothing to worry about,” Leuce said. “It was so long ago.”
“So long ago that you forgot and introduced yourself as Hades’ lover?” Persephone asked.
“Honest mistake.”
“You’ll forgive me if I believe there was nothing honest about it.”
She twisted toward Mekonnen. “Please show Leuce to Hades’ office. I’ll see that he’s along shortly.”
“Yes, my lady,” Mekonnen bowed, and added. “He’s in the lounge.”
“Thank you,” she replied warmly, though her whole body felt like ice.
Persephone made her way into Nevernight. She went right up the stairs to the lounge where Hades made wagers with mortals seeking more from life—love, money, health. It was these bargains that had both appalled and intrigued her. It led her to writing about the God of the Dead, and eventually landed her in a contract with him.
Euryale, a gorgon and gatekeeper to the lounge, waited outside. Persephone’s first interaction with the blind woman had been hostile, as the creature had correctly identified her as a goddess based on smell.
“Is Lord Hades in trouble?” Euryale asked. There was amusement in her voice, but also a hint of excitement as the goddess approached.
“More than you could ever know,” Persephone answered.
Euryale smiled, showing a set of blackened teeth. She opened the door without pause and bowed to Persephone as she passed.
“He is in the sapphire suite, my lady.”
Persephone stalked around the crowded card tables. The room was dark despite a large chandelier overhead and several intricate sconces lining the walls. Persephone’s first visit to the suite sealed her fate. She’d been enamored by the people and games, she’d reveled in watching the cards fly across the table, the ease with which men and women interacted and teased, and then she’d come to a poker table where she’d sat and met the King of the Underworld.
Even now, recalling how he’d looked up close for the first time made her stomach clench tight. He was a tangible shadow, built like a fortress, and he’d crashed into her life like a force of nature. She couldn’t shake him and, in truth, hadn’t wanted to. From the moment she’d laid eyes on him, he’d ignited something inside her. It felt like fire, but it was his darkness calling to hers.
She knew that now—felt it in her blood and bones—as she melded with the darkness in the room and found the passage that led to a series of suites where mortals waited to bargain with Hades. They were all named after precious stones—sapphire and emerald and diamond, each one decorated in the associated colors. They were beautiful rooms, offering a sense of grandeur, communicating to all who entered that if they played their cards right—literally—perhaps they, too, could obtain something just as extravagant.
Persephone found the sapphire lounge and when she entered, a man sat opposite Hades. The mortal looked to be in his early twenties. Persephone used to wonder how people so young could end up across from the God of the Dead, but disease of any kind did not discriminate. Whatever he was here for made him defensive, because he turned in his chair to see who had interrupted his game and said, “If it’s him you want, you’ll have to wait your turn. Took me three years to get this appointment.”
Hades gaze melded to her. Despite his elegant appearance, he was predatory. He sat with his back straight, fingers clasped around a glass of whiskey. To the untrained eye, he probably looked relaxed, but Persephone knew by his expression that he was on edge. Probably because of her. She didn’t have to say anything for him to understand she was angry. Her glamour was failing, she could feel it melting away, revealing holes in her mortal facade.
“Leave, mortal,” she said. The command must have shaken the man because he wasted no time raced out of the suite. Persephone slammed the door.
“I’ll have to erase his memory. Your eyes are glowing,” he smirked. “Who angered you?”
“Can you not guess?” She asked.
Hades raised a brow.
“I just had the pleasure of meeting your lover.”
Hades didn’t react, and that made her angrier. She felt more of her glamour slipping away. She imagined how ridiculous she looked—a goddess who stood before one so ancient, unable to hold onto her magic.
“I see.”
Persephone’s voice shook as she spoke. “You have seconds to explain before I turn her into a weed.”
She knew Hades would have laughed if he believed she were any less serious.
“Her name is Leuce,” he answered. “She was my lover a long time ago.”
She hated that she was relieved that he hadn’t named someone else.
“What is a long time?”
He stared at her for a moment, and there was something behind his eyes—a living thing full of rage and ruin and strife.
“Centuries, Persephone.”
“Then why did she introduce herself to me as your lover today?”
“Because to her, I was her lover up until Sunday.”
Persephone’s fists clenched, and suddenly, vines erupted from the floor and covered the walls. Hades didn’t even flinch.
“And why is that?”
“Because she’s been a poplar tree for over two thousand years.”
Persephone’s brows rose. She hadn’t expected that.
“Why was she a poplar tree?”
Hades’ hands rested on the tabletop, and they curled into fists as he answered, “She betrayed me.”
“You turned her into a tree?” Persephone asked.
Sometimes she forgot the extent of Hades’ powers. He was one of the Three most powerful gods in existence, and while each of his brothers became king of a respective realm—Zeus the sky, Poseidon the sea and Hades the dead, they shared power over the earthly realm, which meant there was the potential that she and Hades shared powers.
Apparently, one was turning people into plants.
“Why?”
“I caught her fucking someone else. I was blind with anger. I turned her into a poplar tree.”
“She must not remember that, or she wouldn’t introduce herself as your lover.”
Hades stared at her for a moment. He hadn’t
moved from his spot at the table.
“It is possible she has repressed the memory.”
Persephone started to pace.
“How many lovers have you taken?”
“Persephone,” Hades voice was gentle, but there was an undercurrent that said that’s not a path you want to go down.
“I just want to be prepared in case they start coming out of the woodwork.”
Hades was silent, staring. After a moment he said, “I won’t apologize for living before you existed.”
“I’m not asking you to, but I’d like to know when I’m about to meet a woman who fucked you.”
“I was hoping you’d never meet Leuce,” Hades said. “She wasn’t supposed to be around this long. I agreed to help her get on her feet in the modern world. Normally, I’d pass the responsibility on to Minthe, but seeing as how she’s indisposed—” He glanced at the ivy on the walls. “It’s taken me longer to find someone suitable to mentor her.”
Persephone stopped pacing and faced Hades. “You weren’t planning to tell me about her?”
Hades shrugged. “I saw no need until now.”
“No need?” Persephone echoed, and the ivy on the walls thickened and bloomed. The room felt infinitely smaller.
“You gave this woman a place to stay, you gave her a job, and you used to fuck her—”
“Stop saying that,” Hades said through his teeth.
“I deserved to know about her, Hades!”
“Do you doubt my loyalty?”
“You’re supposed to say you’re sorry,” she snapped.
“You’re supposed to trust me.”
“And you’re supposed to communicate with me.” That’s what he had asked of her, why shouldn’t he be held to the same standard?
There was silence and Persephone took a breath, feeling the need to brace herself for this question.
“Do you still love her?”
“No, Persephone.” Hades’ response was immediate, but he sounded annoyed that she would even ask.
Persephone wasn’t sure where to go from here. She was angry and she didn’t understand why Hades had chosen to hide his previous lover from her. It wasn’t that she believed he had been unfaithful; it was that this was just one of several things that had taken her off-guard this week when it came to Hades’ life.
She was starting to feel like she truly knew nothing about him.
After another minute of tense silence, Hades sighed and suddenly looked exhausted. He came around the table and reached for her, his fingers twined into her hair at the base of her head.
“I hoped to keep all of this from you,” he said. “Not to protect Leuce, but to protect you from my past.”
“I don’t want to be protected from you,” Persephone whispered. The air between them growing thick with a different kind of tension. “I want to know you—all of you, from the inside out.”
He offered a small smile and cupped her face, the pad of his thumb brushing her lips.
“Let’s start with the inside,” he said, and their mouths collided, his tongue twined with hers. He tasted like smoke and ice. His hands moved down her back and over her bottom, and he drew her to him so that she was cradled between his legs as he leaned against the table. Each flick of his tongue hypnotized her. The hard press of his erection against her stomach made her dizzy with lust. She held onto him, fingers digging into his tight muscles. She would be lying if she said she didn’t need this. Not only had he left her aching and empty nights ago, but the stress of work was putting her on edge. She needed release, but she also needed Hades to understand, so she pressed her hands against his chest and pulled away.
“Hades, I am serious. I want to know your greatest weakness, your deepest fear, your most treasured possession.”
His expression grew serious then, and he stared at her with an intensity that made her insides shudder.
“You,” he answered, the pad of his thumb passed over her kiss-swollen lips.
“Me?” For a moment she was confused, and then she realized what he was saying. “I cannot be all of those things.”
“You are my weakness, losing you is my greatest fear, your love is my most treasured possession.”
“Hades,” she said gently. “I am a second in your vast life. How can I be all of those things?”
“You doubt me?”
She pressed her palm to his cheek. “No, but I believe you have other weaknesses, fears, and treasures. Your people, for one. Your realm for another.”
“See,” he said very quietly. “You know me already—inside and out.”
His response made her sad because she knew it wasn’t true.
I don’t know you at all.
He went in for another kiss, but she stopped him.
“I just have one more question,” she said. “When you left Sunday night, where did you go?”
“Persephone—”
She took a step away. She knew. He didn’t even need to answer.
“That’s when she returned, wasn’t it?”
Her anger was once again renewed. He had wound her so tight she hadn’t been able to breathe and instead of releasing the tension he’d building inside her, he’d chosen to leave—to help a former lover.
“You chose her over me.”
“It isn’t like that at all, Persephone—” he reached for her.
“Don’t touch me!” Persephone stepped away, lifting her hands. Hades jaw tightened, but he didn’t approach. “You had your chance. You fucked it up.”
His reasons for keeping Leuce a secret didn’t matter right now. The fact was, he hadn’t told her. He’d done the opposite of what he’d asked of her—communicate—so the words she used against him next seemed more than fitting.
“Actions speak louder than words, Hades.”
She vanished from the lounge.
CHAPTER VII - TRUCE
Hades’ Lover Arrives at Nevernight in Rental Truck, Dressed in Sweats.
Persephone sat behind her desk at work on Monday, glaring at the article on her computer screen. She could be an oracle with the way she was able to predict headlines. If only she’d been able to predict meeting Hades’ lover, too.
Her mood hadn’t improved over the weekend. Maybe that was due to the fact that she had yet to hear from Hades. She wasn’t even sure she wanted to talk to him, but she had expected him to try to contact her—either manifest in her bedroom in the middle of the night to apologize or send Hecate, the peacekeeper.
As the hours turned into days, Persephone grew even more frustrated with Hades, and the more she wanted to write about Apollo just to piss him off.
The thought had occurred to her because the God of Music was in the news today, having been selected as the chancellor for the upcoming Panhellenic Games. His christening was no surprise, as he had been given the title for the last ten years. It was basically a designation Apollo paid for, since his money funded the entertainment, uniforms, and construction on a new stadium.
It was just another example of Apollo’s status. No one would want to believe that the god who gave them sports was also an abusive asshole.
She sighed and closed her browser, opening a blank document. She had another week to write the exclusive Demetri and Kal had ordered. This was probably not the best time to begin, because every word she thought of to describe Hades was something angry and unkind.
Frustrating, thoughtless, jerk.
After a moment, she sighed and checked her mug. She needed more coffee if she was going to attempt this article. She left her desk and went into the break room. As her coffee brewed, Helen found her.
“Persephone...there’s a woman here to see you. She says her name is Leuce.”
Persephone froze and looked at Helen.
“Did you just say Leuce?”
The girl nodded; her blue eyes wide. Persephone’s frustration burned, and she clenched her fists to keep a handle on her magic. All she needed was to sprout vines in front of her co-worker. What was Hade
s’ ex-lover doing here?
“Should I tell her you’re busy?” Helen asked. “I’ll tell her you’re busy.”
Helen started to leave.
“No,” Persephone stopped her. “I’ll see her. Show her to an interview room.”
Helen nodded and returned shortly after she disappeared.
“She’s in three.”
“Thank you, Helen.”
The girl hovered and Persephone took a breath.
“Yes, Helen?”
“Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Just peachy,” she answered.
What else was there to say? She was being forced to write about her love life—a love life that was being threatened by a woman who just showed up at her job.
Things were complicated.
Persephone kept Leuce waiting. It was the woman’s fault for showing up unannounced. When she finally entered the interview room, Leuce was standing by the window and when she turned to face Persephone, the goddess was surprised to see that she looked worse than when she’d seen her yesterday.
Yesterday she’d been exhausted.
Today she looked filthy. Her string-straight hair was matted, and she was wearing the same clothes that she’d had on at Nevernight. Persephone also noted the tear stains on her cheeks, visible because of the dirt on her face.
“What are you doing here?” Persephone asked.
“I came to apologize,” she said.
Persephone startled. That was the last thing she expected Leuce to say. “Excuse me?”
“I shouldn’t have introduced myself the way I did,” the words poured out of Leuce’s mouth quickly, almost like she was berating herself. “I was angry with Hades. I mean, I am sure you understand—”
“Leuce,” Persephone interrupted her. “You will forgive me if I don’t wish to be reminded about how well you know Hades. Why are you here?”
The nymph pressed her lips together tightly. “Hades kicked me out and fired me last night.”
Persephone just stared.
“I know I don’t deserve your kindness, but please. I have nowhere to go.”
Persephone shook her head. “What exactly are you asking of me?”
“Can’t you…talk to him…for me?” She seemed to struggle saying those words.
A Touch of Ruin (Hades & Persephone Book 2) Page 9