by Bella Klaus
“It worked?” I slurred, as I lost all sensation in my legs.
Hades scooped me into his arms, his manic laugh filling my ears. My head lolled back, and I stared into the bright floating lights.
They were the last thing I saw before he stepped through the glowing portal and into a void of black. We floated down through the darkness, toward a tiny speck of yellow, which I guessed was the entrance to Hell.
“You did it.” He pressed a kiss on my forehead.
Pride filled my chest, and I exhaled the longest sigh of relief. We had the power, and I hadn’t condemned Hades and the Fifth Faction to Samael’s machinations.
My veins coursed with a crackling heat that was both the foreign power and the lightning. It was strange, but nowhere near as intoxicating as the poison from Persephone’s deadly ivy.
“What about your chariot?” I slurred.
“Azriel will return it in the morning,” Hades replied with a chuckle. “He wouldn’t want to risk the wrath of Heaven and fall like Samael.”
There was so much I wanted to ask, such as why Samael had gotten cast out, why Lucifer had worn his tarnished armor, even though he had also fallen, and why Mother had married someone so foul.
A wave of power crashed through me, and lightning flashed across the void. I squeezed my eyes shut and groaned. “How long does the power take to wear off?”
Hades didn’t answer.
Gulping hard, I cracked open an eye. “Don’t tell me two thousand years.”
“As soon as you rest, we can perform another ritual to shift your burden to me.” He ran the tip of his nose along the shell of my ear, sending tiny sparks of sensation across my skin.
Doubts resurfaced in the back of my mind, whispering in the words of Queen Mera, Captain Caria, and even Mother. Unease settled in my gut. Whatever Hades still hid from me was huge.
“Is there anything else you need to tell me?” I asked.
His wings sliced through the air, but the muscles of his chest and arms stiffened. It was the same tense reaction he had made when Mother had been ready to blurt the reason why Persephone had left him.
We dropped through the ring of fire and appeared before a building twice the size of Buckingham Palace, with towers that reached the clouds. He teleported us into the room with the floor-to-ceiling windows that overlooked the mist.
“Hades,” I said through clenched teeth.
“It’s complicated,” he said with an outward breath.
I was about to press for more, when an explosion sounded from the door, spraying splinters of wood across the room. My heart jolted, and my skin erupted with sparks.
Hades stepped back and clutched me to his chest. “Persephone?”
I glanced into his paling features. “Why are you still calling me—”
A thorny vine wrapped around my neck and threw me across the room. I landed against the wall and slid down with a pained wince.
Vines slid across the floors like giant snakes, scoring the marble with their thorns. A tulip-shaped flower head pushed itself through the doorway and grinned through serrated teeth.
My stomach spasmed, and I stumbled to my feet. Had the dryads escaped Persephone’s garden to cause mischief?
One of the vines raced toward Hades. He burned the vegetation to ash with Hellfire, only for more plants to emerge from the gap in the door.
“Kora.” Hades’ voice shook. “Teleport to Duck Island.”
“What’s happening?”
He turned to me, his features stricken. “It’s Persephone. And she’s broken free from her restraints.”
END OF BOOK ONE
READ BOOK TWO
Also by Bella Klaus
Captured - A Hades and Persephone Short Story
I had a one-night stand with the devil. Now he’s tracked me down to my mother’s house and is demanding my submission!
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He Broke My Heart… Now He’s Returned For My Blood.
I’m no one—just a magic-less woman who fled the supernatural world after being dumped and humiliated by the most powerful vampire in Britain.
That was a long time ago. I got over the betrayal. Now, I’m on the mend.
But when an assassin tracks me down , claiming that a deadly power thrums beneath my veins, only one person is strong enough to save my hide:
Valentine Sargon—the Vampire King who stole my virginity and broke my heart.
He’ll help, but only if I move into a safe house. With him.
Valentine is as handsome as the devil, silver-tongued and seductive as sin. I don’t trust him or the way he hungers for my blood. But I’ve run out of choices and can’t refuse.
He’s going to protect me from the assassins, but who’s going to protect me from him?
READ ALLURE OF THE VAMPIRE KING
Fate made me an outcast. My true mate marked me for death.
As the daughter of my pack’s lame wolf, I’m an outcast, a social reject considered unsuitable for mating. My life is a daily grind of drudgery, humiliation, and abuse.
Then during a ceremony to our god, Fenrir, fate made me the alpha’s true mate.
But when I shift, I become a monster.
Horrified at what I’ve become, the other wolves attack. They cast my broken and bleeding body on the altar as a sacrifice, leaving me to die.
When Fenrir comes to claim my soul, he sees something in me that’s precious and takes me to his lair.
He offers me the power to get revenge, but in return, I must help him destroy the world…
READ SACRIFICED