Series: Willow Winters
Total pages in book: 81
Estimated words: 74198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 74198 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 371(@200wpm)___ 297(@250wpm)___ 247(@300wpm)
“For me?” I’ve never seen anything so beautiful. I’ve never seen anything that made me think it was mine with such a strong feeling other than Hades.
“For you, my queen.”
Then he uses both hands to lift it up and set it on my head. As I close my eyes, it feels as if it belongs. With a spell, it binds to me.
I place my palms on Hades’s chest, and he drops his hands and looks at me, his eyes moving from my face to the crown and back.
“How do I look?” I question with a simper.
His mouth curves in a smile that is filled with satisfaction. It fades slowly until he has never looked more serious.
“You look as if you were made to rule at my side,” he says. “You look as if you could not possibly live anywhere but here. You belong here, Persephone. You look as if you are my queen and will never be anything else.”
“I am,” I say, my heart pounding. I mean it. I am his queen. But I am also my mother’s daughter. I am also a goddess of life that many in the mortal realm pray to. They rely on me to bring life, and I rely on them to know where I stand as a goddess. “I will always be your queen.”
Swallowing thickly, a new fear rises inside of me. I don’t know if I will always be here, where Hades wants me. And I don’t know what hell he’ll unleash when I inevitably leave. Or whether or not he’ll forgive my betrayal.
Hades
There’s a trembling rage just beneath the surface. The surface of my skin, the surface of the Underworld, the surface of all of my existence. It’s ominous and although I’m aware of it, I ignore the tremors out of fear of what I’ll do next.
The one thing I crave the most is to stay in bed with my queen until she speaks the truth I need to hear: she belongs here with me for all eternity. Only here and only with me.
It is a great irony. If she hadn’t come back, the Underworld would not have started to heal from my rage. If she hadn’t done magic with her mother and said whatever it is she said to Demeter to stop the carnage on Earth, the previous rage would still be unleashed…and that is quite harmless compared to what resides within me now.
“We must go,” Persephone tells me simply, pulling me from my thoughts, her arms around my waist. We stand in front of the mirror in my bedchambers. She is breathtaking in a black silk gown that gathers on the floor at her bare feet, the crown I gave her on her head, her hair in flowing natural curls over her pale shoulder. “The court is waiting for you.” Her voice is a lullaby. It soothes the beast inside of me.
“They’re waiting for us,” I remind her, then turn away from the mirror and take her chin in my hand. Her skin is so soft, so delicate. The love I have for her feels as if it’s on edge because of her admission: I must go back.
Persephone tips her face up to mine without hesitation, and I bend to kiss her without hesitation as well. The genuine affection soothes me. She is a balm to my broken soul.
Why would I ever hesitate? Why would I ever leave her unkissed? I would not. I will never again deny myself her love, however I may have it. I tell myself she’s here now and she would not betray me. She would not leave me. Although something inside of me screams that she will. That it is destined. The pain in my chest is unbearable and yet, I stay beside her. I ignore it. I bury it deep within me until the screams are silenced. With that I deepen the kiss, losing myself in her touch. Stay with me, my love.
Persephone makes a small feminine sound and pulls back, breathless. The blush on her cheeks is tempting. “Hades! They’re waiting!”
“Let them wait,” I tell her, my voice low with lust, and I kiss her again. The warmth of her embrace is everything I need.
The next time I come up for air, Persephone whirls away. I catch her around the waist and pull her back toward me loosely, kissing the side of her neck playfully until she twists out of my arms with a huff of a laugh and hurries out of my rooms ahead of me. “We must,” she urges and stops to wait for me. Not leaving my sight, which makes me grateful.
There are guards in the hall, of course, and the last time she was taken from the Underworld, I watched it happen and did not intervene. I allowed it. A foolish side of me under the spell of the Fates’ promise allowed it. Never again. She knows not what it did to me. Never fucking again will I allow it.