“I remember every soul.”
“And every bargain?”
This was not a conversation he wanted to revisit, and he could not help the frustration in his voice as he spoke, angry that she was bringing this up.
“The point, Persephone. Get to the point. You’ve had no trouble of it in the past, why now?”
Her cheeks flushed, the tension between them building—a solid thing he would destroy if he could. It made his lungs hurt and his chest feel tight.
“You agree to offer mortals whatever they desire if they gamble with you and win.”
She made it sound like he was the aggressor, as if mortals did not beg him for the chance to play.
“Not all mortals and not all desires,” he said.
“Oh, forgive me, you are selective in the lives you destroy.”
“I do not destroy lives,” he said tightly. He offered a way for mortals to better their lives, once they left his office, he had no control over their choices.
“You only make the terms of your contract known after you’ve won! That is deception.”
“The terms are clear; the details are mine to determine. It is not deception, as you call it. It is a gamble.”
“You challenge their vice. You lay their darkest secrets bare—”
“I challenge what is destroying their life,” he corrected her. “It is their choice to conquer or succumb.”
“And how to do you know their vice?” she asked.
A wicked smile crossed Hades’ face, and suddenly, he thought he understood why she was here, why she was leveling these accusations at him—because she was now one of his gamblers.
“I see to the soul,” he said. “What burdens it, what corrupts it, what destroys it, and I challenge it.”
“You are the worst sort of god!”
Hades flinched.
“Persephone—” Adonis spoke her name, but his warning was lost over Hades’ reaction.
“I am helping these mortals,” he argued, taking a deliberate step toward her. It was not his fault she did not like his answer.
She leaned toward him, demanding. “How? By offering an impossible bargain? Abstain from addiction or lose your life? That’s absolutely ridiculous, Hades!”
Her eyes had brightened, and he noted that her hold on her mother’s glamour had faltered the angrier she became.
“I have had success.”
She would know that if she was not so eager to only see the bad in him. Wasn’t that the mark of a good journalist? Understand and interview both sides?
“Oh? And what is your success? I suppose it doesn’t matter to you as you win either way, right? All souls come to you at some point.”
He moved to close the distance between them, his frustration boiling over. As he did, Adonis stepped between him and Persephone, and Hades did what he had wanted to do since the mortal stepped into his office—he paralyzed him, sending him to the floor, unconscious.
“What did you do?” Persephone demanded and started to reach for him, but Hades took her wrists and drew her flush against him. His words were rough and rushed.
“I’m assuming you don’t want him to hear what I have to say to you. Don’t worry, I won’t request a favor when I erase his memory.”
She scowled at him.
“Oh, how kind of you,” she mocked, her chest rising and falling with each angry breath. It made him aware of their proximity, reminded him of the kiss he had pressed to her skin the day before. Heat curled in the bottom of his stomach, and his eyes dropped to her lips.
“What liberties you take with my favor, Lady Persephone.” His voice was controlled, but he felt anything but composed on the inside. Inside, he felt raw and primal.
“You never specified how I had to use your favor.”
“I didn’t, though I expected you to know better than to drag this mortal into my realm,” Hades glanced at Adonis.
Her eyes widened slightly. “Do you know him?”
Hades ignored that question; he would come back to it later. For now, he would challenge her reason for coming to Nevernight to begin with.
“You plan to write a story about me?” He felt himself leaning in, bending her backward and holding her tighter, sealing their bodies together. He was certain the only way he could get closer to her was if he was inside her, a thought that made his stomach feel hollow and his cock hard. “Tell me, Lady Persephone, will you detail your experiences with me? How you recklessly invited me to your table, begged me to teach you cards—”
“I did not beg!”