“I…I’m not saying that because I am angry,” she said. “I’m saying that because I like Persephone. Despite what you think, I do not wish her harm.”
“Perhaps if you’d admit that Demeter gave you life, I’d be more willing to believe that.”
“If you want answers, you’d have to do more to protect me, Hades,” she replied.
Those words gave him pause, and he wondered what she meant—or rather, what she feared. They said nothing else until they had made it to Leuce’s apartment. She unlocked the door and stepped inside.
“If protecting Persephone meant protecting you, I’d do whatever it took,”
Hades said.
“You can start by giving me a new job,” she said and then offered a small, sad smile. “I’ve already said too much.”
Then the nymph slammed her door in his face.
Before Hades returned to the Underworld, he stopped by Persephone’s room, where he intended to tell her about his night—namely that he had seen Leuce home. However, when he manifested, he found her asleep, and given that she had been so tired earlier, he did not wish to wake her, so he smoothed his hand through her hair, inhaling her sweet scent before pressing a kiss to her forehead.
“I love you,” he whispered and vanished.
Chapter XXIII
A Game of Pride
“You are really going to hate this,” Ilias said and dropped a copy of the Delphi Divine in front of him as he sat at the Nevernight bar the next morning.
Before the words were out of his mouth, Hades already felt a heaviness in his throat and stomach. Somehow, he knew what was coming.
The headline read:
HADES STEPS OUT WITH MYSTERIOUS WOMAN
Below that was a picture, snapped at the precise moment Leuce had reached for his hand. It was as if someone had been waiting to take it, and in that frozen second, it appeared that he had been holding her hand, dragging her hurriedly down the shadowed street. There was a lot someone could infer from it, but all he cared about was that Persephone knew the truth.
As he stared at the photo, he studied Leuce’s face, who had schooled her features into a placid mask, the opposite of how she had looked when they had faced each other.
I’ll help you when you admit that Demeter gave you life.
Well, if this wasn’t fucking proof.
She had set him up.
A sharp, black spire shot from the tip of his finger, and he used it to shred Leuce’s face before rising to his feet.
“I’ll be back,” he told Ilias before vanishing.
He manifested on the sixtieth floor of the Acropolis, at the entrance of New Athens News. There was a young blond at the front desk who gasped and stood. As he walked past her, she started to speak. “Can I…？”
“No,” Hades growled, having already found the object of his visit—
Persephone, who rose to standing, dressed in black. She was beautiful and striking, and her anger and pain hit him with a force that nearly stole his breath.
He swallowed down the dread crawling up his throat and continued toward her.
“You need to leave,” she whispered furiously, though it was so quiet on the floor that her words carried.
“We need to talk.”
She leaned forward just an inch, eyes alight, determined in her refusal to hear his explanation. Clearly, she’d already decided what to believe, and there was a sharp pain in his chest that made his heartbeat feel slow and sluggish.
“No.” The word was harsh and definite.
His features hardened. “So you believe it then? The article?”
“I thought you had a meeting,” she threw back at him, and it was the first time he heard the hurt leak into her voice.
“I did.” It was frustrating that she didn’t believe anything he had said.
“And you conveniently left out the fact that it was with Leuce?”
“It wasn’t with Leuce, Persephone.”
She looked away, clenching her jaw. “I don’t want to hear this right now.
You need to leave.”
She came around her desk and walked past him toward the elevator. He turned to follow.
“When are we going to talk about this?” he asked.
“What is there to talk about?” she asked, jamming the button for the elevator. “I have asked you to be honest with me about when you are with Leuce. You weren’t.”
“I came to you immediately after I saw Leuce home, but I didn’t feel good about waking you. When I saw you yesterday, you looked exhausted.”
She whirled to face him. “I am exhausted, Hades. I’m tired of you and sick of your excuses.”