As he cut into the springy and fluffy cake, his stomach growled even louder, but then a horrible feeling trickled down his spine and he froze. It was like his body was being attacked by some invisible force. Chills raced down his arms, and there was a weight in his chest that kept his lungs from expanding. He could not take in breath, could not swallow, could not move.
Persephone.
He dropped the cake, fled the kitchen, and raced back to their bedchamber, where he found their room empty. Then he noticed the balcony doors open, and from there, he felt Persephone’s magic detonate. It was the only way to describe it. It dropped like a bomb, and the shock waves echoed throughout his realm. He had never felt anything like it, and his magic was not prepared to handle the sudden spike.
His world began to wilt. Even the garden below him wept, trees bowing, limbs curling, flowers disintegrating beneath the weight of Persephone’s magic. Within a matter of minutes, the Underworld was a desert of coarse black sand that stretched for miles and miles, only interrupted by desolate rivers and the ominous mountains of Tartarus.
What is happening? Hades thought.
She had bared the true nature of his realm, and throughout it all, a wail carried across a violent wind. It was anguished, much like his world.
His heart raced. Her power made him breathless.
Persephone.
He teleported from the balcony to find her in Tartarus—in the Forest of Despair. He felt acid burning the back of his throat at the thought of what horror she had discovered here. It was a place within the boundaries of Tartarus that fed off fears. Whatever she’d seen here was real to her. It had her shaking with a violent energy he could feel rumbling the earth at his feet.
If he didn’t stop her, she would destroy his realm.
“Persephone!” he called, desperate.
“Don’t say my name!”
He blanched at the sound of her voice, a horrible grating echo that carried across the space between them.
“Persephone, listen to me!”
He took a step toward her.
“Don’t! ”
Her voice boomed, and the ground ruptured and yawned as a deep ravine fractured far and wide between them.
“Persephone, please!” If she didn’t stop on her own, he would have to use his power against her, and that was the last thing he wanted.
But the more he said her name and the more he begged, the more agonized and angry she became. She screamed, and he did not know if it was from her rage or the power of her magic, which usually felt so pleasant against his own, but tonight felt more like war—a goddess prepared to deliver death, heedless of prayer.
He watched in horror as she brought her hands together, and the power she had drained from life in the Underworld—his magic—gathered between her palms, then she turned them outward, and all that power hit him. He was thrown back by the force of it, and as he landed, he dropped his glamour.
This was a nightmare.
His chest and heart ached—both from the impact of her blow and for what he was about to do. He gathered his magic, and it tore from him. As it charged for her, she threw up her hands and screamed, anguished and enraged, and his shadows froze as they hurled toward her, long black spears just suspended in the air, vibrating as they were caught between the push and pull of both of their powers.
There was a moment of stark silence. It pressed against Hades’s ears until they popped, and suddenly his magic was racing back toward him. He managed to recover enough to gain control of them and turn them into ash, the remains of which were carried away with Persephone’s raging wind.
“Stop!” Hades said. “Persephone, this is madness.”
And it was madness—everything about it. Just weeks ago, Persephone had been unable to control her own magic. It had burst from her in the form of thorns, leaving her torn and bloody, and suddenly, fueled by whatever horror the Forest of Despair had offered, she was turning Hades’s magic on him? It was unheard of.
It was dangerous.
Then she spoke, and despite the roar of her magic, her voice carried like a spell.
“You would burn the world for me?” she said, and there was an energy gathering around her that was both feral and volatile. “I will destroy it for you.”
The sky opened, and roots that looked more like giant trees breeched the vast expanse, slamming into the earth below. The ground shook and debris rained down on the entire Underworld.
Fuck. Fuck. Fuck.
He only seemed to be making it worse. She was heedless of anyone beyond her pain, but whatever that was, it would not compare to what she would feel when this was all over.