Upperworld was still embedded in his chest, and with each breath the demigod took, he whined.
When Hades finally came face-to-face with him, he lashed out, kicking the stake farther into the man’s chest. Pirithous gave a pathetic cry and began to wheeze as blood spattered across the floor and dripped from his mouth.
“You touched my lover, my fiancée, my future,” Hades bellowed. “An unforgivable crime.”
“It’s not my fault!” Pirithous gave a gargled howl.
“Not your fault?” Hades repeated, the fury burning his blood. “Go ahead and tell me how it wasn’t your fault. You stalked her. You wrote horrible things about her. You abducted her. You. Touched. Her.”
He was raging, and once more, he kicked the man in the chest. This time, Persephone’s stake went right through him and fell to the floor, though Hades managed to hold on to the man’s life thread. He would not die yet.
He would face immeasurable pain, and despite the pleasure Hades would take from inflicting it, he knew it would not atone for what this man had done to Persephone.
“No,” Pirithous moaned, his words barely intelligible. “Th-Theseus said…we… Theseus said…”
“Theseus?” Hades repeated, his body stiffening at the sound of the demigod’s name. “Did you say Theseus?”
Pirithous nodded.
“He…was…friend.”
Hades took a moment to collect himself, then used his magic to heal the demigod. It would be hard for him to explain himself with a mouth and throat full of blood.
“What about Theseus?” he demanded.
“We made a bet,” Pirithous explained, his voice high-pitched and keening.
“To carry off goddesses. He said…he said we couldn’t get in trouble
because of Hera.”
“You made a bet to carry off goddesses, and you chose my goddess?”
Hades asked.
“It was Theseus who suggested it,” said Pirithous. It was as if he thought he shouldn’t be punished because it was not his idea, though Hades wondered why Theseus had put Pirithous up to this. Had he merely wished to see what happened when someone fucked with him? Or had he done this as a type of revenge?
Either way, Pirithous would not be the one to suffer for what happened tonight, though he would be the first.
Hades used his magic to summon Persephone’s stake from the ground, and as he hovered over the demigod, Pirithous began to wail.
“She was not yours to take,” Hades said, and he jammed the stake into the man’s neck. As he jerked it free, he seethed. “She was not yours to touch!
She was not yours! She was not yours!”
As he raged, he shoved Persephone’s stake into the demigod’s body, bathing in his blood, and he only stopped when he had lost his voice.
Chapter XXX
The Start of War
Hades’s stomach knotted with anticipation. Tonight, his nonprofit, the Cypress Foundation, was hosting a gala to illustrate the impact of his charity work. Among them was the Halcyon Project, which held a special place in both his and Persephone’s hearts. Without her, it would not exist.
Everything he poured into it was inspired by her. It was also a project Lexa had worked on before her death, and he had something planned to honor her legacy.
It was just one reason he was unusually excited about tonight’s event. The second had to do with the black box in his pocket. As he stood outside his bedroom door, he took it from the inside of his jacket and looked at the ring. Nestled in black velvet, it gleamed, and by the end of the night, it would glitter on Persephone’s finger, a symbol of their commitment to each other.
Once more, his chest felt tight with nervous energy. He took a breath. He could do this—she had already said yes.
He closed the box and returned it to his pocket before entering their bedchamber, where he found Persephone already dressed for the evening in a red off-the-shoulder gown. While the top was lace, her skirt was made of layers of tulle, and he could not help thinking that Hecate had chosen it specifically to make things difficult for him.
“You look lovely,” he said.
“Thank you,” she said, a flush creeping over her cheeks. “So do you. I mean…you look handsome.”
He chuckled at her nervousness, though he couldn’t deny he felt the same, and it gave him some comfort that even after everything they had been through, they could still feel this sort of flustered excitement.
“Shall we?” He offered his hand and she accepted, allowing him to pull her close and teleport to the surface, where Antoni waited for them outside Nevernight.