“Let me get this straight. You decided that I couldn't think for myself so you stole my work, altered it, and published it?”
“It's not like that. Hades is a god, Persephone—”
I'm a goddess, she wanted to yell.
“Hades is a god, and for that very reason, you didn't want to write about him. You feared him, Adonis. Not me.”
He cringed. “I didn't mean—”
“What you meant doesn't matter,” she snapped.
“Persephone?” Demetri called from his office. She and Adonis looked in the direction of their supervisor’s office. “A moment?”
Her gaze slid back to Adonis, and she pinned him with a final glare before heading into Demetri’s office.
“Yes, Demetri?” She stood in the doorway. He was sitting behind his desk, a fresh edition of the paper in hand.
“Take a seat,” he said.
She did—on the edge, because she wasn’t sure what Demetri would think of the article—she had a hard time calling it hers. Would his next words be ‘you’re fired?’ It was one thing to say you wanted the truth, another to actually publish it.
She considered what she would do when she lost her internship. She now had less than six months until graduation. It was unlikely another paper would hire the girl who dared call the God of the Underworld the worst god. She knew many people shared Adonis’s fear of Tartarus.
Just as Demetri started to speak, Persephone said, “I can explain.”
“What is there to explain?” he asked. “It’s clear by your article what you were trying to do here.”
“I was angry,” she explained.
“You wanted to expose an injustice,” he said.
“Yes, but there’s more. It’s not the whole story,” she said. She’d really only shown Hades in one light—and that was really in no light at all, just darkness.
“I hope it’s not,” Demetri said.
“What?” Persephone was confused.
“I’m asking you to write more,” Demetri said.
The Goddess of Spring was quiet, and Demetri continued. “I want more. How soon can you have another article out?”
“About Hades?”
“Oh yes. You have only scratched the surface of this god.”
“But I thought…aren’t you…afraid of him?”
Demetri laid the paper down and leveled his gaze with hers. “Persephone, I told you from the beginning. We seek truth here at New Athens News and no one knows the truth of the King of the Underworld—you can help the world understand him.”
Demetri made it all sound so innocent, but Persephone knew that what she would bring upon Hades from the article published today was only hatred.
“Those who fear Hades are also curious. They will want more and you’re going to deliver.”
Persephone straightened at his direct order. Demetri stood and walked to the wall of windows, his hands behind his back. “How about a bi-weekly feature?”
“That’s a lot, Demetri. I’m still in school,” she reminded him.
“Monthly, then,” he said. “What “What do you say to…five, six articles?”
“Do I have a choice?” she muttered, but Demetri still heard. The corner of his mouth quirked. “Don’t underestimate yourself, Persephone. Just think—if this is as successful as I think it will be, there will be a line of people waiting to hire you when you graduate.”
Except it wouldn’t matter because she’d be a prisoner—not just of the Underworld, but of Tartarus. She wondered how Hades would choose to torture her?
He’ll probably refuse to kiss you, she thought and rolled her eyes at herself.
“Your next article is due on the first,” he said. “Let’s have some variety—don’t just talk about his bargains, what else does he do? What are his hobbies? What does the Underworld really look like?”
Persephone felt uncomfortable at Demetri’s questions, and she wondered if these questions were for him rather than the public.
With that, she was dismissed. Persephone walked out of Demetri’s office and sat down at her desk feeling dazed. A monthly feature following the God of the Dead?
What have you gotten yourself into, Persephone? She groaned. Hades was never going to agree.
He doesn’t have to agree, she reminded herself.
Perhaps this would give her a chance to bargain with Hades. Could she leverage the threat of more articles to convince him to let her out of the contract?