“I know, I know. I really didn’t intend to leave with him. I was going to call a cab and then…” Her voice trailed away.
“He swept you off your feet?” Lexa waggled her brows, and Persephone couldn’t help but laugh. “Just tell me one thing…did he kiss you?”
Persephone blushed and admitted, “Yes.”
Lexa squealed. “Oh my gods, Persephone! You have to tell me everything!”
Persephone looked at the clock. “I have to go—lunch with Sybil?”
“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” she answered.
Despite leaving her apartment late, Persephone took her time walking to work, reveling in the feel of life around her. She was still in disbelief. Her magic had surfaced, and it had awakened in the Underworld. She still had no idea what to do with it—she didn’t know how to harness what she felt, or use it to create illusions, but she planned to meet Hecate this evening for lessons.
When she arrived at the Acropolis, Demetri asked to see her. He offered a few edits to her article and before she sat down to work on them, she went into the break room to get some coffee.
“Hey, Persephone,” Adonis said as he joined her. He put on his most charming smile, as if it could erase the past and build a whole new future.
She glanced at him.
“I don’t really feel like talking to you.”
She didn’t need to look at him to know he had stopped grinning. He was probably shocked his smile hadn’t worked its usual magic.
“You’re really just gonna stop talking to me? You know that’s impossible. We work together.”
“I will still be professional,” she said.
“You aren’t being very professional right now.”
“Actually, I don’t have to make small talk with you to be professional,” she argued. “I just have to get my job done.”
“Or you could forgive me,” Adonis said. “I was drunk and I barely touched you.”
Barely touched?
He had pulled her hair and attempted to force her mouth open. Besides that, his touch—no matter light or aggressive—was completely unwanted.
Persephone ignored him, leaving the break room.
He followed.
“Is this about Hades?” he demanded. “Are you sleeping with him?”
“That is not an appropriate question, Adonis, and it is also none of your business.”
“He told you to stay away from me, didn’t he?”
Persephone turned to face him. She’d never met anyone who was so oblivious to their own wrong-doing.
“I am capable of making my own decisions, Adonis. I thought you would remember that after you stole my article,” she snapped. “But just so we’re clear, I don’t want to talk to you because you are a manipulator, you never take responsibility for your mistakes, and you kissed me when I specifically told you not to, which makes you a predator.”
There was a heavy pause as Persephone’s words hit home. It took Adonis a moment, but he finally seemed to understand what she was saying and then he called her a bitch.
“Adonis,” Demetri’s voice cut through their conversation like a whip. Persephone was stunned, and she turned to see her boss standing outside his office. She had never thought him capable of the anger she saw on his face. “A moment.”
Adonis looked stricken, and he glared at Persephone as if she were to blame.
When the mortal disappeared into Demetri’s office, her boss gave her an apologetic look before entering and closing the door. Ten minutes later, a security officer arrived on the floor and walked into Demetri’s office. After a moment, the officer, Demetri, and Adonis emerged. Adonis was flanked by the two and as he passed her desk. He was rigid, his hands fisted. He muttered under his breath, “This is ridiculous. She is a snitch.”
“You told on yourself,” Demetri said.
They disappeared in the direction of his desk, and reappeared later, leading Adonis to the elevator with a box in hand.
When Demetri returned, he approached Persephone’s desk. “You have a moment?”
“Yeah,” she said quietly, and followed him into his office.
Once inside, she took a seat, and Demetri did the same.
“Want to tell me what happened?”
She explained—only the part where Adonis stole her article and submitted it without her knowledge because that was the only part that really counted at work.
“Why didn’t you tell me?”
Persephone shrugged. “I wanted to submit it anyway. It just happened faster than I anticipated.”