Page 71 of Hell On Earth
“Have you been keeping secrets?” he asked with a dark warning in his voice.
I barely suppressed a shiver as I held his gaze.
“They’re nothing bad.”
“Tell me one.”
I struggled not to glance at our audience as I thought of all the little secrets that I knew he’d give anything to hear. Things I wasn’t sure I wanted to admit to him, much less a room full of people.
When I remained quiet, he caught my chin in his fingers.
“Tell me,” he whispered.
“The first time you touched me, I shivered. But it wasn’t with revulsion like you thought. I wanted more.”
Hunger bled into his gaze, which dipped briefly to my mouth.
“I agree to your terms but in exchange for a truthful answer to a question ofmychoosing.”
“Done,” I said.
The barest hint of a smile graced his lips, and I knew whatever questions he meant to ask would probably embarrass me. But I was done hiding what I was thinking or feeling from Hades. If I wanted him to trust me completely, I needed to be completely honest with him.
So I cleared my throat and started the hard conversation I knew we needed to have.
“You agreed that the past is the past but that it might be influencing the present.”
He nodded.
“Then you got mad when you saw Zayn and said I was yours by Zeus' decree. You said it twice.”
His hold tightened on me even as he scowled at me.
“You know what I’m going to say next, right?”
“You are not Persephone. You, Ashlyn, were never promised to me.”
I nodded and leaned forward to kiss his cheek.
“Thank you.” I threaded my fingers through his. “I am not Persephone. I am Ashlyn, the one here with you right now. The one who cares and knows how to be kind. I haven’t been cruel to you. Right?”
He reeled me in and hugged me against his chest.
“Never doubt who you are,” he said softly. “You are perfect.”
I hated what I knew needed to come next after all my talk of kindness and not being cruel. But I needed him to remember I wasn’t her when I verbally sliced his heart open.
“Don’t forget I’m not her,” I said, shifting on his lap to look at Zotera. “Repeat what you said at the restaurant.”
Her gaze shifted to Hades.
“Father will be upset.”
“Maybe, but he also knows that whatever happened is in the past. There’s no point in getting upset about it now. We only need to know about it so we can figure out why Thanatos keeps trying to kill me.”
Zotera looked nervous as she played with the hem of her shirt.
“Thanatos was Mother’s lover,” she said quietly.
