Page 37 of Love and Death
I see the bruised darkness beneath her eyes, the weary strain of her flesh, the desperation that clings to her bones. Her beauty, once so full of new life, now more like a blossom damaged by frost.
If I were a lesser creature, I might take pity on her, but thousands of years spent among the gods cautions me against it.
“Yours?” I repeat. “What in all of Hell’s names do you mean by that?”
“My deal with the Fates.”
“Continue ...”
Persephone looks down at her hands as she chews her bottom lip in thought.
“I said, speak!” I snap, my hands fisting at my sides when I can bear her silence no longer.
She startles before quickly saying, “I did not know Hazel when I struck the deal. It was made so long ago now, even her grandparents had yet to be born.”
“I do not need the backstory to your guilt. I needfacts, Persephone.”
“I made an appeal out of desperation. You are not alone in your bondage here,” she says, her voice suddenly edged with hatred. “Hades’ deal was only ever meant for greater power, for Death, but mine? I wanted a new beginning. To breathe life into a realm growing so cold under Hades’ ever-expanding reach, and that is what I was offered.”
“But at what price? What did you promise them?”
“A mortal soul ... an innocent, driven into Hades’ arms, and taken by force to replace me as queen.”
I see red.
I seeblood.
I see Persephone gurgling as her life pours out to quench the thirst of the dust around me. I see the Underworld burning down in my wake.
I see—
“Forgive me, Cerberus,” she implores, dropping to her knees before me. “I did not know … I was desperate to be rid of him. Desperate to live again. I -I thought—”
“You thoughtwhat?” I say, my voice so low that a shout would hold less terror. “To inflict the same torment, the same cycle of pain on another? You would do to Hazel …”
I pause, my jaw clenching as I have to swallow back disgust at my next words.
“You wouldwillinglysubject her to the same torment that you, a goddess, could not endure? You would continue the cycle of Hades’ cruelty with your own?”
“I was wrong. I see that now. It is not too late.”
“Only now? You only see that now?”
“When I saw that it was Death who followed her, who fought for her soul—who held her in his heart—I thought she could be saved ... We could all be saved.”
Again, I have to fight the rage that threatens to overtake me. This time over the reminder of Death and his love for Hazel.
Myfated mate.
“Death is gone,” I bite.
“Yes, I know. I realized too late that I was mistaken. Hades has done what the Fates asked of him. Hewillget what he wants, and Hazel will be forced to become his queen, if we do not work together to stop him.”
The very thought of him claiming her makes me want to tear my hair out, the beast within me howling to be released, but I am stopped by something she has said.
“What do you mean Hades has done as the Fates asked?”
“You were told his deal required a mortal soul, were you not?”
