Page 79 of Queen of Shadows and Roses
Tee’s accusatory glare, however, had taken care of my raging hard-on. I’d walked around Persephone’s garden when she had left with Tee, then stayed up all night brooding.
The following morning, Hecate barged into my office, looking like she could incinerate me with a single gaze.
‘You performed oral sex on heragain,and she’s given you head? She was high on nectar last night, Hades. She had so many glasses I’m surprised she didn’t pass out. What in Olympus’s name are you playing at?’
I raised my gaze to her and clenched my teeth. ‘How come me telling Poseidon about the oral sex is a crime, but her telling you everything is okay?’ I spat.
‘You what? You told your brother? What the Fates?’
I shook my head in disbelief. ‘I had to tell him why she kissed Apollo. I trust him, Hecate. And she seemed fine last night. I didn’t realise she was high… Her powers are obviously growing quicker than we realised.’ I sighed with frustration, then lowered my eyes.
‘Youcannot,under any circumstances, fuck her. Not until she agrees to be your consort. You cannot keep her unwillingly,’ Tee ground out.
I closed my eyes momentarily. ‘It’s getting harder and harder, but I am aware.’
‘And you marked her. You claimed her!’ she fumed. ‘What gives you the right?’
‘I marked her in a moment of lust and madness. I will not act upon it. You have my word.’ Those words seemed to pacify Hecate.
‘She’s still skittish, and you’re not doing her any favours.’
‘Skittish?’
She didn’t elaborate on the statement but continued, ‘Maybe I was wrong? Perhaps you ought to lay your heart bare and tell her how you truly feel.' I furrowed my brow in confusion. I couldn’t do that. My Persephone had gifted me the most honest, unending love I’d ever known or ever would. The loss of it had been so visceral that it cut me to the bone. Now she was resisting our soul bond; I needed the emotional walls I’d built to shield me from her impending rejection. The pain of her no longer loving me was overwhelming.
'Stay away from her until you swallow your arrogance and admit your love for her,’ Hecate snapped, and my eyes shot to hers. ‘I mean it, Hades, for the love of the gods, stay away from her. Otherwise, Iwilltake her from you until you calm the fuck down. You’re all messing with her head, and Iwillprotect her fromallthe gods… including you.'
I glared at her. ‘You wouldn’t dare take her from me,’ I snarled.
'Oh, I would! I’ll whisk her away somewhere, and no one will ever find her,’ she spat at me before flashing from my office, leaving me with my head in my hands, knowing that, as the goddess of witchcraft, she was more than capable of following through on her threat.
What a mess.
CHAPTER 29
PERSEPHONE
Hades was avoiding me. Again. I hadn’t seen him for over a week and didn’t know whether I was coming or going with him.
When he wasn’t around, I constantly thought about him, yearning to be near him. I had never experienced anything like it. It felt like a sweet addiction, one I never wanted to relinquish; yet, at the same time, it frightened me. I was rattled, angry, sad, and confused, along with a truckload of feelings I didn’t even want to contemplate. It was a precarious mix of terrifying emotions.
Tee mentioned that he was rarely in the Underworld unless necessary, as he was spending time with Poseidon in Genesion and at his nightclubs.Apparently, they had politics to sort out. But whatever. I wondered if Minthe was with him, but buried the thought before I drove myself insane.
She explained about the resistance, a dissident group called Ixion, how dangerous they potentially were, and how Hadessuspected they were behind my hideous trip to the Empousa. However, she also mentioned that Hades had convinced Zeus to pardon the Councils of Magic and persuade them to become allies. At that news, my foolish heart performed a trippy dance as I thought of the god of the Underworld. Damn it. Damn him.
Tee was busting my ass… Working me harder than Hades ever had. She was destroying my freaking will to live. The bitch. Even so, without Hades, thoughts of London invaded my mind—when I wasn’t passing out from exhaustion. I loved my friends here, but perhaps returning to London, even for a short while, would break my funk and help me move on from the feelings I had for the god of death. Whatever those feelings were, they went beyond the primal and raw sense of lust I experienced whenever I was near him. It was so overwhelming and intense that I often found myself thinking irrationally.
The desire, attraction, and temptation were potent. I was confused… Was it love or lust? I’d gone from disinterested in sex to a freaking femme fatale in the short time I’d been here, and I’d never been irrational. Loss of control was scaring the crap out of me.
‘Tee.’
‘Yup.’ She turned to me. We were in my garden again, practising my shadow magic; she was working me like a dog.
‘I need to speak to my high priestess, you know, about covering my demon-hunting duties. So, I was thinking of going home… Maybe just for a few days.’
‘No need.’
‘Why?’
