If there were three things I loved most in the world, I would choose the sun, the grass, and my mother. Quite possibly in that order, although I'd never say.
Everyone always thought I was a social creature as I played chase with the nymphs, but the best hours of my life were spent on days alone, lazing on the hills and rolling down them if only to feel the sensation of flowers gripping my body as I fell.
Today, I eased into the brook, peaking against the water even though I hadn't dared to strip naked. My body still awakened to the sensations as it chilled me.
These days were innocent enough, but the springtime was a lover that could never satisfy me. I had never learned to be monogamous with it, either. The thrills of climbing trees weren't as erotic of a love as the ocean, undulating against me again and again in the summer.
But even the sea couldn't please me as much as the meadow.
After hours of swimming, I raced back to meet the nymphs there before Helios rode the day to its end. The dryads laughed when they saw me and the nymphs whistled approval. I was soaking wet from the river, and my chiton plastered against my body, exposing every line.
"You better not let your mother see you that way, Persephone," Daphne said. "She will think you've finally laid with Apollo."
"I've been alone," I assured them.
"Which only makes it easier for them," Maia frowned.
The gods, I thought with a twinge of displeasure. They had never been particularly tender if word was to be believed, and that was at best. I was terrified of them but always felt more pity for my friends; they didn't have Demeter as their mother to protect them.
"We're going to the grottos before dark. Are you coming with us?" they asked.
"No, I should find something for my mother. So she won't be angry," I laughed.
I wasn't a child anymore, but I still loved her.
The nymphs and lesser goddesses were all so freewheeling that even with the day's warnings, we never tried to control each other. It was why our mothers were so strict. Since mine was the goddess of the harvest, I spent an hour drying in the sun and picking flowers until she would never know I'd been so exposed.
And at least I would have a gift if she did.
I don't know how long I wandered, but at the edge of the clearing I suddenly saw the most brilliant white blossom I had ever seen. It was so delicate I felt forbidden to even touch it.
But I was never one to do exactly as I was told.
I trailed a finger along its neck and gently plucked it from the earth with a gasp.
The next moments passed like a dream that only turned wilder by the minute. The hole in the earth opened wide as a gaping mouth. Wider and wider until a chariot burst into the meadow.
A god commanded it by the complete control of the reins, the leather wrapped tight around his fists. His eyes were dark and so intense I turned my gaze to the grass before I could notice anything else.
For a moment, I thought his wild horses might trample me, but it happened too fast as he swept me off the ground and pulled me into the cart beside him.
I screamed as we descended into the darkness, but the chasm closed overhead, sealing off any of my cries from Olympus. Through the wind and the fall, I almost didn't notice the body that was still braced beside me, keeping us steady as we hurtled to the rocks below.
The panic overwhelmed me upon impact. Before I could even lay eyes on my captor, the world went black.
A/N: Follow me on @noellewatsonauthor
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Hades and Persephone: A Fated Love
Romance"You can have anything you want," He plucked the ripest for me from the tree. "Everything in my world is yours." With all of my mother's warnings, I had been afraid to eat from his table or drink his wine. These were binding things, and I would sta...
