Hades did surprise me with the ring he promised, crafted with gold and tiny fragments of the gems he had shown me in the cave. I was delighted as he doted on me, always being generous with his attention and carrying me to dinner when the grounds were damp. We read poetry to each other at night and I listened to his stories of the Underworld from centuries before he knew me. And as always, we discussed the judgements again and again.
I always felt proud when I earned his laughter, and he was so pleased all three heads of Cerberus liked me. Our marriage had been a quick arrangement, but the moment I accepted him, it felt like I'd known him all my life.
"Hermes has been sent to summon you tomorrow," Hades said one night after we undressed for bed. These were the words I had been dreading for longer than I realized. The thought of leaving him made me so hollow I couldn't stand it.
"Tomorrow," I repeated. "When did Zeus send word?"
"I didn't want you to spend your last days with any worry in your mind," he sighed.
I furrowed my brows together but he merely pulled me into his arms and didn't say anything else. I laid my head on his chest, listening to his heart while I could. The despair I felt at the prospect of leaving him was so consuming I thought I might drown in it. How had he made me so volatile?
"I wish I didn't have to go," I closed my eyes and a hot tear rolled down the slope of my nose. He didn't respond, and so I lifted my gaze to his once again.
"I never expected this," he said, staring at the ceiling. "I could have never hoped...never dreamed that I would truly have you as my wife. And that you would want to stay with me."
"Why not?" I asked, brushing away my tears before they could fall on his chest.
"Because you are the sun." he said. "And I am selfish to hold you in this place, although my life revolves around your every thought. I change with the every tilt of your mouth, and yet I am the only god who cannot give you the world you deserve in our marriage."
"Don't say that," I whispered, propping myself up to look at him. My hair formed a curtain of bronze and he feathered his fingers through it absentmindedly. "I have learned to see the Underworld as a beautiful place because of you. I would be the happiest soul in Tartarus if we were there together."
"You wouldn't have high competition," he said wryly.
"I love you," I told him. He closed his eyes as if the words had flooded him with an emotion he had never felt. So I said them again. "I love you."
He kissed me softly by way of goodbye and let his lips catch any more tears that fell. Our last night together was chaste, and we laid together as friends in our still-broken bed, talking until morning inevitably came.
I knew that the winter would end one way or another in the mortal world. If I refused to return home, Zeus would likely hang anvils from my mother's feet until she relented to her duties again. I couldn't bear the thought. Hades helped me dress as if he was well aware of this fact and pressed his lips to the back of my neck.
"The Goddess of Springtime returns," he said with a dry smile. In the mirror, I looked like my old self again. Woven hair and a stark white chiton. It was one of the few things that I still had from Olympus, which seemed like another lifetime. When had years ever stretched so far?
"Will you visit?" I whispered. The ring on my finger sparkled up at us as if in a reminder I was still his. This time hadn't simply been erased.
"Whenever I am able," he promised.
I took a deep breath and walked with him to meet Hermes, who awaited us with the same pitiful look he had given me months ago.
"We can finally take you back home," he said with a sigh of relief.
I didn't correct him, but gave Hades a meaningful look so he knew I wasn't returning home. I was leaving. He lowered his face to kiss me and I let him, smiling with satisfaction.
"Six months," he said.
"Six months," I agreed.
It sounded a lot like "one hour."
He released me and Hermes shot us out of the Underworld as if he couldn't bear to stay another minute. Then, Hades was gone.
My heart was heavy even at the grand reception awaiting my return to the heavens. Every creature cheered as I entered, and my mother swept me into a tight embrace.
"Persephone! It's wonderful to have you back," she told me before launching into tales about all I had missed. The world of the gods had spun itself into a frenzy in my absence, but part of me wondered if perhaps that was more common than not.
The darkness inside me couldn't be undiscovered. It felt real and pure, even as I remembered the parts of myself that only existed in the daylight.
As I dipped into the river that afternoon, I was brave enough to strip bare and swim naked. As the summer hours passed, I remembered the garden and the cave and the feel of Hades's hands tied around mine in our matrimony. I thought of his mind and his hands and his blood and his love.
The world had righted itself around me and this new arrangement of my time. Yet I closed my eyes and let myself yearn again. Stretched my want into the earth, and wondered if perhaps my husband wouldn't be so lonely waiting for my return if only he could find it.
YOU ARE READING
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...
