Hades and Persephone: A Fated Love Book 2

Rules of the Underworld

Despite Hades's constant efforts to make sure I never tired of his kingdom, there were many things I missed about the Underworld. I had once hated how quiet it was. How endless.

But light came with noise and gossip and the worst predators never minded hiding in plain sight. I liked that no one bothered me in the Underworld or tried to force me to bed. Hades was content to let me race beside the Styx and venture the fields of Asphodel. He never pushed me to use my divine powers and he never tried to change me even though in the span of one year and a half, he had.

There was only one time he was ever insistent.

"There are rules here," he told me the second day I returned to him. I must have made a face because he gave me a wry smile. "Don't look that way. They're not mine and I won't force you to follow them."

We were laying on a river bank below the night sky, as infinite and beautiful as our eternity. The constellations twinkled and I pushed away any lingering jealousy for the still unseen goddess, Nyx.

"What do you mean?" I asked finally.

"The laws are as ancient as the titans. You should know them so no one can take advantage of you here," he explained.

"Oh yes. It would be terrible if a god gave me a pomegranate and I was trapped as his wife for eternity."

"Oh yes," he agreed.

I ran my hand over the black sand of the river shore, dangerously close to the Lethe. One mouthful of its water could make a mortal forget their entire life. I wondered how much it would take for a god. There was so much about this place I still didn't know, and it would take me centuries to learn it as well as my husband.

"What are the rules?" I asked. It seemed like a good enough place to start.

"No one living can ever wander here. No mortal or god. If you find an outsider, send for me immediately," he said.

A memory came to light with this rule.

"What did you do with Pirithous?" I asked. The last image I had of him was where he screamed for mercy in Hades's throne as it tore him apart. It was the only time I had ever seen someone sneak into the underworld.

"He's suspended," Hades said.

I didn't know what that meant, nor did I care to. Before I could even think to ask he continued, "There is one thing I want you to promise me, Persephone. It's important."

His eyes were intense and he propped himself on an elbow to look at me. I turned to him, sand gritting in my hair.

"Never open the door to Tartarus. No matter what you see in the Underworld, I don't want you to ever go there," he said.

"So the rules are yours?" I teased, but he didn't smile.

"Swear to me."

"Hades why would I—"

"You must swear that you will never open that door."

I faltered at his tone. Few times had I heard him so intense and I nodded despite myself.

"I promise," I said.

"I should have told you this on our wedding night or in the weeks that followed," he admitted.  "But I was afraid that after you returned to Olympus, you would not want to live here. The last thing I wanted was to frighten you anymore than I already had."

"I will always come back. And I'm not scared," I told him.

In the months that followed, I would break both of Hades's rules. I would break all my promises to him and I would be very very scared.

But that night beside the river Lethe, I didn't know these things. And I couldn't begin to know how I would never forget them.