Hades and Persephone: A Fated Love Book 2

Adonis

I shouldn't be here with him.

That was what I thought when we met. Adonis was nothing short of mortal perfection, with his golden skin and hair the color of chocolate. His teeth and his dimples. His body which was on alarming display. In fact, Aphrodite hadn't sent him in anything except a white cloth belted around his tapered waist.

"You're—uh...you're staring," he said and offered me a hand up.

I didn't take it and pushed myself into a standing position. "You're Adonis."

"Prince Adonis," he said with a bashful smile that really was impressive.

I glanced over my shoulder. If Hades caught us here...I didn't even want to think about that.

"Well Adonis—"

"Prince Adonis," he repeated.

"I heard you," I held up an impatient hand. I was still a bit winded from my journey across the Styx. "I am Queen Persephone. I am only helping you because Aphrodite deceived me and I'm going make you both sorry after these three days are over."

"She didn't mean to cause trouble. It's my fault," he replied and hurried to follow as I began striding down the river bank.

My grand plan was to leave him in the fields of Asphodel and make sure Hades didn't visit or see us together. The only trouble was that I had never been to the fields myself. I had no idea what was waiting beyond the deepest caverns, a thousand steps down.

"The gods don't know her like I do," he continued, oblivious to all of this. "Have you met many men, Queen Persephone? Mortal men, I mean."

"Two," I scowled.

"We're awful, right?"

"Yes. Which is why I almost believe that this is your fault," I said.

He scratched the back of his head, and I didn't miss the way he flexed for me. Somehow it only made my angrier. He was clearly not used to having any resistance from females, and expected me to fawn over his beauty and his body like he was a god himself. Like I could see anyone the way I saw Hades.

"You know," he began.

"No. Stop whatever you are going to tell me," I whirled around and he nearly crashed into his chest. "You may think Aphrodite loves you, but she is selfish. Mortals are bad, but Olympians made them. You cannot imagine their cruelty and you obviously cannot see hers."

"Aren't you one of them?" he asked.

I thought of what Hephaestus said weeks ago. If I wasn't like the gods in Zeus's ream, then I would certainly fall to the darkness of Hades's. I was destined to be brutal. Perhaps it was fate that nothing divine resisted using their powers for destruction forever. It was always what Olympus created.

"Yes," I said, a bit wistfully. "I am."

Finally, we reached the base of the staircase that wound into oblivion. I had obviously never climbed down them, but Adonis didn't seem daunted at all. He merely grabbed the torch from the wall and waved its firefight for a better view.

"This will take us to the Fields of Asphodel. You'll hide there until Aphrodite comes back for you."

"Us? You're walking with me?" he asked.

I nodded once. It was dangerous enough for the creatures that wandered the Underworld naturally. I didn't want him to plummet to his death because he fell prey to Love incarnate and really, I doubted he sought her out. Knowing Aphrodite, she likely saw his perfection and took it for herself. Seduced him into madness.

"I think you're kindhearted, Queen Persephone," he said as we began our descent. Madness, indeed.

I didn't speak for a long time as we walked. My mother had sheltered me from the mortal world, only allowing me to summon spring in the silence of night so I never had the opportunity to show them love or hate. I was polite with the gods, but I didn't like them. I never did anything particularly heroic, but I had never hurt anyone either which didn't seem particularly kindhearted.

"Also, for what it's worth, I don't believe the gods are without mercy."

We stopped in our tracks at the base of the steps, and stared at the fields ahead. There was a massive iron gate barring the entrance with unseeing guards shrouded on either side. But strung up in chains between the posts was a mortal, his arms completely limp and yanked above his head. The full weight of his broken body sagged inches from the ground and he was thinner than I remembered him.

But it was undeniably Pirithous.

"Is he...alive?" Adonis swallowed once.

"Yes."

I didn't know how I knew. He wasn't moving, and his eyes were glazed but I still rushed forward and reached for the chains that bound him. At least he still had his hands.

"Stop. King Hades has sentenced him to hang for ten years here," one of the cloaked figures announced.

He's suspended.

"You do not command me," I snarled, whirling to face him. Unlike Charon, he recoiled at my warning. "Let him down."

Hesitantly, he and the other shadowed figures did as I asked. They must have been confused by my orders, as they obviously conflicted with Hades's. Gods. He had probably strung this trap himself months ago, and left him here without another thought. Except of how to hide this from me.

Adonis and I watched as they freed him and my stomach turned. I had no idea where Theseus was or what had been done to him. Are you frightened? Hades had asked. No, I said.

Perhaps the words should have been not yet.

"What was his crime?" Adonis asked quietly as they laid him in the grass.

I knelt beside Pirithous, who had once groped me and laughed at the idea I could be anything except chattel to the gods. He moaned softly in pain, too weak to keep screaming, and I don't know why, but I laid a hand on his forehead to take some of the pain. I turned my gaze to Adonis and a gust of wind ripped through the fields, rustling them to a frenzied whisper.

"He tried to steal me from Hades," I said.

I didn't imagine it as I looked away; he took several steps back.