Hades and Persephone: A Fated Love Book 2

Final Three Days

TW: This chapter has themes of sexual assault. There is not a rape scene, but please be aware that this content may be upsetting.

I only broke one more of my promises to Hades. After our argument, his warnings were far from my mind. I wanted to push everything far away from the drama that could have cost me our marriage.

We rebuilt our friendship for our last weeks together, a bit more shy around one another than before. It was as if we started from the beginning of our courtship, where we shared quiet moments admiring the rocks and shells of the river. It seemed like even the word divorce had shaken the romance of our marriage into something precarious. Something that needed to be rebuilt.

It wasn't that there was animosity left between us. But there was a hesitation in the way I touched him. I retired earlier and earlier, undressing before he ever came to bed. It wasn't intentional but after a few days, I think we both noticed the pattern.

He never pressed the issue and was especially gentle around me in our days together. He walked with me beside me the rivers and showed me parts of the sky I'd never seen before. He was glad to share stories and laugh and listen.

Until one night, he caught me in the hall outside our bedroom.

"It's a bit early, don't you think?" He raised an eyebrow. I jumped in surprise. I hadn't expected him to be waiting for me, but there he was, barring the door.

"I'm tired from our walks in the cave," I lied. Perceptive as ever, his mouth curled into a skeptical smile.

"Is that so?"

Before I could respond, he stepped forward and pinned me to the wall of the corridor. My heart fluttered at this game of ours, and I waited for his quip. This was when he dare me to deny him, or leave me in suspense when I wanted his kiss more than anything. I peered up at him, a bit curious at how he might follow through on this bold behavior.

But then he pinned my wrists beside my head at his mouth crashed onto mine. For a moment, all I could feel was his body but then the scrape of rock began to break the skin from my hands. He kissed me harder, but I was too overwhelmed to return it. The violence felt different, and he was more desperate than I'd ever known him. All the restraint he teased me with on our wedding night had vanished.

"Wait," I turned my face away. "I-I'm not ready."

His hands tightened around my wrists and he only pulled me closer when I tried to push him away. "Hades, stop—"

"I am your husband," he growled. "I have never dishonored you or this marriage. But now you're afraid to touch me."

"I'm not afraid," I said but I trembled at the way he held me, so tight even as I tried to tell him no. It was a side of Hades I had never even seen a shadow of.

"Why am I so wretched to you?" he demanded, but his voice was sharp with a spiteful humor.

"Let me go—"

He forced his mouth onto mine again and grabbed my breasts, but I was too shocked to even scream. As if it would do any good, a world below Olympus. The divine magic I usually kept pushed far down surged in my veins just as it had the day I transformed Minthe. Hades and I hadn't talked about it since, and I never dreamed of using it against him.

But I also had never dreamed he would tear my gown as I tried to shove him off of me. I attacked and the magic lashed between us in a flash of light. He grunted in surprise and I took the opportunity to twist out of his reach and duck into the bedroom. I slammed the door just in time for him to strike his fist against it, and I trembled.

There was no lock. It wouldn't keep either of us out, and a closed door worked just as well in signifying privacy. This was the first time I shut it to him since we had been married and the first time I was scared he would break it down.

"Persephone," he said from the corridor. "Come back outside."

I leaned against the door, still shaken from the encounter. I thought we could build our relationship back into what it was, but now I wondered whether I really knew the God of the Underworld at all. Maybe there was only so long he could be denied. Several moments passed in silence, and then he was gone.

.....................................................

I laid awake all night, flinching at every sound in the hall. I didn't expect him to come at all, until the door creaked open and he slipped inside. I closed my eyes, hoping he would believe I was asleep. And hoping that would matter.

Hades undressed quietly and climbed into bed like he always did. So gentle it never disturbed me when I was asleep.

"Persephone," he said quietly. I still didn't open my eyes. "You're trembling."

"I just need more time," I whispered. A tear slid into my hairline and I tried not to wince as he swept it away. "Please."

He was quiet for a long moment before he pressed a tender kiss against my temple, completely unrecognizable from hours before. Then, he withdrew and settled into his side of the bed.

"I married you for your mind," he yawned. "Everything else will work out however you want it to."

I wanted to shout at him for how he treated me in the hall or threaten him with vengeance from Demeter if he touched me like that again. But apparently, the encounter had exhausted him because Hades was asleep before I could make up my mind. And the words were trapped behind my teeth, anyway, still clenched in complete fear of our final three days.