Hades and Persephone: A Fated Love Book 2

Hephaestus's Proposal

I didn't speak for months, hardened by what I had seen. What I had felt. The boulder that crushed the mortal again and again. The cries for just one drink of water. The metallic pain of being ensnared by Death and the cool, ancient power of commanding it.

Every time I tried to explain, my throat tightened and I thought I would be sick. When my mother requested Hades send a cure from the Lethe, I fled to the edge of the grottos, whether to hide from him or the water Dolos had threatened me with, I didn't know. But only the quiet of the pools calmed me. In the day, I dipped my hair below the surface. At night, I climbed back into my perch in the trees and closed my eyes to the woods.

It seemed no one really knew whether to give me space or advice, but the longer I spent alone, I became a problem that was out of sight, out of mind. I decided to spend the next century that way until I was numb to Dolos's plans. I could live in the wilderness as a forgotten fable.

Hephaestus was the first to brave the woods I tangled into knots to keep even the most clever of intruders out. He wielded an axe crafted for the specific purpose of reaching me, and ducked into the thicket I'd unwittingly created in my solitude. I was done trying to keep my power subdued, anyway.

"You have to come back now," he peered up at me without any sympathy to be found. I lazed in the treeline, unmoved. "I realized my words have caused some of your fear."

"What?" I asked hoarsely. It was the first word I had spoken in weeks.

"The things I told you about cruelty. There is no darkness inside you, and Hades only acts within the parameters of his work. You have nothing to fear from him."

I lazed against the branch and waved a languid arm in his direction. "You do not know me anymore, Hephaestus."

"I have never been skilled in this kind of empathy," He sighed and tossed his axe aside. It landed mutely in the yellowing grass. "But perhaps some marriages are not fated to last. Perhaps you are not the match you once thought."

"I heard about your separation from Aphrodite," I replied. If he was caught off guard, he didn't show it.

"Yes, but I was prideful," he said.

"You chose her as an impossible prize to show them what your were capable of."

"I was foolish," he agreed. "Too rash. As many are."

"I was not rash in my decision to marry Hades."

"Perhaps not," he said, but his face was as stoic and unconvinced as always. It seemed to be the way Hephaestus met the world. "But it has not been an easy venture for you."

"I'm sure the alternatives would have been marvelous," I replied. There was nothing else I wished to say about it, but Hephaestus stayed just as stoic as he had been upon his arrival. Even as he stared up and me and began to speak once more.

"You have shown me kindness and I am fond of you. I came here with an earnest proposition," he began. "Should you desire a stable match that allows you to remain always in Olympus—should you desire a simpler life—I offer myself to you. I would be a faithful and dutiful husband. I will fight for you in Hera's temple and against Death's army, should the need arise."

I listened numbly to Hephaestus's proposal. At one point, I might have been charmed or sweetened to his words, no matter how preposterous. But I had already entertained one of Aphrodite's lovers and I would never forget the outcome. "Hades is my friend. You may think I am naive, but I did not choose him in light of other options. He is not a consolation prize or someone I love reluctantly."

No matter what I transform into as the Queen of the Underworld. I added silently. Although, if Aphrodite's story about Hephaestus's net was to be believed, alongside other tales I'd witnessed with my own eyes, there was no true light amongst the gods anyway. And despite Hephaestus's promises, there was nothing truly simple.

"I wish you every happiness, but you are young. Love takes time to break and I will be there with kindness should yours fall down the path mine did," he responded. I didn't thank or dismiss him, but he stayed as silent company until Helios took the sun away. Whether he was hurt by my rejection, I couldn't say. But he didn't return after that.

Days passed and I tangled the trees into a labyrinth not even my mother could navigate. I fully expected this to be the end of my myth. The twisted part of Olympus that kept the remains of Hades's wife, hiding away because she was too coward to face him again. Too afraid of what it meant to be caught between springtime goddess and queen of death, dangerously close to leaving one behind for the other. But I knew it couldn't last forever. Time healed things and hardened others. I knew time in Olympus was dwindling, and that Hades would be back for me soon. I heard whispers of Dolos's impending trial, and I was sure he would be in attendance for that as well.

I couldn't tell whether my heart was made of fire or ice as the hour approached, but I crept closer to the edge of my tangled forest every night in anticipation for it. Waiting for my chance to finally be seen.