From Ash to Fire

Thirty

Hades

I held Nix limp body for days, wondering why her nails didn't leave a mark. Why I felt more terrible this time rather than the last, or the time before that or the time before that one. Why hadn't she fought me?!

Every single time she felt like I betrayed her, but why, did she let me kill her like that?

And why would I feel better if she didn't?

The sun came and went, rising and falling, being replaced by the moon twice until I decided I would stay at the water's edge until her body turned to ash.

But it never happened.

The Fate's played a sick joke on me. They let me hold her lifelessly while I screamed for her to come back.

My beautiful Nix. Nicole. My little shade. My tease. Whatever she wanted to be, if she returned, I would give her.

"Please, come back to me." I whispered for the thousandth time.

It was supposed to work. The soul in the River of Styx would give her life. They would ground her to me. Especially if she held my child.

Maybe I didn't get her pregnant. The twenty two times I had cum inside of her wasn't enough.

Next time I would need to do twenty three.

But I didn't want a next time. I want her now. I wanted the Nix that wanted to be around my people. That didn't obsess over the journals that mirrored the past. That didn't give a care that Cerberus was a hundred feet tall when he wanted to play with her. I wanted my fearless adrenaline junkie back. I didn't want the next Nix that was nothing like her.

"Come to me, Nicole. Just as you did in your human life." I begged shamelessly. "Please, come to me. I'll make you fall for me. I'll woo you just like the humans do if that's what you want. You can have a home in town and I'll sweep you off of your feet every night if you come back to me."

I wanted, watching her hair dry with every hour that passed.

It was only a matter of time before she turned to rubble in my hands. Before the wicked joke of the Fates was laughed upon me. Hecate and Hermes would come in just a day to ensure I made it back home in one piece.

But, little did they know, I'd never be in one piece. Not without Nix by my side.

"How, how will you woo me?" Her voice crackled with a cough. Her fingers curled into my shirt before I held her unbearably close.

"Nix?"

"Psh," She sputtered before coughing into my chest, "I am most definitely not like Nix."

"How would you know?"

"I saw it all, Hades." She couldn't open her eyes but she tried as he forced her body into me. Her will to get closer just as bad as mine, "I saw everything. Your heartbreak. Your love. My love. Our times together."

I stared down at her, hoping it was true. Hoping she was finally back for good.

"I don't know how you dealt with me all those times."

I laughed for the first time in days, burying my face into her neck. "I'll deal with you through whatever life you give me, Nix."

"God, you really know how to make a girl feel special." She opened her eyes just to roll them at me, "The Fates brought a message Hades."

I froze, holding her. Their name had become a bad omen I didn't want to hear.

"They said," She coughed water through her lips before gasping for air, "They said to treat me like a Queen or they'll take me away again."

Her sly smile made me mimic her, "oh did they? What else did they say?"

"That you're a very lucky man. They almost matched me with a werewolf."

Her eyes twinkled when they finally matched to mine. Fuck, her pale skin looked bad. I needed to get her back to the fireplace. Warm her up and ensure nothing takes her from me again.

"A werewolf."I deadpanned, lifting her into my arms with a smirk I never wanted to erase from my face, "What's your obsession with those beasts?"

"Have you heard of knotting?"

"I'll give you a knot." I grumbled, even if I was the happiest I've ever been.

She eased into my grasp as I entered the house. Her arms around my neck in a deathgrip, but I wouldn't dare tell her to let go. The fire blazed in front of us as I sat in her favorite chair.

"I'm not pregnant, Hades." She murmured into my skin, "But they said you deserve me. That they've made errors they want to right. I don't know what they meant."

I sighed, lifting a blanket over us and tucking her in closer until I couldn't tell where she ended or I started, "I never felt more right than with you, Nicole. I'm glad I get to keep you."

She nodded, shivering in my grasp, "Please, don't drown me again. It was awful."

"Never. Never again will I ever let anything harm you." I sighed into her wet hair, "You're mine."

"I'm yours, Hades."

And, for once, it felt like the truth.