Taking Olympus Back Book 2

Authors note:  YOU NEED TO READ " Taking Olympus Back Book 1 "  IN ORDER TO UNDERSTAND THIS BOOK.  Its the first book in the series and without it you would just be lost.  I'd like to welcome returning readers!  Thanks for all your love and support guys!  Comment / Vote so we can get this book noticed.

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# Olympianlove 

I closed the hardcover book I had been reading, running my hand down the face of it, the leather warm and rough against my skin.  It held no interest for me.  I had read it 10 times before.  It was about cell respiration and photosynthesis. Such a dreary, dull subject, especially when it applied to nothing here; there were no plant that I had come across in my months down here. Not a single one. The closest I could come to a plant was the garden Hades designed for Persephone. The garden was separate from the castle, resting on a large slab of floating rock overlooking the Elysium fields, similar to the mountainous slab that Hades' magnificent dark castle nestled into. 

A huge black cage guarded the edges of the garden, keeping its visitors in and outsiders out. However, as I said, there were no plants down here, no life. All of the plants in the garden were made of glass and jewels. What looks like a rose from afar is a ruby up close. The excitement that would fill me as I would walk the path towards the garden, surrounded by guards, would quickly disappear and turn into regret as I neared. I stopped going to close, but I admired from afar as to fool myself. I did a lot of that down here, intentionally tricking myself, to keep myself sane, sane as I could anyways.

Nothing eventful ever happened down here in the underworld, nothing that I got to be a part of at least. I had been here for 6 months and everyday it was the same schedule, unlike on Olympus where things were always changing, and people were always moving. People only moved when you told them to here.  

On Olympus, one day you would be giving an interview or holding a meeting, the next you could be training unicorns and small tots for battle.  Down here everyday went the same way; Breakfast with Hades, be escorted back to my room, be fitted for a gown by dead seamstresses (Their fingers so old and nimble sometimes they'd break... Literally), lunch by myself or on rare occasion Hades, be escorted to the library, dinner with Hades.  And then, since he was by then done working, gods only knew what would happen.  If I was lucky, he would be tired, and fall asleep as soon as we got back to our room.

I was often unlucky, which was when bad things happened.  In the past, Hades had used a love charm from non other than Aphrodite to get me to participate in kissing him or sleeping with him.  But the love charm had worn off and Aphrodite refused to give him another, by persuasion of Ares. I almost wished she had given him another. Maybe then I'd feel something, ANYTHING. There was an emptiness inside me nothing could fill, not with sadness or anger, hurt or pain, though Hades tried them all in an attempt to make me feel something towards him. But it was out of my control, I couldn't. I was in a never ending circle of wanting to feel something and being unable to. The emptiness grew.

I had to give Hades credit, he was determined in all aspects of his life. I was no exception. Perhaps I wasn't as fun for him when I did as I was told and showed no emotion. Or perhaps he genuinely cared. Whatever his reason, he approached my issue from different angles. For a whole week a few months ago, he was overly sweet. A disguise, at best, terribly disengenuine, but an effort to bring something forward in me. I couldn't. The next week he was incredibly strict and harsher than normal - another more genuine front, but a front none the less. He should have known none of these acts wouldn't work on me. It didn't matter how sweet or how cruel he was; he had already taken everything from me. I had nothing. At this point, he should settle for coexisting.

I looked around the room.  Long bookshelves that went from the floor all the way up to celling were filled with books. I sat in the comfortable seating area on the plush white couch that had a stone and brick mantel fire place in front of it.  A large, ceiling to floor window was on the wall next to the fireplace, but it was covered with a black curtain.  I had it covered myself.