Delicate (Dark Mythology Book #1: Hades and Persephone)

Chapter I

“I did not believe them.”

Zeus spoke finally, breaking the silence between the two cloaked figures. Across the Earthly meadow where they had met stood his own brother, Hades, king of the Underworld cloaked in sooty black. The god of death was as expressionless as ever, but this time was very different, and Zeus studied the pale, handsome face more seriously than ever.

Hades wanted a wife. May the mortals mark this day down in history.

 “Perhaps I did not want to.” Zeus began to slowly circle him, flicking his ivory cloak behind him as looked his brother up and down. They were true opposites: one made of gold and one made of black diamond. Where Zeus was power and sunlight and largeness, Hades was cunning and dark and lithe. His long black hair fell down his back as majestically as Zeus' golden locks curled at his strong cheeks and nape. Hades chisled features belayed a certain sharpness that Zeus' square jawline managed to lack. But overall, Zeus was still surprised and mildly disgusted to imagine that the god of decay and death had any measure of desirability as a man. That he might feel desire.

“'Death, in love.' They said...It'll be a tale the mortals tell for centuries.” Zeus stopped in front of Hades again, the smallest of bland smiles beginning to tug at the corner of his lips.

Hades scowled in return, his distaste for this event making itself evident as he turned and walked away. He heard the thunderous laughter following close behind, his grimace darkening.

“Oh don't be so sour, dear brother. I simply didn't know you were capable of lust!”

“Don't act the fool. I'm not some rutting beast in heat that fucks everything in it's path, Zeus. I would not bother asking your permission if that were the case.” Hades hissed bitterly.

“How special she must be.” Zeus cooed mockingly, his hand over his heart before he began to snigger. “Tell me, is she blind, or just that ugly? Don't tell me the the lady Medusa turned your prick to stone?”

“Enough!” Hades snapped outright, turning with a swirl of his cape. His eyes blazed angrily. “Do not mock my intended, fool.”

At once, Zeus lowered his mocking voice to a tender murmur, his wicked smile returning twice as fast and three times as devious. “Oh, such devotion. I never knew you were so sweet.” Hades turned away with a sneer when he realized that it wasn't worth it, but as he knew he would, Zeus persisted: “Where then is the poor creature that's got your cock so hard? I think I should very much like to see her.”

Hades slimmed his dark, lush lips and said nothing so as to incite furthur foul language from the mouth of his bastard brother, instead jerking his head down the hill on which they stood.

Below them, a large bonfire fire flickered. Curled around the bright blaze in a ring of beauty and youth were several fluttering nymphs, human women and their offspring. Among them, a girl with luminescent skin glowed and laughed and simply radiated with godly essence. She was dressed in soft pinks, a child crowning her loose updo with big dasies that bloomed magically as quickly as the tickled child could pick them. Zeus immediately recognized her, surprised by his feelings of dread and disgust.

“She is my own.” Zeus breathed, turning to stare hard at his brother. He hadn't expected this.

Hades, of course already knowing this, remained unaffected and unchanged; watching the girl with ane expression that could almost be called hungry. “Indeed.”

“She's still a child, Hades.” Zeus said firmly. Territorially. He had never known this daughter of his, birthed by the passing fancy of his named Demeter. He had never sought Persephone out and would likely have continued to allow her to slip into the oblivion of his mind with so many of his other bastard children, if not for Hades abrupt interest. This, however, left a sour taste in his tongue. It was almost treacherous. It was taking something of his, and he wasn't sure he liked it.

“That's a triviality that has never stood in your way. It will not stand in mine.” Hades saw through Zeus' mockery of concern for his forgotten child for the threat that it was. However, sensing his brother's anger and seeking to soothe it with cunning as he has always done, Hades continued, casting the blame on another. “She makes up for in age and body what she lacks in worldly experience. Her mother has been wretchedly cruel to hide her away.”

“For good damned cause, I should think!” Zeus' laugh boomed mercilessly, his eyes rolling at the irony.

“You'll have a marvellous time asking Demeter for her hand, won't you?”

“It matters not.” Hades dismissed softly. “I don't intend to.”

Zeus looked at him, wishing he could at least feign surprise at that. Had Demeter been his wife, or even his concubine any longer, the choice would not have been hers to make regardless of her feelings on the matter. Had any other god but Zeus' own brother sought Persephone's hand, the call would have been Demeter's to make. Both brothers knew she would not take it kindly, and Zeus faintly recalled the very reason for Persephone's mortal upbringing in the first place being that Demeter, in a jealous rage, had rebuffed Apollo's offering for her darling daughter's hand and stolen the golden child away from them all to shield her from their adulterous, lusty society.

Foolishness, because her sweet babe certainly wasn't going to end up better for it, Zeus scoffed.

“It is my wish that she return with me to The Underworld to become my queen. Tonight.” Hades finally declared, nearly surprising Zeus once again.

A moment of quickly-darkening silence passed, each man staring down the other and remaining firm in their convictions; Zeus, in that he should not have to give his things away. Hades, in that it was finally time for him to take a suitable lover. At last, one relented.

“Since I can see there'll be no persuading you...” Zeus said finally, his expression grim even as his eyes twinkled with a certain mischief that Hades knew too well meant trouble. The god of death remained frozen even as Zeus slung his heavy arm around his shoulder, brutishly patting the other arm with such force that Hades jerked. “My suggestion would be to steal this girl of yours away this very evening, brother, and woo her quickly. Heed my experience, for not even you are a match for a woman scorned. If I know Demeter at all – as all of Olympus knows I do – she, as in nature, will be most wondrous cruel.”

Zeus looked almost as if he were blissfully reminiscing about his brief dally with the queen of dirt and things that grew from it, a sneer quickly presuming to take over Hades' face as his brother's adulterous tales never failed to disgust him and the mention of his beloved's mother (and her subsequent closeness to her daughter) left a rotten feeling in his chest.

“Are you giving me your blessing?” Hades asked dryly, not one for flowery speech when it came to matters of business.

“Of course.” Zeus shrugged, stepping away at last. The wind seemed to pick up almost from no where, tossing his golden locks as he turned a few yards away and grinned darkly at Hades. “Earn her love, O' Wicked Death, and I will marry you two myself. Gods help you if you fail, brother.” He wagered, laughing at the dull expression on Hades face.

Both brothers knew the likeliness of a man like Hades earning the love of an innocent child was slim to none.