The Curse of Hades *MATURE*

Chapter 1; stable boys and cakes

If tension had a physical form, Harper was sure that she'd be able to cut it with a knife.

The Queen sat in a plush red velvet chair, gazing out of the large french windows overlooking the gardens. Her lips were pursed and her eyebrows were narrowed into a frown. Harper watched her mother shift, noting the whiteness of her knuckles and the way she jumped every time a noise reached the drawing room.

She took a sip of her black coffee, wincing as it burnt it's way down her throat.

Her father sat opposite her, a book placed leisurely in his lap, though his eyes remained unfocused and the pages untouched.

They hadn't left her side for weeks. Harper had known for a year that when she turned twenty one she'd be whisked away into the underworld by Hades. She supposed that she ought to be happy. After all, she was here, with her family and surrounded by the people she trusted; she'd be able to say good bye, to know that they wouldn't wonder what happened to her. Except...well, she felt wronged. Why did it have to her?  It wasn't like she asked to be born.

Harper sighed and placed down her cup on the round coffee table in the middle of their chairs. She reached for a jam tart with a roll of her eyes at her mother's glare. "Honestly you two, it's as if you're awaiting my death."

She ignored her father's disapproving look as she bit into her treat, crumbs tumbling onto her leggings. "Nothing is certain yet, and maybe the price had been the torture of thinking he was going to take me away?"

"The older you get the more like your mother you are," her father mused with a wistful look on his face. "So quick to dismiss the truth."

"Is that a bad thing?" Harper arched an eyebrow.

"Well, it depends on who you're asking_"

Her mother threw a toffee cake at his head, scowling as he laughed.

"Save it, Colden." Her anger only made her father laugh more. "This is serious."

His eyes softened. "I know, pumpkin."

Harper groaned at the blush on her mother's face. "Can you not?"

"How do you think you were made?" Her mother arched an elegant eyebrow, smirking at her now reddened face. That was the one disadvantage of having parents who were still so in love; they had no qualms displaying their affection publicly. 

"Well," Harper stood abruptly the moment she smelt the faint trickle of arousal. Her stomach recoiled at the look in her father's eyes, and she really wished she could disappear into the ground. It really wouldn't be that bad if Hades popped in anytime now. At least she'd be saved from witnessing this trauma.

"I'm just going to go..." Harper trailed off at the scathing look her father shot her.

"On your own? I don't think so. We don't know what he's planning and_"

"And he'll find a way to get to me either way, whether you're with me or not." Harper softened her voice at the pained look on her parents faces. "If he comes for me I'd like to have at least spent some time with my friends, papa. Please."

"You know we can't stop it either way," her mother murmured, "he'll get her whether we like it or not."

He grumbled under his breath, "I just hate not knowing when. You'd think the bastard would be a bit more considerate."

"I'm sure he's very busy, you know, judging souls and all of that," Harper joked. It made her feel sick thinking about who he really was. She'd like to think of him as some evil God destined to ruin her life, but then he hadn't seemed like that when he came to here two years ago. That night still made her cheeks burn thinking about it, and it didn't help that she knew she'd have to see him again.