Emma can communicate with the dead, heal flowers, plants and sometimes, even animals. But that doesn't mean she's happy with any of it.
When her gifts catch the attention of Hades, Lord of the Underworld, he offers her a deal; willingly live with him in the Underworld for six months of each year, apprentice herself to his wife, Persephone, Goddess of Spring, and he'll teach her to deal with the spirits of the dead.
But when Persephone refuses a marriage proposal from Prometheus, God of Trickery, and he sends her to Portland without memory of Hades, Olympus or the Underworld, can Emma keep Hades, and his home, from falling into chaos or will her growing feelings for him complicate things beyond repair?
Can she learn to embrace who she is and what she can do in time to avoid becoming a pawn in the gods' never-ending games, or does Fate have other plans in mind for her?
Hades and Persephone is a story that has so many different sides to it. Some people romanticize their relationship (often without taking into account certain aspects of the myth) while others insist that Hades was nothing but perverse and awful... even though taking Persephone, after having her father's permission, was quite normal for the time!
This is a retelling of the ancient myth, with all the ancient components to it. I researched the story from many different sources and tried to make it as accurate as possible. The only writer's license was the amount of time she spent in the Underworld before Hermes came-- I never found an exact number, so I wrote it as six months, partly so that they had time to truly fall for each other, partly so that she would return to the mortal realm immediately after being returned to Demeter.
Persephone is a character who understands the place goddesses and women have in the world, understands the normalcy of her capture, but still struggles with feeling like it's unjust. Hades is a god with few romantic relationships in his past (Leuce and Minthe) who hadn't fallen for anyone for a while and wasn't quite sure how to treat a goddess in a realm he never visited. This is the story.