“Your calm. Your presence here, on my lap, as if you seek my affection.”
I set the bowl aside and snuggled against his chest again, trailing my fingers over his skin and soaking up his comforting presence.
“I asked to sit in your lap because it’s the only place I feel safe right now. I’ve never felt pain like that before. I was dying.” I paused and looked up at him. “I was dying, Hades. You saw that, right?”
With an anguished twist to his features, he closed his eyes.
“Goddesses don’t die from poison, do they? What more proof do you need that I’m human?”
His arms tightened around me.
“I do not understand what happened. But I do understand that, whatever name you use, you are mine. Always.”
Sensing how close he was to losing control again, I didn’t try to correct him.
The music soothed me as we sat there and waited for his children to chase down a person I felt certain they wouldn’t find. During my first glimpse of the man, all those days ago, I’d seen his clothes and the buttons running down the front of his very modern shirt. He wasn’t from here. He was from Earth. I was certain of that. But how had he gotten here? I’d thought only furies and other gods could get to Hell. Since the furies were all women and the gods were dead and gone, what kind of creature was that guy, and why did he want to kill me?
People returned to the festival hall. A few of them escorted men with beards who looked utterly terrified.
“It wasn’t him,” I said again and again.
“Are you certain?” Hades asked after the final one was brought before us.
“I am. It wasn’t him.”
The guy fell to his knees in front of us.
“I would never harm you, Goddess. I swear on my life I would never raise a hand against you.”
The others fell like dominoes around him, getting to their knees and making the same pledge.
“I’m not angry,” I said. “I don’t want to punish anyone. Please, stand up. You don’t need to do this.”
“They do,” Hades said, his low voice near my ear. “While you feel no need for vengeance, be assured that I do.”
The guy who started the kneel-fest shook.
“Don’t be afraid. Dance. Listen to music. Enjoy yourselves,” I said before looking back at Hades. “Take us to the throne room.”
The space around us blurred, and I felt that sickening pull in my stomach as the throne room solidified around us. I leaned into Hades, impressed that we went from one throne to the other.
“That’s not a good idea after eating,” I said. “The bone broth wants to come back up.”
He rubbed my back soothingly, and the nausea immediately vanished.
“Thank you,” I said. “I’d like to stand.”
My legs still felt a little shaky, but that went away after a few steps back and forth in front of Hades.
“The guy who gave me the poison said, ‘You? Impossible!’ the first time he saw me. The second time, when he handed me a cup and told me, ‘The pain will pass quickly.’ I don’t know what he was wearing the second time—everything happened so fast—but I did see what he was wearing the first time. A button-down shirt. No one wears those here, but they’re commonly worn by humans back home. Why would a human want to kill me? More importantly, how could a human get to Hell? I know I did, but Megan said that they mind-wiped the druids who sent me here. So, who else knows how to get here?” I stopped my pacing and faced Hades. “Do you see why we need to talk to her?”
His face was flushed with anger, but I didn’t think it had anything to do with my request to speak with Megan. His next words confirmed it.
“You saw a person who you did not know and didn’t tell me?”
“How am I supposed to know who belongs here? I don’t know what’s normal. Human, remember?”
Hades silently snarled at me.
