Maddi closed the door behind her as she left, and Persephone crossed her arms over her supple breasts.
“Hello, Eros,” Persephone said.
I scoffed at her nonchalance. “Stef? Really? What’s your husband parading around as these days?”
“Henrik,” Persephone said with a grin.
I gaped at her a moment, trying to envision the look on Hades’s face when she’d told him that would be his name, and I almost snorted.
“I’m sure he loves that,” I said.
“The punishment for putting that name on his license for this century was sound enough,” she replied. “I often ask him for it again and again.” She ran her tongue along her top lip and rubbed her wrist as if recalling a fond memory.
I chuckled and shook my head. “What do you need, Kore?” I asked as I began flipping through the papers again.
“You know I hate that name,” she said.
“I genuinely don’t care,” I countered. “I’m busy. What do you need?”
Persephone twisted her lips and sighed. “I heard a rumor,” she said. “I heard you found her.”
I glanced up from the notes, brow raised. “Found who?”
“Psyche.”
Chloe’s face flashed behind my eyes, but I played it cool. “Where did you hear that?”
“The gods gossip,” she said.
“That should be the name of our newspaper,” I muttered. “What’s your interest?”
“Is it true?” she asked.
I delicately laid the stack of papers on the desk, considering telling her. After all, she was a friend who had helped me with questions and problems I’d had in the past more than once. I knew the only person she would gossip to would be her husband.
And the thought of him gossiping to anyone nearly sent me into a fit of laughter.
“I’m not sure,” I finally answered.
Persephone slid into the nearest chair and sat back, bringing her hands up to inspect her nails and crossing one long leg over the other. “Is it the girl from a few years ago?”
“Maybe. Though, if it is Chloe…” My jaw tightened, that same rage rolling through my nerves like a cascade of water over my skin. The image of her fiancé kissing her cheek and touching her arm filled my mind, and my hands clenched on the lip of the desk.
“There’s a side of you I haven’t seen in a few millennia,” Persephone mused delightedly. “I do miss it. All that mindless rage was occasionally sexy.” Her head tilted at me, eyes washing over my rigid body as if she were testing to see if the anger was real. “What’s wrong?”
“She’s engaged,” I said as we locked eyes. I crossed my restless arms over my chest. “So, it doesn’t matter, does it?”
“Where did you see her?”
“My company hired hers for a rebranding,” I explained. “We had a social last night, a kind of ‘meet the team’ party. She was there, and so was her fiancé.”
Persephone’s laugh filled the entire room. Her head swayed back, tears nearly springing to her eyes. “Fuck off, are you serious?” she asked between cackles. “The Fates… they have a cruel sense of humor.”
“The Fates can forever go fuck themselves,” I said.
“The Fates have done you a favor,” she argued. “You’ve searched for this girl for five years with no leads. And now, she’s just dropped in your lap. Sure, the engaged thing is a bummer, but are you trying to tell me you’re just going to sit back and let that happen? It’s Psyche. You’re Eros. The two of you are entwined together.”
“You don’t know that she’s Psyche. Maybe she’s just Chloe,” I argued.
