The smile faded into a deep frown. “What do you mean?”
Turning my back to her, I paused a moment to scan the room—the bed was unmade, several items were strewn haphazardly on the floor, some of them broken. The drapes had been torn from the rods and left in a heap. “You may return to the surface for six months, but back to the Underworld for the remaining six months.”
“What—” She breathed out, her arms going lax on the chair. “—you said I could never go back to the surface. How am I given an allotted time? Why can’t I go back then?”
Appearing in front of her, I let my canines grow to half their actual length, following it up with a subdued growl. “You broke the rules, Persephone. There is no way to get around the consequence. You should behappyyou’re getting that time atall.”
She’d appeared frightened of me at first, leaning away in her chair. It transgressed into sadness and then anger. “You don’t have to be so cruel about this. To me.”
“Isn’t that how you see me, darling?” Moving forward, I rested my hands on the armrests, caging her and clacking my claws against the wood. “I’ve been nothing but kind to you since I brought you down here. I was understanding of you when we realized you were stuck here. And what did I receive in return? Hate and disdain.” She’d pressed so far into the seat away from me that she made the chair legs squeak, but I pulled her back to me. “Why should I be expected to show such kindness, hm? It’sexhausting.”
Tears formed in her eyes, glistening like spent star dust. Persephone defiantly lifted her chin, her gaze lingering on my robes before lifting to my face. “Are you done? Or can I now be alone in my room for the next six months?”
“No, I’m not done. Because there’smore.” Standing, I made my ember wings peek out and the fiery crown atop my head blaze brighter.
Persephone’s defiance turned petrified, and she gulped. “What?”
“You are to become Queen of the Underworld. You’ll be taking on duties and responsibilities.” I steepled my fingers and ensured our eyes met. “And wed tome.”
Her entire body shook, and she launched from the seat. “No. No, Irefuse.”
Zeus’s words played over and over in my head. I despised that I’d have to relay the same threat to her, knowing she honestly had no choice, but shehadto understand this was the best scenario for her. “Youcan’trefuse, Persephone. Either you become queen or spend every waking day down here.”
The spring goddess wrapped her arms around herself, those impending tears rolling down her cheeks now and mutilating my blackened heart. “What are you trying to say?”
Floating closer to her, I settled the wings behind me, momentarily relishing how her gaze appeared mesmerized by the embers for a beat. “Those six months you’re allotted are only if you become queen.”
Persephone’s shoulders hunched forward, and she hugged herself tighter. “I—” Her lips parted, and the sheer hatred for me shone so profusely in those sapphire eyes. “I—” She started again, but still no more words followed.
“Get some rest. You don’t have to decide tonight.” Turning away from her, I made for the door, pausing with a last glance at her over my shoulder. “But know that becoming queen is your best option. There’s no getting out of the Underworld, Persephone.”
She didn’t respond to that and gave her back to me, her shoulders bouncing as she began to sob. Frowning, keeping my jaw tightened, I floated through the door to leave her be until tomorrow. It’d been tolerable the past few days of no longer hearing her weeping through the night. Hearing it again drovea spike through my chest, attempting to chisel at the protective stone. No good would come from sugar-coating any of it. It was a harsh truth and even harsher reality. Kindness would only create a façade.
I’d spent the better half of the night welcoming souls to the Underworld, siphoning them from Styx and allowing them freedom to roam as ghosts for their afterlife. I had just bound a mortal man to a fiery wheel for eternity as his eternal punishment in Tartarus when Cerberus’ warning howls alerted me.
Porting to him, I found my canine companion growling with one head, snapping his jaws with another, and the third had its ears drawn back as if he wasn’t sure what he was doing would get him in trouble. Persephone hung from her room’s window, grasping to the tied-together linens from the bed. She kicked at Cerberus, screaming bloody terror and trying to climb back up.
Sighing, I rubbed my temples and floated closer to the scene unfolding before me. “Persephone, my dear, may I ask what you are doing?”
Cerberus let out a disapproving huff, his breath sending Persephone’s golden locks pluming skyward. “I thought I could—” Grunting, she clung to the sheets, shrieking when she started to lose her footing and the distance to the cave floor was several meters.
Watching her fingers slowly slip away from the linens, I appeared in time to catch her, and she landed cradled in my arms. With Persephone this close to me and not defiantlyspitting hateful words at me for condemning her, it made my damn chest tighten to the point of celestial suffocation.
Persephone sucked in a breath and blinked those big blue eyes at me. “Thank you.” When she realized I was holding her, that I’d saved her from falling, her gratitude was short-lived. “Put me down.”
Doing precisely as she asked and because she didn’t have the decency to say please, I let go, and her ass flopped straight to the floor. Given she was a goddess, she wouldn’t have broken anything—physically anyway.
Persephone let out a frustrated screeching growl, her hands lifting from the moist floor before scrambling to her feet. “What is wrong with you?”
“Would you like me to list them off?” Raising my brows at her, I floated to Cerberus when she didn’t respond. “Good boy,” I cooed, scratching his chest and making his back leg bounce.
“Good boy? He tried to bite one of my limbs off,” Persephone declared.
Cerberus growled at her for that.
“He was only doing his job. Which tells me that you were trying to escape.” I hadn’t been looking at her, but turned now, still petting my dog. “How much clearer do I have to make this before you understand the predicament you’re in?”
“The room had a window, and I refuse to believe there isn’t a way out of this place. So, I thought—” A crease formed between Persephone’s eyes, and she palmed her face. “I don’t know what I thought.”
