“That delinquent, despicable villain!” Mother hissed. “Why can’t he just give up? Why can’t he accept defeat?”
“He has always craved me,” I said. “He’s always loved me more than anything.”
Mother snorted. “He knows nothing of love. He wouldn’t recognize it if it slapped him in that arrogant face of his.”
“His face is quite handsome, Mother,” I said. “In fact, he’s darkly gorgeous, just my type. And I love him in return with every piece of my heart.”
She gasped, her grip on my arm tightening to the point of pain. “No. You cannot mean that. He’s more beast than man. He’s the darkest nightmare!”
“Not to me.” I smirked behind the mask. “Never to me.”
“You cannot be serious! He is so twisted! Look at this obsession—an eon of curses could not break it. He is the most wretched stalker in all of existence!”
“Issue a court restraint, then,” I said lightly, purely to watch her unravel. “But I rather enjoy his attention. It’s an acquired taste.”
“Persephone!” Her voice cracked with pure outrage.
“Hades was never the monster you warned me of,” I said, my voice hardening. “He was never the sadist you claimed. He never pursued other women—they threw themselves at him, yet he never went astray. Not once, across millennia.” I turned to face her fully. “Name one other god with that kind of loyalty. Just one. And I will forsake him forever.”
Demeter’s lips pinched into a bloodless line. She could not. We both knew it.
“Have you forgotten how this began?” she scolded. “He kidnapped you! He sullied you! He forced you to be his?—”
“His whore?” I finished, a low chuckle escaping me. “That garbage everyone keeps spewing?” My voice turned sharper. “I am his Queen. His only one. No one ever knew the truth of us—not you, not the poets, not the historians. Every book, every tale speaks as if it knows. But no one knows shit.”
She stared at me, aghast, as if I were a demon and had sprouted horns.
“He stole you from me!” she shouted. “He wronged me in every way!”
“It’s always been about you, hasn’t it, Mother?” My laugh was bitter. “Never about what I wanted. Never about my happiness. I should have told you long ago—I was grateful he took me. Grateful he showed me another life. One of passion, and purpose, and freedom.”
“In that wretched Underworld?” She spat the words. “That dark, dead place?”
“Better than the gilded cage you kept me in,” I said. “I learned to love the dark realm. Its honesty. Its acceptance of all things, not just the pretty ones.” I held her gaze, unflinching. “But your kind could never see that. No shallow, narrow-minded being ever appreciates the raw beauty of darkness.”
“You have been corrupted,” Mother said, her expression pained even behind the mask. “Just as Poseidon warned me. Hewatched you closely in that academy after I had to leave. He saw the rot taking root.”
“And you trust the word of a rapist?” My voice turned icy. “A god who has assaulted countless nymphs and mortals? Who uses his power to simply take what he wants?”
“You will show respect! He is one of the three originals! One of the most powerful?—”
“And my mate is one of the three as well,” I cut in mercilessly. “Poseidon is not worthy of licking the dirt from Hades’s boots!”
Not only Mother but several eavesdropping gods nearby gasped at my words.
That,I thought,will be the least shocking thing you witness tonight.
“I underestimated the damage he has done to you,” Demeter said. Her voice took on that determined tone I knew too well. “It will take considerable effort to purge his poison. I clipped your rebellious wings once. I can do so again, whatever the cost.”
“At the cost of my being torn from him,” I said. “At the cost of my being murdered brutally over and over. At the cost of my nearly being erased from existence. And at the cost of my mate’s endless torment.” My voice turned dangerously soft. “Your hatred blinded you, Mother. To punish him, you fed me to true monsters. You threw me to the worst sadists while calling it protection.”
“How could you say such terrible things?” She shook her head, the motion tight with frustration. “I am your mother. A mother knows what is best for her daughter. I fought to keep you pure. Hades undid all of that. Your suffering is his legacy.”
“He loves me with all of his black soul!” I snapped. “More than you ever could. You never truly loved me. Love isn’t control. It isn’t clipping wings or building cages, however gilded. Love is acceptance and allowing your loved ones to make their own choices.”
“You are still so naive,” Mother dismissed, her tone weary. “No wonder he ensnared you so easily. It does not matter. I will not give up on you. I have invested too much. I will make you see reason.”
“Do not threaten me, Mother,” I warned. “Not unless you fully comprehend what your daughter has become.”
