“Which would be…” she trailed off as the puzzle pieces put themselves together one by one. “It would be the daemon holding the stalk.”
“Yes.”
“Why haven’t you used them to overthrow your brother? You could be ten times more powerful than him. I mean, just look at all of the power sources growing around you!” She gestured around the cavern, her eyes bright with discovery.
She was jerked from her revelation when a pair of hands took her shoulders in a bruising grip. She gasped and was face-to-face with Hades in an instant.
“Never,” he said as he shook her, a frightening mask of fury slipping over his features. Shock froze her body, and Persephone was left staring. “Do not ever speak those wordsagain, do you understand me?” Hades shook her in earnest now, her head dizzying from the force. “Do not betray me by sharing the one thing I trusted you to keep!”
“I understand!” she cried. “Please, Hades, let me go!”
The demon he’d slipped into faded away as Persephone sobbed. It was a physical thing as it left, neutrality settling into his features as he put on another mask. He released her shoulders, but it was a slow movement as if he were readying himself to catch her when she fell. Persephone trembled from top to bottom.
Hades dusted the front of his shirt and straightened the bottom as he collected himself. “I want you to tend to it.”
“I’m sorry?” She couldn’t believe it. Not the swift change in demeanor and subject or the fact that she’d just spoken of defiling such a sacred place and he still trusted her to be in it.
“The field needs to be maintained. The flowers must be pruned and cared for until they’re ready to fall and fertilize the dirt to nurture the tree. I want you to tend Asphodel Meadows, Beauty.”
“I couldn’t,” she breathed. “I’m no one, I can’t just–”
“You are the great goddess of spring. You grow the most delicate petals and nurture them with a passion like no other. I want to give you this part of me. I want to share the most important part of life itself with you. I trust you, and I want you to share this life with me.”
The poetic words he’d spoken wiped away the feelings from moments before, and she was overtaken by a sense of pride and longing. He only scared her because it was important to him. To the cycle.
He trusted her.
Hewantedher.
To share in his life and secrets would be an honor Persephone would hold closely to her heart.
Their eyes bore into each other with a heat and intensity that had her palms itching to reach out and touch him. That ever-present electricity between them sparked, and she could see the moment he decided to catch fire with her. Hades stepped forward, his lips ghosting across hers.
“Can I kiss you?” His breath brushed against her and Persephone wanted nothing more than to feel his lips against her own.
“Yes.”
Their kiss started gentle, testing the feel of their skin together and the tilt of their heads. As it picked up rhythm, hands roamed over whatever they could find, desperate to feel every inch as quickly as possible. Those roaming hands turned into needy pulls and scraping nails, two bodies eager to collide and become one.
Persephone whimpered as he dropped his mouth to her neck, his teeth nipping along the side until he licked along her collar bone. She tangled a hand in his hair to keep him there, every touch of his tongue sizzling in her blood.
“Hades,” she cried, desperate for a touch she didn’t know how to ask for. “More. I need more.”
He was quick to respond as he grabbed her ass and pulled her up to straddle his waist. He was hard for her and the way he pressed himself against her was maddening.
“Please!”
“Tell me what you want, Beauty.”
“The ache,” she moaned. “I need you to make it stop.”
That was all he needed.
Hades pushed her back against the wall and pinned her arms above her head while his other hand worked to free his cock. There was no preparation, only desperation. He slammed inside her with a force that shook them both to the core.
They were a tangle of limbs and the way he drove into her over and over was ruthless. His grunts were muffled by her hair, but she had no such compunction for her screams. His moans intensified as the ache in her belly grew. Slickness coated them both, his rhythm becoming more erratic with each thrust.
“Fuck,” he moaned, over and over until he tensed and bit her shoulder, the pain sharp and intense. Hades pressed her relentlessly into the wall with the force of his orgasm, his moans ringing in her ear.
