Page 59 of Curse the Flame

His hands rise to cradle my face with a reverence that makes my heart ache. There’s no caution in his touch right now. No hesitation. Only love, quiet and overwhelming, the same love he’s been carrying for longer than I first accepted could be possible all while believing he’d never hear those words from me.

The old stories say that Hades and Persephone’s fate was sealed by a pomegranate. Can’t say that isn’t true. But standing in the middle of the garden he gave me and watched me grow, with Aiden looking at me as though I’d just handed him the world all because I finally told him I love him, I realize something that the myths have gotten wrong.

The pomegranate won’t be the end of our story. For us, it’s only the beginning.

Hades and Persephone have finally reached the end of theirs.

Now it’s time for Aiden and Willow.

And as my husband lowers his arms to cradle my ass instead, lifting me up and guiding me to wrap my legs around him before he kisses me again, then summons a shadow portal to lead us out of my garden and into our bedroom, I know that the pomegranate was only the beginning.

But the rest of our forever?

It begins with now.

PART TWO

THE CROWN

CHAPTER 16

DAPHNE AND ALEX

SIX MONTHS LATER

WILLOW

The morning after I slept with Aiden the first time, I woke up feeling well-loved, a little achy, and more than a little boneless with orgasmic-induced euphoria courtesy of my husband.

Oh, and I also woke up with a crown of fire on my head.

It doesn’t burn. If it did, I would’ve set our bedding on fire, the way I was curled up in bed, tucked against Aiden’s body. I had one leg thrown over his, my hand splayed out over his bare chest, but my head was resting on top of the mound of pillows my husband conjured for me in particular after his initial insistence that I sleep by his side even if I wasn’t going to sleep with him.

That ship has sailed like Charon down the River Styx. What started as something innocent became something beautiful yet primal, and we consummated our union as man and wife the only way the Other understands.

And that’s exactly why I have the crown.

A gift from the magic that runs this world, Aiden explained. He could call himself my husband all he wanted, but until I admitted that I chose to stay in the Underworld with him… that the magic tempted me with the pomegranate, but I was the one who shoved the seeds inside my mouth by the palmful… until I stretched out beneath him and let him take my virginity the same time as I took his, I wasn’t truly his bride.

I was Persephone, of course. The goddess has always been inside of me, just like Aiden’s always carried the soul of Hades within him. But though Hades and Persephone needed to have their story told again and again, it was Aiden and Willow’s turn to fall in love and choose each other.

And when we did? The Other recognized that, while Aiden serves as the Lord of the Underworld, I’m now his queen.

Literally.

The crown doesn’t disappear, no matter what I try. No ash, no water, no nectar… nothing douses the flames. Not even when I asked Aiden to try and extinguish it with his magic, though the slight curve to my husband’s lips tells me that he tried, but maybe not too hard. He likes seeing the crown, likes thinking of it as a symbol of our love and bond. To him, it’s a sign that no one can steal me from him because he’s claimed me, almost like it’s a wedding band back mirrorside.

Once I understood that, I let it go. Besides, I don’t actually feel it. It’s not hot, and it doesn’t weigh anything. Honestly, it’s more like a hologram than anything else, and if it makes Aiden smile with pride, I figured I could get used to everyone who saw me staring at it, shades and living folks alike.

And that’s exactly what I did.

Being the queen of the Underworld comes with plenty of responsibilities. Most of them are the traditional roles that Persephone had while Ancient Greece thrived and the balance wasn’t reliant on all of us reincarnates. As Hades’s queen, she was an equal partner in how he rules the Underworld. It’s the same for me and Aiden.

I get to enforce the rules of the afterlife that were set millennia ago. There are times when I can interfere, possibly ask my husband to show mercy, but mostly I help him decide which shade goes where: the Asphodel Meadows, the Elysian Fields, the Fields of Punishment, and Tartarus, though no one goes to Tartarus unless they’re, like, the cream of the crop when it comes to bad guys.

I’m also his designated mediator. For anyone who is afraid to ask anything of Aiden, they have a much easier time coming to me and seeing if I’ll intercede on their behalf. That doesn’t mean just the dead, either. In the palace of Hades, our servants—and can you believe that I have servants—prefer going to the lady of the house instead of the “master”. The Furies worship Aiden, but they’re fond of me because I sneak them bones from dinner the same way as I save them for Sir. There are also the lesser gods, demigods, and heroes of legend who find their way to the Underworld and it’s up to me to decide their fate.

And then there’s family.