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He glanced over at the empty blue throne. “I ask you this because my mate has been missing for thousands of years.”

My gaze jumped to the other throne too. “Persephone?”

He nodded. “We were in love. We’d made plans. Her mother needed her above for spring and summer, but then she’d planned to come down and spend half the year with me. I didn’t want to be away from her, but I understood why she was needed in the human realm.

“I went to the meadow where we’d met countless times before. She was going to come below with me, be my mate, begin our lives together. When I arrived, though, she wasn’t there. I waited, but she never came. I found her mother, who hadn’t been happy about our relationship. I asked where she’d hidden Persephone. Like you, I knew she wouldn’t have just left me without a word. Demeter didn’t know. She said Persephone had run to the meadow as soon as the sun had risen.

“I questioned everyone. Finally, I found a dryad who said she’d seen Persephone talking with a man, one she’d seen her talking with the previous day as well. She went about her business, but when she returned to the meadow later, Persephone and the man were gone and she instead saw me, calling Persephone’s name.”

I thought about that. “Had she ever seen that man before? I mean, earlier than the day before?”

Hades shook his head. “The dryad’s sight might be poor, though, because she said she originally thought the man was me. She only saw him from the back, but she said she thought I was the one talking with Persephone, so she’d made herself scarce, in case either of us were angered at being observed.”

He shook his head. “That speculation, though, was enough for everyone to believe that I had abducted and killed Persephone because she didn’t love me back. I stopped visiting Olympus to avoid the suspicious looks. The thought of hurting Persephone sickens me, so I avoid the rest of them.”

“Which probably made them believe it even more,” I ventured.

He nodded.

“I’m sorry.” I couldn’t even fathom the unending heartbreak of looking for Clive for thousands of years.

“I met with Pythia, the Oracle of Delphi. She told me that Persephone had been locked away down here, in the Underworld.”

I sat up straight at that. “She was imprisoned down here? And you’re not able to sense where she is?”

He gave me a look that said, Would I be sitting here talking to you if it was that easy? Which, fair point.

“We searched,” he grumbled. “We all searched. Years of constant searching. I went back to Pythia and forced her to accompany me down.”

“Does Apollo know you have her?” I whispered.

He let out a huff of air. “He had an issue with it, but I convinced him to let it go.”

The dark rage in Hades’ eyes almost made me wet myself. I took a deep breath and stared down at the clasped hands in my lap, trying to remind myself that if he’d wanted me dead, I already would be.

Chapter 24

THE LONG WAIT

“Apologies,” Hades murmured.

I looked up, shocked a god would apologize for anything.

His expression had softened. “I didn’t mean to frighten you. If it makes you feel better, know that Pythia likes it down here. No one bothers her for prophecies when she’s among the dead.”

“Was she able to narrow down where to look for Persephone?”

He nodded. “And we couldn’t find anything. Then she told us to dig, that Persephone was in the rock, so we dug.”

He stood, looking impossibly tall and powerful. “Come.” He strode across the hall and motioned for Meg, Alecto, and Tisiphone to come with us. I had to jog to keep up. He went through the door and down a tunnel that branched off from the one we’d used earlier. Halfway down, he paused, looked over his shoulder for me, and gestured for me to hurry up.

I did.

“It’s down here,” he told me. “We had to dig through the rock, until we found this.”

He turned a sharp corner, and I almost smacked right into his back. Sidestepping, I looked toward the light and was gobsmacked. How?

The tunnel wall of rock was gone and something like glass had replaced it. Light was coming from the room behind the glass. In the room sat a gorgeous woman with long, dark, curly hair, sun-kissed olive skin, and warm brown eyes. She wore white robes and sat on what looked like a large, flat-topped rock. All around her were plants and flowers. It was like she was living in the world’s most lush and colorful hothouse. Vines crawled up the rock walls, with flowers dripping down.