“Very few outside the Thirteen believe Hades exists.” Or at least that was the truth before we started our campaign to rub Zeus’s nose in the fact that I’m with Hades now.
“Don’t do that. I know I’m the youngest, but I’m not nearly as naive as you all act. It doesn’t matter what the rest of Olympus thinks. It only matters what Zeus thinks.” She grabs my hand in both of hers. “He’s going to use this to get to you, isn’t he?”
He’s going to try.
“Don’t worry about that.”
She shakes her head. “Don’t shut me out, Persephone. Please. I can’t stand it. I thought I could ignore the Thirteen stuff and just be happy but…” Her voice goes watery. “Do you think Orpheus set me up?”
I might be nurturing an intense new loathing for her boyfriend, but I truly, truly want to be able to answer that question with a negative. Orpheus was never good enough for her, but his only real sin was being a musician more in love with himself than with my sister. That makes him a fuckboy. It doesn’t make him a monster.
If he sold her out to Zeus?
Monstrous doesn’t begin to cover it.
Apparently Eurydice doesn’t need me to answer. “I can’t help wondering if he did. He was acting weird today, more distant and distracted than usual. I thought maybe he was having an affair. I think I would have preferred that. It’s over between us. It has to be.”
“I’m sorry.” I wanted my sister to leave Orpheus in the rearview, but not like this. He was bound to break her heart at one point or another, but this level of betrayal goes so deep, I don’t know how she’s going to navigate her way through. We’ve sheltered Eurydice as much as we could, and look how that turned out. I sigh. “Let’s see about making you some tea and finding you a sleeping pill.”
“Okay,” she whispers. “I don’t think I can sleep without one.”
“I know, honey.” I climb to my feet and pull her up with me. She’s safe. We’re all safe tonight. There will be consequences for our actions, but there’s nothing else to do tonight except settle my sister into a room and be there for her.
I thought I could target all Zeus’s anger at me. I thought leaving Olympus wouldn’t bring down negative consequences on anyone else. I feel so fucking naive.
Even if I left tonight, disappeared never to be seen again, my sisters would bear the consequences of my actions. Hades would bear the consequences of my actions. The entire lower city will. I have been so incredibly selfish and I’ve put so many people in harm’s way.
I get a shower going for Eurydice. “I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Okay,” she whispers.
I’m not sure if leaving her alone right now is a good call, but she really isn’t going to sleep without some tea and a sleeping pill. I’m sure Georgie has at least the former down in the kitchen. Someone will know where to find the latter.
I open the door and I’m not even remotely surprised to find Hades there. Somehow, I’m even less surprised to see the steaming mug of tea in his hand and the bottle of sleeping pills. For some reason, his anticipating my needs makes me want to cry. I swallow past my suddenly prickling throat. “Eavesdropping?”
“Only a little.” He doesn’t smile, holding himself so tense, it’s almost like he expects me to turn away. “Can I come in?”
“Of course.” I step back so he can enter the room. The feeling in my throat only gets worse as Hades sets down the mug and pill bottle and steps back. I press my lips together. “Can you hold me? Just for a few minutes?”
Just like that, the cold in his expression thaws. Hades holds out his arms. “As long as you need.”
I step into his embrace and cling to him. I’m shaking and I’m not sure when I started. This night began with the highest of highs and then plummeted into the lowest of lows. If Hades hadn’t broken the treaty, I don’t know if that man would have stopped. I might have lost my sister. I bury my face in his chest and hug him tighter. “I can never thank you enough for what you did tonight. Just…thank you, Hades.”
No matter what else happens, I won’t let him bear the cost of his actions alone.
I’m done running.
Chapter 27
Hades
I expected Persephone to turn away from me. She’s seen what I’m capable of now. There are no illusions that I’m really a good man playing pretend. I’ve spent the last thirty minutes bracing for it while I let her get her sister settled upstairs.
I never expected her to turn to me for comfort.
“I’m sorry.” Persephone releases a long breath, her hands fisting the back of my shirt as if she thinks I’ll move away one second before she tells me to. “It seems like I’ve brought you nothing but problems since I got to the lower city.”
“Come here.” I press a kiss to her temple. “Never apologize for bursting into my life, little siren. I don’t regret a moment of my time with you. I don’t want you to regret it, either.”
“Okay,” she whispers. She clings to me in silence as we listen to Eurydice begin to sob in the bathroom, loud enough to be heard over the shower. Finally, Persephone sighs. “I can’t leave her tonight.”
“I know.” I don’t want to let her go, to walk out of this room. Given enough time and distance, she might reconsider how she feels about what happened tonight. I clear my throat. “Thank you for calling my name. I…I don’t know if I would have stopped.” I tense, waiting for the inevitable rejection that confession will bring.
She nods slowly. “That’s why I did it.” She starts to say something else, but the shower shuts off.
