Goddess of Spring (Goddess Summoning #2)(82)

"I'l return to the Underworld and finish my job. You said my time is almost over?" He had only been a job to her?

"Good. I'l be ready to go when you say so."

She wanted to leave him. Invisible to her, Hades watched the Goddess he loved turn from her mother's oracle and stare off into the distance. Her eyes were dry. Her face was stone. She, looked like a stranger.

No! He wouldn't believe it. He had heard only part of their conversation. He must have misunderstood. He knew Persephone. His Persephone could not deceive him. As his hand lifted to remove the Helmet of Invisibility, a sound drew his attention. Together, he and Persephone turned to face the god who strode from the path that curled around Lake Avernus. Apol o's handsome face was alight with pleasure. His lips curved in a warm smile of welcome.

"Ah, Persephone, it pleases me that you accepted my invitation. We al knew that too much time in the Underworld would cause the Rower of Spring to yearn for the sun again." With a growing sense of numbness, Hades watched as Apol o took Persephone's unresisting body in his arms.

Unable to continue watching, the Lord of the Underworld turned his back on the two lovers and silently returned to the realm of the dead.

Chapter 23

It didn't take Apol o long to realize that holding Persephone was like hugging a corpse. He pulled back and studied her pale face.

"What's wrong? More problems with Demeter?"

Persephone shook her head. When she blinked, two perfect teardrops fel from her eyes and made glistening tracks down her cheeks. He was just considering whether he should kiss her or materialize a drink for her when a black monster burst from around the path and thrust his body between them.

"Be gone, beast from the pit!" he yel ed as he staggered back, trying not to fal . The stal ion turned and bared yel ow teeth at him.

"It's okay Orion. Apol o doesn't mean any harm."

The sadness in her voice touched the God. He peered around the black brute who was nuzzling Persephone. The Goddess caressed the horse absently. Tears leaked down her face, but she took no notice of them.

"Orion! I need to speak with your mistress." Eyes blazing, the stal ion turned his swiveled head to face Apol o. He held his hands out in an open gesture of peace. "I wish only to offer her aid." Orion seemed to study the God, then he blew through his nose and lipped the Goddess's cheek before moving a few feet down the path where he grazed while keeping one black eye focused on the God of Light.

Apol o took Persephone's limp arm and led her to a bench carved from bare rock. The Goddess sat. He made a spinning motion with his hand and a clear goblet appeared suddenly in a shower of sparks. He offered it to Persephone.

"It is only spring water," he said when she hesitated. "I thought you might need its refreshment."

"Thank you," she said woodenly. The water was cold and sweet. She drank deeply, but it didn't begin to quench the emptiness within her.

Apol o sat next to her.

"What has caused you such pain?" he asked.

She didn't answer for so long that he thought she wasn't going to respond. Then she spoke in a voice that was fil ed with such hopelessness that the God felt his own chest constrict.

"My own foolishness - that is what has caused me such pain."

Apol o took her hand. "What can I do to help you?"

She looked at him then, and the God felt as if her eyes could see through to his soul.

"Answer a question for me. What is it that loves - the body or the spirit?" Apol o smiled and began to respond with a witty reply, but he found he could not. Once again, she surprised him with her candor. Since their last meeting, the Goddess of Spring hadn't been far from his thoughts. His eyes met hers. He could not belittle her obvious pain, so he answered honestly.

"Persephone, you ask this question of the wrong god. As you know, I have had much experience with lusts of the body. I feel desire and I slake it. But love? That most elusive of emotions? I have witnessed it bring an undefeated warrior to his knees, and cause a single maiden to wield more power than Hercules, but I cannot say that I have ever truly experienced it." Wistfully, he touched her cheek. "But looking at you makes me wish otherwise."

The light was growing. It signaled the coming of dawn. His chariot had to be near, and his time was short. Apol o could see that, though he was close beside her and offering her comfort and compassion, Persephone was not even looking at him. She was staring at the mouth of the tunnel which led to Hades' domain. His hand dropped from her face.

"You love Hades!" He did not bother to hide the surprise in his voice. Persephone's eyes snapped to his. "And why do you find that so shocking? Because I am Spring and he is Death? Or is it because immortals don't real y know how to love?"

"I just didn't think it possible," Apol o said.

"It's probably not." The temporary fire in her voice was gone, and the hopelessness had returned. She lurched to her feet. "Orion!" The stal ion moved with supernatural speed to her side. Without another word, she flung herself astride the horse and dug her heels into his sides. Orion leapt forward, leaving Apol o to stare openmouthed at the dust that rose from his iron-clad hooves.

"Persephone and Hades? How could that be?" he murmured.

Hades was at his forge. He stoked the fire to a level that was almost unbearable and striped down to his loincloth. He wouldn't work on a horseshoe. That would not satisfy him. He needed something else, something larger. He would fashion a shield, wrought from the strongest of metals. Something that could protect a body, if not a soul.