A Touch of Darkness (Hades x Persephone #1)(31)

Then he was gone.





CHAPTER VIII– A GARDEN IN THE UNDERWORLD



Lexa sat across from Persephone outside The Yellow Daffodil. They’d walked to the bistro from their apartment to have breakfast before they went their separate ways—Persephone to the Library of Artemis and Lexa to Talaria Stadium to meet Adonis and his friends for a day of Trials.

Stay away from him. Hades voice echoed in her head, as if his mouth were against her ear. She shivered. Despite Hades warning, Persephone would have gone with Lexa, but she had a god to research, a garden to plant, and a bargain to win. Still, she wondered why Hades disapproved of Adonis? Did the King of the Underworld know his warning would only make her more curious?

“Your lips are bruised,” Lexa said.

Persephone covered her mouth with her fingers. She’d tried to cover the discoloration with foundation and lipstick.

“Who did you kiss?”

“Why do you think I kissed someone?” Persephone asked.

“I don’t know that you kissed anyone. Maybe someone kissed you.” Persephone flushed—someone had kissed her, but not for the reasons Lexa was thinking. He was just bestowing favor, Persephone reminded herself. He would do just about anything to ensure you don’t disturb him again. That included offering her a shortcut to his realm.

She wouldn’t let herself romanticize the God of the Dead.

Hades is the enemy, she reminded herself. He is your enemy. He tricked you into a contract. He challenged you to use powers you don’t have. He will imprison you if you fail to create life in the Underworld.

“I’m just guessing since you left the apartment at ten last night and didn’t come home until like five this morning.”

“H…how did you know that?”

Lexa smiled, but Persephone could tell her friend was a little hurt by her sneakiness.

“I guess we both have secrets,” she said and admitted, “I was up talking to Adonis. I heard you come in.”

What she’d heard was Persephone tiptoeing into the kitchen for water after Hades had teleported to her bedroom.

“Oh. You and Adonis are talking?”

It was Lexa’s turn to blush, and Persephone was glad she could redirect this conversation, even if she wasn’t sure how to feel about her best friend dating her co-worker. Plus, she had yet to figure out why Hades disliked him. Was it simply that she had brought him to Nevernight or something more?

“It doesn’t mean anything,” she said, and knew Lexa was just trying to keep her expectations low. It had been a long time since she had been interested in someone. She’d had fallen hard and fast for her first college boyfriend, a wrestler named Alec. He had been incredibly handsome and charming…until he wasn’t. What Lexa had at first thought was protectiveness, soon became controlling. Things escalated until one night he yelled at her for going out with Persephone and accused her of cheating on him. At that point, she decided things had to end.

It was only after things ended that Lexa learned Alec hadn’t been faithful to her at all.

The whole thing had broken her heart, and there was a time when Persephone wasn’t sure Lexa would ever recover.

“We were making plans for today and just…kept talking,” Lexa continued. “He’s so interesting.”

Persephone thought that was funny. She felt like Lexa was the most interesting person she’d ever met. The girl was a beauty queen with a sleeve of tattoos. She was also a witch and a gamer. She had an obsession with makeup, fashion, and the gods.

“Did you know he was adopted? It’s why he became a journalist. He wants to find his biological parents.”

Persephone shook her head. She didn’t know anything about Adonis except that he worked at New Athens News, and had regular access to Nevernight, which was ironic considering Hades really didn’t seem to like the mortal.

“I can’t imagine what that’s like,” Lexa said absently. “To exist in the world without really knowing who you are.”

She couldn’t know how painful her words were. The bargain Hades had forced upon her had reminded Persephone just how she didn’t belong.

Persephone took a coffee to go and then headed to the Library of Artemis. There were several beautiful reading rooms named after the Nine Greek Muses. Persephone liked all of them, but she had always drawn to the Melpomene Room, which she entered now. Persephone wasn’t sure why it was named after the Muse of Tragedy, except that a statue of the goddess stood at the center of the oval room. Light streamed through an glass ceiling, pouring over several long tables and study areas.

She’d come here in search of a book, and as she looked, she trailed her fingers over leather binding and gold lettering. Finally, she found what she was looking for: The Divine: Powers and Symbols.

She carried the volume to one of the tables and sat down, opening the dusty book, turning the pages until she found his name in bold letters across the top of the page.

Hades, God of the Underworld.

Just seeing his name made her heart race. The entry included a sketch of the god’s profile which Persephone traced with the tips of her fingers. No one would recognize him in person from this picture because it was too dark, but she could see familiar features—the arch of his nose, the set of his jaw, the strands of his long hair falling to his shoulders.