A Touch of Malice (Hades x Persephone #3)(65)

“A sex club,” he said. “Uh, not that I have been.”

Persephone raised a brow.

“You mean to say Helen has a meeting at a sex club?” Leuce asked.

“Maybe she’s kinky,” Hermes said with a shrug. “Who are we to judge others sexual preferences?”

Persephone frowned. “I think we should check it out.”

Hermes laughed. “You think Hades is going to let you go to a sex club?”

“I’ll make him come.”

“I’m sure you will, Sephy, but not there.”

Persephone gave him a scathing look. “If you aren’t going to be helpful, you can eat lunch alone.”

“I’m just saying Hades would totally kill the vibe. If we’re going to go, he can’t come.”

“Then you tell him,” she said. “I won’t go without his knowledge.”

“Uh, no. He’ll make me swear an oath that I’ll protect you with my life.”

“Won’t you?” she asked.

Hermes opened his mouth to speak and then paused, his gaze softening. “Of course, I’d protect you.”

Persephone offered a small smile.

“We can go,” Leuce suggested. “Sybil and I.”

“No,” she said. “Not alone and not without me.”

This felt personal, not only because it involved Helen—a woman she’d thought as a friend and employee, but because she feared her friends could become targets, too. If this meeting was about the future of Triad and their plans, she needed to be there.

She looked at Hermes. “Prepare to take that oath, Hermes, and protect me with your life.”

***

Hades reluctantly agreed to let Persephone go to Club Aphrodisia but had done as Hermes predicted and made the god swear an oath to protect her.

“What does that even mean?” Persephone had asked when he’d returned later to inform her that he’d gained Hades’ permission.

“Don’t worry about it, Sephy. I got this,” he’d said. “Wear something sexy!”

Persephone shook her head and tried not to laugh as the god departed in a hurry.

After work, she returned to the Underworld. Before getting ready for the night’s investigation, she teleported to Elysium. It had been a while since she’d visited Lexa, and she found that what she wanted most after what happened with Helen, was her best friend.

She took her time wandering through the golden fields, speckled with gloriously lush trees with wild and deep roots. Now and then poppies shot from the ground, mingling with the grass. Once, before Thanatos had allowed Persephone to approach Lexa, she had asked the God of Death about the sporadic poppies.

“They are eternal resting places,” he had replied.

“You mean...”

“When a soul no longer wishes to exist in the Upperworld or the Underworld, they are released into the earth.”

He went on to explain that the energy from their souls often acted like magic. “From it, poppies and pomegranates spring.”

She’d had more questions—when does a soul decide it no longer wants to exist? Of course, she was thinking of Lexa when she had asked, but Thanatos’s reply was not what she expected.

“Sometimes they do not get to choose. Sometimes they come to us so broken, to continue would be torture.”

It was then Persephone had understood she had been lucky with Lexa. At least she had only had to drink from the Lethe. Apparently, there were worse fates.

As Persephone crested one of many hills, she paused looking for the familiar dark curls of Adonis but did not find him. It was possible she wouldn’t even recognize him here. Even Lexa, while familiar, looked different, and it had been months since she’d last laid eyes upon the favorited mortal. Even if she saw him, it wasn’t like she could approach. Elysium was for healing. Souls here did not receive visitors; they didn’t even socialize amongst themselves.

Lexa was the exception, and Persephone had a suspicion Hades had something to do with that, though she’d never asked.

She stood a while longer, gaze lingering upon the fields, before continuing on to find Lexa.

She took her time, enjoying the peace that came with being in this part of the Underworld. Here it was easy to forget about the threat of her mother, Triad, and Helen’s sudden change in behavior. It was like environment forced those thoughts away, making them harder to reach for and she always had the sense that if she stayed here long enough, she’d forget to leave.

There was another hill, and as she descended into a low valley with more trees where Lexa tended to stay most often, her gaze snagged on a pair of souls sitting beneath one of the trees. They were shoulder to shoulder, heads inclined, and she almost looked away, feeling as though she was intruding upon an intimate moment. Except that she soon realized that she was staring at Thanatos and Lexa. Beside one another, they were opposites, Thanatos with his white hair, a flame against Lexa’s midnight locks. The only thing they shared were brilliant blue eyes and apparently breath and space, Persephone thought mildly.

She wondered what she should do—turn around and come back later? Duck and watch from afar? Approach and force them apart? She didn’t get the chance to decide, however, because Thanatos’s eyes locked upon her, and he was quick to jump to his feet, putting distance between him and Lexa who frowned when she saw Persephone.