A Touch of Ruin (Hades x Persephone #2)(105)

“Oh, Persephone. I’m glad you’re here. I was just going to get some coffee. Want anything?”

“No, thank you, Mrs. Sideris.”

She glanced back at the room. “She’s having a good day,” Eliska said. “Go ahead, I’ll be right back.”

Persephone entered the room. The television was on and the curtains were drawn. Lexa sat up in bed, but she looked boneless. Her shoulders sagged, and her head lulled to the side. It was almost as if she were asleep, but her eyes were open and she seemed to be staring at the wall.

“Hey,” Persephone said quietly, she took a seat near Lexa’s bed. “How are you doing?”

Lexa stared.

And stared.

And stared.

“Lex?” Persephone brushed Lexa’s hand and she jerked, but the touch had gotten her attention. Except now that Lexa was looking at her, she felt...unsettled. The woman had the body and face of her best friend, but the eyes didn’t belong.

These eyes were vacant, lackluster, lifeless.

She had the feeling that she’d just touched a stranger.

“Is this Tartarus?” Lexa asked. Her voice was hoarse, as if it has rusted from disuse.

Persephone’s brows knitted together. “What?”

“Is this my punishment?”

Persephone didn’t understand. How could she think her eternal sentence would be Tartarus?

“Lexa, this is the Upperworld. You—you came back.”

She watched as Lexa close her eyes and when she opened them again, Persephone felt like she was looking at her best friend for the first time since she’d awoken.

“You spend all your time in the Underworld and yet know nothing about death,” Lexa was silent for a moment. “I felt...peace.”

She exhaled, as if the word brought pleasure, and continued.

“My body clings to the ease of death, searches for its simplicity. Instead, I am forced to exist in a distressed and complicated world. I cannot keep up. I don’t want to keep up.”

Lexa looked in Persephone’s direction.

“Death wouldn’t have changed anything for us, Seph,” Lexa whispered. “Being back? That changes everything.”

***

Persephone had just returned from the hospital and poured a glass of wine when someone knocked. She was paranoid about answering the door when she was home alone, so she ignored it, thinking whoever was there would go away.

Except they didn’t.

The knocking became excessive. Persephone approached; her heart stuttered in her chest. She peaked out the window and screamed.

“Apollo!” she yelled. The god’s face was pressed against the glass. She threw open the door. “Why are you knocking?”

“I am practicing respecting boundaries,” Apollo said. “Is this not a mortal custom?”

She would have laughed, but he had scared her.

“I think I preferred you just appearing wherever you’re not wanted.”

To her surprise, he smirked. “Careful what you wish for, Seph.”

She thought about correcting him but let the nickname slide. At least he hadn’t called her Honey Lips.

“What are you doing here?”

“I came to bring you this,” he said, and pulled something from behind his back. It was a small, gold lyre.

Persephone took the instrument. “It’s beautiful,” she said and then met his violet eyes. “Why?”

“To say thank you.”

She grinned. “I think that’s the first time you ever thanked me.”

“It’s the first time you gave me a reason,” he teased, and then nodded to the instrument. “I can teach you to play it…if you want.”

“I’d like that.”

After a beat, he became serious again, his jaw tightened, and his eyes hardened.

“I’m really sorry about Lexa, Persephone. If it means anything to you, just know...I didn’t actually know her soul was broken when I healed her.”

Persephone looked at her feet. She hadn’t known either, hadn’t known what it would mean for Lexa or her loved ones.

“Thanks,” she said, looking at him again. “Wanna come in for some wine?”

“No,” he said quickly, and then laughed. “I would like to keep my balls, thank you.”

Persephone wouldn’t put it past Hades to manifest without warning. Still, even with the offer, Apollo lingered.

“There’s something else.”

Persephone waited.

“I’d like to let you out of the contract,” the god said at last.

Persephone’s eyes widened. “What?”

The god smiled ruefully. “I’m trying to change.”

“I see that,” she said, and paused. “But I prefer to hold to my bargains, and if my calculations are correct, we still have five months and four days left.”

She appreciated how Apollo was trying to be different and she knew change took time. She wanted to spend these next few months watching him, guiding him. She trusted he could change with her, but other people? She wasn’t certain.

Apollo raised a brow and challenged, “Coffee tomorrow, two o’clock?”

“Is that a demand or a request?”

“Both?”