The storm outside is nothing but a dark cloud, lightning cutting through at intervals, but the rush and crash of the sea is louder. Too loud to ignore, just like someone else I knew.
Or know.
The water’s white noise covers the approaching footsteps so that Persephone appears as a silhouette, illuminated by a lightning strike. I catch the outline of her lips—pursed—and the sleepy set of her eyes. She’s dragged the blanket off the bed and wrapped it around herself.
I stretch out a hand and she comes to me, folding herself on top of me, a warm crush of blankets and skin. Her hair tickles the bottom of my jaw. “Am I awake?”
“Yes.”
She turns her head, settling down with her face turned toward the window. “Are you awake?”
“I’m thinking.”
“Thinking about what?” Persephone twists herself so that she’s up on her elbows, up on my chest, and despite the fact that we’re sprawled in a window seat, she looks like a queen. “Tell me.”
I take her jaw in my hands and pull her in for a kiss. “You’re very demanding. I thought I trained that out of you.”
“You haven’t yet.” She traces a fingertip over a sore spot near my collarbone and I catch her hand in mind. “You’ll have to stay here longer.”
“Where else would I go?” As soon as I say it out loud, I know there is somewhere else I might go. I’ve made deals before. The one with Demeter comes to mind. Those kinds of deals involve hands-on work. “I’m not surrendering the mountain.”
That’s the last option—to let Zeus take it.
Fuck that.
“What do we do instead?” Persephone frowns, the movement evident in my fingertips. “If Zeus stops the trains—”
“He’s already stopped the trains. We’ll be lucky if he doesn’t destroy them completely.”
“He wouldn’t.”
“He would.”
“Then...” She lays her head back down, the planning apparently too exhausting. It makes my heart ache, the way she does it so softly, with a little sigh. “I don’t know. But I trust you. Everybody does. They’ve been waiting for you to say what’s going to happen.”
What’s going to happen is that I have to deal with the essentials first. Food. Water. Supplies. If that’s not taken care of, then people will starve to death. The kingdom would be worthless without its subjects. My business would be gutted.
The storm rattles the windows and I wait for another question. I’m sure she has another question. A hundred questions. Enough questions to guarantee that I’ll have to put a stop to it.
Fine. Force my hand.
But her breathing has gone soft and even, her head heavy on my chest. She doesn’t care about the rain. Persephone trusts implicitly that I wouldn’t let it get to her. How she can think that, I have no idea. I very nearly let Zeus overrun the entire mountain.
It can’t happen again.
Which means I’ll have to request outside help.
I would never have done it before. Not ever. But the woman dreaming in my arms right now has made me strong enough to break an old promise I made, a long time ago at my foster father’s house.
Back then, I promised I would never ask our brother for help.
I can almost hear him out there now, in the waves. It’s too dangerous to be at sea right now, with the swells the way they are and the storm the way it is. It’s barely safe here, with the mountain on edge and Zeus on a rampage. He’s a hurricane all to himself.
Luckily, Poseidon has never been afraid of hurricanes.
7
Hades
Moving us both back to the bedroom takes the rest of my strength for the night. I’m a dull ache in human form. It doesn’t help that I don’t want to have to make this call in the morning, but then it turns out that the call doesn’t fucking matter. Sleep wraps long fingers around my ankles and pulls me under the surface faster than I can pull up the blankets. The last thing I hear is Conor, shifting positions to come closer to the bed.
The window says it’s still morning when I wake up, and so does Conor’s soft breathing on the floor next to my side. Persephone sleeps curled on her side, away from me, and the urge to touch her is so strong that I almost give in. But I’m not about to become a man who can’t control his fucking urges. Not right now. There are things to do.
Like leave a slim bracelet of diamonds shaped like tiny leaves on the pillow next to her. I had Oliver bring it to me before. It will always be like that, won’t it? Before Zeus came to the mountain, and after. That’s a joke. There was nothing before I saw Persephone. After is the only thing that exists.
Like let the hot water in the shower loosen the knots in my legs from the constant tension. If I could control that while the sun is destroying my brain then the sun would still destroy my fucking brain and all this would have happened regardless. It just hurts more now.
Like pull on clothes that drag rough edges over my bruises and cuts. If Eleanor had her way, I’d have my medical staff up here every morning. But those people always insist on keeping records. I’m not taking the chance on records right now, with Zeus the way he is.
When out of the closet, still buttoning my shirt, Persephone is sitting up against the pillows, watching me. She’s tangled up in the blankets, diamonds on her wrist. She turns them back and forth, letting the dim light from the window catch in the stones.
“Come back to bed.” A mischievous glint in her eyes very nearly does me in. But if I get back into bed with her, I won’t get back out again. I settle for crawling over her—fuck, my knee, my ribs—and kissing the inside of her wrist, just above the bracelet. I add a bite for good measure. She makes a noise in the back of her throat and lets her head fall back on the pillow.
“We have other plans.”
She opens her eyes and glares at me. It’s fucking cute. So harmless. “How can we have other plans?”
“You have other plans.”
Fear flashes in her eyes, gone in a blink. “I’m not leaving the mountain.”
I kiss the line of her jaw, letting my fingertips play over her throat. “You’re not ever leaving the mountain. Not unless I want you to.”
“Then what?” Her pulse flutters just underneath her skin.
“I need you to go visit the workers in the mines.”
“You mean Oliver.”
This time, I’m forced to take her mouth, kissing her with only a fraction of the need I have for her. Her whimper sends a heated desire searing down my veins. If she keeps this up, then I’ll end up here all day with her and people will die. That’s not a dramatic assessment. There are enough people on the mountain that hours could make a difference. “You.” You’re going to be the end of me, and I won’t mind. “I need you. It’s not Oliver’s strong suit.”
“He’s good at lurking around. Why wouldn’t he be good at visiting?”
I give her one last kiss and stand up—Zeus got a kick to the spine in, too, the vicious asshole. I can only hope I did equal damage. “Don’t provoke me,” I warn her. “I can tell you’re doing it. Be good.”