AllFreeNovel
Share Us
Chapter 9
Hades
This was some ridiculous bullshit.Sometimes you just can’t win, right?In my case, I never won. I’d somehow drawn the short straw when it came to life in general. Shit kept snowballing my way no matter what I did.
And considering I was immortal, “life” was a fucking long thing to trudge through. All those years when I thought I’d found the real thing with Persephone, I embraced my role in the Underworld, loved waking up next to her every day for half the year, and believed I’d found the secret to happiness. What a fucking load of crap. I’d fallen under a curse and been a laughing stock, and now the burning anger rose through me like a volcano ready to explode.
Plus, I was pissed off about Poseidon’s visit. He came to tell me Persephone was here. What the hell was she doing on Earth? It was my turf now. She wasn’t welcome. I’d left the Underworld so we didn’t have to stare at each other every day when we obviously didn’t fit together anymore.
Anymore? Try never. The whole fucking relationship had been a joke, anyway. A curse from my bitch of a sister, with Persephone trying her best to do something she just didn’t believe in because I’d trapped her into spending eternity with me.
How fucking romantic.
I was so over this shit. I was over the stupid breakup, and I sure as hell wasn’t ready for any sympathy. Especially not from my brother. Because he wasn’t sympathetic toward me, he was just nosy. He wanted to know what Persephone was doing here, too. And he had to know if I knew.
It wasn’t hard to find her. Centuries together meant I recognized her power signature better than I knew my own. It was just a case of tuning into the right vibes and following it until I found her. Her energy flowed like silk over my flesh, and I grabbed that connection and trailed it, vanishing from my home and tracing Persephone’s power source to a hotel.
She stayed in the Ritz-Carlton, as if she were some kind of royalty. She’d probably charmed herself into a free suite.
“What are you playing at?” I demanded, materializing into her room. “Do you think this is funny?”
“Hades,” Persephone said with a sigh, standing near the grand window but turning away from the picturesque view of the city below. “I thought I’d see you sooner or later.”
“Damn straight you’re going to have to answer to me. What the fuck do you think you’re doing looking up people in my life?”
“You don’t have some kind of monopoly when it comes to Earth.” She gripped her hips, reminding me of all our past arguments where she’d dug her heels in, and glared at me like she was preparing to send an army of the dead to hunt me down. As if she could.
“And it’s a pity because I’d get rid of scum like you,” I sneered, hating that I let my anger take control. But I couldn’t stop the fury raging inside me.
An expression of exhaustion danced across on her features. I’d once considered her adorable with her petite nose and plump lips, but now they just reminded me of my humiliation. Of how I’d been played.
She drew in a sharp breath, releasing it before speaking. “I’m not here to fight with you, Hades.”
“Well, I’m here to fight with you,” I said, cutting off whatever else she was going to say. “You involve yourself in business that has nothing to do with you.”
She returned her attention to the window and looked out over Chicago, a place I’d called home for the last couple of months. It wasn’t her world. She could go right back where she’d came from.
As she stood with her back to me, I studied her like someone else would. I tried to see her as a person I hadn’t been cursed to love once upon a time.
She looked lovely, there was no doubt about that, with a gorgeous body. And she was a nice person on top of that. She worked hard for a long time to give me what I’d looked for in our relationship. She could have hated me, pushed me away, but instead she endeavored to make it work. But a person could only pretend for so long, and even though she’d done the right thing—she had tried, she’d given me everything when I’d tricked her into staying in the Underworld with me—all I saw when I looked at her was resentment.
“So, are you just going to stand there?” I asked when she stared out at the city without saying a word. It was as if she expected me to ogle her. And I was furious that I’d fallen for it.
“The Underworld is unraveling,” she said, turning around.
I frowned at her comment, at the concern in her voice. It was hard to think such a shitty, dark place could get any worse.
“It’s why I’ve come,” she added. “Things are obviously not going very well up here, so I thought I’d do what I can to help.”
“Ha!” I barked. “You have no idea what’s going on.”
Persephone lifted her chin. “I know a lot more than you think. I’m aware you’re hurt about what happened with us, that you’re mad at Hera, and somehow you think taking it out on me will help.”
“Don’t even go there,” I warned. “I’m not in the mood for games.”
“And I’m not playing any,” she said tightly, her lips pinching.
“Look, I don’t want you here. I don’t want anything to do with you. I know it’s not your fault, but I don’t have to face you if I don’t want to. It’s the reason I left you alone down there, for fuck’s sake! Something had to give.”
