Page 86 of The Ash Bride

The doors halted with just enough space between them for Hades to look into Poseidon’s eyes. They were cold and hard, hiding whatever emotions the god may have been feeling behind a wall of that impenetrable glass of his.

“What do I care? He’s already dead, Hades. There is nothing I can do for him.”

“You can appeal to her.” Hades’ voice rose with every word. “If you show her how much you truly love him, show her by venturing to the Underworld and standing before her to get him back, she may grant you that.”

“Why would she ever do that?” Poseidon asked in a regretfully sad tone, his voice dropping to a whisper. “I know what we—what Pelops did to her. Why would she ever release him from the power she has over him, over his Afterlife, for the god he loved more than her?”

“Brother,” Hades dropped his voice too, “I need you to do this.”

Poseidon’s brows knit together, his mouth twitching to the side before he spoke again. “You need something from me? I never thought I would live to see this day, Hades. Are you not the one who told us all he had no need of us? That siblings were merely—what was it you called us?”

Hades bit down hard on his tongue to keep quiet.

“Oh, yes. ‘Unfortunate beings of lesser power meant to be ruled rather than to rule,’ I believe is what you said. Right before it was revealed that Zeus, not you, would be the King of the Gods.”

“Please,” Hades said, the word burning the back of his throat like hot oil. “I cannot watch as she becomes a ruthlessly heartless and power-hungry queen. I know what Pelops did was pathetic and vile, and he deserved everything I did to him.” His voice turned cold, theichorlazily swimming through his body froze with his rage. “If it was in my hands I would crush his soul day after day; I would chain him to the rock beside Prometheus and tear his liver out every morning and his heart out every night. I would force him to watch his organs bleed through my fingers as I crushed them in my bare hands.” His sight went crooked, the world around him angling oddly in his rage.

“I see you’ve changed.”

Hades ignored him, pretended he had not uttered a sound. “He would dream of his enemies. Watch them pillage and plunder his kingdom; rape his mother as he did Persephone; and hang his father on their ships. And I would force him to relive it. Every. Single. Day. So he may feel an ounce of the pain he put her through.” Poseidon swam across his clouded vision.

Stunned, Poseidon took a weak step back, sinking onto his rear hip. His eyes were wide.

“But it is not. I already had my chance with him, and I used it to make Persephone into the wife I wanted. The Queen I needed at my side.” Hades shook his head and breathed through his teeth. “I do not admit this lightly, but I took it too far. I—” he broke off, his voice disappearing as he swallowed. “I need your help. She has to see that she is more than this, that the girl I forced into marriage with me, and molded into the Queen can exist simultaneously.”

Vibrant blue eyes bore into his for a long moment. In a clipped voice, Poseidon said, “I will think about it,” and the doors slammed shut with ground shaking force.

“Poseidon,” Hades screamed as they slammed, the sound drowning his voice out to even his own ears.