Page 42 of Spring's Descent
His shrewd gaze met mine, drawing me in close as if he would give the answer I wished for. But wishes were often left unanswered.
“Yes.”
27
PERSEPHONE
The beatingof my heart faltered as the word hovered between us.
“You intend for me to be Hades’s whore,” I snapped, feeling like he’d just wedged a knife in my chest.
“Queen,” he corrected, eyes narrowing. “You’ll never be forced to do anything, and enjoying sex doesn’t make you a whore, Persephone. You will be bound?—”
“So, I’m to beyourwhore?” I interrupted, fighting back the sting of tears. “All of those things you said to me, about making me yours, that was all lies?”
Aidoneus’s jaw ticked, but he didn’t answer.
“Put me down,” I breathed, not daring to meet his eyes. “I can walk.”
He didn’t slow, trudging on through a small cluster of trees with icicles clinging to bare branches. “The cold would freeze you in minutes.”
“Then it will be a few minutes without having to feel your hands on me.”
His steps faltered, fingers flexing around my thighs and shoulders for a moment longer, before he swung my legs down.He made sure my worn boots touched the brown stone first, before stepping back.
The wind instantly leeched the heat from my body, despite the extra layers, causing my knees to shake. Aidoneus looked as if he might pick me up again, but the fierce, stubborn glare I fixed him with him stilling.
“Only step on the stones. The snow banks can be a lot deeper than they appear.”
I started forward, but he grabbed my wrist.
“Stay close, little witch. Most of the souls here are too absorbed in their own torment to notice us, but there are some who are more aware. Their bitterness and rage have replaced their humanity. I’ve not been able to carry their souls to the Lethe as I should have, so they remain here.”
Something about what he said raised the small hairs on the back of my neck, but then he looked down, his thumb brushing against my cheek. And I nearly forgot to breathe. “You wouldn’t want to end up on the wrong side of a wraith.”
I batted his hand away, ignoring the blush of warmth it left along my skin. “I’ll take my chances.”
He lifted a brow, the edge of his lips twitching. My fists clenched in the fabric of his tunic, hating how he looked perfectly content among the darkness with only a pair of pants and a thin top on.
We had been gallivanting across The Underworld without food or water and there was barely a hair out of place on him. Meanwhile, my body was shaking from the frigid air of this gods forsaken valley. My dress was little more than rags, the only piece of civility remaining being my opal necklace, and I was being forced deeper into The Underworld—every step taking me further away from saving Lark—by a gods damned demon intent on delivering me to Hades, the Royal Demon, himself.
It didn’t help that Aidoneus’s dark magic was doing things to me, stirring warmth in places that shouldn’t be affected by the way his cerulean eyes seemed to burn as they looked at me, or the way his defined muscles across his chest and thighs shifted as he moved. It definitely didn’t help that he could scent the arousal from my traitorous body even as my mind screamed for the chance to kill him. And itreallydidn’t help that he was standing there in the snow before me looking as if he thought my hatred of him was somehow cute.
Clutching the layers of clothes, I pushed past him, continuing along the rocky path beside the river. Shards of ice hung low among the branches, causing me to stoop more than once to avoid their sharp tips.
The sounds of lamentation were deafening, clashing with the distant thundering of water on rocks. Ignoring the numbness in my toes, I followed the path of the river, searching for a source of the sound.
My foot slipped as I leapt to the next stone, sending me toppling toward the stretch of sleet bordering the river. Aidoneus was behind me in a flash, the warmth of his palms on my waist a welcomed reprieve from the cold, but he withdrew as soon as I was steady, stepping between me and the souls along the river. It was a simple gesture. He probably hadn’t realized he’d put himself between me and the distraught souls, but the fluttering in my chest wished he did.
“The Cocytus river falls thousands of feet into a frozen lake where the worst of the traitors are held. The Algea preside over it.”
“The Algea?” I asked, following his line of sight. I searched among the wailing souls, their bodies so dense now that it was difficult to see beyond. Luckily, the river diverged from the stone path, putting some much wanted distance between us and the horde.
“Three sisters: Lupe, Akhos, and Ania,” Aidoneus said. “Responsible for distress, grief, and sorrow.”
The blue water had picked up speed, sheets of ice breaking into shards as they approached a cliff in the distance. Squinting through the icicle covered branches around us, I focused on the varying shades of white, realizing that the ground stopped abruptly. A vast pit was waiting in the center. Caves spotted the far side with rough, narrow paths traversing the steep cliffs.
Most of the wandering souls followed the blue-stoned river over the cliff, their ghost-like bodies tumbling down until they were swallowed up by ice and snow.