Persephone (23 page)

“I didn’t mean that. You’re our queen. When someone messes with you, they mess with all of us.”

“Oh.” I smiled. “That’s so sweet.”

“It’s going to make Hades even more obnoxious,” Cassandra said, appearing behind Helen. “Feeding his heroic ego and all.” She only sounded a
little
bitter.

I smiled at her, unable to find the words to apologize for what had happened.

“You need a crown,” Helen mused.

I laughed. “I’d feel ridiculous wearing a crown. Oh my gods, what if people bowed to me? I’d be so embarrassed.”

“When did you start saying that?” Helen asked.

“Oh my gods?” I shrugged. “I guess I’ve been spending too much time with Cassandra.”

“Never a bad thing.” Cassandra laughed. “Hades would die of embarrassment, too. He’s never been into the whole power-trip thing. Still, you shouldn’t be too embarrassed. You’re the queen.” Her tone was light, but I heard an undercurrent in it that made me nervous.

“That’s just a technicality. Once this Boreas thing blows over—”

“You’ll still be Queen of the Underworld.”

Wait, what?
That didn’t sound temporary. This whole thing was supposed to be over when Boreas was no longer a threat. My mind flashed back to waking up next to Hades.
Do I really want this to end?
“What if Hades wants to marry someone else?”

“He could take a mistress, but marriage is a forever thing in the realm of the gods. You guys don’t die, so you never leave your posts.”

“He told me marriage doesn’t mean—”

“It doesn’t. Not in the sense you’re talking. You could date other people, and so can he. There could be absolutely no love involved, like Zeus and Hera. Or it could all just be political, but it’s still permanent.”

I didn’t know what to think about that. “So I’m queen…forever?”

“You’re a good match for Hades,” Helen pointed out. She hesitantly touched a white lily. “This is so pretty.” She saw me looking at her. “Oh come on, you can’t see it? You two are perfect together, aren’t they, Cassandra? Life and death. You balance one another.”

“Persephone!” A stern looking brunette called from the counter. “What happened to you? The palace has been abuzz with rumors all week!”

“Hello, Gloria,” I said with a smile, handing her an arrangement of tulips. She and her band of joggers had been my first customers. I brushed off her questions, unsure what Hades would want me to tell anyone. “How’s the husband?”

“Oh, he’s doing well, thank you. He went on a fishing trip with the rest of his group. I’m thinking of taking a baking class while he’s gone.”

“That sounds like fun! I’ve always wanted to learn how to bake.”

We made small talk for a few more minutes. I couldn’t believe I’d ever been intimidated by the Underworld. It was just like the living realm. Life went on, so to speak. People were still people, and they continued to do the things that made them happy.

I handed an arrangement of daisies to a Reaper. She smiled and thanked me, leaving the shop with a quick glare in Cassandra’s direction. Cassandra narrowed her eyes, then turned pointedly away to talk to Helen.

I rejoined Helen and Cassandra, who were looking at me with amusement. “Baking?”

“What? I think it would be fun. I could make pretty cakes and—”

“Ah, more decorating.” Helen laughed.

“You know all of their names,” Cassandra observed, after watching me talk to a few more customers.

I shrugged. “It’s a flower shop. People talk when they place orders, and you learn a lot about them.”

“We need to go to court,” Cassandra said. Her voice made it clear she was dreading seeing Hades.

I wrapped a supportive arm around her shoulders. “It’ll be fine. He’s in a much better mood now.” I yelled a quick goodbye to the souls and waved to Helen before walking back to the palace with Cassandra.

“Hi, Moirae.” I headed over to my throne. Cassandra took her seat. Hades hadn’t arrived yet.

“How are you?” Moirae asked me. Her voice was too close.

I turned my head and jumped when I saw her eyes a hairsbreadth away from mine. “Good, thank you.” I smiled at her, unsure whether I was more surprised by her presence or her sudden kindness.

“You handled Orpheus well. The souls could use a compassionate touch.”

“Th-thank you,” I stammered, looking at Cassandra in surprise. She looked just as shocked as I did but flashed me a discreet thumbs up. Moirae smiled at me and took her seat. A moment later the door opened and Hades walked in, followed by Aeacus and Rhad.

“Ladies,” Hades said with a nod.

I smiled at him as he sat beside me. He inclined his head at the judges, and the doors opened, revealing the souls who had recently finished with Orientation.

“Now we’re back to the throne room,” Minos said cheerfully. “You’ve met Moirae, of course, but now allow me to present the rulers of the Underworld: Lord Hades and Queen Persephone.”

We stood, and the souls awkwardly chose whether they would bow or nod. Modern day customs didn’t allow for much exposure to royal etiquette. I grinned at them and they relaxed visibly.

“Welcome,” Hades greeted them in his booming voice. “We wish you a happy afterlife.”

I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. He’d taken my corny sendoff from my first nerve-wracking day at court and run with it, using it at every court.

“If anyone has any questions or concerns, my fellow judges and I would be more than happy to assist you while we get you settled.”

“May I speak to the queen?” a woman called from the back of the crowd.

“Of course.”

Minos led the remaining souls from the room. Only a handful chose to stay and have concerns addressed by Hades or me. I was intrigued by this woman and leaned forward as Hades motioned her to the floor.

“Miss—er, Your Majesty—”

“Persephone is fine,” I assured her.

She nodded. “I died in my sleep.” She paused as the gravity of that statement caught up with her. “I, um, died in the middle of the night.” She blinked back tears as I murmured my condolences. “I had a baby three weeks ago, and she’s still in my house. No one knows that I’m—” Her voice caught. “She’s all alone. Please, is there some way I could go back?”

Hades shook his head solemnly. “No. I’m sorry.”

“Please! I don’t have family in the area, and I don’t have many friends. Her father was killed during his deployment, and if I don’t get back she could die before anyone finds me!”

I nodded. This was exactly the sort of situation I could handle. “Moirae will take all your information down. We need your address, phone number, and if you have a spare key hidden anywhere that would be helpful. I will send someone—”

The woman blanched and I hurriedly continued. “Alive. In the living realm, to collect your daughter immediately. We will get her to your family safely.”

“There’s no one else.” She broke down sobbing.

“That’s okay. She’ll be in good hands.” I told her about my mother and her priestesses, ending with, “She may even get a chance to be blessed with immortal life.”

The woman took a second to process this. “I would never see her again?”

“That will be up to her.”

“She won’t remember me,” she said, blinking back tears. “I want what’s best for my daughter, but I just wish I could hold her again. Why was I taken from her! We had three weeks—” She broke off as the tears overwhelmed her.

I wanted to hug her, or offer some sort of condolences, but what could be said in a situation like this? It sucked beyond description.

The woman collected herself and gave Moirae the pertinent information. Then she left to be reunited with her husband.

“How bittersweet,” Hades said after we contacted my mother. “Reunited with one love while another lost forever.”

I nodded, blinking back my own tears. What right did I have to cry over this?

“Is that why gods view immortality as a curse?”

Hades shrugged. “Mostly when people were cursed with immortality, it was done in anger. The cursed would live, alone, and watch everyone they came to care for die over time. No one used it like your mother does. She formed a community. She’s always been different from the others.” He smiled at me. “Come on. It’s time to go to dinner, and then do your training.”

Chapter XXI

Over the next week, Hades began training me to use my abilities in earnest. I had to burn through my power before it burned through me, so every night after dinner I met with Hades in his library, I had my lesson, and then he would channel the residual power away so I could sleep without fear of exploding or something.

Tonight was no exception, even though I was exhausted after the Valentine Ball. It had been different from Brumalia because Cassandra had been distant since Hades had snapped at her.

I couldn’t blame her for being upset. She had been acting as the Queen of the Underworld for who knew how many hundreds of years before I came along. She’d always been at Hades’ side in court, public events, planning the events, and running a thousand minute day-to-day activities at the palace. Then I came along.

I didn’t want the job. Cassandra could do it all, for all I cared. I’d grown to love the Underworld, but I didn’t want to rule it.

I missed Cassandra.

“You’re not focusing.” Hades sighed.

His constant sighing didn’t grate at me like it once had, but it didn’t stop me from feeling a pinprick of annoyance for my interrupted reverie. I tried to empty my mind like Hades instructed. I’d been excited about today’s lesson. He was finally teaching me how to teleport. It would only work in the Underworld, but it was possible I might be able to do something similar in the living realm. That would be a great resource if I ever needed to escape—or sneak up on—someone. Though I wasn’t sharing that revelation with Hades.

Then we started the lesson. Hades used a lot of phrases like “empty your mind,” “visualize a place,” “focus your energies,” and whatever. It all felt New Age to me.

Still, every now and then everything would snap into place, and I would feel things starting to shift. Then Hades would stop me and make me do it again.

I emptied my mind and tried to focus my energy. I could feel it buzzing through me, resonating from the plants I grew in the library and humming through Hades. I visualized myself standing behind him and gave a little
push
.

The world shifted around me, and I felt myself being pulled apart and thrown back together in a whir of sickening motion. I landed behind Hades with a
thud
, stumbling against his chair and nearly falling into his lap.

“I did it!” I exclaimed, laughing.

“Good. Let’s stop for tonight.” Hades caught my arm and stabilized me.

“But I just got the hang of this!”

“You’re straining too hard. You need to back off before you burn yourself out.” He led me back to my seat and gave me a little push. I frowned at him and sat.

“Fine. I’ll go to bed.” I stood, or tried to. My knees gave way beneath me and I sank back in the chair, exhausted from using my abilities. Hades gave me a sideways glance as he returned to his chair, wisely saying nothing.

“Why can’t we lie?” I asked. The question had been weighing on me ever since the words to save Pirithous had stuck in my throat. “Humans can, so why can they do something we can’t?”

“It’s a fail-safe we implemented after we created them and made the world a more suitable place.”

“How do you mean?”

“When a god speaks, the words have power. Speaking an untruth could change the nature of the thing we’re lying about. Since creation was a collaborative effort, we took away our ability to change our creations without the other gods present.”

“Oh.” I glanced around the library, searching for a way to change the topic without making it obvious I’d pushed myself too hard to make it down the hallway. “You don’t have to keep those. I can plant them outside.” I motioned to the flower pots scattered around the room.

Wait a minute.
They weren’t scattered. I leaned forward. Three tiny flower pots decorated the windowsill. One sat on a table, and a pair of tall pots flanked a set of book shelves. Hades plucked the flowers we’d been working with today off the table and set them on his desk, shuffling the papers to make room.

Hades was decorating. With something of mine. The library was his most private, personal space, and something I’d made belonged in it. This was big.

“You draw on them for your power. It leads to better practices.”

I frowned, shoulders slumping.
Or there’s a perfectly logical explanation.

Hades shrugged. “Also, they smell like—” He cut off and busied himself in sorting his papers. “They smell good.”

Me?
Did they smell like me? My mind flashed back to the throne room. He’d said he was in love with me, but… I glanced at the flowers again.