by Cerys du Lys
She stared at him, her mouth agape. “Mortals!”
“Tell me about it.” Tisi had snuck up on them both and Persephone jumped at the sound of her voice. The snakes that coiled around her head like hair hissed as the Fury leaned over to look at the blonde goddess stretched out on the table. “Apparently, that was his fourth child, and he desperately wanted a son. Or at least, that was his excuse when he was begging for his life.”
“Tisi…” Aidon sighed.
The Fury cocked her head, looking at Persephone’s arm. “Nice. Branded and everything, huh? Does it hurt?”
She shook her head. “Aidon gave me something…”
“Hypnos’ pain-sleep,” he explained, giving Tisi a sidelong look. “I know you don’t have much use for it.”
Tisi laughed, the sound like breaking crystal. “When I use a brand, I want it to burn.”
“I’m aware.” Aidon shook his head. “Can you do me a favor, Tis?” The Fury waited, crossing her arms. Her hands and claws still showed blood, Persephone noticed with a little shudder. “Can you keep everyone out of the inner chamber? Sephie and I…we’re going to be in my room for a few days.”
“Days?” Tisi grinned and laughed when Aidon gave her a quelling look. “Will do. Have fun!” She gave them a quick wave and winked at Persephone. “Nice to see you again.”
Persephone raised her hand in a polite wave and almost laughed to herself at the ridiculousness of the gesture. Who observed any rules of decency here, where monsters lived and mortals were flayed and devoured?
“I have something for you.” Aidon opened the intricately carved wooden box. He held up a soft leather strap with two silver loops on each end. The same writing άδησ was branded into the leather on each side. Slipping it around her neck, he took a silver lock from the box and hooked it through each loop. Locking the collar in place with a small key, he put the key back into the box. “This shows everyone who you belong to.”
“These weren’t enough?” She gave him a rueful smile, glancing down at the wounds on her arms.
His smile had an edge to it. “Some day, you will cherish those marks, and I’d wager you will even ask for more.”
Persephone gave a doubtful laugh. “If you say so.”
His finger traced circles over her hip. “Would you like a bath?”
She didn’t trust her voice, so she just nodded. He stood, holding his hand out, and she took it, letting him help her up.
* * * *
Leading her into the outer chamber of his rooms, he pointed toward the corner opposite the bubbling spring. A mirrored vanity stood there, the top full of lotions and creams. She opened the top drawer and discovered all sorts of bejeweled hair clips and ties. He looked at her for a moment, bemused. “I had something prepared for you.”
“This was all planned for me?” She frowned. “When did you do this?”
“I’ve known for some time you would be mine.” His eyes followed her movements as she began to put her hair up on top of her head. “I did ask your father for your hand, Persephone.”
Her eyes widened. “You talked to Zeus?”
“He gave you to me.” He smiled, a rare thing, not without a wicked sort of gleam. “It was just a matter of timing, after that.”
“So you and my absent father made all the arrangements?” She spoke with a hairclip clamped between her teeth. “What about me?”
“You?” He shrugged. “You were the prize. You don’t consult the boar when you send the dogs out to hunt it.”
“Now I’m a boar?” She rolled her eyes, placing the last clip and dropping her hands to her sides.
Aidon frowned. “No. I—”
“I’m the Goddess of Spring, remember?” Her hands went to her hips and she glared at him. “Someone could have consulted me! I’m not a child, and I’m certainly not a piece of property to be given away!”
He slipped behind her, taking both her hands and putting them behind her back, clasping them there. He could hold her wrists with one hand and he did, sliding his other hand around her front to cup her breast.
“I’m not…” Her voice trailed off as he rolled her nipple between his thumb and finger. “Oh…don’t…”
“What were you saying?” His mouth sought out the now bared skin of her neck, sucking at the tender flesh there.
She snarled at him like something wild and feral. His grip tightened too hard for her to break free. “I’m not an animal—some boar—to be hunted!”
“You seemed to enjoy the hunt,” he commented as he nibbled her shoulder. “The struggle…”
She growled at him in frustration, twisting in his arms. He let her go with a chuckle, watching her as she stalked across the room toward the bubbling hot spring.
“Go away!” She glared at him over her shoulder and this time he laughed out loud, the sound reverberating against the rocky walls.
Persephone ignored him, sinking into the pool and marveling at the smoothness of the walls. The edges were rocky crags, but below her feet, the stone was smooth. She wondered idly where the water came from, and warm steam rose around her as she sank into the depths up to her shoulders with a soft groan.
A boar! Indignation filled her chest and she opened one eye, seeing him gone. She ignored the little twinge of disappointment in her belly and leaned back, enjoying the softly bubbling water of the spring all over her aching body. Her bottom still felt raw and sore from Aidon’s attention.
She realized this was the first time she had really been truly alone since the abduction. Thoughts of her mother came to her mind. How worried she would be! What would Demeter say about what she and Aidon had done together? Persephone couldn’t deny she had allowed it. He had given her the chance to leave, and she had chosen to stay. To be beaten. To be bound. To be branded. She glanced down at the dark marks on each of her upper arms. His name, carved into her skin. Yet there was, strangely, still no hint of pain.
Her face flushed at the thought of Demeter discovering the name of her lover permanently tattooed on her flesh. Aidon’s wrath is nothing compared to my mother’s, Persephone thought with a shudder. Staying here didn’t seem like such a bad idea, considering the furious storm that waited for her at home.
And there was Aidon…
She found herself remembering the man who had once caught her attention chopping wood in the forest, how her body had responded to just the sight of him. But that was nothing, she discovered, compared to the reaction of her body to the god who had just taken her to his bed. No one had ever opened her up the way he did. He stripped her down bare, beyond naked, and made her do things she never thought she could.
Careful what you wish for. Artemis’ words echoed in her head. She had longed for something more. She had even spoken of Elysium! Had some part of her really longed for this? The memory of Aidon’s hands, his mouth, his eyes, all made her breathless and too-warm in the steaming pool. No one had ever dared to touch her that way, to push her to such limits, to force her to swallow her strong-willed pride and humble herself like he had.
She knew what Artemis and Athena would say—and what her mother would say. She knew they would all be aghast at her kneeling before and submitting to a man, no matter what kind of god he was. Yet she had felt so much power in her submission, so much freedom in her humiliation. She didn’t understand the paradox, but she knew how it made her feel. He made her feel like she could fly.
And he did, somehow, seem to know her already. It was as if he could sense her wishes before she even spoke them out loud. How that was possible, she didn’t know, but she had seen and heard stranger things here in the Underworld, and she didn’t doubt it was true. It felt true.
Glancing at the open door, she wondered where he had gone. Had she really offended him, when she told him to go away? The thought of hurting his feelings seemed impossible, but she sensed a big heart beating in that huge chest of his. Almost as if to prove her point, Aidon came into the room, closing the door softly behind him.
Persephone closed her eyes, pretending not to notice, but her pulse began to quicken just feeling his presence. The silence grew long and she sighed, shifting in the pool. Finally, she couldn’t stand it any longer and she opened her eyes, looking for him. He sat in a chair in the corner, just watching her. His face lingered in shadow, and she wanted to know what he might be thinking.
“I thought you’d gone.”
He leaned forward, clasping his hands between his knees. “You can’t get rid of me that easily, Sephie.” She smiled in spite of herself, lifting her hand and flicking water toward him. He was much too far away to reach, but he stood, walking toward the pool. “Besides, I thought you might need some time to be alone.”
Can he read my mind? She looked up at him standing at the edge of the pool, her eyes moving up his thick, strong calves and thighs, his hard, flat stomach, and his strong, broad chest. This was no woodcutter. This was a god among men, and he had the finest form she had ever seen. The easy power and grace of his body, the quiet, subtle strength of his movements, completely transfixed her gaze.
He held his hand out to her, as if he wanted her to stand. She could see her own reflection in the vanity mirror behind him as she stood, water mixed with the bubbles from the spring slipping down her skin. She had gathered her hair up, but tendrils fell down in the steam, making soft blonde curls against her shoulders. She loved the way he looked at her body, like he wanted to keep her.
The cool air hardened her still swollen nipples almost immediately. Aidon pointed toward the ceiling and twirled his finger, silently asking her to turn around. He eased into the water behind her, his hands roaming over her wet skin before reaching for a soft, folded cloth on the edge of the pool. In his hand, he had a sweet-smelling bar of soap. She watched him in the reflection of the mirror as he began to bathe her, his eyes following the path the cloth took, over her shoulders and down her back. His touch was tender, almost reverent.
“I first saw you at Demeter’s harvest.” He kissed her shoulder before soaping it, careful of her upper arm, where the brand was still raw. “Does it hurt here?”
Persephone shook her head. “No. Hypnos’ pain-sleep seems to work long.”
“He can work wonders.” Aidon slipped the sudsy cloth down her arm, catching her hand in his. “I asked him to make me a love-sleep, soon after that day I saw you wandering in the meadow.”
“A love-sleep?” She watched as he pressed his palm to hers. Her fingers were dainty and slim next to his. “Is there such a thing?”
Aidon sighed. “Apparently not.” He raised her hand above her head, and then raised the other, holding them there by the wrists as he slid the cloth down each slender arm. “I had hoped there might be…something. Because after that day, I could think of little else but you.” He pressed his body to hers as he soaped up her breasts, watching in the mirror as the cloth circled her nipples.
“Why me?”
He slid the cloth over the soft, smooth skin of her belly, dipping briefly into her navel. For a moment, she thought he wasn’t going to respond, but then he dropped her arms, stepping back to meet her eyes in the mirror as they fell to her side.
“You were crying.” His finger reached out to twirl a soft ringlet of her hair. “I had come up only for a moment, at Hecate’s request. There was…oh never mind, that’s not important.” He gave her a rueful smile, still twisting her hair around his finger. “I saw you, alone, walking through the field, with flowers springing up and blooming in your wake…but you had these fat tears running down your cheeks…”
Persephone tried to remember when it might have been, what she could have been sad about, but couldn’t recall. She had attended her mother’s harvests since she was old enough to walk, and they all ran together in her mind.
“Believe me when I tell you I have seen great beauty in my time, goddess.” His eyes met hers in the mirror and her breath caught at the expression there. “But I had never seen such beautiful pain. I knew, then, I had found a woman whose heart’s depths were vast enough to understand the darkness here…” She saw him swallow before he continued. “The darkness in me…” His finger traced his own name branded on her arm. “The darkness hidden in you…”
“Why did you not ask my mother for me that day?”
Her inquiry startled him and he frowned. “Well, for one thing, I know your mother.” He shook his head and snorted. “She would have taken after me with a scythe.” Persephone couldn’t help smiling. He was probably right. “And I thought…perhaps…given time…I might forget about those beautiful tears…” He moved the cloth lightly over her back, busying himself with the task at hand, his eyes refusing to meet hers again. He caressed her gently when he came to her bottom, still pink from her spanking.
Persephone couldn’t stop herself. “Did you want to forget?”
“No.” Aidon almost smiled at her question as he slid the soapy cloth over her hip. “But I tried. For your sake.”
“Mine?” She turned to face him, looking up to meet his eyes. There was a sadness there she didn’t understand.
“This…” He waved his hand, glancing toward the door with a sigh. “This place. There are few who can look past the outer appearances and appreciate what beauty lies here.”
“But you thought…that I might?”
He nodded. “I knew you would.”
“Yet you hesitated to bring me here?” She stepped toward him, the bubbling water swirling around her thighs as the steam rose between them.
“I didn’t know if the God of the Underworld would be much of a prize to one such as you,” he admitted with a frown. “Perhaps I felt it would be a bit…one-sided.”
Persephone slipped her arms around his waist and rested her head against his chest. She heard his heart beating, feeling it against her flushed cheek. Her words were soft, unwavering, and she remembered with sudden surprise what she had been sad about that day.
“I dreamed of you.” She smiled when his arms went around her and he stroked her hair as he listened. “That day you saw me crying. That was the day I told my mother about a dark man in a chariot with dark horses, who would one day come and take me to be his Queen…” His body stiffened against hers in surprise. “Do you know what she said?”
“Hmm?”
“That it was the worst nightmare she had ever heard.” Persephone winced at the memory. It had been harvest time, just a year ago, when she had gleefully told her mother of her dream of the dark stranger with his dark purpose. Demeter’s face had gone white, her hands trembling at her throat as her daughter gushed on and on about the darkness that would someday come and claim her.
Aidon chuckled. “I am Demeter’s worst nightmare.”
“But not mine.” She lifted her face to his, asking to be kissed with only her eyes. “You were my dream, not my nightmare.”
His lips met hers in response, capturing her mouth as he crushed her to him. She gave him everything in that kiss. Every denial, even pent-up breath, every “no!” she had spoken, they all dissolved as she melted into his arms and let herself be carried away on a swift river of emotion. When the kiss broke, he looked at her hopefully, his eyes filled with longing. She tried to reassure him silently because she couldn’t find the words.
Aidon took a deep breath. “I keep what I love.” His fingers briefly touched her cheek. “But I do love what I keep.”
He didn’t let her respond. Instead, he turned her around again to face the mirror. A gentle pressure against her back from his hand bent her over so she hung onto the other edge of the pool. He spread her thighs and tilted her bottom up. She imagined his eyes as they stared between her legs at the sparse blonde curls covering her swollen lips.
He lifted the cloth again and began to wash her, gently parting her sex and moving the material between. She sighed and moved her hips, arching to give him better access. He bathed her thighs, spreading them wider as he went. She looked at herself in the mirror, bent over for him, meeting her own eyes. No innocent young girl
looked out at her anymore. The leather collar around her neck, the black tattoos on her upper arms, even her long, flowing hair piled high on top of her head, all made her different somehow.
She gasped when Aidon filled a silver goblet with water and began to rinse her, letting the warmth run over her skin in rivulets. Again and again, he poured the hot liquid over her behind, letting it drip down over her sex. Then his fingers traced the same path, down the line of her spine and the crack of her behind, delving into her sex. She met his eyes in the mirror and saw his erection rising behind her, throbbing with his pulse, and she knew what he wanted.
He knelt down beside her in the pool, his tongue making circles over the back of her thigh. One hand went to cup her breast and she moaned, arching against his mouth, suddenly aching to feel his hardness inside of her. He seemed to be able to touch her everywhere at once, and the shift and weight of him moved like bright heat behind her as he began to worship every inch of her slick, soapy body with his mouth and his hands.
“Aidon,” she murmured, reaching behind for him and grasping his hair. She pressed his face between her legs and he groaned, his tongue lost in her soft folds. She couldn’t seem to get enough of him, and somehow he knew it. “Oh please, don’t tease me. I want to feel you inside of me.”
Aidon stood, grabbing her hips and pressing forward into her, filling her to bursting. She moaned, raking her nails across the rough edge of the pool. The water sloshed as they began to rock, and she felt the slap of his belly as he thrust, deeper and deeper, trying to bury himself in her depths.
She gripped the edge, for balance, meeting his thrusts with her own, pumping back against him and spreading even wider. She loved the way he grabbed her hips, using them to push in harder. He leaned into her, one of his hands cupping a wet, swaying breast, the other reaching around and between her legs to rub her wet, aching sex. He forced her onward, upward, impaling her with every delicious inch of him as the friction built between them.
