by Melody Rose
“Hades?” I whispered as I nestled my face into his chest.
“Hmm?” he replied groggily.
“I love you.”
Hades chuckled softly before holding me closer to his chest and whispering, “I love you too, Persephone.”
25
Zeus
I couldn’t help but panic as I paced back and forth in my chambers, all the while clenching and unclenching my hands into fists. Over and over, I replayed what Demeter had said in my mind.
“You rely on the mortals to remain powerful,” she whispered, her eyes wild with a combination of rage and heartache. “As long as the humans still praise and worship you, you live; we all live. Their love and prayers keep Olympus afloat, grant us our abilities, and grant us our immortality, don’t they?”
“Where are you going with this, Demeter?” Hera snapped from beside me.
But I had already known where she was going with this, and she was going to use it to her full advantage. The only reason that any of us were alive and in power was because of the mortals who worshipped us. Without their love, prayers, and offerings, we would cease to exist. Each god and goddess on Olympus would lose their powers and waste away into nothing. Demeter smiled menacingly as she saw the understanding in my eyes.
“If you don’t help me get my daughter back from that monster you call a brother, I will destroy all of the crops that grow in the human realm. The longer my child is not by my side, the quicker the humans die, and we die along with them. Make the right choice,” Demeter paused and sneered at me with disgust before she finished with, “Lord Zeus.”
I roared in anger as I marched myself over to my four-post bed and ripped one of the posts clear off. I tossed it to the opposite end of the room with another roar of fury. That selfish son of a bitch brother of mine was about to get us all killed just so he could get his jollies off with Persephone. And he didn’t give a damn about what would happen to anyone else in the process.
How the hell had he even managed to bag her, anyway? Poseidon and I had been trying to make our moves on her at Aphrodite’s party, but she had clearly been uninterested in either of us. What the hell made Hades so damn special?
I sighed with irritation. If I could get into the underworld, I would have killed him.
What the hell was I supposed to do now? How was I supposed to get her back from there in one piece when my brother had so many measures in place to keep me out?
Think, Zeus. You’re the King of the Gods, aren’t you? There has to be some way to go get that girl and bring her to Demeter before the crazy bitch goes on a killing spring.
But how?
I placed my hands over my face and took a deep breath. I needed to be calm and think about this rationally, but it was growing increasingly hard to do so as more questions burned through my mind.
What the hell had prompted him to kidnap Persephone? It wasn’t like she was the only goddess that was available on Olympus. He also had a plethora of gorgeous women at his disposal in the underworld. So why Persephone? Was he as turned on by her innocence as the rest of us were? She was, after all, unbelievably gorgeous. No, there had to be something more. Perhaps spending all that time in solitude in the underworld had finally driven my brother insane.
I groaned as I ceased my pacing and collapsed onto the bed. This was ridiculous. How did Demeter expect me to do this when I had clearly stated that I had no way of retrieving her daughter from the underworld? Even I couldn’t make everyone do what I wanted.
I considered enlisting the help of the Fates, then scoffed at my stupidity. Even if I had managed to get into communication with the three goddesses, there was no guarantee they would help me. The Fates, unlike Poseidon and I, were quite close to my brother, and they didn’t like to interfere in the affairs of others; how ironic given their line of work required them to interfere with lives and cut them short on a whim. Perhaps I could somehow convince Hephaestus to help me get the girl back?
Yeah, right, my subconscious mused.
Hephaestus was best friends with my idiot brother. Their bond was undoubtedly stronger than the blood that bound the three of us. Hephaestus was more likely to cave my head in with a sledgehammer than to betray Hades in any way. This left me with no other options left.
Unless you were a resident of the underworld, or you had been invited by my brother, there was no other way to enter. Souls were escorted to the entrance by Hades’ Furies, Hermes, or even a handful of his lesser-known lackies. After that, Cerberus would allow them to pass through the gates and take the ferry to Tartarus, where they would face judgment.
Wait a minute…
I sat up quickly, feeling a smile tugging at my lips at my sudden realization. There was one other person who I could send to the underworld to do my bidding. Hermes! The nerdy little man with wings on his shoes was a known courier for all three of the Olympian domains. When he wasn’t shipping souls to the underworld, Hermes would also take necessary information to Hades about humankind and Olympus to keep my hermit brother up to date.
I hopped out of my bed quickly before yelling, “Hermes!”
A bright flash of light basked the room in a warm golden glow before Hermes appeared before me. He was a short man with shaggy brown curls and large glasses over his turquoise-colored eyes. He wore a faded pair of jeans with a worn orange shirt, his dusty winged shoes strapped tightly onto his feet. Hermes reminded me of the American stereotype for what a nerd should have resembled in their educational institutions.
He pushed his glasses over the bridge of his long angular nose and smiled. “What can I help you with, Lord Zeus?”
“Hermes, I need you to go on a very dangerous mission for me. Do you think you can do that?” I asked as I slipped my hands casually into my pockets.
“Sure,” Hermes said with a light shrug. “What do you need?”
“I need you to make a quick trip down to the underworld for me. You see, my brother took something very important and I need it back. If I don’t get it, very bad things are going to happen to all of us. That doesn’t sound very pleasant, does it?” I asked.
Hermes frowned and crossed his arms over his chest. “So, you want me to go down there and take it back from him? From Hades? Are you joking?”
I took a step towards Hermes and narrowed my eyes before speaking through clenched teeth. “Do I look like I’m fucking joking?”
Hermes took a nervous step back and shook his head quickly. “No, Lord Zeus.”
“Good boy,” I said with a nod as I patted him on the head. “Now then, here is what I need you to do. I need you to go down there and look for my brother. There should be a woman with him with long brown hair. That woman is Demeter’s daughter. You have to bring her back with you.”
“Wait, wait, wait,” Hermes said, his eyes now filled with panic. “You want me to bring a soul back with me?”
“Persephone is very much alive, Hermes. My brother decided to kidnap her last night from Eros’s club. And, seeing as how I can’t go down and get her myself, I need you to do it.” Hermes blinked at me incredulously.
“Lord Zeus, I don’t think this is such a good idea. Hades will kill me before I even make it out of there with her. This is a huge risk you’re asking me to take,” he replied.
I chuckled and held my hand out to Hermes, palm up. Before our eyes, a small golden lightning rod manifested into my hand, electricity sparking from either of its sharp ends. I smiled at Hermes as I offered it to him. “I’ve got you covered, kid. All you need to do is throw this at him before he gets close to you.”
Hermes took the lightning bolt into his hand with eyes as wide as saucers. He turned the bolt over in his palm before deepening his frown. “You want me to kill him?”
“No,” I said quickly, not wanting to scare him out of the task. “This is only going to be strong enough to subdue him. When this hits him, you have a short amount of time before its effects wear off. So, you need to be sure to grab Persephone as soon as he drops a
nd bring her here to me. Do you understand?”
I could see Hermes’s emotions raging on his young face as he turned the bolt over in his palm again. This was a huge task for anyone to undertake, but he was the only other man that could do the job. If I were to try to send anyone else down to the gates, Hades was sure to send them scurrying away. The only man left qualified to do the job was the one man who was allowed easy access to the place.
“Okay,” Hermes replied as he let out a defeated sigh and met my eyes. I smiled as I reveled in my victory. Soon enough, Persephone would be out of my brother’s grasp, and Demeter would be satisfied. This would not only benefit the entire pantheon by avoiding death, but it would also give me the chance to claim Persephone for myself. After all, I couldn’t let my brother get all the finer things in life, now could I?
26
Hades
For the first time in a long time, I felt completely at ease.
Without disturbing Persephone’s peaceful slumber, I had managed to slip out of bed and put on a pair of black silk pajama pants before coming out to the garden. I took a deep breath, smiling as I recalled Persephone’s whispered declaration of love. Those three simple words shook me to my core the moment she uttered them, and it had quieted my chaotic soul. I had never felt more peace than I had whilst I slept beside her.
Before I left Persephone snoring softly in my chambers, I moved around the bed so I could have a better look at the love of my life. I had spent so long thinking that I could be unloved and unwanted simply based on my past that I was honestly surprised when I had first seen Persephone at the club. The moment our eyes had locked, it was as if a switch had flipped inside of my heart.
I chuckled as I recalled a favorite movie of Hephaestus’s, “The Grinch.” In the movie, Jim Carrey had portrayed a miserable green hermit who spent his days locked away in his mountain loathing all of humanity, his heart the size of a shriveled prune. It wasn’t until one fateful Christmas when the Grinch met a young girl named Cindy Lou Who, that his life changed forever. The girl had wiggled herself into the Grinch’s life and turned it upside down. As he sought to bring misery to the world, Cindy sought to bring him the joy of Christmas.
In the end, after the Grinch made very poor decisions to cause nothing but mayhem, Cindy and her town showed the Grinch that true happiness came in the form of family, friends, laughter, and love. By the end of the movie, the Grinch’s heart had expanded two sizes with the lesson he’d learned and the love for his new friends.
Persephone was my Cindy Lou.
She had brought a part of my soul to the surface that I had thought I had lost the moment I died at the hands of my father. She was the light that filled my heart and made it grow. I was painfully and unapologetically in love with her.
I gazed out past the garden to the temple of the Fates and chuckled at the thought of them. I wasted years cursing those three for my solitude and misery, and now I felt like an idiot. I was going to have to remind myself to make a formal apology to those girls soon. Maybe I could bring them a gift in thanks.
What the hell do you buy for three women who can see the future?
“What are you doing out here all by yourself?”
I spun around to see Persephone slowly walking towards me, dressed only in my t-shirt. I felt myself growing hard at the sight of her. Her lips were still swollen from my kisses, and her hair was quite disheveled from our earlier romp. Despite this, Persephone looked absolutely gorgeous.
I held a hand out to her as she neared and flashed her a toothy grin. “Hey, beautiful. I was just getting some air while you were still in bed. How did you sleep?”
Persephone took my hand and closed the distance between us. She climbed to her tippy toes and kissed me sweetly before replying, “I slept amazing. I can’t even remember the last time I had such a calming sleep.”
“I know the feeling,” I replied honestly.
I leaned down and wrapped my arms around her waist tightly, causing the t-shirt to ride up her thighs and reveal her bare ass. My cock hardened immediately at the sight of her perfectly round bottom. Persephone giggled impishly at the feel of my erection pressed against her stomach.
“Why, Lord Hades, what’s that you’ve got there?” she said in a sing-song tone.
“I don’t know what you mean, baby. What are you talking about?” I replied.
Persephone pulled away from my arms and shifted her gaze to my crotch, where my erection was standing at attention beneath my pajama pants. She bit her bottom lip at the sight and peered up at me beneath her lashes. “Is that for me?”
Speechless, I watched as Persephone trailed her fingers down my chest and abdomen, scraping her nails down my body deliciously before she tugged at the elastic of my pants. Slowly, she pulled the pants down enough so that my cock sprung free towards her, throbbing with every pulse of my erratic heartbeat.
Without so much as a warning, Persephone dropped to her knees and wrapped her warm lips around my cock. I inhaled sharply, burying my right hand in her hair as she started to suck vigorously back and forth. I moaned low in my throat. This woman was positively phenomenal at this. I could scarcely see straight!
“Mmm,” Persephone moaned as the taste of my pre-cum coated her warm pink tongue. My body shuddered at this.
Using her left hand, Persephone continued to stroke my shaft with every long suck. With her right hand, she gently caressed and squeezed at my sack. She gazed up at me, her doe-like eyes glinting mischievously as she undid every seem in my body with her soft pink lips.
“Persephone,” I moaned, feeling the beginnings of my orgasm starting to build. “Wait. I’m going to cum.”
Persephone did not relent. Instead, she removed her left hand and took my cock as deeply as she could down her throat. That single action caused my body to explode into a thousand ribbons of pure and unadulterated ecstasy. As my cock throbbed and emptied itself into Persephone’s mouth, she moaned, greedily lapping up every last drop of my sticky-sweet seed.
When I could take no more, Persephone sat back and wiped her lips with a grin. “How was that?”
I huffed at her in disbelief. It was honestly a wonder to me that I was still standing in one piece and not lying on the ground in a heap from what she’d just done to me.
“I can’t even describe how amazing that was,” I breathed. Persephone smiled as she came to stand and pulled the t-shirt up and over her head. She let the shirt drop to the ground beside her and licked her lips seductively.
“Lay down,” she ordered. To my absolute surprise, my cock sprung to life again at the sound of Persephone’s demand.
Have mercy, my body hissed happily.
“Yes, ma’am,” I chuckled before I pulled my pants off and laid on the bed of flowers around us.
Once I was comfortable, Persephone climbed on top of me and crushed her lips against mine. She moaned against my lips as she ground her moist center against my throbbing erection. She was already wet and waiting for me.
I hissed at the feel of her.
I wanted nothing more than to bury myself deep in her body until she was screaming my name. But Persephone beat me to the punch. She slipped a hand down between us and took my thick shaft into her hand, then positioned my cock at the moist folds of her womanhood. Slowly, she lowered herself onto my shaft, taking every inch of me into her tight body.
Persephone moaned loudly as she impaled herself all the way to my hilt. After a moment of acclimating to my size, she then began to rock against my body, finding a rhythm that suited her as she rode my shaft. My thoughts were a scattered mess as I watched my beautiful goddess driving herself onto my cock as though she hungered for the feel of me within her.
Before either of us could reach our orgasm, a bright flash exploded around us. I blinked through the light, raising my arm to shield my eyes, as Persephone cried out in terror and reached for the t-shirt. As she quickly slipped it on and crawled off my lap, the light around us faded, and a figure emerged.
>
“Good evening, Lord Hades,” Hermes said in a sullen tone.
Feeling quite furious for the interruption, I hopped onto my feet and shrugged on my pants. “What the hell are you doing here, Hermes?”
Hermes was a handsome young man. He had a full head of tousled chestnut-colored hair and turquoise eyes hidden behind a pair of thick black glasses. He frowned deeply and lowered his gaze with a sigh. “I’m sorry, Lord Hades. I didn’t mean to interrupt you.”
“What’s wrong with you, Hermes?” I asked as Persephone came to stand by my side. Hermes had never been one to look so glum before. Whenever he made his trips to visit me, or the Erinyes, he was always so full of energy and mirth. For him to look like someone had taken a dump in his favorite pair of flying shoes was almost concerning. Still, he did not meet my gaze.
“I’ve been sent to retrieve Persephone from the underworld, my lord. Demeter has threatened to destroy the human race, and in effect, killing all of us, if her daughter isn’t returned to Olympus soon.” Persephone uttered a small gasp beside me.
“My mother is willing to do that just to bring me back home? That’s monstrous!” She shrieked angrily.
Hermes said nothing.
“You can tell Demeter that I told her to rightfully fuck off. Persephone isn’t leaving here. She doesn’t want to be treated like chattel at the hands of her own mother, and I won’t allow it,” I replied as I crossed my arms over my chest.
Hermes took a deep breath and sighed again, then glanced up to meet my gaze. “I wasn’t asking, Lord Hades.”
I scoffed at the sheer audacity in Hermes’s tone and took a furious step forward. “You can go fuck yourself two ways from Sunday, Hermes. If you think your weak little ass is taking Persephone away from here, then you’re sadly mistaken. Try it, and I’ll kill you where you stand.”
“I’m sorry,” Hermes muttered as he reached into his pocket. I watched in confusion as Hermes withdrew a small lightning bolt and gripped it tightly in his hand. His brows drew together in a combination of guilt and fear as he met my gaze. I instantly recognized the lightning bolt and froze.
