Read Bride of Fire for Free Online

expect her mother to love her less. “No. Hermes.”
    Persephone relaxed fractionally, and that left him another puzzle to work. Was she relieved, then? Did she want to return to Demeter, or did she hope to remain undiscovered with him? Hades set the questions aside. He had given his word.
    “What did he want?” Persephone asked. She leaned into him, and the gesture filled Hades with a mix of frustration and pleasure. She never turned away from him, never rejected his touch. Whether he sought her for sex or for closeness, she always reacted as if she welcomed his touch. At times he even thought she needed him as much as he needed her.
    “You.” Hades stated it baldly, bluntly. “He demanded your return.”
    She went stiff and still, as if turned to stone. “You refused, of course.”
    Hades set the comb down before he hurled it across the room. “I told him it was your choice. That only you could decide where you belonged. And I vowed whatever choice you made to honor it.”
    He forced himself to hold her only loosely, not to crush her closer, to rage at her to tell him what she wanted. She loved him, she must love him. He had held her in his arms while Cupid’s bolt took them both in the heart, piercing her and then him with a single shot. She had wept, and he had done his best to comfort her, not understanding then any more than now why she greeted love with tears.
    Hades stared down at her bent golden head. Light to his darkness. How could he give her up? How could he keep her?
    “Why would you agree to that?” Persephone tipped her head up. Her blue eyes met his, her face impossible to read.
    “Many reasons.” He raised her hand, holding the fruit. “You will not eat. I did not take you to watch you suffer. Demeter has turned the world to ice, and the people suffer. I did not take you for that purpose, either. I have built you a throne you will not sit in. I have offered you everything in my realm. I have given you all that I am, all that I have, and you hold yourself apart from me. You will not even say that you love me. Why?”
    “Maybe I don’t,” she said, but her eyes held the truth and her lips trembled.
    “You are my queen,” he said for what might be the last time. “You are my equal, my bedmate, my lover. You alone have my heart. I will rule with you, or alone. I will take no other to my bed if you return to your realm to live in solitude. If you have no consolation, I will have none. I would never abandon you. But if you do not wish to remain with me, I cannot force you to stay. You must choose, Persephone.”
    He set her off his lap while he was still capable of releasing her and left her to make her decision. He knew what it would be. He had pride to match hers. He would not beg her to stay.
    *****
    Persephone sat before the fire for a long time, turning the red fruit in her hand. It was ripe and tempting, and it would be delicious. Sweet. Pulpy. She could almost taste it.
    Hades loved her. How was it possible? His heart had been aligned with hers when Cupid shot her. Had that arrow cleaved them both?
    By whatever miraculous means, it had happened. Hades wouldn’t lie to her. He never had, and even now, he hadn’t adorned his words.
    Hades had given her his heart. She wanted to shout in triumph, in joy, to dance and sing. But there was the rest of what Hades had told her. People were suffering. The fields she loved were frozen and dead. Could she turn her back on the realm above merely to please herself?
    Perhaps there was a way. What did she want? Hades was right, it was time to choose.
    She lifted the fruit to her lips and bit deep. When she finished, she rose and searched out Hades. “Take me to the border between worlds.”
    He did not rage or plead or persuade. He simply inclined his head, his expression closed, hard as granite. He took her in silence, which made what she had to do easier. Sweet words might have broken her resolve. She left him at the border without a backward