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You don’t have to say it.” Persephone faced him again and shook her head. “Aphrodite has beauty and Artemis has war and Athena has wisdom, and what do I have?” She flung her arms wide, as if to encompass the room. “A green thumb. Useless, I tell you.”
    “Well. I wouldn’t say that.” Oh dear gods, were her eyes wet with tears? No, no. Give him a screaming female over a crying one any day of the week. He looked around the room at the sudden greenhouse. “Vegetation is very…important.”
    “I’m sorry about all this growth. I do it subconsciously when I’m upset or sad or mad… I can’t help it.” Persephone wiped at her eyes. “No wonder I’m an easy target. No one would make a contest out of me if I was stronger. Zeus wouldn’t have even been able to fling me down here without my consent.”
    Privately, he disagreed with her. Over the years his powers had grown in leaps and bounds. Though he didn’t keep extremely close tabs on all of the original six, he assumed theirs had as well.
    Her loud sniff brought him back to the here and now. Panic crept up his throat. He needed to get away before she broke down. Run. “I’m going to… I should go do some work.”
    She seemed to shrink. “Of course. I’m sorry for all of this.”
    “It’s fine.”
    “I know now that you had no say in any of this. I apologize for screeching at you earlier, and for accusing you of all sorts of horrible stuff.”
    So few beings ever showed him gratitude, the emotion made him feel like he was breaking out in hives. “That’s okay.”
    “No, it’s not.” She peered up at him, all earnest and sweet. “It’s kind of you to help me.”
    He resisted the urge to claw at his skin. “No one’s ever accused me of being kind.”
    “You’re letting me stay in your home.”
    “I have no choice,” he reminded her brutally. “Zeus has prohibited me from sending you out, remember?”
    “You could kill me.”
    The words lay between them, heavy and stark. She rose from her seat and sauntered over to him. Her skin gleamed in the firelight, her eyes too smart as they searched his face. “Why didn’t you kill me, Hades?”
    His hands clenched at his sides, a move that didn’t go unnoticed by her. Let her think he was trying to keep from wringing her neck, and not the truth—he was trying to keep from stroking that soft skin. “The option is still on the table.”
    Her lips curved. “No, it’s not, or you would have done it already.”
    Damn her. “Listen, female. Don’t go getting any kind of romanticized notions about me, got it?” He stalked closer, until they were nose to nose. Or nose to chest—he had to lean down to truly look her in the eyes.
    Bigger, badder creatures than she had backed away when confronted with his gaze. Not her. She met it, confusing and angering and, hell yes, arousing him. “I’m not romanticizing anything. I’m simply thanking you for giving me sanctuary and apologizing for my shameful earlier behavior.”
    “I could still kill you, you know.” He sounded like a whining, petulant child.
    “I’ll keep that in mind.” Her face was sober, but he knew he wasn’t imagining the laughter in her tone. “I promise I’ll keep out of your way while I’m here.”
    “Good. You…do that.”
    “I will.”
    “Good.”
    “You already said that.”
    Hades stared at her, feeling stupid. He fucking hated to feel stupid. He also hated to not have the last word. “Just…stay. In your room.” He turned and stalked out of the room before he could make a greater fool of himself.
     
    She didn’t stay.
    For the next week, Persephone seemed to be everywhere and anywhere in his palace. A typical goddess might have lazed around in her luxurious room, but of course he got an industrious, bustling female. He learned from Bob, who she’d taken a liking to much to the disgust of Cerberus’s other two heads, that at home she often worked in her gardens from sunup ’til sundown.
    Since his