A/N: this scene is where things get a little bit spicier and it's only going to get worse from here. So read at your own discretion haha.
The cave emboldened me to explore, even in the hours before and after Hades sought me out. He allowed me privacy for hours, appearing and giving his leave by some untraceable schedule. Here it seemed I was even free of time as there was no twilight or day or dusk.
Only dark, unending, glittering night.
I didn't know how much time had passed when I found the only patch of sun in the Underworld. The place was beautiful, with Olympian light flooding into a garden patch, the only place I'd found where things could grow. A pomegranate tree flourished in the brightest spot and I knelt in the light, running my fingers up the short length of its base.
It was heavy with fruit, so ripe I felt the cave of my stomach burn for the first time in days. I hadn't eaten since I'd been taken.
The light shifted behind me, and I turned to see Hades lingering nearby. I hadn't heard him come in, but I didn't flinch. I wasn't afraid.
He followed my gaze and answered the unspoken question on my lips. "You can have anything you want," He plucked the ripest for me from the tree. "Everything in my world is yours."
With all of my mother's warnings, I had been afraid to eat from his table or drink his wine. These were binding things, and I would starve myself thin before Hades and I were tied together by communion. But in the light of this garden, it didn't seem as dangerous as it had in the dark. I had practically chosen the fruit myself, and yet the same thrill pricked as he cut it with a knife.
"I feel your wanting," he murmured but before I could deny it, he trailed his hand to my wrist and turned it it slightly. He pressed half a pomegranate into my palm and I turned my face away from the temptation, even though the hunger of being in Hades's underworld for so long threatened to consume me.
"Please. I shouldn't," I whispered.
"Shouldn't," he repeated. "Why, Persephone? Because it is against the rule of the gods?"
My chest was heaving at the rumble of his voice on my neck. His body so close to mine in this garden. It was unlike anything I had felt before, something no man had ever shown me. I wanted him to teach me more, teach me anything, but my mouth ran dry at the thought.
"No," I breathed. "If I cross this line, I don't know what will become of me."
"Let me show you," he said.
His touch grazed down my arm until he found the hard bone of my wrist again and guided my hand so the fruit was against my lips. I knew I didn't have a prayer of resisting him now, not with the promise of something so sweet at my fingertips.
"Open your mouth," he murmured.
I parted my lips and bit into the fruit, allowing its sin to claim me with a hot brand. The hunger I'd fought for weeks was satiated in that one bite and I closed my eyes against the relief, never intending to share a moment so erotic.
"Hades," I breathed.
The horror of what I had done struck me and I whirled around to face him, fully awake. His gaze was dark as he studied me, but still entirely pleased. "What have you done?"
"Nothing yet," he replied. "This, my dear, was entirely you."
I struck him across the face, staining his cheek with the juice that was still wet on my fingers, dark as blood. He caught my wrist, but I wrenched out of his grasp.
"I haven't married you. I am not your wife and you cannot use me or trap me in a situation where I'll be...unsuitable for other deities!" I snapped.
"If that's your concern, then let me assure you none of my brothers are particularly concerned with maidenhood," he said bitterly.
"Well I am," I said. Especially around him.
I stormed out of the garden but he was quick in his pursuit, as quiet as a shadow. I wanted to escape him, to forget what he had just evoked in me. It was an attraction I hadn't dreamed of, one I didn't even want.
"Did I force you?" he demanded. "This was hardly a violent assault and if you believe the gods will-"
"I didn't mean your brothers, I meant Artemis!" I shouted, whirling around. I hadn't realized I was capable of such fury before or had the capacity to scream with anything except fear.
Hades raised an eyebrow at the implication. I hadn't realized it, but we were standing in his throne room. I was screaming at the King of the Underworld at his own seat of power. Or maybe he was just perplexed by the revelation I intended to take the vow of the huntresses someday.
"I don't often visit Olympus, Persephone," he began. "But I felt the yearning you laid deep into the earth in a way I had only ever recognized in myself. I knew I could show you the things you wanted, and that you could lend me your company in return. This was a match of Eros, and I have been enthralled by you since."
I hesitated, unsure what he was saying. Was it that we were well suited for each other? It felt like something purer and undying.
"If you want to deny yourself and take her pledges of virginity, I won't stop you," he said. "But I also think you're wildly unsuited toward them."
"Why? Because I'm meant to be your wife?" I demanded.
"No. Because you have one of the most erotic souls I have encountered since being in the presence of Aphrodite," he replied. A beat passed between us and he finally said, "I think about her marriage often."
"To Hephaestus." I replied.
Hephaestus had a good spirit and was a fair god. I often felt sorry his greatest joy and misery were wrapped into the same goddess, but I supposed a vicious love was better than a bland one.
"Could you imagine if she honored their relationship?" he asked with a bit of dry humor.
"No, and a wicked part of me thinks it would be tragic." I replied.
"Oh?"
"You just said she is fiercely erotic," I said. "And she doesn't have any passion for Hephaestus, even if he is good to her. I would hate to see her...tamed."
"As would I," he agreed. His point settled between us, and I took another step back.
"You think that I'm like Aphrodite?" I asked quietly.
"I think you have similarities that no one has allowed you to acknowledge," he replied. "And that you're infinitely more beautiful."
I flushed with the same temptation as I had when he had persuaded me to let him touch me only moments ago.
"I want you to be slow with me," I said, even though I wasn't sure that was true.
"Alright," he replied, as if he knew.
Our friendship had broken in the garden, and the question now was what it might possibly grow into. Would it be whatever lay at the end of these feelings? Or would it be hideous and ugly like our fight?
His cheek was still stained where I struck him, and I felt a twinge of regret now that he wasn't so close to overwhelming my senses.
"I'm sorry," I said, reaching to wipe the spot away. Light danced in his eyes as my fingers grazed his cheek, but the spot didn't clear beneath my touch.
"I need a washcloth," I frowned. I traced my fingers to his lips and he kissed them. I wondered what it might feel like had he taken them in his mouth. I recoiled at the thought, as embarrassed as if I'd said it out loud.
"You're learning to be passionate," he told me. "Hate, rage, resistance, and attraction. Never apologize to me for that, Persephone."
"I should be alone," I said, rushing away if only to put space between us before I did something I would truly regret.
"No," he said softly before I disappeared. "It's not nearly as pleasant as you may think."
JE LEEST
Hades and Persephone: A Fated Love
Romantiek"You can have anything you want," He plucked the ripest for me from the tree. "Everything in my world is yours." With all of my mother's warnings, I had been afraid to eat from his table or drink his wine. These were binding things, and I would sta...
