"Fel in love? With each other?" Demeter's voice went hard. "How could that be? Hades believes that you are Persephone, Goddess of Spring. He has no idea that he has been making love to a mortal woman. Think, Carolina! How could you believe that it is you he loves?" She made a rude noise and her handsome face twisted. "Love! Are you real y so naive? Immortals love differently than mortals. Surely even in your world you have heard tales of the excesses of immortal love." Lina lifted her chin and narrowed her eyes. "I am not a child. Do not talk to me like I have the fickle emotions of an inexperienced girl. I know the difference between love and lust. I know when a man is using me, just as I know when he is treating me honestly. The lessons were hard, but experience taught me the difference."
"Then you should know better," Demeter said.
Lina's face burned as if Demeter's softly spoken words had struck her. "You don't know him. He's not like the rest of you."
"Not like the rest of the immortals? This is naive nonsense. He is a God. The only difference between Hades and the rest of the gods is that he is reclusive and has chosen to place the dead above the living."
"And that's part of what makes him so different." Lina took a deep breath; she didn't want to betray Hades' confidence, but she had to convince Demeter. "I am the only Goddess he's loved." Demeter's eyes narrowed. "Is that what he told you? Then here is your first lesson in immortal love. Never believe anything a god says when he is trying to gain access to the bed of a goddess. What he told you was only what he thought you needed to hear so that you would give yourself to him."
Refusing to believe Demeter's words Lina shook her head from side to side, but the Goddess ignored her and continued her barrage.
"What did you believe? That you and he would be together for eternity? Forget that you are a mortal. Forget that you are from another world. Even if you were truly the Goddess of Spring, did you honestly believe that Hades and Persephone would be mated, that their names would be linked for eternity? The idea is absurd! How could Spring exist in the Land of the Dead?"
"Then Spring doesn't have to exist there. I wil . Me - the mortal, Carolina Francesca Santoro. I'l stay in the Underworld and love its God. Just re-exchange me. Give me back my body and return this" - she gestured at herself - "to your daughter."
"I cannot. You are not of this world, Carolina." The anger drained from Demeter's face. "You knew your time there was temporary. I did not pretend otherwise."
"There has to be a way."
"There is not. Both of us must abide by the oaths we have given."
"Can't I even tel him who I am?" Lina asked hopelessly.
"Use your mind, Carolina, not your heart. What would the Lord of the Dead do if he knew he had wooed, not the Goddess of Spring, but a middle-aged baker from the mortal world? Would he open his arms to your deceit?" Demeter held up a hand to silence Lina's protests. "It matters little that you did not intend to deceive him. You say that I do not know Hades, but al immortals know this much of him: the Lord of the Dead values truth above al things. How would he react to your lie?"
"But he loves me."
"If Hades loves, it is Persephone, Goddess of Spring, who has won his affection," Demeter said with finality. "And consider for a moment how the spirits of the Underworld would feel if they learned that the goddess who has brought them such joy is only a mortal in disguise." Lina flinched. "It would hurt them."
"Yes, it would."
"I cannot tel anyone."
"No, Daughter, you cannot." Lina closed her eyes and Demeter watched the woman in her daughter's body struggle to accept the pain of her words. "Remember this, when you have returned to your rightful place, Persephone wil just consider Hades another god with whom she dal ied. And no matter what you believe has passed between you and he, Hades wil eventual y feel the same. Listen to the voice that is within you and you wil remember that this is simply the way of immortals."
When Lina opened her eyes, her gaze was resolute.
"I'l return to the Underworld and finish my job. You said my time is almost over?" Demeter nodded.
"Good. I'l be ready to go when you say so."
"I knew I made a wise choice in you." The goddess's image began to fade. "Return with my blessing, Daughter," she said, and she was gone.
Lina turned away from the oracle. Her eyes passed over the beauty of Lake Avernus without actual y seeing. She didn't cry. She held herself very stil , as if the lack of movement could protect her against further pain.
Cloaked in invisibility, Hades had, at first, stayed within the mouth of the tunnel. His initial reaction to finding Persephone had been relief. She wasn't leaving him. She was only speaking to her mother's oracle. He could not hear what she was saying, but as he watched, his relief was rapidly replaced by concern. Persephone was visibly upset, she almost looked frightened. Was that why she hadn't told him she meant to speak with Demeter? Was she afraid of her mother's reaction to their love? Had she been trying to protect him? Surely, she was aware that he was a powerful God in his own right. But perhaps she wasn't. Persephone was very young - she behaved with such maturity that it was easy for him to forget just how young - and he had kept himself separated from the rest of the immortals for a very long time. Did she believe that he only wielded power in his own realm?
He watched as her face paled. Demeter was wounding her. Anger surged through him. Stil wearing the Helmet of Invisibility, he strode toward his beloved.
Demeter's hard voice drifted to him from the oracle.
"Remember this, when you have returned to your rightful place, Persephone wil just consider Hades another god with whom she dal ied. And no matter what you believe has passed between you and he, eventual y Hades wil feel the same. Listen to the voice that is within you and you wil remember that this is simply the way of the immortals."
Hades stopped short. Had he heard her correctly? He was just another god with whom she had dal ied? Incredulous, he listened to Persephone's reply.
"I'l return to the Underworld and finish my job. You said my time is almost over?" He had only been a job to her?
"Good. I'l be ready to go when you say so."
She wanted to leave him. Invisible to her, Hades watched the Goddess he loved turn from her mother's oracle and stare off into the distance. Her eyes were dry. Her face was stone. She, looked like a stranger.
No! He wouldn't believe it. He had heard only part of their conversation. He must have misunderstood. He knew Persephone. His Persephone could not deceive him. As his hand lifted to remove the Helmet of Invisibility, a sound drew his attention. Together, he and Persephone turned to face the god who strode from the path that curled around Lake Avernus. Apol o's handsome face was alight with pleasure. His lips curved in a warm smile of welcome.
"Ah, Persephone, it pleases me that you accepted my invitation. We al knew that too much time in the Underworld would cause the Rower of Spring to yearn for the sun again." With a growing sense of numbness, Hades watched as Apol o took Persephone's unresisting body in his arms.
Unable to continue watching, the Lord of the Underworld turned his back on the two lovers and silently returned to the realm of the dead.