Adonis blinked a couple times and finally found his words.
“That’s not how this works, Persephone. You can’t just show up at a god’s place of business and demand an audience. There’s a…there are rules.”
She raised a brow and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Rules?”
“Yes, rules. We have to submit a request to his PR manager.”
“A request that will be denied, I’m assuming?”
Adonis looked uncomfortable.
“Look, if we go there at least we can say we tried to reach him for comment, and he denied us. I can’t write this article without trying and I don’t want to wait.”
Not when I can enter Nevernight at will, she thought. Hades would regret kissing her when he saw how she planned to use his favor.
After a moment, Adonis sighed.
“Okay. I’ll let Demetri know we’re heading out.”
He started to turn, and Persephone stopped him. “You haven’t…told Demetri about this, have you?”
“Not that you plan to write this article.”
“Can we keep it a secret? For now?”
Adonis smiled. “Yeah, sure. Whatever you want, Persephone.”
Adonis parked on the curb in front of Nevernight. His red Lexus glared against the black backdrop of Hades’ obsidian tower. Even though Persephone was determined to follow through with this interview, she had a moment of doubt. Was she being too bold in assuming she could even use Hades’ favor in this way?
Adonis came up beside her. “Looks different in the daylight, huh?”
“Yeah,” she said absently. The tower did look different—harsher. A jagged cut in a sparkling city.
Adonis tried the door, but it was locked, so he knocked and offered no time for someone to answer before retreating.
“Looks like no one’s home.”
He definitely did not want to be here, and Persephone wondered why he hesitated to confront the god when he came to his club so often at night.
As Adonis turned away from the door, Persephone tried it and it opened.
“Yes!” She hissed to herself.
Adonis looked back at her, puzzled.
“How did you...it was locked!”
She shrugged. “Maybe you didn’t pull hard enough. Come on.”
As she disappeared into Nevernight she heard Adonis say, “I swear it was locked.”
She descended the stairs, entering the now-familiar club. Her heels clicked against the glossy black floor and she looked up into the darkness of the tall ceiling, knowing that this floor could be seen from Hades office.
“Hello? Anybody home?” Adonis called.
Persephone cringed and resisted the urge to tell Adonis to shut up. She’d had it in her head that she’d go upstairs to Hades office and catch him off guard. Though, she wasn’t so sure that was a great idea. She considered it yesterday when he’d answered the door disheveled. At least if she surprised him, she might learn the truth about whatever was going on between him and Minthe.