A Touch of Darkness (Hades & Persephone 1)

It was Lexa’s turn to blush, and Persephone was glad she could redirect this conversation, even if she wasn’t sure how to feel about her best friend dating her co-worker. Plus, she had yet to figure out why Hades disliked him. Was it simply that she had brought him to Nevernight or something more?

“It doesn’t mean anything,” she said, and knew Lexa was just trying to keep her expectations low. It had been a long time since she had been interested in someone. She’d had fallen hard and fast for her first college boyfriend, a wrestler named Alec. He had been incredibly handsome and charming…until he wasn’t. What Lexa had at first thought was protectiveness, soon became controlling. Things escalated until one night he yelled at her for going out with Persephone and accused her of cheating on him. At that point, she decided things had to end.

It was only after things ended that Lexa learned Alec hadn’t been faithful to her at all.

The whole thing had broken her heart, and there was a time when Persephone wasn’t sure Lexa would ever recover.

“We were making plans for today and just…kept talking,” Lexa continued. “He’s so interesting.”

Persephone thought that was funny. She felt like Lexa was the most interesting person she’d ever met. The girl was a beauty queen with a sleeve of tattoos. She was also a witch and a gamer. She had an obsession with makeup, fashion, and the gods.

“Did you know he was adopted? It’s why he became a journalist. He wants to find his biological parents.”

Persephone shook her head. She didn’t know anything about Adonis except that he worked at New Athens News, and had regular access to Nevernight, which was ironic considering Hades really didn’t seem to like the mortal.

“I can’t imagine what that’s like,” Lexa said absently. “To exist in the world without really knowing who you are.”

She couldn’t know how painful her words were. The bargain Hades had forced upon her had reminded Persephone just how she didn’t belong.

Persephone took a coffee to go and then headed to the Library of Artemis. There were several beautiful reading rooms named after the Nine Greek Muses. Persephone liked all of them, but she had always been drawn to the Melpomene Room, which she entered now. Persephone wasn’t sure why it was named after the Muse of Tragedy, except that a statue of the goddess stood at the center of the oval room. Light streamed through a glass ceiling, pouring over several long tables and study areas.

She’d come here in search of a book, and as she looked, she trailed her fingers over leather binding and gold lettering. Finally, she found what she was looking for: The Divine: Powers and Symbols.

She carried the volume to one of the tables and sat down, opening the dusty book, turning the pages until she found his name in bold letters across the top of the page.

Hades, God of the Underworld.

Just seeing his name made her heart race. The entry included a sketch of the god’s profile, which Persephone traced, with the tips of her fingers. No one would recognize him in person from this picture because it was too dark, but she could see familiar features—the arch of his nose, the set of his jaw, the strands of his long hair falling to his shoulders.

Her eyes dropped to the information written on the rest of the page, which detailed how Hades became the God of the Underworld. After the defeat of the Titans, he and his two younger brothers drew lots—Hades was given the Underworld, Poseidon the Sea, and Zeus the Skies, with each given equal access over the Earth.

She often forgot that the three gods had equal power over the Earth, mostly because Hades and Poseidon did not often venture outside of their own realms. Zeus’s descent to the mortal world had been a reminder, and Hades and Poseidon were not going to stand by while their brother took control of a realm they all had access to. Still, Persephone had not considered what that meant for Hades’ powers. Did he share some of her mother’s abilities?

She continued reading and when she came to the list of Hades’ powers, her eyes widened, and she couldn’t tell if she was more afraid or awed by him.

Hades had many powers, but his primary and most powerful abilities were necromancy, including reincarnation, resurrection, transmigration, death sense, and soul removal. Because of his ownership of the earthly realm, he could also manipulate earth and its elements, and had the ability to draw precious metals and jewels from the ground.

Rich One, indeed.

Additional powers included charm—the ability to sway mortals and lesser gods to his will, as well as invisibility.

Invisibility?

That made Persephone very nervous. She was going to have to withdraw a promise from the god that he would never use that power with her.

She turned the page and found information on Hades’ symbols and the Underworld.

The narcissus are sacred to the Lord of the Dead. The flower, often in colors of white, yellow, or orange have a short, cup-shaped corona and grow in abundance in the Underworld. They are a symbol of rebirth. It is said Hades chose the flower to give the souls hope of what is to come as they are reincarnated.

Persephone sat back in her chair. This god did not seem like the god she’d met a few days ago. That god dangled hope before mortals in the form of riches. That god made a game out of pain. The one described in this passage sounded compassionate and kind. She wondered what had happened in the time since Hades had chosen his symbol.

I have had success, he’d said.

But what did that mean?

Persephone decided she had more questions for Hades.

When she was finished reading the passage on the Underworld, Persephone made a list of the flowers mentioned in the text—asphodels, aconite, polyanthus, narcissi—and then found a book on plant varieties which she used to take careful notes, making sure to include how to care for each flower and tree, grimacing when the instructions called for direct sunlight. Would Hades’ muted sky be enough? If she were her mother, the light