A Touch of Darkness (Hades & Persephone 1)

The realization settled heavy upon Persephone’s shoulders. She did understand that.

“Living here is no different than living up there. You challenged Hades to help mortals lead a better existence. He has merely charged you with the same here in the Underworld.”

CHAPTER XV - OFFER

Another busy week passed, full of reading articles, writing papers, and taking tests. Persephone had thought that by now, the hype over her article would die down, but it hadn’t. She still got stopped on her way to the Acropolis and the university. Strangers asked her when the next article about Hades was coming out, and what she planned to write about.

She was a little tired of the questions, and even more tired of repeating herself—the article is out in a few weeks, and you’ll have to buy the paper. She started putting her headphones in on her walks just so she could claim she couldn’t hear people when they called her name.

“Persephone?”

Too bad she couldn’t do that at work right about now.

Demetri poked his head out of his office. He was wearing a denim shirt and a polka dot bowtie, and Persephone thought that somehow, he looked younger and older at the same time in that outfit. Maybe because the blue brought out the grey in his hair, and the bowtie was fun.

“Yes?” she asked.

“Have a moment?”

“Sure,” she said. She saved what she was working on and closed her laptop. She followed Demetri into his office and took a seat. Her boss leaned against his desk.

“How’s that article coming along?” he asked.

“Fine. It’s…fine.” If he was looking for a summary of what she planned to write, she didn’t have one. She had thought about writing about the mother who had come to Hades to ask for her daughter’s life, and though she didn’t understand why Hades wished to keep that a secret, she wanted to honor the request he made of the woman.

Since the morning after La Rose, when Hades had confused her with his passion and anger, she’d just focused on avoiding him. She knew that wasn’t best, especially if she was going to get this article submitted in a few weeks, but she still had the weekend, and with her and Hades’ track record, he was bound to do something to piss her off, which meant ideal writing material.

“God of the Game was our most popular story to date. Millions of views, thousands of comments and papers sold.”

“You were right,” she said. “People are curious about Hades.”

“Which is why I called you in,” he said.

Persephone straightened. Her thoughts went in all sorts of directions. She’d been waiting for Demetri to request more from her. So far, he’d let her have creative control over how she covered Hades, and she didn’t want to lose that.

“I’ve got an assignment for you.”

“An assignment?” she echoed.

“I’ve been holding onto these.” He reached for an envelope on his desk and handed it to her. “I hadn’t decided who to send, but I had no doubt after the success of your article.”

“What is it?” She was too nervous to open the envelope, but her boss just smiled.

“Why don’t you open it?”

Persephone did as he asked and found two tickets to the Olympian Gala on Saturday. They were beautiful invitations—black with gold leaf lettering—and looked just as expensive as the gala itself.

Persephone’s eyes went wide. The Olympian Gala was the biggest event of the year. It was a huge fashion show, party, and charity event. Every year, a theme was chosen, inspired by a god or goddess, and that god or goddess got to choose what charity project was funded with the money raised at the gala.

Tickets were coveted and cost hundreds of dollars.

“But...why me?” She didn’t understand. “You should be going to this. You’re the editor-in-chief.”

“I have another obligation that night.”

“Bigger than the Olympian Gala?”

Demetri smirked. “I have been many times, Persephone.”