Chapter Six
Hades sat on a leather couch at the far end of the ballroom drinking another glass of scotch. Persephone was a big hit. She was everything he’d imagined and more. The gathering had turned quickly from pleasantries and polite pretense to a debauched orgy in nearly the blink of an eye—as he’d known it would.
It hadn’t taken long for every stitch of clothing to come off every creature down here and for bodies to start entwining and clawing toward their pleasure. Hades was probably the only one in the room currently wearing pants. He wanted to at least look like he had some control of himself. Clearly no one else did. Not that he minded.
If an underworld party at the castle didn’t turn into a full decadent descent into pure naked hedonism, well, he’d completely failed.
One of the servants crossed the floor with purpose, his gaze trained on the ground in front of him. When he reached Hades, he made a small bow and held out a silver tray. “My Lord.”
On the tray was a small, white piece of paper folded over once, with a red wax seal on it. Hades took the note from the tray. “Thank you, you may go.” He knew without opening it that this would not require a response.
The servant scampered off into the crowd. Hades broke the seal. He knew who it was from. Since he’d brought Persephone to the underworld, he’d had spies out in force watching the upper world. He’d told Nick to keep him informed when anything changed.
Hades had known almost the moment Zeus knew Persephone had been taken. The poor humans. It had been several days of unrelenting wind and rain and hail. Hail so big it hadn’t been safe for the little mortals to venture outside.
The note contained a short, scrawled message.
He knows about the party.
Hades smiled, refolded the paper, and slipped it into his pants pocket. If Zeus was able to come down here, Hades would be in a world of hurt. Luckily, he couldn’t enter the underworld. Hades had hoped word of the party would spread and reach Zeus, but he hadn’t expected word would reach him this soon.
Her father would know Persephone was to be the centerpiece of the event. He would know all the many ways Hades would desecrate her innocence and all the many beings down here who would have their turn with her.
If the weather systems in the upper world had been bad when Zeus learned of his daughter’s kidnapping, Hades couldn’t wait to see the disaster zone knowledge of the party would inspire. There might not be a world left.
Zeus should not have spent so much time and energy keeping her pure. Didn’t he know by now that the more tightly you controlled your children, the more wild they went when they were finally free? No one illustrated this lesson better than Persephone.
But Hades didn’t want to think of Zeus and revenge all night, not when there was a perfectly good orgy happening. Several naked women practically crawled all over him, their hands rubbing up and down his thighs—consorts of some of his generals. One of them licked and bit at one of his exposed nipples.
“Please, My Lord,” she whimpered. “Let us please you.”
“Hades!” It was Persephone. A panicked, distressed cry.
He jumped up, causing them to tumble to the ground. It only took a few quick strides to reach her.
“Stop!” he ordered.
The under beings who’d been having their way with Persephone moved away from her instantly.
“My Lord, Hades, I’m sorry,” one of the males said, cowering pathetically. “She was fine just a moment ago. We would never disrespect...”
“I know.” This was perhaps too much for her too soon. Hades helped Persephone off the bed and led her from the ballroom to a small parlor out of the way of the main party. The room was quiet and empty.
“Sit,” he said.
She sat on a sofa in the middle of the room, crying and trembling. A servant came in with a robe and draped it around her.
“Your Grace,” a second servant said, holding out a glass of water.
Persephone took the glass and drank it down quickly. “Thank you.”
“Leave us,” Hades said. “And shut the door behind you.”
“Yes, My Lord,” they said, quickly obeying his command.
Persephone chanced a look up. “I-I’m sorry, Master.”
Well, he hadn’t expected that. Did she think he wanted her hurt and terrified? Maybe his initial plans had leaned that way, but even the thought of truly harming her had been far from his mind for a very long time. Now the thought of anything ever harming her made him irrationally angry.
He sat beside her on the couch and began to run his fingers through her hair. “What do you have to be sorry for?”
“I embarrassed you.”
“Nonsense. Of course you didn’t. I would have never left you with them if I thought… Did someone hurt you? I’ll rip his head off.”
Hades was being completely literal. He’d rip the bastard’s head off and put it on a pike in front of the castle as a warning. And since all beings here aside from him were dead already, the poor fool would be awake and feel it the whole time. From everything Hades had heard, pikes weren’t particularly comfortable things to have jammed into one’s skull.
“N-no,” she said. “No one hurt me. I just… it was so much… I got scared.”
“I thought you were having a good time.”
“I was. But then I started thinking.”
Hades chuckled. “Oh. Thinking is a terrible plan during an orgy. No thinking is allowed. Just debauchery. I was sure I’d been clear about that.”
A weak laugh from her. Better than nothing.
He wiped the tears off her face. “Tell me, Sunshine, what did you start thinking that got you so upset?”
She shrugged. She looked so vulnerable all of a sudden, like something that really didn’t belong in his world. That glistening golden hair, those guileless blue eyes. Soft, sweet, pink lips. His pants tightened at the memory of them wrapped around his cock.
He leaned in closer. “Tell me,” he whispered.
“It was all just too much all of a sudden. It was so overwhelming. And then I started thinking… how dirty and wrong this made me. And then what if you didn’t want me anymore afterward?”
“Why would I not want you? I told you I enjoy watching you enjoyed by others. When you gave yourself over so completely tonight I thought… that’s my girl.”
“Really?” She’d stopped crying at least, and the trembling was gone.
“And you aren’t dirty and wrong. You’re in my world now. Everything tonight is absolutely right.”
Everyone in the upper world had such stupid ideas about sex. Everything was so shameful. Those idiots would rather be exposed to gory, bloody violence than a little bit of wanton pleasure. He wanted no part of it. And soon Persephone wouldn’t either.
Fucking fools, all of them. And that twisted way of thinking had been shoved into Persephone’s brain while she’d been up there pretending to be human. It was the kind of thinking Zeus had. If Hades ruled the upper world, things would be very different up there. A lot more pleasure and a lot less angst and guilt over nothing.
If it was the last thing he did, he’d train that shit out of her forever. Whatever Zeus thought about any of this, and however it might disturb him, Hades’ priority had to be getting rid of this lingering shame. No goddess—least of all his—should ever feel shame in pleasure.
He stood and helped her off the sofa. “Come. Let’s return to our guests.”
“But...”
He raised a brow. “But what?”
“They’ll think...”
“They won’t think anything. This is not the human world. Those rules don’t exist. The only thing down here is pleasure. Do you want to please me?”
“Y-yes, Master.”
He leaned in, breathing in her scent. “And I know you want to come. I can smell it on you.”
She blushed.
Hades brushed aside the fabric of the robe and put his hand between her legs. “Your body wants to be a good whore for me. All this sweet little cunt wants is to obey me. Is that what you want, too?”
She whimpered and moved against his hand.
“That’s it. Let yourself go for me.” He let her reach the very edge of her orgasm, where only the slightest nudge would push her over the cliff. But then he took his hand away.
“Master, please...”
“At the party. Come back with me and play. I will stay with you the whole time.”
She nodded. “Okay.”
“Good girl.” Hades guided her back down the hall and to the ballroom. “Would you like something to eat?”
“M-maybe a small piece of cake?”
He nodded and led her to the buffet table and cut her a small slice of chocolate cake. “Water or something else?”
“Water is fine.”
He filled a goblet and took her to a private table in a corner near the band. The food seemed to ground her some and strip away the buzzing edge of anxiety. The last thing he wanted to do was to hurt her, but he couldn’t let her hide inside herself and the sort of nonsense Zeus had wanted her to believe.
Persephone would fuck whoever Hades told her to fuck, and she would be blissfully happy every second of it. She would not be hemmed in by the stupid mortal rules she’d been taught to believe applied to her. Nothing beyond Hades’ will and considerable appetites applied to her, and it was best she learn it early in their relationship.
Persephone ate her dessert slowly, and he knew she was stalling. It was absurd. She’d been doing so well, and he knew she’d been enjoying herself. Maybe it was difficult given the life she’d led and the lies she’d believed about herself. Hades still wasn’t sure she accepted who she was. Without her powers, he imagined denial would be easy.
When she’d finished, Hades assisted her out of the chair and led her back to the enormous bed in the middle of the hall. The guests who had been engrossed in their own trysts, quickly disentangled themselves and followed him and Persephone to the middle of the ballroom.
He pulled her close and whispered in her ear, “Remember, my rules are different. The sluttier you are, the happier I am. I want you to fuck everyone at this party, do you understand?”
“Yes, Master.”
He removed the robe and handed it to one of the servants, then he ran his hands over her, as if memorizing her. Goosebumps popped out over her flesh. Her nipples were erect, her skin flushed and ready to be touched. He bent and trailed his tongue over her breast. She arched against him and moaned.
Hades felt between her legs to make sure she was aroused. He was shocked by just how wet she was. It was exactly as he’d thought. Her minor freak out had merely been the result of getting lost in thoughts that had no place in the underworld.
***
“My Lord, Hades.”
One of the servants had managed to slip up on him undetected. Hades was going to have to put a bell on that one.
“Yes, what is it?” He didn’t need to be distracted right now. He needed to keep a close eye on Persephone after the earlier incident.
“I have another message from Nick.” The servant held out a silver tray, his hand shaking a bit.
Hades took the crisp white note and broke the wax seal.
Zeus has plunged the upper world into winter and swears he will not return it to balance until his daughter is released.
Hades felt the glow come to his eyes. Sometimes he felt certain if he were to remain angry like this, he would incinerate from the inside.
“I-is there a message? He said I should wait for a message.”
Hades sighed. “Yes, tell him to return to the underworld immediately. He knows where to meet me.”
The servant bowed. “Yes, My Lord.”
Hades turned back to the party. The orgy was still in full swing, and Persephone was going strong. But it wouldn’t take Nick long to get back, and he didn’t want to leave Persephone alone with his guests. He’d promised her.
He caught the eye of the orchestra conductor and drew his finger across his throat. The conductor nodded, and the music stopped. The rest of the guests were stunned into silence by the abrupt absence of music—at least those not too lost to other more consuming activities.
“If I could have your attention,” Hades said.
Everyone stopped doing what they were doing. A loud moan rose from the group closest to him.
“Persephone, you too.”
A few nearby chuckles.
“I’m afraid I’m going to have to cut the party short. I have business to attend to.”
Disappointed groans rose from the crowd. And then Persephone, naked and flushed and pulsing with desire, stepped out from the group that had been attending to her considerable and growing needs.
“But Master...”
That pout. That lip.
“I don’t want to leave you alone,” Hades said. But who was he kidding? She’d long given herself up to the party. Whatever nasty leftover human feelings she’d had about the whole thing had disappeared by something like her tenth orgasm. She seemed to hum now, a buzzing energy leaping off her in sparks.
For a moment, he almost thought he’d seen her eyes glow. But without her powers, that was impossible.
“Please, Master.” A sad little mewl. She was in full wanton bloom. It would be a crime to stop her now.
Hades’ gaze swept the room. “The party continues on one condition. She says stop, you stop. If anyone disobeys the queen’s wishes while I’m gone, there will be unspeakable torments waiting for them.”
Persephone wrapped her arms around his neck and placed warm, wet open-mouthed kisses along his throat while she rubbed herself lewdly against him. At least he’d accomplished one goal tonight. Her sense of shame and modesty had left the building.
“Thank you,” she practically purred. She was only making it harder for him to pull himself away. But somehow he managed.
He quietly enlisted a few of the servants to act as spies to watch out for her. He didn’t leave the party until he was confident she would be safe. By the time he reached the gardens, Nick was already out there, sitting on a white marble bench next to some nearly desiccated rose bushes and a statue depicting a mortal being tortured by one of the under beings.
Nick stood when Hades reached him and bowed. “My Lord.”
“Skip the formality. Talk.” He looked especially twitchy tonight, and Hades didn’t like it.
Nick was one of the few beings who could spend extensive periods of time both in the underworld and on the surface, which made him an excellent spy. Most mortals these days would describe him as a demon if they even believed such creatures existed. His job was to tempt the weak-minded, and for that task, he was allowed in the upper world—call it a visitor’s pass.
“It’s bad,” Nick said.
Hades rolled his eyes. “What do I care what petulant tantrums that overgrown baby throws up there? He wants to destroy his own domain… let him.”
“You should care. The world will last a year at most in the current conditions. Then everything and everyone will die. It will throw the entire balance off. And we can’t process that many souls that quickly down here.”
Hades picked up the statue and flung it across the garden. It made a satisfying shattering sound as it crashed against the hardened ground a few yards away.
“You’re going to have to make a deal with him,” Nick said.
Hades growled. “No. No deals. Fuck him and his deals. You go to him. You tell him I don’t care what he does, I will never release Persephone. She is mine.”
“My Lord, you must listen to reason.” But Nick was already backing away.
Hades paced, his boots crunching over the shattered statue. “No, you listen. You tell him I am calling his bluff. If he destroys and kills everything, Persephone has nowhere to go, and he knows it. I think he enjoys the world too much to destroy it over this.”
“But… all the souls...”
“I’ll destroy them if I have to. And you tell him I said that.”
Nick’s face blanched. Destroying souls—simply snuffing them out of existence—was dark work, even for Hades. He’d only done it once or twice in thousands of years. And on a much smaller scale. The act had done something to him, chipped away a piece of his ability to feel. He’d been like cold stone for months after, only slowly recovering back to himself. And that had felt like a close call—like his single chance not to fuck it up again. A warning.
If he were to destroy millions or billions of souls at once? He was sure he would become something unrecognizable, which nothing could bring him back from. If he did that, Persephone would look on him with revulsion and terror. And she’d be right to.
If he did that, she might not be safe with him.
But he couldn’t let her go. Zeus had to believe Hades was fully willing to go through with this. Therefore, Nick had to believe it. Whether he was or not, it was his only card to play because the alternative was unthinkable.
He wasn’t returning Persephone. So it came down to the two master bluffs… killing the world with winter or destroying every soul winter killed.
“Go!” Hades said, his arm held out firm and unwavering as he pointed off in the distance, toward the portal.
Nick turned to obey the order.
“And Nick?”
“Y-yes, My Lord?”
“You tell that bastard that if he forces my hand… if he ends the world and I have to destroy all those souls… you tell him… If he thinks Persephone lives at the mercy of a monster now, he has no idea what he’ll be subjecting her to if he follows through with this. If any part of him cares for her, he’ll rethink this strategy.”
If possible, Nick turned even whiter. “Y-yes, My Lord.” And then he was gone.
Hades sank onto the bench, his head falling into his hands. Nick believed it at least. That meant there was a chance Zeus might.
He knew his eyes glowed. He was so angry that his perfect, human-looking visage was starting to fade. His hands began to form claws as his skin took on a black glistening sheen like a snake. He couldn’t go back to the party until he calmed down. He wouldn’t let Persephone see him like this. She’d already seen glimpses of it with the eyes. He never wanted her to have to see what he could turn into if he let himself go.
Everyone, whether mortal or god, had a pressure point. There was a thing that if unleashed took on a life of its own. For Persephone, it was a beautiful lust that only brought good things to the underworld. In the full blush of orgasm, she brought life to everything near her. For Hades, it was anger, bitterness, all the rage he’d bottled for thousands of years. If he let that go, everything would burn.
If he destroyed all those souls, he might shift to that thing and never come back. And what if he hurt her?
He sat in the garden for hours breathing slowly and deeply, trying to get a handle on his emotions.
“My Lord?”
He looked up to find one of the servants he’d enlisted as a party spy standing a few feet from him.
Hades jumped to his feet. All at once, his hands went back to normal, and he felt the heat leave his eyes. “Is something wrong?”
“No, My Lord. The goddess seems spent. I thought it might be time for you to come collect her.”
“Of course.”
The party had thinned out by the time he got back to the ballroom, most of the guests having gone. The few that remained were drinking gin and sitting at a table playing cards. The band had long stopped playing. Persephone lay on a sofa at the far corner of the room near the guests playing cards, sleeping, the robe covering her like a blanket.
“She’s been out for about twenty minutes. Poor thing is worn out,” Melos said, an evil gleam in his eyes.
Hades had no doubt he’d helped wear her out. “Thanks for taking care of her.” He scooped her up and carried her up to their room.
She stirred briefly when he put her in the bed. “Master?”
“Shhhh. It’s time to rest.”
Persephone let out a small sigh in response, and her eyes drifted shut. Hades undressed and got into bed with her. He pulled her against him and just held her while his mind buzzed with worry about the future.