The only good thing was that he wouldn’t know she was missing. Knowing that would probably kill him, especially with mom already gone.
In the city she’d made a few friends, mostly regulars that hung out at the Chinese restaurant below her apartment. Then there was the shopkeeper at the bookstore across from her job she’d formed a friendship with. And Lynette at the flower shop.
It was such a small life tucked inside a couple of blocks of an enormous city. But she’d been content. And now those plants were all going to die. Her apartment would be rented. Her job would be filled. And she could kiss free Chinese food on Wednesdays goodbye.
She wasn’t sure how long she’d stayed on the ground thinking about this, mourning the finality and the loss of everything and everyone she loved. Even if it hadn’t been a big life, it had been her life. She’d been so happy she’d never stopped to consider how unhappy she could be if it were all taken.
Now she knew.
And it wasn’t the fear of what he might do to her. Surprisingly the closest thing she’d felt down here to the happiness of her life up there had been when Hades was holding her. She didn’t want to think too hard about that, and she definitely couldn’t bring herself to fight it. She had to find a way to hold onto this one warm thing even if he was also the source of all her problems.
Persephone got up off the ground and put the robe back on, carefully locking the three silver clasps back in place. In the hallway, she found another guard. This time she was less afraid, though she did worry he might have heard what Hades had done in there with her.
She felt the marks the god had left on her as they pressed against the soft fabric of the robe. She was so very aware of that—and her nudity. Strangely, after the whipping, she was more aware of her nudity under the robe, of how the slit in the garment rested mere inches south of a place between her legs that felt suddenly awake.
Her nipples were aroused and pressing against the fabric. It was such a foreign sensation. She hoped the guard didn’t notice. She’d never been more aware of her own body before in her life. Something dark and carnal felt as though it were slithering between her legs, then up and around her belly, over her breasts, pulling her into a mad embrace she didn’t think she could survive and couldn’t decide if she wanted, even though a craving had started that very much was not for food.
“Your Grace,” the guard said.
It was still weird being called that.
“My Lord Hades said I should wait for you and help you find the dining hall.”
“O-okay. Thank you,” Persephone managed as she tried desperately to stop thinking all the thoughts that had insisted on pushing into her mind at just the wrong and most mortifying moment.
She followed the guard downstairs and down several massive hallways until they reached a large room that contained a long, shiny, black table. The guard excused himself back to his duties, and Persephone stepped inside. There was a long row of tall windows where the moonlight cast reflections on the table.
Hades had set a fire roaring in the grate of an enormous fireplace on one wall. He pulled out a chair for her at the end of the table near the fire as if he knew how much she needed to feel something warm and bright on her skin—the smallest echo of sunlight.
He waved a hand, and several silver candelabras with white candles lit all down the length of the table. Instead of leaving her alone and sitting all the way at the other end, he pulled a chair up beside her.
“Eat,” he said.
She looked down at a shiny black plate in front of her. It was empty. But then a second later it was filled with lo mein and egg rolls. Exactly like from the Chinese restaurant.
“An interesting choice,” Hades remarked.
“H-how?”
“The castle knows what you want,” he said.
Then the castle must know how badly she wanted to return to her life on the surface. If the castle could magically deliver the food she’d just been thinking of, couldn’t it take her back to her life?
A silver goblet beside the plate filled with water as if it were being poured from an unseen pitcher.
Persephone didn’t give voice to her thoughts of escape. Even if the castle could know her deepest desire to return to her life, it would never defy Hades to deliver her that one fervent wish. She was sure that the castle, like the guards, were loyal to him.
Instead, she ate as requested. It was exactly like the food she remembered, down to the strange touch of cinnamon inside the egg rolls that made all the other flavors pop. Hades sat quietly beside her while she ate. It was unnerving, but it was better than eating alone.
“Don’t you eat?” she asked.
“I do, but I don’t need to nearly as often as you.”
When she’d finished, the plate cleared away and became clean and shiny again. A moment later, a single fortune cookie appeared.
Persephone opened it and read the small slip of paper inside.
Give the dark mysterious man a chance. He’s not all bad.
“Did you do this?” she asked, passing the fortune to Hades.
He read the slip of paper and chuckled. “No. The castle has a weird sense of humor sometimes.”
“What now?” Persephone asked.
One dark eyebrow rose. “What do you mean, what now?”
“I mean what happens now? What are you going to do to me now?”
Hades pulled back his sleeve and looked at a gleaming silver watch on his wrist. “It’s midnight in the city you came from. You should get some rest. And then in a few days, we’ll throw a party. I can’t hide you away from the whole underworld now can I?”
“How will I ever know what day it is?”
Hades covered her hand with his and closed his eyes for a moment. When he opened them, the watch had somehow transferred from his wrist to hers. She’d been so busy watching him, that she hadn’t seen the magic happen.
“I’ll have another made for myself,” he said.
“T-thank you.” Was there a possibility he might be kind to her? Couldn’t he forget this vendetta against Zeus and be decent?
She looked down at the watch. In the transfer from his wrist to hers, it had also gotten smaller—not just to fit her much tinier wrist, but the band had gotten slimmer to give it a more feminine feel. The face of the watch was a normal time piece, but right above the face where the band started there was a little moon symbol.
“The watch is set for New York time. When it’s day, that moon will change to a sun,” Hades said as she studied it.
Under the face of the watch, where the other band started, there was a date and a year so she would know what day it was, too. Even though this place seemed like a stagnant endless noise of no time, the watch around her wrist felt like the smallest window back into the real world. At least she could know how many days, weeks, months had passed. She could know if the sun was out in her world, or if it was night.
She could know when to sleep and get up, assuming Hades allowed her to keep to some kind of normal schedule. He seemed like he might. Since her punishment, something in him seemed to have unwound the smallest amount as if some darkness inside him had been appeased, allowing her a small window of safety. And in that window, he wanted her to sleep.
“Go on up to bed, Sunshine,” he said.
She felt his eyes on her as she got up from the table. Then it was the eyes of the guards she felt as she walked down the hallways, up the grand staircase, and up to the third floor and the room with the big, comfortable bed.
Inside the room was a big black door she hadn’t noticed before. When she pushed it open, she found a clean, simple bathroom. When she glanced at the marble counter, a toothbrush and toothpaste appeared along with a fluffy gray towel.
She took the watch off and laid it on the counter, along with the robe he’d dressed her in. The silver collar gleamed at her throat. She didn’t know how to take it off or even if she was allowed to, so she left it on. Then she took a hot shower and brushed he
r teeth.
Admittedly, a good meal and the normalcy of a shower and a toothbrush made her feel somehow less stricken by everything.
She wrapped the gray towel around herself and put the watch back on. Persephone didn’t bother with the robe. If Hades wanted her, he would have her, and no flimsy piece of fabric would get in his way. She would rather at least be comfortable under the soft sheets and blanket.
She got into the bed and dropped the towel onto the floor, where it promptly vanished into thin air.
Chapter Four
Persephone stirred, awakened by a warm body pressing against hers.
“It’s only me, Sunshine,” Hades said.
Only him. Only her tormentor. Only the end of the world.
But when his skin was pressed against hers, she didn’t feel any of the things she thought she was supposed to feel. When he was touching her, she wasn’t afraid. She didn’t feel cold or unhappy. Everything felt warm and safe. She didn’t want him to ever stop touching her because as long as his skin was pressed against hers everything in her world felt right somehow.
“Master are you going to…?”
“Am I going to what?”
“You know what.” She couldn’t bring herself to say it. She knew he had every intention of… deflowering her. And yet, with his warmth edging so close into hers, she couldn’t think of why that should be a bad thing. It seemed as though she had always been meant for him and that he had always been meant for her. And despite everything that should make that idea wrong, it felt right.
Still, she looked at him expectantly, hoping he wouldn’t make her say the words.
Hades sighed. “Fine. Yes, I know what you’re asking. But no, not just yet. You need rest. I’ll start training you tomorrow and then… we’ll see. When your desire is so great you can’t cope with life without me inside you, and when you then beg me to fulfill that lust, I’ll let you have it.”
She tried to ignore most of that, though the words had tunneled into her brain and would likely stay there forever to taunt her. “Training?” she asked, trying instead to focus on one small part of his troubling speech.
“Oh, yes, Sunshine. I have to awaken you. You are not a little girl. You are a woman with needs you will become aware of very soon. If you were fated to be mine, then the needs inside you must mirror mine as well. They’ve just been buried. But for now… sleep.”
Persephone was sure she’d only closed her eyes for a moment, but the watch around her wrist showed a little sun with the time reading nine thirty. She’d slept like the dead. Then remembering where she was, that seemed suddenly very logical.
She tried to think what had woken her because it certainly wasn’t sunlight. Then she heard the steady patter of water in Hades’ bathroom and realized the sound of the shower must have been what pulled her out of sleep. If he had taken Lynette instead of Persephone, she was sure her boss would be seducing him in the shower right now.
Lynette wouldn’t have been as afraid. Despite seeming to share the quiet life of the flower shop, Lynette liked to party, and she liked dangerous men. She was the kind of woman dangerous men liked as well. Her back and left arm were covered in black tattoos, though her long hair usually covered most of it. Sometimes she wore a cropped top to give a peak of a dragon climbing out of the back of red leather pants.
Lynette would have barely reached the underworld before she’d have herself convinced she’d gone there of her own free will. She certainly wouldn’t have kicked up a fuss and fought. It wouldn’t have occurred to her to be afraid of a man as utterly visually beautiful as Hades. She would have counted herself lucky and ridden him into oblivion.
But Persephone wasn’t Lynette. She didn’t know how to play the temptress. And even if she did, she would only be pretending. She might feel inexplicably warm and safe when Hades touched her, but she didn’t feel the animal craving of lust. She didn’t know what it was to need a man inside her.
A few minutes later, the shower stopped. And then several minutes after that, Hades came out wearing jeans and a black T-shirt. No shoes. Dripping hair. He almost looked human. He almost looked like one of those models that might drift past the flower shop window on a bright Thursday afternoon.
“Did you sleep well?”
She went suddenly shy. “Yes, Master.”
When she looked up again, he was smiling softly at her. All at once, she felt as though her will had enfolded into his, and somehow she knew he wouldn’t have gone for Lynette.
“Are you hungry?” he asked, still conversational, still so… normal.
“I’m not really much of a breakfast person. I don’t usually eat until eleven thirty.”
“Good. I have big plans for you today.”
She wasn’t sure when it had happened, but there must have been a moment when Hades had decided keeping her in a cage and chopping off fingers was no longer appealing. Because even though she knew the reality of her situation, increasingly it felt as though he saw her as something other than his prisoner, and for small moments at a time, she found she could fall into that version of reality as well.
He crossed the room to the side of the bed and held out a hand. “Come with me.”
Suddenly she was very aware of her nudity. “C-can I have the robe?”
A smirk inched up one side of his face. “No, you may not.”
“But there are guards out there.”
“Believe me, they’ve seen thousands of beautiful naked women. You won’t shock them.”
She felt the heat rise to her cheeks. “But...”
“Persephone, in my world, we like our nudity. There is nothing for you to be ashamed or shy about.”
His words didn’t change the way she felt about it, but it was his world, and he knew how things worked down here. If Hades said nudity was no big deal, then maybe it wasn’t. Either way, he was being so pleasant with her, and she found herself not wanting to disappoint him. She allowed him to help her out of the bed and lead her down the hall to the room he’d punished her in before.
They only passed one guard on the way, who was stationed outside the bedroom. And he only took one quick look before Hades had her safely behind the doors of his playroom away from curious eyes.
She felt so strange standing in the moonlight from the window. It should be sunny. Or at least light out. There should be birds chirping and some kind of weather. But instead, it was just that dead, shiny blackness and bright, full moon. The moon didn’t even change. There were no phases… because it wasn’t real.
When Hades touched her and made her feel warm and safe, was that just magic like the moon? Was it even real? Or was it only a bit of sorcery to keep her from fighting him?
“D-do you use magic on me?”
He frowned. “What do you mean use magic on you?”
“I mean… are you doing something to me when you touch me?”
“Nothing besides touching you,” he said, an evil smirk lighting his face.
Persephone searched for a sign of deceit, but if it was there, it was too cleverly masked for her to find.
Hades waved a hand, and something that looked like a big leather table shot out from the closet and then hovered and settled in the center of the room. A pile of pillows landed on top of the table, and then a thick black blanket covered it all.
His attention shifted to her. “Get on top and make yourself comfortable.”
She climbed onto the table while he stood a few feet away and watched. She wasn’t sure what he meant by making herself comfortable. Should she lie down? Sit there? This felt so strange and awkward.
“Hmmm,” Hades said. “One adjustment.” He went to the closet and brought out a rounded, wide leather bench with a flat bottom. He pushed a few of the pillows aside and placed it in the middle of the table.
“Straddle it.”
“I-I’m sorry what?” She already felt far too exposed on the table. No one had ever seen her naked like this. Nor had anyone ever requested she spread her legs.
The idea would have been vulgar. Although she’d known in a vague sort of way about sex, she’d never stopped to think out any of the details or how it might play out against real living flesh.
He chuckled and moved to stand closer to the table. “Tell me the truth, Persephone. Don’t you want to see all that’s been hidden from you? Don’t you want to understand it? Feel it? Taste it? Be consumed by it?” His voice was so low and hypnotic.
She thought about playing dumb, but she understood him perfectly. And maybe she did want to know. For years, she’d thought there was something very wrong with her. That something was broken. Why couldn’t she feel the things other people around her felt? It was as though she’d been trapped in an earlier stage of development, and everyone else was leaving her behind to experience the more adult aspects of the world while she stayed in the safe family-friendly sphere of life.
She wanted to know if it was real or if they were only pretending. What if she could feel those same things? She thought back to her escape attempt and the feel of the leather saddle rubbing between her legs. That had been… new, and though a little scary, not entirely unwelcome.
Maybe there was something there that Hades could awaken. He seemed so worldly and experienced. If anyone knew all the carnal mysteries of the world, it was this guy. And a part of her, that kept growing louder by the moment, wanted him to reveal every secret to her.
“Sunshine, come on this trip with me. Let me teach you everything.”
He didn’t make threats or remind her of her captivity. He just waited patiently. There was no need for threats. The temptation was too dark, too delicious. He could drag her deeper down into his hedonistic world with only the promises of the pleasures she wanted to know.
Finally, she did as he asked. The leather was soft against her skin as she spread her legs over it, much as the saddle had been. She had to stop herself from grinding against it, trying to mimic that feeling from the day before.
Hades pulled out straps from underneath the table and secured her legs down. Then he took some rope from the closet and tied her wrists behind her back. She hadn’t realized restraints would be involved.