“W-what are you doing?” she asked, glancing around the room, clearly rattled.
“Me? Not a thing.” It was true. He wasn’t doing anything to her, but he had some idea what was happening. Still, it was so delicious to watch it unfold.
“I-it feels like...” She was becoming more and more flustered by the moment.
He smiled. “Yes?”
Persephone moved off the platform she’d been standing on and to a nearby sofa. Her breathing came heavy as she tried to cope with her new reality. She lay back against the arm of the furniture, her legs falling open. Such a lovely sight.
“It feels like… h-hands touching me.” Her hips arched up to meet the invisible hand that must have been stroking her between her legs.
Hades chuckled. “So then I guess you do want to play with my party guests.”
It appeared to take all her concentration to focus on the conversation. Every few moments she seemed to get lost in the sensations and give in to them. “Stop it,” she panted. Then, remembering who she was speaking to, she added, “Please.”
“I told you, I’m not doing it. I also told you the castle knows what you want. If you want the phantom hands to stop touching you, then stop thinking such unforgivably depraved things.”
Her current predicament was within her power to stop. All she had to do was think something sweet and innocent, or just not think about fucking all his party guests as she obviously was. This was all within her mind, manifested and made real for her by the mind of the castle.
He certainly would have a talk with the castle later. After all, he didn’t want her becoming too addicted to things which weren’t real. He wanted her focus to be on the real sensations he and others could and would give her. But for now, for just this once, he would enjoy this show and the particular quirks of his home.
She gripped the back of the couch with one hand as her head fell back, and a moan escaped her lips. Her nipples were erect, and Hades could see the wetness gathering between her legs as she moved with the invisible hand.
“How many hands would you say are on you right now?” Hades asked. If he couldn’t see inside her mind and he couldn’t know with any great detail what she was feeling, he wanted data points. He wanted to know just how filthy her mind was.
She squeezed her eyes shut as if trying to concentrate against the sensations. “E-eight… n-no… ten.”
“Are they male hands or female hands?”
“I...I don’t know. Both I think.”
“Tell me what they’re doing.”
Her blush went deeper. Talking about it seemed to be more difficult than lying back on his sofa and just taking it.
“Tell me, or I might have to punish you,” Hades said. He might have to do that anyway. When he’d decided to corrupt her, he’d thought it would take more time, that she might be more reluctant. But in the end, it had taken such a small push, and her inner slut was already flourishing. He loved it. He never should have doubted the seer. Persephone had been made for him.
“They’re all over me, rubbing and… and penetrating...”
It was all she could manage. Hades decided to be merciful and not demand further information. Besides, from the way she moved and squirmed, he could tell much of what was happening on his own. Both her little ass and cunt were being fingered while still another hand seemed to be moving feverishly over her clit.
“It can all stop if you think about something else. The castle is only giving you what you want after all. You could make it stop, or you could just go ahead and let it happen. I think you want to let it happen.” He stood right over her, his arms crossed over his chest as she whimpered and mewled and bucked against the air.
She was too far gone now.
In another moment, he was proven right when a scream left her throat, and she rode the orgasm until she was wrung out.
After it was over, Persephone collected herself, scrambled to sit up on the sofa, and looked down at her lap.
“Well, did you have a good time? I’m sure it’ll be even better when you do it with real people at the party.”
Her head snapped up, her eyes meeting his briefly before going back to her lap. “M-Master, I can’t...”
He laughed. “We will see. But you want to, don’t you, Sunshine? You want to be my good little whore at the party. And nothing will please me more than to accommodate that insatiable appetite of yours.”
He lifted her chin so her eyes met his. Then he surprised himself by leaning forward and pressing a soft kiss to her lips. She responded, her lips parting beneath his, a soft gasp drifting out of her. He sat beside her and pulled her into his arms. He couldn’t be farther from his original plan with her, and he couldn’t bring himself to care. All he wanted now was to teach and give her everything her heart and body desired.
Chapter Five
Persephone sat at the table in the dining room eating breakfast. Hades was away but had promised it would only be for a couple of hours. Her skin itched and felt too tight with him gone.
She’d been in the underworld now for a week, but it felt like so much longer.
Once she’d gotten settled into a routine, Hades had taken her on a tour. He’d started with the castle, showing her all three levels. The bottom level was the dungeon rooms, like the one she’d been kept in for a short while on her arrival. That part of the tour had been thankfully short.
The main level held the long entry hall, the ballroom, the kitchens, several parlors and casual living spaces, the dining room, and a library. Off the back of the library was a garden. Or it would be a garden if anything grew. Instead, it was a maze of tangled black branches, interspersed with white marble statues of grotesque beings—like what she imagined a demon might look like. And there were several benches to sit on.
After the castle, he’d shown her his kingdom, or at least the nearby places. The full domain of the underworld was as vast or maybe even more vast than the mortal world she’d known. And there were many different levels. Some places were about punishment and pain and suffering. Those places were far from the castle, and Hades had spared her having to see them.
Sometimes people got out of those places, but mostly they didn’t. Everything else was a type of shadow life. It wasn’t hard to see how someone could find enjoyment in this place. And Persephone was sure that for beings who weren’t still alive like her, that the darkness must not be a problem. Maybe after death one no longer felt the craving for light.
There was no beautiful perfect place of light and happiness—no place like Heaven. Maybe there was a heaven, but if such a place existed, it wasn’t in the underworld. But for most, this place wasn’t hell, either. It was just an existence. People took their pleasures where they could find them—maybe in some ways not so different from life.
There were countless cities. Hades had only taken her to a few nearby ones. Some of them were all lit up like a carnival under the bright moon and stars, others seemed abandoned and haunted. There were areas with thick fog and tangled gnarled trees much like the forest they’d had to go through to reach the castle. And then there were places with rolling hills and pure clear starry sky for miles and miles. There were underground cavern cities as well.
Hades called that level the pleasure caves. Persephone didn’t ask why. She could guess. When she was with Hades, she felt a twisted sort of attraction to the underworld. Although all the plant life and trees were dead, there was a desolate barren beauty to the way the tree branches entwined together as if clutching onto each other for safety.
There were some animals in the underworld beyond the horses from the castle and the giant three-headed monster dog—though Hades said most were just gone when they died. Animals didn’t cling and beg for life like humans did. But sometimes they crossed over into the underworld. When they did, they mostly hid in the forests or the abandoned towns. So if there was a songbird or kitten out there, Persephone hadn’t yet seen or heard about it.
Although a gloominess often se
ttled over the underworld, there was good food, and pleasure, and fun to be had. And an eternity in which to have it.
The underworld felt like a black mirror of the world she’d known. Above, on the surface, she’d been sweet and innocent. Down here, she was something else entirely.
She wasn’t sure which version of herself was real. Was it the sweet girl who didn’t even think about sex, or was it this carnal beast she became with Hades? Either thing could be the truth. If it was true that Zeus had taken her desires away while he’d been hiding her—if any of that were even true—then perhaps Hades had been a strong enough catalyst to bring her back to herself.
Or maybe she truly had been innocent, and Hades was doing something magic to her. Maybe both things were true. Maybe both men had manipulated her desires for their own purposes. One to keep her pure. The other to corrupt her.
Hades was out, busy with last minute party preparations. The party was tonight. Of course, it was always night in the underworld—but the party was scheduled for tonight according to the time in her world. Her life in New York already felt like a distant memory, but still she missed it.
She tried to focus on finishing her breakfast—a buttery pastry, fruit, and coffee. But she couldn’t. Every bite was harder to choke down than the last as she felt the lump forming in her throat and the tears begin to spill down her cheeks.
A female servant left her post in the corner and rushed to Persephone’s side. “It’s okay, Your Grace. He’ll be back very soon. You should try to finish your breakfast.”
“I’m not very hungry. I think I’ll go up to my room and rest for a while.”
“Of course, whatever you like.”
“D-don’t tell him. He can’t know about this.” Persephone was afraid for Hades to know just how much power he truly held over her. He couldn’t know that his absence made her fall apart like this. He might use it against her.
The servant looked torn, but finally she said, “I am commanded to follow your instructions, so I will do as you wish. But if you will pardon my intrusion, you should talk to him about this. He has a right to know.”
“Just don’t say anything. It’s a matter between us.” She tried to sound as regal as possible, hoping her words might sound as if they could carry some threat.
The servant nodded quickly.
Persephone left the table and climbed the steps back to the room she shared with Hades and shut the door. Those stairs felt like climbing a mountain. She was so exhausted. The guard outside her door had raised an eyebrow at her struggle, but beyond that he hadn’t said anything. Would she have to worry about him talking? What about the castle itself? The castle was a little too sentient in its own right for her comfort. Could it tell on her to Hades? Or would it follow her wishes and keep quiet?
But if the castle hadn’t told him yet, surely it wouldn’t now. After all, since the very first time Hades had touched her, she’d been trying to cope with the deep crushing sadness that swept over her whenever he stopped. When his hands were on her, everything felt right. She was indescribably happy. Everything in her head was songbirds and warmth. Safety and security. Peace. Sunshine.
For his part, despite the obedience he demanded of her, there were tender moments that made her believe something inside him had softened to her as well—that this overwhelming need wasn’t one-sided, and that whatever was dead and broken inside him was becoming whole again. But at what cost? Each time he was away from her, it became harder to exist, to breathe down here.
He would find out eventually, and then what?
She stepped out onto the balcony. That stupid bright full moon. And darkness. No wind. No rain. No sunlight. Ever. God, she was drowning down here. Suffocating. She went to the edge and looked down. She should just throw herself over.
This place was so much less beautiful when he was gone. It was as if his very presence cast a sort of glamor over the place to make it tolerable. But whenever he was gone, all she could see was the wrongness of it.
She wasn’t sure if she was truly immortal like Hades said, but even if she wasn’t, wouldn’t she come back here to this terrible dark place if she jumped? Maybe there was another, better place her soul could go? Heaven? Some way she could escape. No. It wasn’t worth the risk. Somehow she knew she’d just end up back here. She’d always end up back here.
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, trying to shake these taunting feelings. He would be back soon. Everything would be okay. He would hold her and stroke her and fuck her, and everything would be right.
Persephone went back inside and ran a bath. That’s what she needed. A nice, hot bath to make this feeling go away. But what if it never went away?
Stop being ridiculous. He’s coming back.
Inside the tub, she let the warm water embrace her as she leaned back against the edge. She tried to think about the party and all the guests and the dirty things they would do together. She wished the castle would listen and distract her again with those disembodied hands.
It was funny how much it had disturbed her the one time it had happened. And now she wanted it to. But it never happened again after that first time, and a part of her thought it was some magic thing Hades had done himself, like so many other magic things he did. It was hard to know what was real with him. Everything felt like a grand illusion, a sleight of hand. The harder she tried to look and pin down anything real, the more wispy and elusive it became.
The water made a gentle gurgle as she raised her arm out and ran her fingertips over the silver collar at her throat. At least this was real. It was the one thing she could count on. When he’d first put the collar around her throat, all she could think about was how to get out of it.
And she didn’t just mean the physical piece of metal. But out of this enslavement, this captivity.
It didn’t take long, however, for the collar to feel like the only anchor she had in this strange, gnarled world of death. Knowing that she belonged to him began to be a real comfort. Watching the way his face lit up when she said Master, chased away any of the doubt she might have felt about the unconventional arrangement. He took care of what was his.
And if she’d thought it meant she was some lesser thing to him, she’d been dead wrong. If anything, being owned by Hades seemed to be the best outcome one could hope for in a place like this.
It began to feel like safety and security—the one thing she could count on. She felt so torn because she wanted to be free of this place. But the man? The god? Never. She never wanted to be free of Hades. In his arms was the most secure and happy she’d ever felt. And if it was magic, she prayed the spell never broke.
She finished her bath, put on one of the many black robes with the silver clasps that now filled her closet, and lay down for a nap, hoping to pass the time until he returned. But she couldn’t fall asleep. She lay on the bed and stared out through the sheer fabric over the arched doorway of the balcony at the bright full moon that always taunted her in its crushing sameness.
It felt as though that glowing orb sucked all the strength and energy from her—at least when Hades wasn’t there.
Persephone’s eyes fluttered open at the sound of the door clicking. She glanced at the watch around her wrist. It was late afternoon already, edging into early evening. She’d slept after all. It had been a blank, dreamless sleep. She didn’t feel rested. If anything, she thought she could sleep twelve or fifteen more hours and still not get enough rest. But then the door opened, and Hades stepped into the room.
He wore a black suit not unlike what he’d worn on the day he’d taken her from the city. He was loaded down with bags of things he’d picked up, no doubt, in a nearby city. His dark eyes took her in, and she felt immediately drawn to him.
He put the bags down just inside the room, and she got up and met him. When she reached him, she dropped to her knees. “Master.” The word came out on a soft sigh, such relief to be so close to him.
Hades bent and pressed a kiss to the top of his head
. “My sweet girl. Are you ready for the party? I have your dress.”
If someone had asked her that a few hours ago, or even when she’d first woken up a moment ago, she would have begged to be left alone, the exhaustion so overwhelming that even the thought of doing something so taxing as getting ready for a party might drain her further.
But now, with Hades so close, she felt energized and happy. He was like the sun, warm and bright, and she seemed to draw life from his presence.
“Yes, I’m ready.”
He took her hands in his and helped her to stand. When he touched her, it felt like electricity—as if he were charging her up like a battery. As soon as he let go of her hands, she put her arms around him and trailed kisses over his neck, his face, his lips. He stopped her, holding her in place for a longer, deeper kiss. She moaned and melted against his mouth, wanting to keep this one moment frozen forever.
“You didn’t miss me, did you?” he teased. “I was only gone a few hours like I promised.”
She wanted to tell him what happened to her in his absence. She just… couldn’t. In the beginning, she’d thought he knew, even that he might be doing it to her on purpose to somehow addict her to him. But now she was sure he wasn’t doing it. And if he was, he didn’t do it on purpose. And he definitely didn’t know about it.
Maybe he could be the world’s greatest liar, but he wasn’t a stone. He had feelings. She didn’t believe he could pretend ignorance of her pain so well, especially when lately he seemed to want to cause her pleasure.
No, it was the underworld. The place was too dark and filled with death, too oppressive for her to live in it. This wasn’t a place for the living, only for the dead—and somehow, Hades, who straddled both states. It was just… wrong for her to be down here.
Persephone was beginning to believe he felt something real for her—the same thing she felt for him. If it was all just magic, they seemed equally swept away by the spell. And wasn’t chemistry a type of magic? Maybe this was the chemistry of gods.