A Touch of Chaos (Hades x Persephone Saga, #4)

by Scarlett St. Clair

Persephone took a breath and closed her eyes. As she did, she felt the world around her go quiet. Nothing seeped into her space save her anger, her pain, her worry. Her ears rang with it, her heart pumped with it, and she used it to draw on the darker part of her magic. It was the part of her that ached, the part of her that raged, the part of her that no longer believed the world was wholly good. “You are my wife and my queen.” Hades’s voice echoed in her mind. It sent chills down her spine and cradled her heart. The sound brought tears to her eyes and made her chest feel tight, stealing the air from her lungs. “You are everything that makes me good,” he said. “And I am everything that makes you terrible.” She swallowed the thickness that had gathered in her throat. Before, she would have balked at those words, but now she understood the power in being feared. And she wanted to be dreaded. “Where are you?” she asked, desperate for him to manifest at her side where he belonged, but the longer she remained alone, the darker her energy became. “Waiting to carry you through the dark if you will bring me to the light.” Her heart felt so heavy, a weight in her chest. “I need you,” she whispered. “You have me,” he said. “There is no part where you end or I begin. Use me, darling, as you have for your pleasure. There is power in this pain.” And there was pain.