A Game of Fate (Hades Saga, #1)

by Scarlett St. Clair

She is yours, a voice echoed in his head, and something inside him snapped. Claim her.

This was Persephone, the goddess who would be his queen, and she was everything.

He would pry the bars from around her body, free her from this self-constructed cage of hate, and in the end, if she did not love him, at least she would be free.

“No one prays to the God of the Dead, my lady, and when they do, it is already too late.”

Fuck waiting to love her elsewhere, the garden is perfect.

You will be my wife and queen. You will sit on a throne.

Was he touching her the way Hades longed to touch her? The thought made him feel violent.

“You will worship me,” she said, grinding against his cock. “And I won’t even have to order you.”

Oh, darling, he thought. If you only knew how I worship you now.

“No, Lady Persephone. Trust me, when we fuck, you’ll remember.”

My lover, he thought. My wife, my queen.

“I know the way your breath hitches when I touch you. I know how your skin flushes when you’re thinking about me. I know there is something beneath this pretty facade.”

“Let me show you what it is to hold power in your hands. Let me coax the darkness from you. I will help you shape it.”

“Let me be your first.”

“Touch yourself. Here.”

He wanted to be the first to explore her body, the only one to know its truth and bring her pleasure.

He descended upon her as if she were a feast and he starved.

Except Persephone surprised him by wrapping her hand around his cock. They stared at each other, and if gazes could start fires, they would incinerate.

He laughed because he had just had one of the hottest sexual encounters of his long life. Because his goddess—his future wife—had pleasured herself—and she had thought of him.

Because I feared exposing the truth of my heart—that I have always desired to love and be loved.

Because it was her he loved.

and as sleep descended upon Hades, he had the thought that he would tear this world apart if anyone tried to take Persephone from him.

Nothing, not a mortal and not the Fates, would keep him from the euphoria that was Persephone—his lover, his queen, his goddess.

Darling, he wanted to say. You are the only woman in my mind.

“I want you inside me,” she said. “Fuck me, say my name as you come. Dream of me, and only me, for the rest of eternity.”

Take her, and I will destroy this world. Take her, and I will destroy you. Take her, and I will end us all.

He did as she asked, though his whole body wanted to deny her request. The only thing he wanted to do was be near her, because she loved him. Because he loved her.

“You are your own prisoner.”

“Shut up,” she snapped. “I miss her, the souls miss her, you miss her. Why are we spending all this time missing her when we can just…get her back?”