Receiver of Many (Hades & Persephone, #1)

by Rachel Alexander

She will live in the world above where she belongs, where she’s happiest, and my life can go back to the way it was.”

“No.” He felt bile well up in his throat as he contemplated any kind of intimacy with anyone but her.

For all the nausea he felt at the idea of laying with another woman, the thought of his wife being touched by another man filled him with a rage so potent it could lay waste to the earth.

“Neither could have happened unless she loved you just as fiercely. You believe your love compels you to send her back, and you are willing to sacrifice your every desire for her happiness, Aidoneus. But one more offering is required— your pride. Go to her.”

Nearly anything can be forgiven, if one is willing to open their heart completely.”

“Foolish woman…” “Foolish how? To live up to my name? To engage in my divine role?”

“To enjoy fucking Death?”

Persephone now worried that his ardent declarations of love had faded into despondency, or worse— hatred. I should never have brought you here.

“So you have told him to stay away?” “There was no need.” Hecate fought back a smile. “You had already done so, my queen.”

Where you were a caterpillar and could be a happy little caterpillar and would only be told that butterflies existed somewhere?”

“Then you must cast off childish raiment for the garb of a queen.”

“Why do you think he stays away?” Persephone bit at her cheek and felt her throat close. “Because he hates me now.”

“Ah, I see it now!” “What is that?” “Why he’s so madly in love with you.” She clapped her knee. “Gods, you two are so alike, it slays me!”

“Please don’t send me back, my queen.”

Ianthe…

that the gods need mankind far more than mankind need the gods.

The Queen of the Underworld was silent. “Please don’t send me to Tartarus for saying that,” she said meekly.

“It’s over now,” a soft male voice said. “He’ll never touch you again.”

“Hypnos.” “My queen. How is she?”

“Please no; you’ll bring the nightmares back! I don’t need to sleep again, I swear!”

“But you know that in the end, only one thing will give you peace.” “What would that be?” Merope said wearily.

“The waters of the Lethe,” Aidoneus said quietly from the doorway.

There was so much damage to be undone.

“I want to offer you what I give to all whom I receive: peace.

At least for now, she was able to read his face: he was telling her to do what she willed.

When you fully recover, I will gladly have you as my maidservant.”

It didn’t take much to imagine himself wearing the Helm of Darkness and visiting the world above to watch over her from afar, much as it would pain him to do so.

You don’t look now as you did then.”

“To be fair, my lady,” Thanatos said, folding his arms across the front of his chlamys and cocking his eyebrow at her, “neither do you.”

Aidoneus cleared his throat and narrowed his eyes at him.

“You are such a whore,” Hypnos said under his breath as he grinned. “Oh, you’re one to talk.”

She bit her upper lip and glanced back at the double doors leading to her bedroom. “Not there,” he said. And certainly not with these three on the other side of the door.

It was the first time she had touched him since her hand connected with the side of his face three days ago.

“I honestly hope to reconcile with you, and maybe we can find those answers together.”

He gifted these doors to me a few centuries ago when I—” “I don’t want to have sex with you tonight.”

“Persephone, I swear to you on the great River Styx that I, Hades Aidoneus Chthonios, firstborn son of Kronos, will answer plainly and truthfully anything you ask of me from this moment forth.”

“I… I almost wish that I had been shot with it. Maybe it would be easier for me to—” “I wouldn’t have wished that sudden insanity on anyone. Least

Persephone shifted uncomfortably on the divan. It had been three days since he last touched her.

“Persephone, I have loved you and only you for forty thousand years. And I will love you and only you until the stars are shaken out of the sky.”

“I was so afraid of you after I struck you. That’s why I screamed for you to leave.” “Why were you afraid of me?” he said softly. “Because of how you could have punished me.”

But you are with me, and the ways of the world above do not hold any sway down here.

Hera herself does not have one iota of what I wish to share with you.”

Its rules are whatever we say they are, and it needs a Queen that sits as an equal to its King.”

She was Persephone Praxidike Chthonios. The Queen of the Underworld. And, she thought with a delighted quiver, the Queen of Hades, her husband. Maiden no more.

“You told me very

clearly that you didn’t want to have sex with me tonight. I’m bound to honor that, but… I…”

don’t want to have sex with you.” Frustration licked through him. “Then why are you—” “I want to make love to you.”

“And I want to fuck you.”

You love me; you actually love me. And not as your bedmate, or your queen consort even, but as your… your…” “Goddess,” he finished.

“What way would you have me, my queen?” She pulled away and looked down at him, his eyes heavily lidded. “In your room—” “Our room.” “In our room,” she said, smiling. “Laying on our bed.”