Receiver of Many (Hades & Persephone, #1)

by Rachel Alexander

This court is more revelry than rule, he thought, a social club in the sky for the deathless ones.

One by one, they bowed their heads to the eldest of the Olympian gods.

“I will not hand over my only daughter to the Lord of the Dead. I will not see her traded like chattel!”

“Know this. If you so much as touch her,” she hissed at Hades, “I will know of it. And rest assured, I will turn the world upside down before I allow her to be taken from me.”

Kore’s body was on fire. She didn’t want him to stop. She needed him to stop. She needed to know who he was. She didn’t care who he was as long as he didn’t stop.

Then Hades did something he had never done before in all his ageless years. He blushed.

“Because I’m not supposed to feel… alive! Look around you. These foolish— these dangerous passions have no place here!”

Hades Aidoneus Chthonios, Polydegmon. The Unseen One. Receiver of Many. Ruler of the Other Side and Lord of the Dead…

Persephone Praxidike Chthonios. She Who Destroys the Light. Carrier of Curses. The Iron Queen of the Underworld.

I leave so that I don’t have to look into your eyes and see that you do not yet love me,

“They called me Praxidike.” “It means ‘justice’.” “It means ‘vengeance’,” she countered. “It’s the same thing.” “No, it’s not!”

“Thousands of years, and still you think like an Olympian.” Hecate said. “Theirs is a different world, and ours are different ways.”

Do not forget who you toy with. I am the eldest of the gods…

“You are maiden no more.” Hecate grinned. “But a broken maidenhead does not a woman make.”

Don’t let that dusty bag of bones you call your husband keep you up here forever.”

I’m a nymph; our likely lot is to be loved for the length of an afternoon.

“Sisyphus taught me one truth that mortals aren’t supposed to know— that the gods need mankind far more than mankind need the gods. The cosmos is a paradox. Gods created the mortals, and mortals created the gods.”

“You are such a whore,” Hypnos said under his breath as he grinned. “Oh, you’re one to talk.” Thanatos said aloud, clicking his teeth together. “What was your plan to find Sisyphus again? Your… connections with the stable master or the keeper of the andron? Or was it the cook’s nephew?” “We’ll see when we get there,” he replied, his grin turning sheepish.

the Fates have never had much use for my plans.”

“I could give you a hundred answers about your beauty, your wit and curiosity, your strength, and any number of other things, Persephone, but the simplest one I have is that you make me feel alive. And as I’m sure you can guess from seeing the realm I’ve called my home all these aeons… that’s not an easy thing to do.”

“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.”

“My plans…” he snorted. “The Fates were never kind to my plans.

“I bring no quarrel, my lords,” Hecate said quickly. “Neither do I.” Thanatos folded his arms and looking at his fingernails.

Theyre gonna fuck by the end of the series mark my words