A Touch of Ruin (Hades X Persephone #2)

by Scarlett St. Clair

“Okay, okay. Look, Apollo’s a lot of things, but he knows you belong to Hades. He might flirt with you, but he won’t try anything. Despite what you think, he knows when he’s in danger of losing his balls.”

“People like Apollo are broken, Sephy.” “Apollo’s not a person.” “And yet he, like all of us, suffers human flaws.”

Power wasn’t a replacement for intelligence.

“Taking off the dress.” “I can see that. Why?” “Because you don’t like it.” “I didn’t say I didn’t like it,” he replied. Still, he didn’t stop her. The dress was off. She stood naked in front of him. Hades’s eyes raked her frame. Gods.

She studied him for a long moment and then asked, “What do you want?” What she was really asking was: Do you want me? “It is not my decision to make.” She looked away, swallowing a lump in her throat, but Hades’s voice drew her back. “But since you asked…I always want you with me. Even when I’m angry.” “Then I’ll come with you.”

She wanted Hades. They didn’t even need to talk; she just wanted his presence for comfort.

More importantly, I love you—deeply, endlessly. If you walked away from me today, I would love you still. I will love you forever. That’s what Fate is, Persephone. Fuck threads and colors…and fuck your uncertainty.”

“Sit,” she commanded, removing her crown and setting it aside. Hades obeyed, and she held his gaze as she knelt before him. His eyes glittered like obsidian. “You look like a fucking queen,” he said. A corner of her mouth lifted. “I am your queen.”

“I love you. Even if the Fates unraveled our destiny, I would find a way back to you,” Hades said.

“Kiss me. Love me. Ruin me.”

“You’re beautiful, my darling.”

“Marry me,” he said. She smiled. “Yes.”

Her love for Hades was almost unbearable, her happiness near painful.

It was a new level of love—one she had entered as his fiancée, as his soon-to-be wife and queen.

“Persephone. I would have chosen you a thousand times over, the Fates be damned,” he said, laughing. “Please…become my wife, rule beside me, let me love you forever.” Tears sprang to her eyes, and she offered a shaky smile. “Of course,” she whispered. “Forever.”

It took her a moment to realize that it was snow. Despite its beauty, there was something sinister to the way it fell from the sky.