A Touch of Malice (Hades X Persephone #3)

by Scarlett St. Clair

Darling, I would burn this world for you.

There is darkness within you. Anger, fear, resentment. If you do not free yourself first, no one else can.

“This darkness is not the same. This darkness is toil and trauma, grief and loss. It is the darkness that will make you Queen of the Underworld.”

Persephone was struck by how similar they were—not in appearance but something deeper, something that threaded through their hearts and bones and souls. They’d begun in two very different worlds but wanted the same thing in the end—acceptance and love and solace—

“What clings to that tree?” she asked Hades. “Dreams,” he replied, looking at her. “Those who enter the Underworld must leave them behind.” There was a certain sadness that overtook her at the thought, but she also understood—there was no room for dreams in the Underworld, because life here meant existing without burden, without challenge. Life here meant rest.