A Touch of Malice (Hades X Persephone #3)

by Scarlett St. Clair

“He harms you, even in your sleep.” Hades frowned. “I failed you that day.”

am Persephone, future Queen of the Underworld, Lady of Your Fate. May you come to dread my presence.”

“You should have known I would find you once you took your clothes off. It is a sixth sense.”

“But…he is the Lord of the Underworld.” “We’re all aware,” Hermes said. “Look at him—he’s the only goth in the room.”

“I never thought I’d thank the Fates for anything they gave me, but you—you were worth all of it.” “All of what?” “The suffering.”

For the briefest second, Persephone saw fury flash in Apollo’s eyes. “This woman is Hades’s betrothed, the future Queen of the Underworld. Kneel before her or face my wrath.”

This is power, she thought as her body flushed and fluttered with a chaotic tangle of emotion—the passion and pain of loving someone more than the air in her lungs and the glimmer of stars in the night sky.

“Trust, darling, I will let no one—not king or god or mortal—stand in the way of making you my wife.”

“Grief means we loved fiercely…and if that is all anyone ever has to say about either one of us in the end, I think we lived our best lives.”

“I will build temples in honor of our love, and I will worship you until the end of the world. There is nothing I wouldn’t sacrifice for you.”

We are all broken, Persephone. It’s what we do with the pieces that matters.”

Even if the Fates unraveled our destiny, I would find a way back to you.

“I should have never allowed you to leave that temple. That prophecy was not about your children. It was about you.”