CHAPTER FOUR

THE CAPTURED GODDESS // THE WILLING QUEEN

Persephone's heart fluttered, a terrible feeling of dismay crawling up her throat as she eyed down the god before her. Yet the warning bells ringing all about her did not stop her from acting with heedless impetuosity.

"What is the Lord of the Underworld doing wandering in a meadow? Do you relish on killing the plants of young women for leisure? Or observing them from afar?" She took a step back, squaring her shoulders in the same way she had seen her mother do many times before when speaking to other men.

She noticed his face remained stoic, yet a flicker of amusement flashed through his dark eyes. What could the king of the underworld be doing there? Had he come to harm her? Had he come to visit her mother? She refused to feel threatened by the god because she truly did not. It had to be something else. Persephone's stomach churned with bitterness and jealousy at the thought of the beautiful god here to see her mother.

"I have not come to bother you or your flowers, goddess. I was merely passing by when your winsome golden hair caught my eye. Heavenly Persephone, never in my eternity have I encountered a creature as lovely as yourself." He confessed, taking a step forward. Hades cast a glance to the sky, his eyes a lighter shade of blue under the light. "I am afraid, however, that our encounter won't last much."

Persephone stood straighter, clasping her hands in front of her just like she had done the night before while waiting for Ares' arrival. She fought the disappointment that tried to crawl up her spine. She had never met this man. She had no reason to miss him. She would not show herself weak or vulnerable before anyone else. Not ever again.

"Why?" She simply asked, keeping her voice a soft tune. Her eyes inspected the man before her. What was she doing?

"Demeter." Was his simple answer.

Persephone's face darkened with anger, yet before the shadow of fury could cross her features and become visible she forced herself to close her eyes tightly. In an instant, she had calmed herself down. The sky darkened faintly, imperceptible dark clouds loomed in the distance. She wished them away.

"Are you afraid of my mother?" Her tone was clipped. She stared at the god with indifference, masking her face with the phlegmatic expression she had mastered over the years. Unlike her mother, who wore her emotions clearly on her sleeve, Persephone had learned to tame them. From Demeter, she had learned how to fake them, but the impassive expression she now wore on her face reflected Hades' own unmoving guise. That, she had not learned from her mother.

Hades' humourless chuckle rang through her ears.

"My sister and I have our disagreements, but she knows better than to cross me. I am not afraid of your mother Persephone, I worry for what she might do to you, however." He spoke softly, yet she understood what he alluded.

Her mother's fury. How many times had she witnessed it? On how many occasions had she found herself captive to her wrath?

She felt the cold press of a dagger sliding her throat open, choking her on her own golden power. She saw the ichor slipping away, she saw the hungry eyes of the gods, the vicious look of pride and greed on her mother's earthy eyes. She felt the humiliation of being paraded as an object. The lack of affection. The lack of power. How she had been stripped of her divinity and reduced to nothing but an empty shell. She stared at her hands, stained gold, a mocking reminder of the power she withheld, the power she was withheld of possessing.

And so it would be for the rest of eternity unless she was married away. But her mother would never allow it.

Her mother, however, was not here. Not this time.

The revelation of it all hit Persephone with the force of a wave, the realisation of what must be done washing all over her. She felt her fingertips tingle, her heartbeat escalate. The twisting in her stomach came to a cease as she met Hades' midnight blue eyes. His eyes, they were neither cold nor dark when he looked at her. Then it all became crystal clear.

"Tell me, Hades, how does one kill a god?" She whispered, noticing for the first time the golden ring circling the inner part of his midnight blue eyes.

He crushes the small white flower still in his hand "With another god. An immortal for an immortal. A celestial being to strip another's soul. A god for a god." Persephone smiles, her eyes twinkling with stars as she recites the words she has held inside her heart for a long time now. The same words that have rotten away any love she ever felt for her mother.

"You deny them their power."

The Fates surely had a funny way of weaving their quilt of destiny.

The goddess took a step forward, determined, her light tendrils reflecting Helios' touch. Then she did the unspeakable.

Persephone pressed herself against the god, pushing her own lips on his until their mouths found themselves rendered to the touch of the other. Her arms around his neck, she dug her fingers in the ebony hair at the nape of his neck. Wicked things crawled into her mind as her body acted on even more monstrous thoughts. Her heart came to a stop, only to start again a few seconds later ten times faster.

She had almost never heard her mother speaking about her brothers. But him in specific she had not mentioned once. She only ever spoke of Zeus, and Persephone knew it was due to the detestable feelings Demeter harboured towards her brother. Demeter had dangled Persephone as a showcase doll only before the gods she deemed worthy of lusting after her daughter.

She felt grateful her mother had not considered Hades worthy of her, because had she ever thrown her at him as if she were a piece of meat, she would have hated him with the same burning passion she hated all the others.

And Persephone felt everything but hatred towards him. She favoured him above all the others she had encountered in the past. And in order to obtain her freedom, that was enough.

Their mouths took warfare upon each other in a battle so glorious that even Ares himself would have been jealous. Persephone felt the bite of the unknown, her maiden lips delivering careful ministrations unto the god. She felt the rush through her veins, the power surging through her. She felt the inexplicable warm of someone so cold. Around them, the once dead blooms flourished into a sea of blood-red roses and pristine white narcissi. She felt the dormant carcass she had once been rise from the ashes, rise from the meadow, rise from the vice grip her mother had once held around her throat.

Not anymore, Persephone thought as she let the god between her arms weave his hand on her golden hair, exposing her sun-kissed neck to his generous mouth. She felt intoxicated by his kiss, the knowledge that her mother could walk upon them any moment galvanised her into further action. It almost felt like a tryst. A secret rendezvous between lovers.

"What have you done?" His velvety voice poured into her ears like honey. His arms snaked about her, holding her by the waist and pulling her closer. She smelled of flowers and earth and rain and evil. How could a harbinger of life be so wicked? So malleable in the arms of the dead? How could Apollo ever allow to be held in the arms of Artemis in such an intimate embrace?

"What have you allowed me to do?" She whispered back, opening her eyes and staring at him through her lashes. She placed a lover's gentle kiss on the skin where his neck met his jaw and crawled her way to his ear, peppering soft caresses on her way. She felt every end of her body electrified. She felt a warm fullness filling the once void hollowness inside her chest. His arms held her with such delicacy, his eyes worshipped her. His touch reminded her of her divinity. He worshipped her.

"Goddess," he sighed, falling to his knees before her, keeping his arms tightly wound around her waist, his face dug against her abdomen. Persephone pushed her dainty fingers further into his stygian locks and forced his head back, obliging him to meet her evergreen gaze. "Ask for it, oh fair Persephone, ask for it and you shall have it. Half my kingdom I shall give you if you wish. Ask for it and it will be yours, goddess." His eyes trapped hers, lulling her. She tugged at his inky tendrils, feeling the silk like softness against her fingertips.

"I don't wish for half your kingdom, Hades." She felt him tremble underneath her as she spoke his name. He pulled the hand that hung at her side to his mouth and pressed his lips to the inside of her wrist, the dorsum of her hand and each of her slender fingers, a black ring of diamonds, rubies and lustrous dark sapphires formed around her ring finger. She felt the slight burn of the gems as they encircled her skin.

Somewhere deep inside her, Persephone felt doubt claw its way into her thoughts. She knew what she wanted, and she would bite and scratch anyone who dared try to take it away from her. She could feel Demeter's anger brewing upon learning what her precious daughter had done and yet she only perceived it as all the more motivation to take what Hades had offered her. She stood taller, tilting her chin to look down at him, the grip on his hair tightening "I want all of it."

The ground before them sliced open with a thundering crack, and from within the very entrails of the earth emerged a splendid golden chariot pulled by imposing black stallions, their eyes a shining crimson colour. Persephone had no time to gaze upon the elaborate and intricate designs of wars and heroic deeds carefully sculpted into the metal as she climbed into the cart, her head clearing off of any doubt with each step. She did not look back to the meadow, she did not think about her old life. She kept her eyes trained on the dark wound on the soil, she heard the darkness chant her name, calling to her. Bringer of death. Her fingers interwoven with those of the dark king at her side, they descended together to the dark realm.

No longer would she be the humiliated goddess of flowers. Now she was a Queen, and she would break the knees of those who refused to kneel to her.