THE NEXT EVENING FOUND THE COURT IN FULL SESSION, FILLED WITH MORTALS AND IMMORTALS ALIKE.

"Next!" Aeacus called out, his gavel banging once on the polished surface of his table, Rhadamanthys furiously scribbling on a piece of parchment beside him.

The crowd of shades at the back of the Hall shifted as Thanatos came forward, his face as somber and grave as death.

Slow, I grumbled to myself. They were so slow.

We had not left the room since the past thirty hours, sitting here past one entire day and night. I was working my judges to the bone, and tempers were running high. Charon gloomily looked over the surroundings from the shadows, his tipped hat casting a shadow over his face.

The shade refused to move as Thanatos angrily prodded at it with the back of his spear.

"Move," I barked at the man. "Unlike you, some of us have better things to do than sit here all day."

Beside me, Persephone shifted slightly. There was not a smile on her lips, but her hand quietly found mine and came to a rest on top of it. Her eyes flicked once, shards of glass shining in them - yet warm at the same time. Easy, my Lord.

I quirked my lips at her, a silver chuckle ripping from my throat as a forbidden smile appeared on her face. It was not beautiful in the way innocent things were - not like a flower, but deadly like a knife. There was a coldness to it, an enchanted thing that made me want to bend her over that throne and kiss her senseless till she forgot her own name.

The bite of metal on flesh brought my attention back to the shade dragged forward, the form of a young, well built man in luxuriously gilded armour, anger raging in his eyes.

"There's been a mistake. Let go of me now!"

"We make no mistake, deathless spirit," Hecate rasped from her usual seat in the corner, face half hidden behind rolls of papyrus. "Your fate was written long before you entered this world. Your crimes precede you - it is indeed no wonder for you to appear here."

"My liege," Thanatos muttered, "Tantalus." He prodded the man forward again, eyes flashing in threat this time. "Move!"

Persephone raised an eyebrow behind me, tilting her head.

"What has this... man done?"

"Tantalus..." Minor consulted the records in front of him, eyes narrowed in distaste. "Invited there by his father, the King of Olympus for a feast. Where he abused the hospitality of the gods, stole their ambrosia and jars of nectar - after which he betrayed the secret workings of the gods to his people."

"He lies!" Tantalus protested, face contorting in rage. "He lies - I never betrayed my father!" My jaw tightened as he took a step towards the throne.

"You would hold your word against mine, Tantalus?" my voice was hard, emotionless.

"I swear," he protested. His eyes darted to Persephone, who was a statue at my side. Her hand tightened on the armrest as he drew nearer to her feet. "You tell him-" there was mania in his eyes and conviction in his voice. "You tell him I'm not a liar!"

Her face was ice.

"Not only did you betray the gods of Olympus-" Minos continued. "You served up your son, Pelops - as a sacrifice to the feast of the gods!"

A string of horrified gasps went around the room as I crossed my fingers, resting my chin.

Fucking cannibals.

"Go on."

"Tantalus cut up his son and boiled him - dressed him in oils and sauces and mint and served him at the banquet. And alas... before they realised the real nature of the feast, the goddess Demeter had been fed a part of the boy's shoulder. I believe that she has been in grieving and failed to realise it."

Persephone's head snapped up.

"How dare you," her voice was undiluted rage. "How dare you blaspheme my mother with your vile deeds!"

Tantalus sprang at her.

It was only an instant, but it felt like an eternity. The shade reached out to grab her by her feet before Thanatos was on him in a second, spear shoved right into the small of his back. Charon leapt out of his resting place in the shadows to block him before he got an inch closer as Hecate rose to her feet, eyes blazing - before a thick wall of inky black darkness welled up from the depths of my being, shimmering like the night.

Her face did not hold fear, but instead, a realization. Of cruelty, of vileness. Of the world. Of how it was not the neat little sphere of happiness she had been led to believe. There was hurt there, and pain. Pain of mistrust.

"He loses that hand. Now."

A bloodcurling scream rose in the hall as my order was instantly obeyed. Charon cackled deliriously, savoring the sounds of pain as fury rose in me like a monster. There was heat in my head, throbbing and plummeting like an angry wave. No matter how much I wished to protect her, there were, and would always be those malicious, dreadful forces wishing to hurt her.

My hand reached out to brush past hers, the faintest touch.

Robes fluttering, she met my gaze. That pain in her eyes broke my heart.

"I wish to revive the boy. Will you give me leave to do so, my King?"

She looked at me askance, a quiet question for permission. I gave her a silent nod.

"I will have his soul brought to you before the day ends," Thanatos promised. Tantalus seethed in his hands, bound now by ropes of swirling darkness as it rippled in the air like a cloud of smoke.

"Lock this one in Tartarus," I snapped. "And Thanatos?"

"My Lord?"

"Make sure he stays there."

He respectfully nodded in agreement.

"Even a hell like that is not enough for the likes of you," Hecate's lip curled in distaste. Tantalus glared at her, and she met his stare with one of her own that made him shrink further into the pitiful excuse of his barely corporeal body.

"Have him stand in a pool of water under a tree of fruit," Persephone suddenly spoke from beside me. Surprisingly calm, her words were measured, yet anger lingered in their wake like a forgotten lover. "Let the fruit ever elude his grasp, and the water ever recede before it quenches its thirst. Let him know what true hunger feels like so that he does not forget it the next time he tries to satisfy the world's craving with the sacrifice of his own blood!"

I had a hard time not letting the delight show on my face.

Dear, dear Perse. Such a true delight. An exquisite creature.

And when she looked at me again, the smile on her face sent the blood in my veins racing.

Perhaps the Fates weren't so bad, after all.

It was another three hours before we stopped for the day.

One look from Hades had the Hall cleared out in an instant as the servants scurried away, escaping the watchful gaze of their master. I stood up slowly, as if in a trance as every muscle in my body groaned. It had been such a long, long day at court - all I wanted was a steaming bath and a cup of ambrosia wrapped in my fingers.

Vile, vile people.

Why would a person ever sin? Did they truly believe that there was no life after death? That their deeds - no matter how heinous - would go unpunished, let them off scot free? Did people take Hades, take the Underworld for so granted that it made them forget that they had to pay for their sins?

How did one even begin to sin? Was it a slow, slow dance - an unravelling of simmering lunacity dancing in their veins? Was it madness slowly coming to life, blooming bit by bit like a well tended flower? Or was it relentless and furious and determined as a tsunami, crashing in all at once and leaving nothing behind in its wake?

He wrapped a hand around my waist as a silver chuckle rang in my ears.

"Darling?"

His voice was like silk.

"Polydegmon?"

He rolled his eyes, dragging me closer to him as I turned to face him, tugging at his high collar. Hades grinned, his smile a crooked, wicked thing as I pulled him down to meet my lips.

Kissing him was like stepping into a wildfire.

It was relentless, and determined - and full of all things passionate. It burned away the rotting roses in my heart, the sea of tears in my eyes. I could hardly breathe for life, but he was there - his lips were my lips, his hands were my hands, his heart was my heart. A hitched gasp broke from the depths of my throat as I placed my palms on his chest, surrendering myself entirely to him. His hands pulled me closer and closer in, as if wanting to dissolve me right away, to consume me whole.

When we broke apart, another gasp slipped from between my teeth, and he laughed a velvet laugh against my lips.

"You might want to wait until we are alone. Lest the entire court hears your moans."

There was a wicked, mischievous glint in his eyes that tugged at that dark, deep spool of midnight in me.

"Of course, my Lord. That is what bedrooms are made for, isn't it?" I shot him a quick, pretty smile, breaking free to head for the wine as he sighed, annoyed. Hecate chuckled somewhere down the corridor that led to the dining room.

I emerged from the Hall a few minutes later to find Persephone's cheeks a rosy crimson as my friend stuffed herself with food.

"Do hope you both... using protection-" there was a delinquent smirk on Hecate's face as Persephone giggled, her cheeks turning slightly rosy. They both stopped as Thanatos and I took our seats, eyeing them suspiciously. Across us, Aeacus smiled at me knowingly while Rhadamanthys yawned.

"I thought you must be tired after yesterday's... activities."

"Hmm. I could have said the same of you, Hades," the goddess of witchcraft muttered under her breath. Persephone let out a short, mirthful laugh from her end of the table as I shot Hecate a filthy look. She rolled her eyes, taking a deep sip of her burgundy red.

"Do you feel better?"

"Mmm."

"Is there any pain?" my wife asked, her face softening. Hecate shook her head, stuffing herself with more food.

"Not at all. In fact, I ah - feel so much more hungry. As if I could eat the world raw."

"Once again-" Persephone began, the candlelights reflected in her eyes. "I am really sorry about what happened. I-"

"I am fine," Hecate whispered. "Truly. Don't you worry about me."

"You are our family. Of course we worry about you," I chipped in. "And the next time you think about letting yourself die, I will kill you myself."

And even though she swore it was just the onions, that night - for the first time, I saw tears in Hecate's eyes.