THE LAST TWENTY FOUR HOURS HAD LEFT HER FACE A PALE SHADE OF HEAVY FATIGUE.

That - that damned veil hanging in a curtain around her face... that damned, cursed thing made me want to rip it into shreds. Tear it into pieces. She should not have had to wear a veil. She should not have had to mourn. She should not have had to grieve for the loss of a child. She should not have had to shed a single tear in my protection.

And I failed her.

I failed her, oh - I did. I failed her miserably.

I failed her by dying. I failed her by not being there when she needed me. I failed her by reassuring her that she would always be protected - always be safe from the monsters in the woods.

When what I should have protected her from were the monsters in her family.

I was a terrible father. A terrible husband. A terrible King - a man who could not protect his home from monsters within, let alone monsters without.

I - I should have noticed. I should have warned someone. Should have done something when Rosamund looked at me with that fear in her eyes that day - fear that was never there before. Fear which only existed because she was hiding something. Being made to lie.

That key. That woman inside my home. That treacherous, lying piece of filth who took the guise of my friend to trick me. And like the fool I was, I had dropped the very thing that would tear my kingdom apart into her arms.

I had no business ruling. No business having a family, a home. Not when I was such a useless, useless piece of flesh that couldn't even save the woman he loved from this horrendous heartbreak.

"We don't have to do this right now, Perse," I spoke into her ear. She gulped, her grip on me painfully tight, a groan slipping from her as she tried to shift her weight. I put my arm around her shoulder, steadying her balance before she passed out, which she looked like she was about to any minute now.

"No. We must do it now. I must do it now."

The corners of her tearful eyes were windows gleaming with undusted cobwebs.

She shuffled her feet up the stairs, wincing painfully even as Hera and I helped her up. Behind us, Hecate and Cerberus nervously fluttered on their heels. Her lips shut, she drew in a shuddering breath as she finally sat down on her throne.

Zeus lingered in a corner, eyes set in an unreadable expression.

I should have listened to him that day in Olympus. Should have done what he asked of me. Send her back, Hades, he'd said. Send her back to Demeter before she decides to hurt you both. I should have sent her back. I could have saved her this pain. This loss. No matter how badly it broke me.

Her robes were darker than the deepest midnight, her hair falling around her gaunt face in a sheet of platinum white. The green of her eyes had dimmed out, duller and more grey than ever. The Queen of the Underworld finally lifted her veil, her gaze dying like a star.

"Bring her in."

Thanatos shuddered once, twice - even as Persephone's words lingered in the air like an edge to a blade. He knew how badly it had stirred her. Knew it - and looked at me, his face pale, the faintest glimmer in his eyes asking me for permission. If she really wanted to do this now.

The slight nod of my head was the only answer he needed.

Inhaling deeply, I sat down beside my wife, the throne cold underneath my fingertips. Poseidon nervously looked at me, then at Persephone's stern gaze, and then at Zeus - who merely shook his head. Don't bring it on. Not right now. Not when he is like this.

Because I - I had died.

I had let Demeter kill me.

I had left my wife when she needed me.

And I had taken that baby from her as much as her mother did.

Her mother - who was by now rotting in a cell, dragged in there by Poseidon, Charon and Hecate. Dragged in there as I gasped for breath, eyes stinging with tears over the stabbing pain in my chest. My last wish. My dying wish. Which was to see her punished.

And now, I would get to fulfill that wish with my own hands.

"Persephone!" Demeter exclaimed, even as Thanatos and Minos led her in, their stern faces set in stone. "You must tell them to unhand me!" she shook the chains binding her wrists, the rattle of metal lingering in the air. "Tell them to let me go!"

"You will go nowhere until I am done with you."

The goddess's face turned into a picture of twisted malice, scorn dripping from her features.

"Done with me? Who do you think you are, child? Let me go, I swear it! Put aside that toy crown and come to your damn senses, Persephone!"

"You conspired with Apollo and Hermes to bring me back," Persephone's voice was more quiet than I had ever heard, like the gentle murmur of the ocean lapping at the shore. "You promised Apollo my hand in marriage and Hermes a higher position in court."

"He stole you from me!" Demeter's voice shook, unable to contain the fury contained in her words. "He kidnapped you, enslaved you to his will - filled you with his-"

A sharp crack resounded in the air.

Zeus had struck her cheek, which slowly began to redden. Eyes wide with shock for a split second, she reached up to feel the stinging redness as my brother glared at her with ice in his words.

"How dare you-"

"Hades is not a monster. He would never hurt her. Do you think I would have told him to marry her if I didn't know that?"

"You told him to-"

"Yes!" Zeus thundered. "Yes, I did, Demeter! She is my daughter too! Do you think I did not know? Do you think I did not see? See the way you locked her in that fucking cave like a piece of gold? Yes, I told Hades to take her away and wed her so that she could be free of you - the real monster. It was about time you treated my child like a person, not some object that had your name written all over it!"

Silence. Utter, bitter silence.

"He never touched me," Persephone whispered in the brittle darkness. "Never hurt me. Never lay a hand on me. Not without my consent. Not once. Not ever."

And yet all I could do was look at the ground, guilt welling up in my eyes. All this saving, all this protecting. And yet, the one time it mattered - the only time it mattered - I had failed her.

"He had so many chances. I passed out the first time I came here," she went on. "I shouted at him. I screamed at him. I went against him. Even when he forbade me to. Even when I found myself in trouble. But he never left. Never."

I wasn't able to speak. Not able to form words. Not when breathing through this pain was so hard. But I tried.

"The first time I saw her, your... accomplices were about to rape her, Demeter."

"They did not-"

"They did!" Persephone snapped. "I begged them. Begged them to stop. Begged them to let me be. All I wanted was to go swim in the stream with Artemis, and yet they refused. Refused to stop touching me. Refused to stop harassing me."

My gaze darted to Apollo and Hermes standing in a corner, heads bowed.

"So, yes," I clenched my teeth, gritting out each word. "Yes. Yes, I took her away. Call it kidnapping if you must, Demeter - but I would rather have kept her away from you than to have her virtue lost to them. And if you must know," I continued, "I did not even know it was her. I refused to listen when Zeus implored me to marry her. All I saw was a person in need of help."

Demeter gulped.

"Call me a monster, sister," I stood up, drawing long, deep breaths. "Call me devil. Call me anything you wish. But I have never, never hurt her. Persephone is my life. The only thing I regret is that she was born to a twisted, ugly thing like you-"

"You little-"

"-I pity you, you know," a spiteful hiss emerged from my lips. "Pity you for never having someone love you. Pity you for never having known what true love feels like. All your concern, your worrying, your carelessness, it was nothing." She did not flinch as my white fingers stroked her cheek. "But you took my son away from me. Away from the woman I love. And for that," I leaned in so close that our noses were almost touching, "I will destroy you."

"You betrayed me," Demeter lashed at Apollo, shuddering with anger. "You betrayed me, you lying piece of-"

"You promised me her hand in marriage to do your dirty work for you," he turned to face her, his gaze intense. "We both knew you would never give her to me." He looked at Zeus, his gaze repentant. "What I did earlier - what I did was wrong. I let her go ahead with her plan so that you could catch her red handed. I warned you. I tried to warn you too, uncle," he faced me. "If you had not been blinded by your need to end me, all of this would have never happened."

"I-"

"Do not," Persephone's face was colder than ice. "Do not patronize him."

And yet I should have. I should have listened to him. Should have found her before her mother did.

"Hades," my older brother muttered hoarsely, "Apollo did warn me. And he did try saving your child's life."

The breath I took in was sharper than a knife. My wife was motionless on her throne. Her gaze flicked back to her mother.

"And as for her," Zeus went on, disappointment lingering on his face as he looked at a bloodless Demeter, "you can do as you wish."

"You can't," she gasped. "You can't!"

I looked at Persephone. Looked at her bejeweled fingers, her clenched fists as she tried to keep them from shaking. Looked at her gaunt, hollow cheekbones. Her empty face. And I knew - I just knew - that I would leave that choice to her. She was the only one who got to decide. She met my stare... and the single tear rolling down her cheek was the only indication that she understood.

"I will not have you killed," she began at last, drawing in a deep breath. "No. Death is too easy a respite for what you have done. No. No, I want you to live. I want you to live with the pain you have caused me, mother. I want your every waking breath to be of that child under the ground. I want you to wake up with it. I want you to sleep with it." And then, her voice broke as it trailed off into heavy silence, as if she could form words no more.

"Persephone," Demeter's voice was a low growl, a warning. "You do not want to do this."

"You will live in the Olympian gardens no longer," Zeus added. "You are banned from my grounds. You will leave at once."

"You wait," she seethed. "You wait-"

"And also," the King of Gods added, "you are hereafter removed from the Olympian Council forever."

The color fled her cheeks, leaving her a sickly shade of pale green.

"You cannot do that!"

He only looked at her with the storm in his eyes.

Beside me, Persephone had almost stopped breathing, watching with bated breath. Despite the sickly pallor of her face, something shone in the depths of her eyes. The glittering whisper of revenge.

"You will leave my home at once," I said quietly. "You will not talk to Persephone. You will not look at her. You will not attempt to come within a mile of her, or the child. The only reason I am not killing you today..." I bored my eyes into hers, letting her feel the wrath, "...is because I will not let any more innocents die of starvation."

Demeter glared at me. Her eyes were darker than ever, something poisonous simmering in them.

"I will make you pay."

"You can do the paying from above the ground. Do as you wish. But I will not have you enter my home again. Accept it," I seethed. "You've lost."

Persephone inhaled, shifting her back. There was no emotion in her gaze.

"Apollo and Hermes as well," I intoned. "Take them off the Council too."

"Hades," Zeus crossed his arms, "I-"

"Did I not tell you what they were about to do?" a snarl ripped from my lips. "They would have raped her!"

"But they didn't," he sighed wearily, "they didn't, Hades. It did not happen. They had no direct part in this mess."

"Zeus."

He looked right into my eyes, wincing at the tight voice, the faintness of my whisper, the undercurrent of anger beneath all those layers of sorrow. He wanted to refuse. I knew he did. But he uncrossed his arms, and finally relented.

"Fine. The two of them stay banned from all meetings indefinitely. Until I allow them to come back," he said, running a finger over the rim of his goblet. Dark rum swirled inside the gold plated vessel. "Will have to find another replacement..." he muttered darkly.

Apollo looked furious. But to his credit, he kept his mouth shut. Hermes seemed to not even have registered what just happened.

"Rosamund," Perse spoke at last. "Where is she?"

Hecate stepped closer, her mouth set in a thin line of regret.

"I let her go. I am so truly sorry for what happened."

"Why?"

"She was blackmailed. She had no choice. I will not see an innocent punished when they did what they did out of fear. Hecate," Persephone beckoned to her. "Let her spend some time with her family. And when she has recovered... if she wishes to return, we will welcome her with open arms."

My heart could not contain the depth of my emotions. I entwined my fingers with hers, letting a smile break through the ocean of my grief for the first time.

"We will begin with the rehabilitation efforts after the plague tomorrow," Zeus glanced at Demeter, whose chains were being unlocked by Thanatos, "unless you'd like me to confiscate your powers?"

She gave us a sullen glare, her eyes only on her daughter.

"You cannot do that, Zeus," she snarled at him.

"I can't. But she can," he pointed to Hecate, who only gave him a smile as sour as cream, before hiding herself in the shadows. "Come back to Olympus," Zeus greeted her with a smirk. "I'll find you a place in the Council."

"Not. Interested," her reply was pointed, short and painful.

He rolled his eyes.

"Anything else?"

"As a matter of fact, yes," Hera put a hand on Persephone's shoulder, her expression pained. I looked at her in alarm. No. No. "You are still weak," she looked at her. "Your body will need time to heal."

My blood ran cold. She couldn't possibly be saying that-

"I know this is a hard thing to ask of you," Hera whispered at last, "but it is true. You must go back to Olympus."