Chapter Three

“Or prisoners…” Persephone couldn’t help but replay making Hade smirk even though she can’t see because he isn’t facing her.

He gently pets Cerberus going from on head to the other whilst the poor girl glances at him wide-eyed.

The dog barks, happily jumping and making the whole room shake under his weight.

“Hush now.” Again his voice, so soothing like medicament oil on a fresh wounds.

Hades leads the girl into a parlour where a sapphires flame is raging and Persephone swears she even saw some arms trying to come out of there.

Hades snaps his fingers and another gown falls on his shoulder right before he sits on a throne. Black bones and rubin’s eyes from his raised chair two size taller then him.

He crosses his legs and eventually meets the worried eyes of the girl he kidnapped.

Persephone pulls at her night-gown to avoid tripping and looks around to find a chair or a stool she could sit on.

“Are you cold?” he inquires while playing with the ham of his cloth. The moment his finger leave the fabric, the robe falls down one side of his shoulder but he doesn’t seem to notice.

Persephone is not cold or at least she thought. The moment Hades eyes narrows the room gets insanely freezing so she accommodates near the fireplace in search of some warm.

She suspects Hades is playing and having fun torturing her. She needs to play along if she wants to go home so she rubs her hands together and stares at the flames.

“Why am I here?” she inquires even though she very well knows the reason.

“Someone was coming to claim you. I made sure you did not fall in the wrong hands. I’ll let you go as soon as the waters calm down.” Persephone does not miss the allusive tone Hades is using, suspecting he is talking about Poseidon. Her mother once told her what he did to her in order to possess her and she despises him very much.

“That was very thoughtful of you.” Hades eyes lightens and she rushes to add “Your majesty?” the flames quiet a little and she begins to breathe again.

“Although I was wondering, why would you save someone like me?” his eyes wonder off and she knows she needs to insist in order to know the truth.

“You are still in dept with me. And I intent to collect my reward.”

Hades stands. She can see his muscles under the cloud-like vest as he strolls towards her. His forearm lunches towards her and for a moment she thinks this is it, he’s gonna snap her neck there will be no more Persephone. Instead, at the last second, the arm takes a turn towards the fire.

She finally dares to look only to discover an hand trapped into the God’s bejewelled grip.

He then leans in, his face only few breaths away from her own. Those gold eyes are making her feel weird.

“Don’t stand too close to the fire.” He intimates as he throws the hand back inside it. “or you’ll lose your precious soul.”

He must be having fun teasing a clueless girl. The fact is that Hades is very intrigued by her. He expected her to be more scared and at least scream a little. Yet she did nothing of what he assumed and this surprised him. He is so tempted to keep this little fierce bunny.

“Are you hungry?”

Persephone is starving but she can’t accept gifts from Gods, her mother told her. Yet she is wearing Hades own gown and nothing bad happened.

Another snap of his finger and a table presents overfull of magnificent food.

He tiredly walks towards it and sits at the head table, grabbing a pomegranate and making it pass from one hand to the other. His finger flex and with a rapid gestures, splits the fruit into half before eagerly bite it down. Soon that red liquid starts leaking, slipping from the corners of his mouth and eventually rolling on his chest.

Persephone’s stomach protests and so she forces herself to move.

“You will not kill me, right your grace?” Hades cackles and then shakes his head.

“You’ll be dead if I want you to and you could do nothing about it.” Fair enough, she thinks as she grabs the half he is offering her and manages to eat only six seeds before she feels full.

She sets the barely eaten fruit on the table under the vigil eyes of the master. Persephone’s eyes begins to get heavy. She is sleepy and worn out after the day she had.

“Follow me, little lamb” She forgives him for using his tone of reprimand as if he was silently scolding her for something wrong and walks behind him into a narrowed corridor before he opens two heavy gates that lead to an endless staircase.

Her bones are about to give in while she shortly sit to catch her breath. The god does not notice because he is never tired, he does not know what it feels to be human. It is only when he sees her limping, her eyes half closed that he decides to act.

He summons a little black cloud made by the smokes of hell and commands it to slip under the girl’s feet. She stumbles, forced to hold into Hade’s gown not to fall. He is vexed for the unexpected touch but the soft perfume that Persephone irradiates makes him oddly tamed. He wishes he could get drunk from her but does not dare.

She is a delicate flower and now he needs to take care of her since she is his for all eternity. Even if she does not know yet.

He accompanies her to his chambers and, when she is not paying attention to him, he glares at her from the corner of his eyes, watching her red hair fall on her back escaping the loosen bow or staring at her body so visible under that cloth.

She slowly drifts off to sleep, laying on the cloud looking so small and precious to Hades while her breath becomes regular. She must feel so safe, Hades thinks as the door from his chambers open and he guide the cloud just above his velvet sheets. With a snap, he makes it disappear and her lightweight falls into the bed.

He then rest his figure right next to the girl, the girl he has been waiting for so long. The beautiful young women with hair so red it makes him feel like blood is still running through his tired bones. Hades tenderly dares to touch her check were an old screech is showing and with his thumb just washes it off.

He closes his eyes and eventually welcomes Hypnos to guide him into his world he has been absent from, a long time.

Moreover, he slept like he never did, with his face buried in Persephone’s hair that smelled like milk of the poppies. He discovers he likes it very much and will not live one more day without it. He grabs his long gown and pulls it over her fragile body as he drifts off. His damned soul finally blessed with something only his.