"BUSY MUCH THESE DAYS?"

Athena looked up from where she'd been bent over her bow, grey eyes darkened in a moment of tense concentration. Her fingers nimbly worked at the taut string stretched across the bow, fixing the ends in place. Her eyebrows shot up.

"Fancy seeing you here, uncle. Missed your niece much?"

The generous sunlight peeking in through the windows made the gilded surface of her bow glitter, shining with the radiance of a million suns.

"Not at all. Without you around, there's no one to steal books from my library."

"That was one time, uncle," She grinned, tossing the bow to me. I appreciatively looked it over, testing the balance. Fine work.

"Hmm. Sure," I rolled my eyes at her, as Athena snatched back her precious weapon, glaring daggers at me.

"Father waits for you inside," she muttered, her voice rougher than a bed of gravel. "He has been... brooding, I would say?"

"Is it too much to ask you Olympians to save one adjective for me? I am the only one who gets to brood," I tossed her a look, pulling at my gloves. I stretched my fingers, wincing at the bright sunlight pouring down from up above our heads.

"Of course you do," she laughed. "But pray save the brooding for the darkness. It would not do for the rest of the Olympians to take one look at you and start fainting."

I muttered a non committal response under my breath as the goddess of intellect walked up the steps to the throne room beside me, bow slung at her back. She squinted, grey eyes narrowing as a result of the too bright daylight.

"How... how is she?" Athena asked at last, pausing in her tracks. "Is she well?"

I beamed, pretty sure that my lips would tear or fall off from smiling too broadly.

"Why - is that a smile, uncle?" my niece chuckled, gaze observing mine. "Perhaps the sun might set in the east today."

"She is..." my voice trailed off, unable to contain the measure of my joy. "She is - she is my world, Athena. My everything. And for the first time in my life, I have found another to love me - without despising me or hating me for what I am. She is... my other half. I love her. I love Persephone so much."

My voice softened at the end, eyes getting slightly moist. Mind reeling back to the morning, memories of her softness buried in the warmth of the blankets, her gentle, demanding touches taking more and more and more -

"So she has bewitched you. I thought you had Hecate for those sorts of things."

I threw back my head, my laugh thunderous. Athena looked at me, a small smile playing on her rose lips, eyes shining. I could not explain the joy flooding my veins. I feared nothing, and no one - not as long as I had her by my side. Together, the world was ours for the taking.

"I always knew - or felt strongly. That she was meant for something more. A bigger purpose - bigger than any of us. Bigger than the fickle vagaries of us pale skinned immortals. Demeter was blind, uncle. And Artemis - I suppose she was just too busy to care. But I, I knew."

"You are a woman of intellect, goddess. A thousand times better than the best of them. Perse talks of you sometimes. So I must thank you for looking after your friend."

Athena smirked.

"Now, now. Looks like my cousin has made you a sentimental man."

I shrugged, a careless toss of my shoulders.

What could I say? Persephone had me smitten.

"Demeter has been a nightmare," she whispered quietly as we reached the gate. "She had the audacity to order Helios - Helios, the great Titan of the Sun - to keep his eyes peeled for her daughter. Even after all that she did-"

"All that she did?"

She drew back, looking at me with reproach.

"Why, tell me you knew that Demeter caused the plague!"

I stopped in my tracks, shock rippling through me. Knuckles clenched, I watched my shadow come to a still at my feet, taking in a deep breath to meet her curious gaze. All these weeks of us working to the bone - hour after hour, day after day - and to find that Demeter had been behind it-

"You surely must be joking," I spat.

Athena's face fell. She swore under her breath, a stream of incoherent curses.

"I thought you knew!"

I could not have dared imagine she would. For one moment. The thought that Demeter would go to such lengths.

Such a shame. A terrible shame. Perhaps we had been too soft to give her the benefit of doubt.

I could not think through the anger, the fury coursing through me. Even Demeter had some more sense than that. But causing a plague as a sign of vengeance - to get back for a thing that was out of her hands... and send hundreds of mortals to their graves for a crime they did not commit - she had to have more sense than that. Whatever little respect I had left for her, she had taken this away from me.

The voice that came out of my lips was bitter.

"He knew? Zeus knew this whole time?"

She looked away, not meeting my gaze. I let out a loose bark, knuckles whitening. The nerve of these fucking Olympians!

Zeus. Zeus knew. And yet he kept it from me -

"He intended to tell you today," Athena slowly lowered her voice. "When you've known a man your whole life, it becomes a piece of cake to predict his course of action. Why do you think I was waiting outside, uncle?" her voice was level, cool and unwavering in its tone. "You cannot let them shake you. Do not allow it. I need you to control your temper so that my friend stays away from that deceiving woman. Now go in, keep your calm and you will be fine. Understood?"

I nodded, my head reeling in circles.

It was not even me I worried about. But Persephone - if she found out what depths her mother had stooped so low to-

"Father! Uncle Hades is here," Athena called out, even as the gates to the hall swung inwards. I purposefully strode upstairs, clenching that anger tight inside me - holding it close to my heart.

"I hear Ares is looking for you," Zeus's cold, quiet voice boomed off the wall as he nodded at his daughter.

Arthena gave me a meaningful look, eyes darkening as she sauntered off. The doors closed behind her with a rumble that shook the ground.

"Wine?" the King of Gods asked, not going up to his throne, but motioning to a gilded couch plied with cushions of velvet.

"No thank you," I strained hard to keep my voice from shaking, holding back the murderous thoughts swirling in my head.

My brother gave a strange look, the electric sparks in his vivid eyes bluer than ever. He smiled, a wrinkle appearing on his brows before pouring out a goblet for himself.

"So."

"So," I repeated.

"Why don't you sit here beside me?"

"Feeling generous today, aren't we?" I curled my lip, sourness poisoning each of my words.

Zeus frowned again, and when he spoke, his voice was softer than before, there being an almost pitiful edge to it - as if talking to a cornered, wounded animal.

"Hades."

"Zeus."

"Are you alright?" he scowled, observing me intently.

"It's been quite a few centuries since you asked me that question. Perhaps I should be the one asking you that," I snapped at him, arms crossed.

Zeus glared at me.

"You're sulkier than usual," he observed.

"I have a wife and a home to get back to. And unlike you, some of us have actual work to do."

"Hades!"

"You said you wanted to talk, so talk."

Frustrated, Zeus cursed under his breath, rubbing his temples in exasperation.

"How is my daughter?" he asked at last, words rubbing with curiosity. "Is she well?"

I inhaled sharply, taking in a deep breath to fill my lungs with much needed air. It didn't do much good. The oxygen only inflamed the resentment burning in my lungs.

"She blooms in the darkness, lovelier than the moon."

My brother nodded to himself, his dark brows raised in surprise.

"She can bring back the dead to life, Zeus."

He looked up, eyes wide. His locks shone like molten gold, the particles of dust above his head alight for just a moment - like a halo over an avenging angel. The very picture of surprise on all accounts.

"Persephone? My Persephone?"

"Perhaps you would have found out yourself if you stopped that leach of her mother from sucking the life out of her," I hissed.

"Demeter would never-"

"Demeter did. She choked her. Emotionally. Worse than doing it with her own hands!"

Zeus startled at my outburst, irritation gleaming in his eyes. Instead, he merely poured himself another helping of his precious wine.

"Is she happy?" he whispered.

"She has never been more glorious. She has never been more alive. And she has a penchant for... mischief."

I saw something that looked like tears in his eyes.

Well, that was certainly new. Maybe the sun would indeed set in the east today.

"Hades," he began uncertainly. "There is something you should know."

"No," I spat. "There is something you should know. I will not tolerate Demeter killing more innocents and staining my hands with their blood. You will make her stop. You will make her stop, do you understand?"

Zeus was speechless. There was no other word for it.

"You - you knew?"

"If we were dimwits, we'd be staying in Olympus too, my King."

"That's enough," he snapped at me. "You barely know a thing-"

"I know enough," I seethed. "Enough for my men to be working day and night, my cells overflowing, my court a fucking mess. You can sit here in your perfumed robes all day if you like. You can play with your pretty crown and your sceptres, Zeuss - but you know who does the dirty work for you? I do. Who merely delivers their justice and sentences them to the afterlife? I do. Who bears the brunt of displeasure? I do. Who sits here, listening to their insults? Man, devil, monster? I do!"

I pried the cup out of his fingers.

"It is my people who suffer when you let devils like Demeter walk free unpunished. My men who sleep once in a week when you turn an eye away from the faults of Olympians. Why - pray tell me, why, Zeus? Why have you not made her stop?"

"I have tried!"

"Try harder!"

"Hades," Zeus rubbed his eyes once more, and for the first time - I saw the exhaustion lining the hollows of his face. Weary. He was weary. Once again, his hand reached out. This time, it went straight for the bottle.

"I tried everything. I reasoned with her. I threatened her. But she, she refuses to bulge."

I exhaled.

"You cannot be serious. You cannot be fucking serious."

"How do you threaten a person who has nothing left to lose, Hades?" Zeus looked right into my eyes. His gaze seemed to go right through me, as if he could read my mind. "How do you threaten a person who has nothing left to lose?"

"No," I grit my teeth. "No."

"She will not stop," his voice was grave, as if in mourning. "She won't, Hades. Not like this."

"I-"

"I must ask a very terrible thing of you, brother," he whispered. "And I am sorry, but there is no other way out of this."

"Zeus. No."

"Yes," the King of Gods breathed. "Yes. You must send Persephone back to her."