THE NIGHT WAS STIFLING, CHOKING, ANGRY IN ALL ITS RAGE.

I couldn't breathe. I couldn't breathe. I was being choked. The sight of him - the sight of him in her grasp. The sight of that weapon against his neck.

Her eyes were burning, not with fire - but with frost. Chilled, cracked hoarfrost. The rage in them shimmered like angry flames, straining to get out and manifest themselves in the knife she now held right against my husband's throat.

"Let her go-" he snarled.

"Don't do anything stupid, Hades," my mother whispered even as the slender, burnished soldier's hand clasped over my mouth. His wrists held mine in a grip of iron, hard enough to prevent me from being able to move yet not enough to hurt me seriously.

My husband gave her a look of disgust. And then he kicked back into her. Hard.

Swirls of inky darkness ripped from Hades even as she slammed her elbow into his chest, a cry ripping from me at the sudden pain that flashed in his eyes from a second. But then he was back, his face a cool, cultured mask -

Her scythe was flashing around in silver, glittering arcs even as tendrils of night leaked from him like ink bleeding in water, curling around her wrists, her ankles.

Taking advantage of the distraction he caused, I bit down on the hand pressed against my lips - tasting blood.

The soldier let out a silent yelp, blood dripping from his palm as I tried listlessly to loosen myself from his stifling hold, forcing his arm off me. I drew back, rolling my strength into a well placed blow as I aimed my curled fist right into the sleek man's fine nose.

Hades laughed, his head tossed back, a purring predator watching in delight.

And that laugh - that momentary declaration of pride - that was all she needed.

A near scream ripped from my lips as he reached out to strike her with the full force of his strength - and as if she'd anticipated it, she moved aside in a swift, lethal stroke - even as his leg crumpled with the momentum of his anticipated blow.

No. no, no, no.

My blood was heating, heating, heating-

And then, that silent, wordless soldier gripped me again, harder than before - his fingers callused, his face a cold mask devoid of emotion, his eyes blank. I stared at her. At the terrible thing my mother had become.

He was her soldier.

Hades' face lost all color as I was once again tight in that man's grip, lips twisting up into a cruel, cruel thing - the sheer fear in his eyes leaving him still...

...and then her scythe was at his neck again.

Unafraid, she smiled.

And this time, he'd gone pale. Like he'd been muttering a silent prayer to whatever god to leave me unhurt.

"I did warn you not to do anything foolish," Demeter grinned at her brother. That thing - that poison on her scythe glistened like poisoned water in the dying evening light, a tinge of green on a flash of silver. "Your tricks will not work on me," she whispered, her red lips curled into something terrible.

Hades tried to move, but her hold on his neck was tight. She was - she was going to choke the breath out of him.

"Let him go. Please."

My mother's eyes widened in disappointment - and then in anger.

"Demeter," Hades gritted his teeth, violently clenching them. "Let her go. Your quarrel is with me. Let her go, and then we can talk," his voice was like silver, smooth and subtle.

"No."

"You are honourless. You would blackmail a man by holding his pregnant wife up at knife point?"

"You are the one at knife point, Hades," Demeter hissed, her tongue like a snake. "And your..." she glanced at me, disgust lining her features, her eyes travelling to my belly, "...your pregnant wife will open the doors for me. Or you die." Her mouth twisted in a snarl, a vicious sneer. No, she was not done with me. And definitely not with him.

She wanted him gone. She wanted him dead, either way. Refuse to open the doors and let her kill him, or open the doors, let her take me away, leaving the Titans to kill him.

"Mother, please."

"I looked for you," she rasped, her face softening around the edges for a moment. "I looked for you. Everywhere. You weren't even there. He stole you-"

"-stole me, yes," my breath came in short gasps. "And promised to take me back if I only said the word."

"You lie," she whispered. "You are not in your own mind, child. He has bewitched you, enchanted you - slipped you into his world of lies." Hades tried not to wince as she pressed the tip of her curved weapon into his neck, the edge against his throbbing jugular -

"Let him go, mother," my voice was hoarse. "Mother-"

"Mother, yes," Demeter's voice was sharp enough to cut through stone. "Mother. A fact that you seemed to have forgotten, child." Her grip was tighter now, her knuckles a bone white, her eyes flashing with agony and despair and all things terrible. "Everywhere. I looked for you everywhere," she cried. "You were not found," her voice broke slightly towards the end, catching in her throat. "My little flower, my innocent little rose-" her gaze moistened, like dew in the early hours of the dawn.

"Demeter." The voice of the King of the Underworld was quiet, sharp and commanding. "This is your last warning. Tell your man to back off and let her go. If you have even a shred of honor in your wretched little heart... let her go." His eyes met mine, full of love. Assuring me that we would get out of this.

I didn't know if we would. If we could.

Around us, the forest slowly filled with a hundred versions of that slender man, slowly closing in - closer and closer. A few citizens were slowly emerging from behind trees and bushes, some acolytes scattered between them, visible in their dove white robes. Lachesis was watching everything unfold from the top of her tower.

"Let them go," the voice of the forest was quiet, sharp, commanding.

A thin smile pulled up my lips. Even when everything went to hell, there would always be one person to pull us out of this mess. No matter what the cost.

"I said," Hecate's bark was cruder than a knife, her temper barely restrained, "let them go."

She only smiled. My mother only smiled. Grinned, even - as the remaining citizens of the Underworld milled about in the treacherous forest, staring right down at my mother's immortal soldiers.

"You see, dear Hecate, you don't really stand a chance. Not with this," she motioned to the wicked poison coating her blade, threatening to break the skin of Hades' neck - "not with this."

"You can go to hell for all I care," Hecate snarled.

She laughed. That sound she made jangled my nerves.

"I looked for you everywhere," she sneered. "Everywhere. I burned down cities for you. Tore down homes. For you. Brought on a drought, a plague. Waiting, waiting, waiting until the right moment. Your little Rosamund makes quite the obedient spy," she leered. "Told me right how to follow Thanatos into the entrance."

The color drained from Hades's face. From all our faces. Hecate looked like she would throw up any moment.

"Oh, yes. I threatened to end her family if she didn't. Though it did take much persuasion from my side. Quite a good lap dog you have here."

In the crowd, the nervous Rosamund curled further into herself, eyes wide with terror. A few of her companions stepped back from her.

"And as for the poison," she inspected her blade for a moment, her voice a near croon. I shuddered as she ran a finger down Hades's neck, the tip inching ever, ever closer. Just the slightest push of her hand and it would sink into his skin. "While I searched for you day and night, the King of Eleusis invited me to stay at his palace. He travels often to the mortal world, the islands in the east, the mountains high up north collecting souvenirs. One of his travels yielded a surprising gift. Water hemlock. In reward for his hospitality, I anointed his son, Demophon, with ambrosia, and cast him into the ashes. He died a man and was reborn a god. A god who would follow me and my orders to the ends of the earth."

The forest was now filled to the brim with an army of soldiers like Demophon.

"Plunge this blade into my heart, then," Hades laughed, his words a delicious purr. "You cannot kill me," he let out a hiss. "You forget that a necromancer lives under my roof," he shot Hecate a grin, who grinned back. When she smiled, she was like a cat who'd just had a bowl of milk, about to nap under the sun.

"But I can kill you," Demeter whispered. "I can."

"I will brew him an antidote for the poison," Hecate claimed, green fire blazing in her hard eyes. "And then, we shall see how you laugh."

"Will you, though?" my mother went on. "After your acolyte emptied the stores of all the ingredients you need to cure him?"

And then she lost it.

The only thing holding back the goddess of witchcraft was an enraged Thanatos, straining to pull her back - keeping her from lunging straight at my grinning mother.

Fear gripped me like a noose.

There was no way - no way out of this.

One look at Hecate's face, at Thanatos's helpless eyes, at Charon's blazing gaze under his low rimmed hat - I knew we were done for good. Unless they tried to cut down those soldiers by brute force. And even then, there was the risk that either Demeter or Demophon would get to the two of us first.

"You wouldn't hurt her," Hades spoke at last, voice strained. "Persephone will never open the gates. Kill me if you must, but she will never open the gates," he gulped, horror sinking deep into the depths of my heart.

No no no.

"Of course I would never hurt her. But cut your evil spawn out of her soft body? That I will."

Never had I been so scared. So horrified. All those years she had brought me up, making me believe she was doing what was best - and all those memories of her were crumpled by the sentence that flew out of her traitorous lips.

She was a monster. An absolute monster.

Minos looked at her with disdain in his gaze.

"I don't sleep these days," she mused. "Not at all well. I stay awake at night, thinking of all those different ways to hurt the man who stole my daughter's innocence. After you sent me that sentimental little letter, brother - I figured it would be good to wait for a while, figuring out how exactly I was going to end you."

"I didn't write it," his teeth clenched as he bit out his words, tongue lashing out.

"I did," I ground out. "I wrote it, mother. And I told you to stay away from us!"

"Stay away?" she mocked, her voice dripping with mockery. "Stay away? I am your mother, and you would do well not to forget that! I raised you, taught you-"

"-and locked me up in a cave lest I left you alone!" I snapped. "Do you have any idea - any idea - what that loneliness did to me, mother? Feeling myself waste away - day by day, bit by bit - feeling myself lose my mind? Knowing that the world outside was full of life and color and adventure? I was never a child to you, mother. I was never family. I was only a possession. A pearl. A treasure for you to show off to the world - for some wicked sense of validation. As if you wanted to scream at Olympus - look at my pearl, look at my flower, look at my treasure. See how good I am at keeping my things safe. You were never a good mother, never a good parent. The only thing you knew how to do was lock things away, like a necklace, like gold. I was never your child, mother. I was only your possession. And you were never my mother. Just my safekeeper."

She was motionless. She was a statue. And her eyes spoke it all. Anger, and resentment and bitterness. All of it shone in their depths.

And that was when I knew she had to go. Forever.

"Open the gate, Persephone. Or your husband dies. And this time, you know I mean it."

Hades was silent. But the slightest shake of his head was my answer. Tartarus could not open. Not again. I could feel the growing life in my belly, the quiet gaze of my husband, the glare of my mother, the chill in the air. I could feel the anger. The desperation. And reluctantly, even pity. Pity for what this monster of her love had made her.

"Open the gates, child."

Hades was whiter than snow. His jaw was tight, eyes darker than ever, slightly moist. Tears. They were full of tears.

Because I was Queen of this Kingdom. And if protecting it meant keeping the gates locked forever - no matter the cost.

I whispered a quiet farewell. Hades gulped. I knew he knew. He understood. And I did as well.

"No," Thanatos whispered. "No," he breathed, even as it slowly dawned on him what I was about to do.

"Open them now!" my mother snapped. "Do it or watch him die!"

I love you.

The tears were streaking uncontrolled down my face as Hades composed his features back into the mask, the sadness drawn back, reigned in even with unbearable pain.

I have always loved you.

"Persephone..." her voice was a warning, even more than a warning. A threat. The last one.

I will love you in this life and the next. Until I am bones buried in the ground, I will love you.

A single tear rolled down his cheek.

I took an oath to protect my family. And I must stand by that oath.

She looked into my gaze, and my gaze was stone. And she knew. She knew. Knew that it could not be allowed to happen. And her gaze collapsed into a twisted, wretched thing, and then-

A scream ripped from Hades as she plunged the blade into his heart.

And that sound - that cruel, jarring sound - snapped something inside of me. Something that was out of this world. I could only see red. Red, like the fire in my eyes. Red, like the roaring, angry thing in my blood. Red, like the color of the roses he'd tucked into my hair in that forest, that little slice of our own heaven.

My hands moved of their own accord, wanting to make her pay. To pay for that sound. To pay for making him scream. I had never tasted vengeance, never felt its silver temptation slithering into my blood - and I tasted it now, like a shimmering, forbidden fruit.

I was going to make her pay.

The gates clicked open with a silent thought.

The first shade clambered out. I did not know how I did what I did then. How I gave them a purpose. All I knew was that she was going to regret it very, very deeply.

"Make. Her. Pay."

Hades collapsed to the ground, crumbling onto his knees as I drew myself up, darkness gleaming in the pits of my eyes. A second shade climbed out, then a third, then a fourth-

A death rattle shook in the air as the crystal clear voice of Zeus rang out.

"No. Stop!"

But I would not. She would suffer.

My lips moved, a silent word on them. And then the creatures of Tartarus flung themselves at Demeter.