Destroyer of Light (11 page)

“You don’t have the capacity to love,” she spat out.

“And you know that’s a lie! We loved each other once.”

Demeter stilled for a moment, her eyes shining like cool jade. She nodded. “We did. You’re right, Zeus. There is one thing, however, that would make it impossible for me to accept your offer…”

“What is that?”

“I love my daughter more than I ever loved you.”

Zeus felt everything sink. She was going to say no before he even started speaking. He’d walked into her trap and made an oath.
The
oath.

“Annul the marriage.”

“Demeter—”

“You swore.”

He was caught between one Stygian oath and another. The end of all things sat in one hand, the breaking of the oldest sacred agreement among the gods in the other. And worse— if Aidoneus had grown as attached to his bride as everyone said he had become, if he would do anything to keep her, it could mean the end of all things by ways he dared not consider. If Demeter had withdrawn all fertility from the earth and killed scores of thousands to reclaim Persephone, what unspeakable things could the Lord of the Dead do to humanity?

The winds outside rattled the Telesterion, an icy draft permeating the room and wrapping itself around the back of his ankles. Zeus cast his eyes down and slumped his shoulders in utter defeat. “I’ll send Hermes.”

***

Aidoneus curled against her, his breathing steady against her neck. Persephone had never felt him sleep so heavily— as though he’d never slept before. She wondered if he truly had. Though the noises from Tartarus had faded into the background of his perception over time, they must have always been there, bleeding through the edges of his consciousness. And before that, the war. And before that, Kronos. His arm was heavy, cast over her in the same place it had fallen after the last of several couplings, his hand splayed against her stomach. She smiled. Her hip was still tender. Aidon had taken her in the same position they lay in now, hoisting her knee with his forearm, his hands free to roam across the front of her.

Most of her was tender, truthfully. That wasn’t the only way they’d had each other. Each position they’d settled themselves into was familiar yet completely new, changed forever by their heightened connection, their bodies and spirits bound together. The rings sat heavy on her hand, the same sigil of responsibility her husband had borne all the aeons of his rule. She drew her palm down her abdomen until it settled over his hand, and listened to the voices of Asphodel.

Metra… Soteira… Annessa…

Her
titles. Could they tell that she was awake and he was not? The words were infrequent, and if she just listened to the syllables, they almost sounded like crickets chirping at night. They relaxed her in an odd way, and she started to pick out a few individual sentences within the din.

Thea, we’re so happy you’re here, so glad you hear us now…

Annessa, I’m ready to drink from the Lethe. I’m prepared to return…

Metra, please. Please watch over my husband, Ioannis…

She held her breath at the last one. That voice came from the Trivium— a shade who had not yet been judged… who hadn’t drank from the Lethe. Once it knew its voice had been heard it started again in earnest.

Metra! Metra, please! Our infant was too young for me to leave! Ioannis cannot feed him! Send me back, I beg of you…

It grew panicked and then other voices joined it.

Annessa, my children. I’m already gone but spare my children. Please!…

Soteira, my brothers— they starve; they have the fever. End their suffering as you ended mine…

Persephone felt her throat close and gasped for air. The voices grew frantic when they discovered she could hear them.

Save me! Save me, Soteira! I don’t want to be dead! I was to be married next month!…

Thea, I loved them truly, but they were all that was left to eat. They were already dead, I swear! Do not send me to Tartarus! Please…

Annessa, why? Why? Why am I gone while my neighbor who stole my pigs was spared?! Punish him! Punish him!

She choked, her breathing rapid without really drawing in any air, her body cold and shaking. A hand gripped hers firmly and she yelped in surprise before realizing it was Aidoneus, awake and angered.

Silence!
His voice resounded above the fray. They did as he bid and stilled. Hades spoke to the newly arrived shades calmly, countless millennia of experience lending weight to his words.
Peace— all of you. Let go of the lives you led. They are ended. You will drink from the Lethe and be freed of your burdens soon enough. Until then, have respect for your queen and be silent!

She trembled and he wrapped an arm around her. A few voices started again— the peaceful crickets of Asphodel.

Thea… Annessa… Soteira…

“Persephone.” His strong arm rolled her over to face him, his face etched with worry. “My love, are you alright?”

Air finally entered her lungs again, and exited as a cracked sob. She looked away from him, not wanting to show weakness. He’d heard these voices for so very long, and she’d folded after mere moments. “There were so many…”

“Sweet one, I’m so sorry.” He drew her close, holding her, and tucked the blankets tightly around them to secure and comfort her, letting their warmth surround each other, until her tears stopped and her breathing returned to normal.

“I don’t know how you do it, Aidoneus,” she said quietly.

“Because I must. They’re the responsibility the Fates gave me.”

“Our responsibility.”

He stroked her hair. “I shouldn’t have burdened you with this…”

“It’s not a matter of burdening me. These are
our
subjects.”

“We’ve never received so many guests at once. It was too much—”

“This is why I must go tomorrow.” She felt him wilt, their debate settled, knowing once and for all that she was right. “Aidon—”

“I know.” He held her tighter. “I know.”

“I’ll be back as soon as I can. It could only be a matter of hours—”

“Or days,” he muttered.

“I don’t know that. I can’t tell you for certain.”

“I know, sweet one,” he said, and cradled her until she was resting her head against his arm. “Let’s not keep you up, then. You have a long journey tomorrow.”

“I’ll be back before you know it, Aidoneus.” She nestled into him and sighed. “I love you.”

“And I you. Just rest, my love. I’m right here. I’ll always be here.”

He rubbed her back with his free hand until he heard her breathing lightly, steadily, then closed his eyes and joined her in sleep and dreams.

The fruit hung heavy on the branches, the seeds now grown. Ripe. The offspring of the ones that had taken root in gray earth and grown life in the land of the dead. They sat poised, crammed together, ready to fulfill whatever destiny the Fates decreed. The arils pointed every which way, row upon row, each path different, each outcome the same. Why they were there, they knew not; they needed to know. Eagerly and desperately, they called out, saying: ‘Come to us! Come and see what you brought forth. Come and see…

…before it is too late.’

We forgot to shut the door last night
. It was the first thought to enter Persephone’s mind when she awoke. She could see the wan light of the Styx from behind her closed eyelids. The gentle and distant rush of the falls, mingling with the steady breathing of her husband, almost lulled her back to sleep.

The bed felt so much harder this morning. Her body was stiff, the sheets damp and cool beneath her, and her head was pillowed against his arm. She sighed, savoring the pleasantly aching after effects and still-vivid memories of the sensual delights they’d shared the night before. The bedclothes tickled her skin as she leaned into her beloved’s side, luxuriating in the warmth of his body and his earthy scent.

Cool air nipped at her, causing gooseflesh to rise from her ankles to her neck. Strange.
We must have kicked the covers off, too
, she realized. The fire usually made up for that, but it was easily remedied. Her hand reached for the sheets…

…and closed around a clump of grass. Persephone’s eyes popped open and she jerked upright. Aidoneus let out an annoyed groan and yanked her down, pulling her back against his chest. “Too early…”

Persephone began to push herself up again and he muttered what might have been a ‘no
’.
Aidon enclosed her within his arms, this time nestling behind her. She cleared her throat nervously. “But, my love…”

“Mmm…” He sighed and gave her a slight nudge against her bottom. At least
one
part of him was awake.

“Ah, Aidon? We—”

“Wife, it’s early. Just stay in bed with me until I can wake you up properly,” he mumbled and heatedly pressed against her once more.

“That’s what I’m trying to tell you; we’re not
in
bed!”

Aidoneus cracked his eyes open. Gently releasing her, he sat up and looked around. The surrounding trees came into focus, their drooping boughs dangling overhead and heavy with ripe pomegranates. “Persephone… Did you…”

“…bring us here?” She hugged her knees to her chest to cover herself. “No, I-I don’t think so. We did dream about them again.”

“I know,” he answered, “but that’s… never taken us here before.”

“Maybe last night was special,” she said with a shy smile. He returned it and ran his thumb under her chin.

“Very,” Aidon said brushing his lips against hers. He nipped at her lower lip to coax them open, then darted his tongue across her teeth. His hand wrapped around her ankles to unbend her legs, trying to get her to lie back down beside him.

“We’re in the garden, my love,” she warned, whispering against his lips.

“Indeed.” He pulled away. “And?”

The corners of Persephone’s mouth ticked up despite her concern about their exposed situation. She turned a charming red, almost matching the fruits above them. Aidon pounced and caught her at her waist. He drew her down next to him so quickly that it left her breathless, then planted his hand in the grass beside her shoulder before looming over her.

It’s plain on your face but I’ll ask anyway
, he said to her with a thought, a fire deep in his eyes.
Are you thinking what I think you’re thinking?
He kissed her slowly on the lips.
Do you desire what I also desire?

Aidoneus
, she began, tracing a single fingernail down his chest,
are you trying to make this my idea instead of yours? Answer that for me, husband
, she teased.

He drew in a breath and covered her body with his, pressing her into the earth. She realized belatedly that he meant to show her, not tell her.

“Wait!” she said out loud. “Aidon, we can’t—”

“Before you protest, let’s consider this,” he said quickly and held up his thumb. “First, this is
our
garden. Second, I am almost certain Askalaphos already saw us sleeping here, and likely took off in the opposite direction as fast as his fat little legs could carry him!”

She giggled.

“Third,” he continued, holding up another finger, “Hermes was just here and has no reason to come again, and probably thinks I’ll throw him head first into the Cocytus the next time he walks in on us.”

Her giggle turned into a full-throated laugh, and Aidon couldn’t help but kiss her cheeks and tuck a lock of hair behind her ear.

And lastly
, he said, winding a trail with his upheld fingers down the valley between her breasts, meandering across her stomach, then gently caressing her sex.
I want to give you a reason to return to me as soon as possible.

She arched and answered him with a kiss.
As though you haven’t given me reasons enough already?

Play along with me, wife
. He smiled against her lips.
Let me give you a proper send off.

“Proper?” She laughed shakily when he kissed the pulse point just under her jaw line, then closed her eyes in pleasure as his fingers dipped into her heat ever so slightly. A sharp, aching need thrummed through her in their wake. “Aidon, we’re outdoors… in a grove! A-about to—”

Our grove. More than anywhere else in existence, this place is most thoroughly yours and mine.
A light pluck at the peak of her breast made her gasp and she looked down to see him rolling the puckered flesh between his fingers again.
And don’t tell me you haven’t thought about this… or something like it.

She sighed. “Yes…”

When the world above is healed, I want to make love to you in the cypress grove. In Nysa. In the sunlight.
He perused her thoughts as he mentioned it, and found a peculiar, enticing vision. The two of them weren’t in the grove at Nysa, but surrounded by poppies and grass in a wide-open field, his body driving hers into the earth, flowers bursting from the fertile soil all around their wanton joining. His mouth replaced his fingers, which in turn made their way back to her core.
Oh, so you
have
been thinking about it, then? Where is this grassy field, wife?

“Eleusis…” she answered breathlessly. “Near the oak glade where I saw that wedding. The day you were at Olympus.”

Outside Eleusis… That is where your fantasy lies?
Aidoneus said through thought, his mouth otherwise occupied. He delved deeper, surprised by his findings.
And me carrying you off over my shoulder, like some conquering king taking away my spoils…

“Yes!” She grew hot. “Gods, yes. If the arrow had struck true…”

Not the beginning I would have wanted for us. And the beginning we did have—

He paused, looking into her eyes while she explored his thoughts. Scalding recollections flooded through her— feelings, sensations. She felt with his lips the unforgettable first kiss they shared in the darkness of Erebus. And felt her own warm weight in his arms when he knelt to wrap her sleeping body securely in his cloak and carry her home once the chariot had stopped in the stable yard. Every moment in between, every detail of her abduction from the world above was seared indelibly into his mind. Both were awash in desire when the memories flooded through them. And then, beyond the desire, a palpable twinge of regret.

Persephone shook her head. “No, my husband, my love. It was not what either of us had envisioned for our first time, but… it was as the Fates intended. We’re here now because of it. And you love the memory of it,” she said, looking into his eyes, “and so do I. So why are you upset?”

Fates, Persephone…
He settled over her and closed his eyes remorsefully
. I had planned everything so carefully…

“The Fates seldom listen to our plans, my beloved,” she said, brushing her hand over his forehead and tangling her fingers in his hair.

He looked away from her and smiled, his mind decided and clear. “I’m fine with that,” he said aloud, positioning himself at her gate.

“You
ah
…” Persephone felt a growing fullness as he joined himself to her in the most elemental of ways, the earth under her tilting back and vanishing. “You are?” she gasped between heavy breaths.

“Oh yes,” he answered, his voice roughened by the tides of her slippery heat. “If they deny me for the rest of my existence, I can still live happily. As long as they decreed that you should be mine.”

She smiled up at him. “I love you, Aidoneus.”

“And I you,” he whispered into her ear with the first surge of his hips. “My Persephone…”

She clung to him, feeling his pulse reverberating within her. The ground was unyielding against her back, and she winced. Their bed always cushioned his thrusts, but the hard ground of the grove made his entry into her difficult. When he sensed it, he stopped and withdrew part way, lifting his body from hers. She reached to grasp him at the root, trying to return him to her fully.

I want you, Aidon. I don’t care about the pain
, she said, the corded muscles on his neck prominent as he restrained himself.

But I do.
He gently moved her hand away and pushed in shallowly, the flared tip raking repeatedly over her most sensitive spot until she was lightheaded. He settled his fingers on her pulsing bud and drew circles around it. Aidoneus closed his eyes, focusing intently on the rise and fall in her sensations. When he could feel her pleasure starting to throb, he drew his hand back, teasing her inner thighs with feather light touches until her hips lifted from the earth and inched along his length to reclaim him. He strained as her body tried to swallow him and his thumb returned to brush and press against her bud in earnest until Persephone lay gasping underneath him.

He felt her grow hotter, clasp harder around him, grasping desperately at him, and saw the tips of her breasts pucker deliciously. His thumb left her folds to gild her aureole with her essence. She mewled and squirmed, and he rewarded her with a deeper plunge before pulling back to taste and suckle at her breasts, her sweetness caught on the pink flesh. Persephone moaned and threaded her fingers through his hair, impatient and wanting.

Her reservations about making love in the grove were forgotten. There was only him, only his flesh surrounded by hers, his hands, and his tongue, all working in concert. She felt her body screaming for him, begging for him under this delicious torture. She wanted him— she
needed
him, not just to bring her to her fast approaching peak, but to push deep within, to the place only he could reach. To wildly give himself over to her with abandon— mercilessly and without his ever-present control.

Aidon felt her tighten around him in urgent pulses, knowing she was close. He returned his digits to her center, strumming until her channel pulsed around him.

Aidoneus… My love, please… please…

I’m right here…

I need all of you…

Sweet one, you will…

Now!

Come for me…

Pleasure broke over her like a storm and she arched her back, her mouth open and crying without a sound. With a single motion, he gathered her up in his arms, holding her at the curve of her back. He sat on his knees with her, pulling her down and sheathing himself to the hilt. Her silent cry broke into a full-throated scream when he filled her, her eyes squeezed shut and her fingers grasped at his back. Skin slid slick against hot skin, and he tilted his head back, reeling in the exquisite delight of her climaxing around him, her pleasure his as he throbbed within her tightening channel. When she came back to him, he stood, still intimately joined with her legs wrapped around him.

“I need you, Persephone,” he slurred huskily against her neck. “Before you go… in the way I first took you.” She nodded, dazed, and he pushed up hard inside her, bending to brace himself and spreading her thighs further apart. He plunged into her in long strokes while slowly walking forward until her back was against a sinewy pomegranate tree.

He needed more. Aidon cushioned her shoulder blades with his forearm, the bark scraping against his skin and sparing her naked back. He filled her once more, leaning into her tentatively at first until he was sure of their balance, then thrusting wildly, lost in sensation. Through fluttering eyelids she saw his brow furrowed, his jaw clenched. Persephone braced herself, holding a low branch at her side and the trunk behind her, offering him greater resistance, pushing back with her hips. A low growl rumbled in his throat, a feral harmony to accompany the primal rhythm of flesh against flesh.

She moaned in awe at his raw passion, aftershocks of her peak having left her wordless. Her world was compressed, consisting only of the branches gripped in her hands, his arm supporting her back, her body moving at the insistence of his. She felt his need in full while he took his pleasure on her, every thread of control unwound, moving ever faster. His voice broke and sang with hers in sighs and curses. His skin grew flushed and his muscles tensed. When he drew close, Persephone let go of the branches, needing to feel his skin pressing against her. His body was on fire. She clung to his shoulder with one hand and grabbed the flank of his rear with the other, feeling each quick flex as Aidon’s uncontrolled lust burned into her.

His eyes rolled back, and tension fled from his face and body in one glorious moment, then violently returned as he bucked into her, bowing his back as though every bit of heat he could offer was pouring into her. It seared through her in rapid pulses, fast and potent, and she heard him call out her name and his love for her to the branches twined about and above them. They stilled and fell against each other. She carefully brought one leg down, then the other, reluctantly uncoupling from him. Aidon’s knees shook. He held her close and breathed harshly, his softening organ pressed against her stomach and slick with their shared essence.