Series: Willow Winters
Total pages in book: 103
Estimated words: 94417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94417 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 472(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
In my memory, I return to the mirror. Olympus is blinding. It is endless and white behind Zeus. Too bright, and purposely so. I go back to the night she was taken. Back to what Zeus said. Back to when I knew this was the only way …
3 months prior and the night Persephone casts the spell
“I will her to turn mortal,” Zeus says. I must bite my tongue to keep from tearing him apart. Turn mortal? My queen? How can he think so little of her and fear her at the same time? “I have heard the prophecy that says my offspring will be stronger than I. This is a win for both of us. I shall turn her mortal, it has already begun and shortly there will be no power left in her. She will not overpower me and she will go to you. You will make her a fine partner and King. I only need a little while longer.”
Zeus should have known there was no way to misdirect fate in this manner. If he was so concerned about his children eclipsing his power, he should never have had children at all.
A foolish thought. No one has ever been able to tell Zeus anything. He simply assumes he will bend every prophecy to his preferences without facing a single consequence.
That is not how any realm works. There is always a consequence.
I stand firm in the mirror, my jaw tight but my expression unmoving. I do not wish her a mortal. I want her. I crave her. I’ve watched her for months. She is to be a queen at my side. Zeus wishes her away and I to take her. Why harm my wife? I cannot allow it.
“I want to have Persephone forever,” I tell him.
“Forever you shall. She will be mortal. She shall perish as they do and will be sent to your realm. You need only wait a little while longer, no?”
“I don’t want her as a mortal soul in the Underworld. I want her as the Goddess she is.”
He scoffs.
Anger bristles through me. How dare he question my desire. How dare he attempt to change the perfection Persephone is.
“For what purpose?” Zeus asks with shock and humor even.
For what? What are goddesses for, but to rule? What is a goddess like Persephone for, but to have everything her heart desires, and every possible power at her fingertips? What is my Persephone for, if not to be worshipped as the queen she is?
“To rule beside me,” I say, barely able to keep my voice in check. Zeus already knows that I will not do his bidding without appropriate payment. Without a deal that benefits me. But I cannot let him think he can use Persephone to control me. “She is meant for me, and she is meant to rule.”
“Very well,” says Zeus, as if it does not matter what becomes of Persephone. “She shall be a nymph very soon as her magic wanes, you won’t have to wait very long at all.” As if he is satisfied to have her out of sight and out of mind. Safely in the Underworld, where he will not have to look at her and wonder if her powers are growing stronger. “We have a deal.”
The anger turns to rage. Soon? How soon? The questions pile in my mind but they all lead to one conclusion. I must take her now. I have to save her.
“How?” I ask him.
“How what?” he responds as if the question isn’t obvious.
“How did you take her powers?” My eyes meet his in the mirror.
“The wine of course. Poison in the wine.” He answers so easily.
“I have matters to attend to,” I tell him and end it.
“As do I.”
The mirror goes dark.
I curl my fist in front of my mouth and breathe deeply. She is mine, and I have little time left.
No more dwelling on Zeus. I turn away from the mirror and leave it behind, moving down the halls to my rooms as quickly as I can. Minox steps out of an alcove up ahead of me, but disappears into shadow when he sees that I will not stop for him.
I need her. Now.
A small voice in the back of my mind whispers to me as I stride down the hall.
You could have had her for infinite time, it says. If she was a mortal soul in your Underworld, you could have kept her forever.
I wave away that suggestion like I would wave away a cloud of smoke. Persephone was not born to be a mortal in my realm, the thread of her life snipped by the Fates for any number of reasons.
She was born to be a Goddess.
And she was born to rule.
I open the door to my rooms. In comparison to the hall, it is bright, though not overwhelmingly so. The fire burns hot in the grate, casting flickering shadows over everything. Those shadows will caress Persephone’s skin like a lover.