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Cut chapter from the promise of hades

!! do not read if you have not finished the trilogy !!

*contains explicit scenes*

Hades

 

“So, I think it’ll be about two weeks before the willow tree reaches full height, which is insane because back in the mortal world that would have taken freaking ages.”

My heart gave a nervous flutter as Persephone talked excitedly about the glade. Our glade. The glade she had created with power that should have been beyond her control. The haven that meant we could live together, souls intact.

She was so strong, so brave, so fierce. Simply perfect. And she was mine.

My heart thudded quicker. And hopefully, today, I would be able to announce that to the world.

I was pretty sure she would say yes. I mean, she had been willing to die for me. The bond connecting us was unbreakable, and the intensity of her passion for me unwavering, as was mine for her. She would say yes. But that didn’t stop the nerves as I stared at her across the breakfast table.

She had competed to become my Queen, so technically she knew this was coming. But Hecate had told me that humans proposed marriage in a certain way, and it was my fault Persephone had spent twenty-seven years in the mortal world. I owed her this. I owed her everything.

For so many years I had been unable to sit in the room we were now dining in, the table laid out under the beautiful blooming blossom tree that dominated the center of the huge room. For too long that tree had stood barren, the massive windows showing nothing but the bleak nothingness that covered my realm. But now… Now there was nothing that eased the pain inside my soul, the pain the Underworld filled me with each day, than sitting with Persephone in the light-filled space, vivid greens displayed through the windows behind her, and pink blossom falling into her white hair as she beamed at me.

“I have a special dessert for us today,” I said, trying to keep my voice level.

“Ooooh, what is it?” She looked at me, eyebrows raised in question.

“You’ll see.”

I waved my hand, and faint blue glow covered the tabletop, before our empty plates vanished, and a new dish appeared in front of her. A gold rose, bigger than my fist, lay in the middle of the black bowl.

Fresh nerves rolled through me, but her eyes flicked to mine, a mischievous excitement in them.

My nerves vanished as I looked into her green eyes. We were two halves of the same thing. We belonged together. She would say yes.

 

Persephone

 

I reached for the head of the flower, my breath short. I could feel Hades' nerves from where he sat opposite me, but it was an excited tension that rolled from him. Could this be what I thought it might be? What I hoped it might be?

I lifted the rose. It was heavy, and the petals were firm and cool, and glinted like real gold. Hades was a god of the ground, he owned just about every precious metal in the world. The rose could easily have been made from real gold.

I glanced up at him, and he gave me a nervous smile. “Use your power,” he said, his voice deep and carrying a hint of excitement.

I looked back down at the rose in my hands and slowly sent out my power. It was second nature now, using my magic. I thought about life and light and growth, and the gold heated in my hands. Tingles of warm magic rippled through my hands as the petals began to peel back, ever so slowly, and beautifully, revealing the very center of the flower.

There, nestled right at the heart of the rose, was a ring.

My heart skipped a beat, and my gaze flew back to Hades. He stood up slowly, his devastatingly handsome face alive with passion. He pushed his dark hair back from his face in an impossibly endearing show of nerves, then strode toward me. My pulse raced faster.

When he reached me, he dropped to one knee, and a small squeak escaped my mouth.

He really was doing it.

Hades reached into the rose and took out the ring. It was like no ring I’d ever seen. The main metal was silver, and an intricate pattern of vines was engraved into it. But the truly exceptional part was the tiny gold ring that fitted into a section cut out of the middle of the band, ending in curved Greek swirls. Two different metals, two different styles, slotted together in perfection.

Tears pricked the back of my eyes as Hades took my left hand in his.

“Persephone, you complete me. You save me from myself every single day. Will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?”

Happiness so intense I couldn’t catch my breath for a moment swept through me.

I wasn’t just to be his Queen because I won the Hades Trials. I was to be his Queen because he got down on one knee with a ring and asked me to be. I was to be his Queen because we belonged together.

“Yes,” I breathed, the tears of happiness escaping my eyes, my smile so huge that it hurt my cheeks. “Yes. I love you.”

Hades slid the ring onto my finger. It fit perfectly. “Do you like it?” he asked, looking up at me, then reaching his hand up to wipe the tears from my cheek.

“It’s the most gorgeous thing I’ve ever seen.”

“I made it,” he said, pride and pleasure filling his silver eyes.

“I can tell. It’s us, in metal,” I laughed. He tugged me forward, and I slipped off the seat, onto his raised knee. Gently, he pushed my hair back from my face, staring into my eyes.

“I will love you forever, Persephone. I will never, ever let you go again.”

“Nor I you,” I told him, and our lips met. Fire exploded inside me, as it did every time I connected physically with this man, this god. He pulled me tighter to him, deepening the kiss, pouring every ounce of the sincerity of his words into the action.

He loved me.

I wrapped my arms around his neck, swiveling into him, and he moved so that he was cross-legged on the floor, and my legs could snake around his waist. I pulled back from the kiss, biting my lip as I took in the hunger in his eyes.

“I am to be your Queen,” I whispered. Blur light flared in his irises.

“And I your King.”

I rocked my hips in his lap, feeling his hard length against me.

“As your Queen, I demand you remove those clothes, at once,” I said. His grip around me tightened as his eyes darkened, then with a flash, his clothes were gone. And so were mine. I gasped as his hardness was suddenly against my skin, the barrier of fabric removed.

Gold vines crept from my palms, tickling their way down Hades’ muscular back. When they made contact, I saw myself as Hades saw me, and confidence surged through me, my arousal building as his thoughts flooded my mind.

A white-haired Queen, claiming her King, nothing but pleasure, love, ecstasy between them.

“Take me, my King. I’m yours.”

With a deep growl, Hades moved, guiding himself to where I needed him. My vines coiled around his biceps, my body tensing in delicious anticipation, my magic showing him exactly what I wanted.  

We moaned in unison as he sank into me, a sense of rightness turning the pleasure into something beyond physical. It was soul-deep. It was the only thing that existed. We moved together, slowly at first, taking time with our hands and mouths, bringing each other to fever pitch. When we couldn’t take any more, when every nerve-ending in my body was too sensitive to touch, Hades sped up, rocking me hard in his lap, and we let go together. Bliss engulfed me, and I lost myself completely to the feeling, aware only of Hades’ lips falling all over my chest and collar bone as I clutched him.

As the waves of pleasure receded and my senses started to come back, my eyes fell on the ring on my left hand, wrapped tight around Hades’ neck.

I was engaged to be married to Hades, Lord of the Underworld. And I had never been happier in my life.

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