Hades & Persephone by Amelia Wilde

Hades & Persephone by Amelia Wilde

Author:Amelia Wilde [Wilde, Amelia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-04-19T18:30:00+00:00


17

Persephone

I didn’t lie. I dream of being outside, someplace wide-open and warm. Bare feet on new grass. A basket in my hand. There’s no boundary marked by trees, so I can see for miles. It’s miles and miles of wildflowers. Rare flowers. I can fill my basket. I could walk for hours. On the next step, the sole of my foot meets something shiny and flat. Way out here, in the middle of nowhere? I lift my foot away from it like it’s a landmine, holding my breath.

It’s not a mine. It’s a card. A tarot card. I recognize it from all those years ago—the purple-and-black pattern on the back of the cards. This one has a small tear in the corner. Dream-logic compels me to bend down and pick it up. Sweat breaks out on the back of my neck. If I don’t look, then I won’t have to see which card it is.

I already know which card it is.

Death.

I flip it over in my hand. There’s that skull, that darkness. “Death,” a voice says. A presence lurks behind me, but when I turn, nobody’s there. The card sticks to my fingers when I try to let it fall. It reminds me of a mayfly. It has wings like a mayfly.

It won’t get off.

It won’t get off.

I wake up with a muffled shriek, fighting with the blankets in Hades’ bedroom. He was here when I went to sleep, but he’s not here now. I’m alone with my pounding heart and the phantom card on my fingertips.

The window offers zero clue as to what time it is, but judging by the sleepiness clinging to my bones, I slept a long time. Maybe the rest of the afternoon and night. That seems right. I’m still in the same clothes as before. The ache in my ass has subsided, but it’s not gone.

I’ve lost an afternoon and a night with Hades.

Or maybe without him. I don’t know where he went. On the way out of the bed, a glimmer catches my eye. A piece of jewelry, high on his pillow. A gift.

I hold my breath while I pick it up. A bracelet. Diamonds in a silver thread, like he took the sky and made it small enough to hang around my wrist. My face flushes. I put it on quickly before I get caught. Doing what, I don’t know. Having a crush, maybe.

Embarrassing.

Showering would be a good first step, but before that, I pad out into the sitting area to make sure he’s really gone.

Hades is.

Oliver isn’t.

He’s bent over a newspaper when I step through the door, and he startles, dropping his pen. What was he doing with the pen? Annotating the newspaper? Seems weird. But then again, Oliver seems weird. “Shit,” he says under his breath. He leans down to get his pen off the floor and sits back up. “Good morning.”

“Hi.”

Good morning. Oliver doesn’t seem like a secondary jailer. He hasn’t made a single move to remind me that he’s a threat.



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