I made a face and spat, but I didn’t have the chance to lay into him for covering my mouth in the f irst place. The door to the cottage opened, and out skipped a curly haired blonde who looked a few years older than me. She was tiny, and despite the sun shining down into the lush meadow, her skin was alabaster.
Beside me, James pursed his lips, and Ava let out a soft snort of distaste I didn’t understand. The girl knelt down in the garden beside the cottage door, and she started to pull weeds as she hummed happily to herself. There was something disturbingly familiar about the way she moved, and as a drop-dead gorgeous man stepped out of the cottage and into the sunlight to join her, I f inally understood.
“Is that…?” I whispered. James swallowed, and my breath hitched in my throat.
Persephone.
CHAPTER EIGHT
PERSEPHONE
She looked exactly like the image I’d seen of her months ago, except her hair was the color of wheat instead of strawberry-blond. We weren’t close enough for me to see the freckles, but I was positive they were there, too. Henry’s memory of her was perfect.
Of course it was. What else had I expected?
“So what?” I took a deep breath to slow my racing pulse.
The knot in my chest made it hard to breathe. “Do we sit here and stare, or are we going to go say hi?” James didn’t answer. He watched Persephone with wide, unblinking eyes, and I wasn’t sure he was breathing, either.
I poked him in the shoulder, but he shrugged off my touch.
“What’s going on?” I said to Ava. She, too, was staring, but she had the same look on her face that she did when she was looking at Dylan. Or Xander. Or Theo.
“I almost forgot how gorgeous Adonis is,” she said. “We should have made him one of us.”
She wouldn’t have gotten any argument out of me, but a strange sound escaped from James, almost like he was growling. “And have to endure another narcissistic blond running around? No, thank you.”
Ava opened her mouth to retort, but I cut her off. “You’re all narcissists. Are we going or not?”
Wearing a wounded expression, James broke his stare, but neither he nor Ava made any move toward the cottage.
With a huff, I stepped past the edge of the trees and walked through the meadow, making a point of stepping around the f lowers. No use in risking Persephone’s wrath before saying a word.
Persephone must’ve caught sight of me, because she stood and placed herself protectively in front of the man—Adonis, apparently. It was f itting. He looked like he’d stepped out of a movie, with long hair that hung to his shoulders and an abdomen that would’ve put Henry to shame. It was hard to focus on Persephone with him standing there, and my mouth went dry as I tried to think of something to say.
The desire to not make a fool of myself in front of him overwhelmed me, and I immediately felt guilty for being so attracted to him. If Persephone was half as shallow as Ava, at least now I understood why she’d left Henry.
I touched the f lowers in my pocket. Now was not the time to start thinking like her.
“Who are you?” she demanded. There was a sharp edge to her voice that forced my attention back on her, but what could she do? Attack me with a weed? She wasn’t a goddess anymore.
“I’m Kate,” I said, holding my hands up as I took another step forward. “Kate Winters.”
Her expression didn’t soften. If our mother had visited her, it either hadn’t been in the past twenty years or she’d never mentioned that Persephone had a sister. It seemed fair.
She’d never told me I had a sister, either.
I heard footsteps behind me as Ava and James came closer.
Even if Persephone had no idea who I was, with the way her mouth dropped open, it was obvious she remembered them.
“Hermes?” she said, stunned, and then her eyes narrowed as she added, “And Aphrodite. Lucky me. What’s going on?”
James stepped beside me and set his hand on my shoulder.
Ava lingered behind us, and I didn’t blame her. Whatever bad blood there was between the two of them, Persephone clearly hadn’t forgotten it, either.
“Persephone,” said James with a stiff nod. “It’s been a long time.”
“Not long enough,” she said, and she took Adonis’s hand, her knuckles turning white from her grip. “What do you want?”
Nothing much. Just for her to leave her perfect boyfriend and afterlife behind to help the three of us f ind the most powerful being in the universe. Possibly free him as well, if she didn’t mind too much. I swallowed and opened my mouth to answer, but James got there f irst.
“Cronus woke up.”
Persephone paled. “How?”
“Hera,” said James, and Persephone furrowed her brow.
“It’s a long story. We need your help.”
Persephone eyed us cautiously, and her gaze lingered on me longer than the others. “How could I possibly help you?
I’m not a goddess anymore.”
James sighed. “Can we come in?”
She tensed, and as Adonis hugged her protectively, envy snaked through me. What would it be like to have those arms around me instead?
No, I had Henry. Maybe things weren’t going so well, but he was my husband. I loved him. And who else had the ability to brighten my mood simply by walking into the room? I didn’t need Adonis.
But part of me wanted him very, very badly.
“It’s all right,” he said, nuzzling the crook of her neck.