Hades slipped inside the bedroom. “Hera? Oh. I am not interrupting, am I?”
“No, of course not,” I said. “Come help me, would you, please?”
Obediently he moved behind me, and his careful fingers took over for me, placing the jewels amidst the length of my braid. For a long moment, he didn’t speak.
“Is everything all right?” I said, watching him in the mirror. He didn’t raise his eyes to meet mine. Instead he paused and pursed his lips.
“I have something I must tell you,” he said quietly. “And I fear you will not like it.”
My insides grew hollow, and the joy that usually filled me when I was with him drained away. “What is it?”
More silence. He took his time finishing my hair, and at last, when he gently set the braid back over my shoulder, he said, “I am betrothed.”
My body turned to ice. For a moment I ceased to exist, and he finally looked at me. Not even the piercing stare of his silver eyes could revive me.
Married. He was getting married.
“I have been considering it for a while now. I’m depending far too much on your generosity and guidance, and it isn’t fair of me to continue to do so. You have a life on the surface. Your sons, if nothing else, and I cannot endure the guilt of keeping you here.”
He thought I didn’t like it down here? He thought I stayed out of obligation? “Hades, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. I’m happy down here. With you.”
He shook his head. “That is the trick of this place—it makes you feel as if you are happier than you really are. Down here, you are hiding from your life, and I cannot allow it to continue. You need to return to Olympus. You need to return to our family.”
I stood so quickly that my stool flew backward, nearly hitting his knees. “I don’t need to do anything I don’t want to do, and I do not want to leave.”
“Hera—”
“No, you listen to me,” I snapped. I’d never spoken to him like this in our entire existence, but I couldn’t stop myself, not anymore. “I love you. I love you more than I’ve ever loved anyone. Being with you—being down here with you, ruling at your side, it makes me happy. It gives me purpose. You can’t take that away from me.”
His expression softened. “Hera, I am not taking anything away from you. We will always be friends, and you are welcome down here at any time. I simply can no longer burden you—”
“You haven’t burdened me.” My eyes stung with tears. “Please. Let me stay. Don’t marry her, whoever she is—”
“Persephone,” he said softly, and I froze once more.
Persephone. Demeter’s daughter. So this was what Zeus had meant. This was his game. He knew how I felt about Hades, and this was his final move. To take him from me completely. To leave me with no one at all.
Desperation flooded me, and every nerve in my eternal body burned. Without thinking, I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his, pouring every ounce of passion and love and dedication I felt into that kiss. I couldn’t lose him.
For one beautiful moment, Hades set his hand on my cheek, though he didn’t kiss me back. I couldn’t expect him to, not before he was ready. But he would be someday, and when that day came—
“Hera,” he whispered, his lips brushing against mine. “You mean a great deal to me, but Persephone and I have both chosen this. When she comes of age, we will marry.”
“But you don’t even know her.”
“I do,” he said softly. “I go up to Olympus often to visit. We may not have the companionship you and I share, but you are my brother’s wife, and if I allowed us to happen—”
“What, you’d make him angry?” I wiped my eyes. “You’d cause the council to crack? It’s already cracked, Hades. We’ve already crumbled.”
Hades shook his head and reached for me again. I stepped away before he could touch me, and he dropped his hand to his side. “The council has not crumbled, Hera. You have. And I cannot allow us to happen, because it would mean losing you completely. Loyalty, fidelity—those are the things that make you who you are. I will gladly accept the first in friendship and offer it to you unconditionally in return. But I will not allow you to push aside the second, not when it would mean you are no longer you.”
I cried openly now. “What does it mean to be me when I have no one? Nobody loves me—”
“I love you,” he said quietly.
“Not the way I want you to.” My voice was thick, and I had to blink several times to force my vision back into focus. “No one does. I’m alone. And I thought—I thought you understood that. I thought you saw me.”
“I do, Hera. I do, and that is why I cannot allow you to break your vows no matter what my bastard of a brother does to you. You’re too good for it. You’re too good for all of us. We’re the ones who don’t deserve you.”
“Yet I’m the one who’s alone.” I allowed a single, miserable sob to escape my chest, taking my heart with it. “I can’t bless it.”
“I know,” he said gently. “I would never ask you to.”
His kindness only made the ache inside me grow. I’d lost him now, too, no matter how strongly he insisted he would always be there. Once again, he’d broken his promise, just like Zeus.
But now that I knew I couldn’t have him, there was one thing I did want. “Please,” I whispered, “promise me one thing.”