Read Online My Lord Hades by Stephannie Beman - Free Book Online Page A

was more to the man than that. Hades spoke with her as if she were a woman and not a child. He’d answered what few questions she’d asked of him with honesty. He showed interest in her. His touch was electrifying, warming her body and soul. Something in him called to her. He promised companionship,
    adventure, and an end to the loneliness they shared.
    She glided into the villa, a smile on her face. She knew she would see him again. She sat at the table with Aunt Hestia and began to eat her meal of strawberries and apples mixed with ambrosia and nectar with vigor. She didn’t think anything had tasted so good in her life.
    “What has put you in such a good mood tonight?” Hestia asked.
    Persephone shoved the fruit salad into her mouth and chewed it slowly, thinking furiously for a reason. “I’m happy the war is over and we are safe here. Mother will be home soon, won’t she?”
    “I’m already here.”
    Persephone gasped and turned to the door. She lept from her chair and rushed into her
    mother’s arms. “I missed you.”
    Her mother drew in a shaky breath, and though she didn’t move, her aura of magic trembled.
    “I was only gone a day.”
    The statement seemed to hold more meaning than the simple phrase implied. “What’s
    wrong?”
    Demeter glanced at her and then away. Something was definitely wrong. “You were always a
    perceptive child. I went to secure our place among the gods. Only things didn’t turn out as planned. You are to meet the Olympians, my dear child.”
    Persephone began to smile. “You mean…I’ll finally meet the gods of the nymphs’ stories.”
    “What stories?!” Demeter’s soft voice turned hard and angry.
    Persephone winced. She tread on dangerous ground and her inner voice warned her to be
    wary of her mother. Though why she should, the soft voice wouldn’t or couldn’t divulge.
    “They told me of Hermes stealing Apollo’s cattle and repaying the theft with a lyre. Then there are Hermes flying sandals. Or stories of the virgin Artemis in the forests, who needs no man, hunting animals with her bow and with her maidens. What’s a virgin, Mother?” She didn’t stop to let her mother explain but rushed on. “Or there was the story of Athena springing from Zeus’ head. And recently they told me of Hades’ defiance toward Coronus, and Zeus rescuing him from Tartarus, and his defeat of the Titans.”
    Demeter shook her head, her face softening. “When we do go to Olympus, Persephone, you
    must stay away from Hades.”
    She frowned. “Why, Mother? Rayes said he was a gentleman when she tripped in front of
    him. He picked her up and sent her on her way.”
    Hestia snorted.
    “Because I said so!” Demeter snapped. She closed her eyes, clasped her hands before her,
    and took several deep breaths. “Please, just obey me.”
    The urge to comply with her mother’s command was strong. “Please, Mother, why do you
    hate this god so? I need to understand.”
    Demeter sighed. “He’s a daemon. He’s an evil man who murdered hundreds. He’s killed his
    wife.”
    Persephone knew daemons were fearful immortals, yet the horror she saw in her mother’s
    and aunt’s faces were not mirrored in her own face. She couldn’t bring herself to fear Hades.
    “He was justly imprisoned by Coronus for defiance of Titan law.”
    “Did we not too defy Titan Law?” Persephone asked.
    “He attacked your grandfather in his own home,” Demeter snapped.
    “So did the Olympians.”
    “He causes death and mayhem wherever he goes, child,” Hestia said. “His life is not one of peace and harmony such as yours.”
    Persephone frowned. Try as she might, she couldn’t connect the god they spoke of with her Hades. He wasn’t that man; she was sure of it. There was no desire to harm anyone.
    She promised herself, and him, that no matter what she heard about him, she would hold tight to her memory of him in the forest, and maybe one day she could ask him about the tales she’d learned