Chapter 17:

"You've really outdone yourself this time, Eros."

Eros looks at his mother, a playful smile on his lips. "I only do the best for you, Mother." He takes out an arrow from his quiver and begins to twirl it in his hands. "You really should have been there when I shot him with the arrow; he was completely clueless. Like a child, really," he moves his fingers to the arrow's tip, "It's not love yet – won't be for a while, if what you told me about Hades is true, but... It's not every day you see the Lord of the Dead's eyes turn black with desire. I haven't seen lust like that in quite a while," his lips curl up, "And no one else seemed to notice."

Aphrodite throws her head back, laughing. Through a contented chuckle, she says, "I knew that silly girl would be just right - took him quite a while to figure it out, though. Eight months, and then he decides to take her! Bah! Men!"

Eros snorts, "Excuse me? Need I remind you that it was me – a man – who helped you with this affair?" His face is set with an indignant glare.

"Oh, my little Eros, I'm sorry," Aphrodite says, moving to ruffle his bronze hair. "You're right – if it wasn't for you, my plan would've never been set in motion."

Eros bats her hand away. He gives her an irritated grunt, "What's this plan of yours, anyway?"

Aphrodite takes an arrow from the quiver. Tracing her fingertips down the shaft, she begins, "Eros, the gods underestimate me because of the role I play within the world…They underestimate me even though I am descended from Ouranos himself."

"Well then they are fools."

"Yes," Aphrodite says bitterly, "Yes they are. No one seems to understand love's hold on war…As for my plan-" her eyes gleam, "- just know that it ends with the crowning of a new king."

Persephone wakes with a start when she feels cold hands on her shoulders.

"Get off me, Hades!" she screams, her words coming out panicked and garbled in her daze.

"Persephone," a woman's voice says, "Persephone, it's me. It's Hecate."

That calms her down, and she begins to relax back into the bed.

"Hecate." Her green eyes flash as she studies the room, dark cave walls illuminated with glowing fauna and leaves.

Persephone rubs her eyes as she turns her head to face Hecate again.

"Where am I?" she asks.

"Where are you?" Hecate standings and lifts her arms out. "Why," she twirls, "you're in my humble home."

"In the Underworld."

Hecate laughs, "Of course, my dear. Where else would my home be?"

"I was praying that it would be somewhere on the surface."

Another laugh, and Hecate moves to touch a patch of glowing blue mushrooms on the wall. "Praying? Who does a god pray to, my dear?"

Persephone looks down, and with her eyes watering and her voice beginning to crack, she rasps, "My father."

Hecate slowly turns to look at her, her fingers still tracing lines across the tops of the mushrooms. "Your father?" she clucks her tongue, "Your father has no power here, my Queen."

Persephone's head shoots up, her eyes wide and her red hair wild. Her hands gripped tight onto her dress, her voice barely a whisper, she asks, " What did you call me?"

"I'm sorry?"

She stands up. "What. Did. You. Call. Me?"

Hecate turns to fully face her. She bows her head slightly, "My Queen, of course."

"I am not your Queen."

"Well not yet, my lady, but you will be-"

"I AM NOT YOUR QUEEN!"

Persephone collapses back onto the bed, throwing her arm over her eyes and beginning to cry. "I am not your Queen! And I'll NOT marry your tyrant, good-for-nothing King!" Hecate hurries over to the bed and just barely manages to keep herself from making a surprised squeak when Persephone grabs her by the waist and begins to cry into her belly. "I'll not do it, I'll not do it, I'll not do it…"

Hecate, hesitant at first, lightly pats her head. "There, there, my girl, there, there…Everything will be alright." At this, Persephone begins to cry more.

"Shhh, it's alright. I'm not going to hurt you."

Persephone grabs Hecate's waist harder and cries into her robes, her voice muffled and raspy. "I just want to go home. Please, just let me leave."

Hecate continues to gently pat the top of Persephone's head. Don't say 'Queen', Hecate; it'll just upset her.

"Now, my girl, you know I can't do that." She feels Persephone grab her waist tighter.

"Please…"

Hecate manages to remove Persephone's arms from her waist and moves to kneel in front of her until the two are at face-level. She puts her hands on Persephone's shoulders.

" Now look," she says, doing her best to make her voice as gentle and soothing as possible, " you may not see it now, but Lord Hades…He is a good man. A stubborn man, unyielding, and sometimes a downright pain in…well, you get the idea." Hecate gives a small smile, "But he is a good man. And, if I recall correctly, I saw you kissing him rather passionately yesterday."

"He kidnapped me."

Hecate looks down at that. Clearing her throat, she says, "Yes well, the King has been put into a position where…Unsavory decisions have had to be made for the good of the realm. For the good of all the gods, really."

Persephone gives her an incredulous look. " 'Unsavory decisions'? He kidnapped me! And I'll have you know that I kissed him on purpose! I did it to steal a drachman and make my escape across the Styx and now-"

"And now here we are," Hecate sighs, "My dear, there is much here that you do not yet understand. What Lord Hades does is for the good of the realm."

"No, you don't seem to understand, Hecate. Do you know that the first night I was here, he almost raped me? Was that going to be for the 'good of the realm' as well?"

Hecate's eyes flash up. "He almost what?"

Persephone gives a morose giggle. "You heard me. He would have taken me like a dog, were it not for some last-minute sense of decency."

Hecate sits back, her grey eyes almost in a daze. "That's impossible. The King would never do that…He is not…Unless…He is getting worse."

Persephone narrows her eyes. "Getting worse? What exactly is going on with him, Hecate? "

Hecate shakes her head and sighs, "I'm afraid I can't tell you that, my dear. It is not my place to tell you what the King's affliction is."

"Can I make a guess that it's insanity?"

Hecate smiles at her. At the rate things are going, you won't be too far from the truth. She hears Persephone's stomach growl and looks up at the girl, grey eyes kind a caring. "Would you like something to eat?" she asks.

"…The food of the Underworld?"

Hecate gives a small chuckle, "You need not worry about that, my girl. We'll have ambrosia. How does that sound?"

Persephone's stomach growls in response and Hecate sees her blush.

She stands up and offers Persephone a hand. "Come now," she says, her smile growing wider and making crinkles at the corner of her eyes, "I have just what you need."

A/N: Sorry it took me so long to update guys. I really have no excuse. I started watching Breaking Bad and Rome, and sort of spiraled into a massive videogame-induced coma which I got after playing through Mass Effect 3. Some adult I am, huh? I also read a book series – Chaos Walking, by Patrick Ness (which is really good- you guys should check it out)Well anyways, leave comments and such. I've notice while writing this that the narration has a bit of a distancing effect. I think in the future, I'm not going to write like this. But anyways, yeah. Leave comments and reviews! :D I'll try to have another chapter up shortly.