Hades's Arc

Chapter 4 of 10

The contract still pulsed in his hand when Hades walked down to the pavilion where she had signed it. He had kept her by law. He needed to know he had kept her by heart. He set the parchment inside a hollowed pomegranate of red glass and placed it on the stone. The seal glowed through the fruit's skin like a small, steady heart. Around the stone, the witch's runes turned slowly in the air, marking the spot where her hand had moved freely. Above it all, frost crept down the cavern wall in the shape of a far city of towers and ice — her mother's reach, still pressing in. Persephone came when he called. She wore black and small flowers. She looked at the glowing fruit, then at the frozen city above, then at him. "Look at the seal," he said. "Look at the frost. Tell me which one you want. I will not hold you to a name you signed in sorrow." He set the glass pomegranate in her hands. "Break it, and the contract burns. You walk out. I open the gates myself." She held it a long moment. The frozen towers above them cracked and groaned. She lifted the fruit toward the cold light, and his chest went still. Then she lowered it. She set it back on the stone, inside the turning runes, and pressed her palm flat against the seal. The red light climbed her wrist and stayed. "I chose you the first time," she said. "I choose you now." The seal brightened until the frost on the wall hissed and pulled back a step. But only a step. Above them, the icy city still stood, and her mother's grief still leaned against his gates. He had her heart now. He did not yet have her peace.