
“Do you remember what the Underworld was like when you arrived?” Yuri’s delicate brows drew together over her grey eyes. Persephone guessed that the soul had been in the Underworld for a while based on the traditional peplos she wore. She glanced at her companion now, whose arm was looped through hers, and asked, “How long have you been here, Yuri?” The soul and Persephone had become fast friends, and often went on walks together in the Asphodel Valley but today, Persephone had convinced Yuri to stray from their usual path. She wore pink robes and leather sandals-an ensemble that stood out against the shadowy mountains and black water. Yuri, a young soul with a thick mane of cascading curls and olive skin, walked beside her. Opposite the mountains, Hades’ palace haunted the horizon, rising like the jagged edges of his obsidian crown. White narcissus grew in clusters along its banks, ignited like white fire against the dark surface. The Styx stretched for miles, soldering to a horizon shadowed by sable mountains. Sentenced to an eternity in the river, they were just one of many ways Hades protected the borders of his realm from the living who wished to enter and the dead who wished to escape.ĭespite Persephone’s unease near the waterway, the landscape was beautiful. Later, she would learn the dead in the river were ancient corpses who had come to the Underworld without coin to pay Charon’s toll.

Hades had not been pleased about any of it, but he’d taken her to his palace and healed her wounds. She thought she would drown-and then Hermes had come to her rescue. They’d taken her under, their fleshless fingers cutting into her skin, their wish to destroy life provoking their attack. She’d attempted to traverse the wide body of water, unaware of the dead inhabiting the depths below. Jagged waves broke the dark surface and her skin tightened as she recalled her first visit to the Underworld. Persephone walked along the bank of the river Styx.


“Fate's arrow, when expected, travels slow.” Thank you for your enthusiasm and your love of Hades x Persephone. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise) without the prior written permission of the author. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.Ĭover Design by: Regina Wamba of Īll right reserved. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. PUBLISHER’S NOTE: This is a work of fiction.
