Hades (The God Chronicles #3) (21 page)

It was small, but homey. A good sized bed took
up most of the room, a dresser off to one side under the window
matching the woodwork. The door to the bathroom was to the right
and I slipped in there, eager to feel clean again.

There was the usual bathroom fixtures in the
small space and another door, which I guessed led to the other room
I’d seen when entering the cabin. After all of the grandeur of the
castle, it was nice to have such a simple place to stay. I felt
much more at home here, among the woodwork and the plants, the sun
shining down on us.

I did as Hades suggested and really took my
time in the shower, letting the hot water wash over me and relax
all my muscles. The smell of the green apple shampoo I lathered
into my hair made me almost never want to get out. Eventually, I
decided I’d been greedy enough with the water and turned it off,
towel drying myself slowly and wrapping my hair up before going
into the bedroom naked.

True to his word, Hades had brought another
dress for me, as well as under clothes that made me blush slightly.
They were all beautiful, though, taking my breath away as soon as I
laid eyes on them. Next to the clothes on the bed were an array of
hair and makeup products, along with a note explaining I should get
fixed up fancily.

I giggled, picking up the white lace bra and
panties, holding them up to my body and examining myself in the
mirror. Whatever Hades had planned, I was sure to love it, if only
because it was his idea.

I slid the undergarments on and gathered up the
beauty products, carrying them into the bathroom. A frown covered
my face as I unwrapped my hair and wiped the fog off the mirror,
the black veins under my eyes worse than they had been just hours
ago.

I set to carefully doing my makeup, covering
the lines expertly without putting on the same amount of makeup as
a hooker. I knew I would be discovered soon, if they kept getting
worse, but was at a loss when trying to think of how to fix
it.

Sighing, I finished putting on my face and then
went to work on my hair, pinning it up elegantly. Only a few small
curls hung down to frame my face. Finally, it was time to put on my
dress.

I walked back out into the bedroom, smiling
happily at the beautiful, white dress. It had pearl accents and a
low, swooping neckline. I’d never seen anything so beautiful.
Carefully, making sure to not mess up any of my previous work, I
slid the garment on, the fabric hugging my body perfectly. It was
as if it had been made for me. Once dressed, I examined myself in
the mirror once more.

I looked like a queen, a woman loved by a man
who would do anything for her. There was something about knowing
how everything on me had been picked by Hades that made me feel
that much more beautiful. All of the white gave me the look of a
bride as well, the only thing missing being a bouquet.

Satisfied I was completely ready, no shoes in
sight anywhere, I opened the bedroom door and looked out to see if
Hades was waiting for me. Instead, I found a trail of rose petals
and candles, leading to the outside.

Curious, a largest smile of my life plastered
onto my face, I followed the trail, exiting the cabin and stepping
out into the now dusky light of the garden. The trail continued on,
its end out of my sight, and I strode out onto the cool grass,
picking up the skirt of my dress as I followed it.

The rose petals ended at a beautiful garden
arch, the lattice work having been woven through with several
different kinds of flowers. Under the arch was a small table with
two candles on it, unlit, and a velvet box, the contents closed
away from my sight.

I looked around, Hades not anywhere to be seen.
I couldn’t believe he’d gone through so much trouble for
me.

A rustling of leaves caused me to turn around
and there he was. My breath sucked from my chest upon seeing him,
his usual black attire having been switched for that of a white
suit, a single red rose pinned to his chest. As he slowly walked
towards me, my heart beat faster and faster, my body fighting the
desire to run to him and throw my arms around him. Something told
me I needed to stay exactly where I was.

“You look beautiful,” he said softly as he
neared, reaching out and taking my hand.

“So do you. I mean, handsome, you look
handsome,” I laughed.

“I wanted to ask you something,” he said
seriously. “And I couldn’t think of any other place I would want to
do it but here.”

“Okay,” I said, grinning.

“When I first saw you, picking those flowers
all those lifetimes ago, I knew I had to have you. But I went about
it the wrong way and you ended up hating me for it. Our
relationship hasn’t exactly been one most husbands and wives share.
But now . . .” He reached down and took my other hand, pulling me
closer to him. “Something changed. We grew closer together. I
learned more about who you really are. I learned I can trust you,
that I want to trust you. The things I should have done before, the
things that would have made us a real husband and wife, are finally
occurring.

“My feelings for you have changed as well. I
know I’m not good at expressing how I feel when it comes to stuff
like this,” he laughed, his hands gripping me tighter. “But I think
I love you. When I look at you, I don’t see that girl in the meadow
anymore. I see a woman I want to spend every moment of the rest of
my life with, if she’ll have me.”

He looked at me, waiting for me to answer, but
I couldn’t find the words right away. Part of me was broken at
hearing him talk of another woman that way, but my heart soared at
his words. He’d fallen in love with me, Katrina, not Persephone. He
didn’t realize it, but the things that had changed that brought on
his feelings were all me. I was the one he wanted, not
Persephone.

“I love you, too,” I finally said softly,
laughing slightly. “I don’t even know what else to say other than
that. I love you.”

He smiled widely, leaning in and kissing me
softly, still holding onto my hands. Breaking away quickly, he
cleared his throat and then started again.

“This is our real wedding, if you will. I
figured, if everything was going to be real for us now, this might
as well be, too. Since we’re already technically married, though, I
hope you don’t mind it being just us.”

“Of course not,” I laughed.

He released my hands and picked up the velvet
box off the table, opening it to reveal a sparkling pearl
necklace.

“I got this to go with your dress,” he
explained, placing it around my neck and closing the clasp for me.
“I figured you already had rings and I wanted to get something
special for you.”

“It’s beautiful, thank you,” I said, touched
again by the amount of thought that had gone in to all of
this.

He set the box back on the table and picked up
the candles, lighting each of them with a snap of his fingers
before handing one to me.

“The candles symbolize the two of us,” he
explained. “We were in the dark before. Now we’re together, in the
light.”

He took my free hand then and started leading
me in the direction he’d come from, into the trees where soft
lights hung in the air. It was then that I saw our small and simple
dinner set up under the trees, more candles sitting around and rose
petals sprinkled on the ground.

“It’s not much,” he said, taking me to my seat
and helping me to sit down, our candles set on the
table.

“It’s perfect,” I contradicted him. “I don’t
need anything big and fancy, just you.”

Getting down on his knees in front of me, he
took my face in his hands and ever so gently, leaned forward until
our lips met. It was much like the kisses from before today, that
ignited passion and desires that shouldn’t be spoken out loud
unless you intended to act on them. It was also soft and sweet,
though, a declaration of deeper feelings and commitments that could
only be expressed by such a simple action.

Our dinner passed quickly and quietly, glances
and smiles exchanged frequently as we basked in the company of each
other. When we were finished eating, we picked up our candles again
and walked back to the cabin, hand in hand.

“I have somewhere special I want to put these,”
Hades said as we came inside, motioning to our special wedding
flames.

He moved across the sitting area, to the door I
hadn’t seen opened yet. Following after him, I was surprised to
find that behind it was a room full of items that looked like
keepsakes, some of which were obviously very old. There were many
simple things, such as a piece of paper or a worn out pen. Other
things seemed vastly important, like a sword hanging on the wall.
On one end of the room was a wardrobe that must have been holding
even more items.

“I want them here, in the window,” he said,
setting his candle down and motioning for me to come over. “That
way, I will always see them and their flames burning and remember
what tonight was like.”

I smiled, setting my own down right next to his
and watching the fire’s reflection in the glass.

“This is a good place for them,” I said.
“Sitting with all of your treasures.”

“Nothing in this room will ever be as important
to me as you,” he said, pulling me into his arms.

I reached up, wrapping my arms around his neck,
and pulled him down to meet my lips, kissing him with all the
strength I had in me. The night had meant so much to me and I
didn’t know how to tell him other than to show him how I
felt.

His hold on me tightened, his hands spanning
across my back as he reciprocated my eagerness, his tongue slipping
into my mouth and exploring the space there.

It only took a few seconds for me to remove his
jacket, sliding it off his arms and tossing it in the corner before
starting on the buttons on his shirt. Normally, I would have been
scared to move so fast, but not with Hades.

His hands moved up my back and into my hair,
pulling the pins from it and letting it fall down onto my
shoulders. Once he was satisfied that my locks had been
sufficiently released, his fingers fell to my shoulders, sliding
the straps of my dress off to the side. His mouth left mine then,
feathering kisses down my neck and across my collar bone, causing
the heat inside me to skyrocket.

I sighed softly, holding him to me tighter, and
he suddenly picked me right up off the ground, his mouth returning
to mine as he carried me out of the room and into the bedroom.
Within seconds, he had me on the bed and was sliding my dress off
the rest of the way, his fingers pausing slightly as they brushed
over my bra and panties.

Once the dress was a puddle on the floor, he
climbed on top of me, his warm kisses falling on my bare midriff
and moving up me until the found my mouth again.

The spinning of happiness in my head made it
hard to focus on anything but the way he was touching me, but I
somehow still managed to get his shirt off, revealing the abs and
chest I hadn’t seen since the first night of my arrival. How scared
I’d been of him then, and how much I loved him now.

“I love you,” I whispered against his mouth,
running my fingers over his bare skin.

“How much?” he whispered back, pressing his
face into the crook of my neck, his tongue flicking out and licking
a sensitive spot there.

“More than I ever thought it was possible to
love someone,” I said honestly, content to let him send shivers
through me.

“I love you,” he said, holding himself over me
again so he could look at me.

“How much?” I teased, repeating his
question.

“Let me show you.”

Chapter Twenty

I dreamed about a rose bush. At first, it
struggled for life, desperately trying to find something, anything
that would keep it from dying. Over time it discovered water,
drinking it up greedily. Eventually, though, the water ran out and
the bush withered under the sun’s hot rays, with nothing to save
it.

When I woke in the morning, it was to Hades’s
handsome face, inches from mine, eyes closed in peaceful slumber.
His arm was stretched over me, his bare chest uncovered by the
sheets we’d practically demolished in our happiness the night
before.

A blush covered my face as I remembered the
many times he’d shown me just how much he loved me. It was
everything I could have ever hoped for, right down to the amount of
love I had for him. I’d never thought my first time would be with
the man I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Now that it’d
happened, I couldn’t even begin to describe how grateful I was it
had been. Sharing that part of myself with anyone else seemed like
a crime, something to mourn greatly. I knew it would have been just
as special if it wasn’t my first time, but the glow in my heart
told me that this had been the way to do it.

Carefully, so I wouldn’t wake him, I wiggled
out from underneath him and softly walked into the bathroom, taking
my underwear with me and closing the door so I could do my business
in private. Once finished, I opened the extra door into the
keepsake room, smiling happily at our still burning candles in the
window. They must have been some kind of magic since there were no
wax trails or noticeable wear on either of them.