Vowed to Hades (Romancing the Seas #4)

15. Hades

HADES

H ades floated in a haze of darkness, the world around him fading in and out of focus as if he were caught between reality and a dream. In the depths of that darkness, there was a warmth—soft, tender, like the touch of dawn after an endless night.

It was a sensation so familiar, so achingly comforting that for a moment, he allowed himself to sink into it, forgetting the pain, the fear, the suffocatingly thin air.

It was her.

His beloved Persephone, her lips brushing against his, the taste of her breath filling his senses.

It was so real, so vivid, that he almost believed it was true.

But no—this had to be a dream, a cruel trick of his mind, conjuring up the one thing he longed for most in his final moments.

Yet, the warmth didn’t fade .

The sensation lingered, growing stronger, more insistent.

Hades blinked, his vision slowly clearing as he struggled to make sense of what he was feeling.

The darkness around him seemed to shift, the oppressive weight of it lifting just enough for him to see the outline of a face—her face. And then, like the shattering of a glass, reality crashed in around him.

The cavern. The cold, damp walls. The thin, stifling air that seemed to claw at his lungs with every breath.

They were trapped, buried under a mountain of rock, the walls pressing in on them like they had been swallowed up by a whale.

And Persephone was beside him, her hands cupping his face, her eyes wide with fear and something else—something that made his heart clench with a desperate need to protect her, to save her from the darkness that threatened to swallow them both whole.

Hades's breath hitched in his throat, the taste of her kiss still lingering on his lips. But there was no time to dwell on it, no time to question why she had kissed him, or what it meant.

They were dying.

The air was running out, and Persephone’s life hung by a thread.

His mind cleared, the fog of pain and confusion lifting as he focused on the one thing he knew he had to do .

He had to get them out.

Now.

With his strength regenerating, Hades summoned his power, reaching deep within himself to find his magic.

It was like grasping at shadows, the energy slippery and elusive, but he forced himself to concentrate, to gather it into something tangible.

“Persephone,” he murmured, his voice barely more than a rasp as he struggled to speak. “Hold on… to me.”

She nodded, her eyes filled with trust as she wrapped her arms around him, clinging to him as if he were her lifeline. And in that moment, he knew he would do anything—sacrifice anything—to keep her safe.

Even if she didn’t remember him or who she was.

She was still his Persephone.

Hades closed his eyes, focusing on the space around them, on the fabric of reality itself.

He focused on the magnetic pull of the Underworld. The dark, familiar energy that thrummed beneath his skin, calling him home.

It was his domain, his sanctuary, the one place where he still held power.

He raised a trembling hand, drawing a circle in the air, the motion weak but determined.

The magic responded, crackling to life as a portal began to form, the edges shimmering with a sparkling light. It was faint, almost transparent, but it was there—a doorway back to the Underworld, to safety.

But the effort was immense, the strain of it pulling at the very core of his being. Hades gritted his teeth, fighting to keep the portal open as the walls of the cavern seemed to close in around them.

“Go,” he whispered, his voice strained as he urged Persephone toward the portal. “We have to go… now.”

She didn’t hesitate. With a final, desperate look at him, she tightened her grip and together they rolled toward the portal.

The oxygen was almost gone, and Hades could sense his strength waning. His lung burned, and the edges of his vision darkened, but he refused to let go. He refused to let the darkness take him.

The portal pulsed, the magic flickering as if it were struggling to maintain its form. But just as they reached the threshold, the portal seemed to solidify, the shimmering light intensifying, creating a rip in the fabric of space.

With the last of his strength, Hades pushed them both through the opening, the sensation like falling through ice-cold water as the world around them shifted and transformed.

They landed hard on the cold, unforgiving ground of the Underworld, the impact jarring and painful.

Hades gasped, the air filling his lungs with a searing coldness that made him choke and cough.

But it was air—it was life .

Persephone lay beside him, her chest heaving as she gulped in great breaths, her body trembling from the ordeal.

For a moment, neither of them moved, both of them too exhausted, too overwhelmed to do anything but breathe.

The oppressive darkness of the cavern was gone, replaced by the familiar, shadowed landscape of the Underworld. The sky above was a swirl of dark clouds, the ground beneath them rough and cold, but it was solid, real, and that was all that mattered.

Hades slowly turned his head to look at her, his vision still blurred and his body aching with every movement.

Persephone’s eyes were closed, her face pale and streaked with dirt, but she was alive.

She was breathing, and that was enough to send a wave of relief crashing over him so strong that he almost wept.

He tried to speak, but his voice failed him, the words caught in his throat. Instead, he reached out, his hand trembling as he touched her arm, needing to sense her warmth, to know that she was real and not some figment of his desperate imagination.

Persephone’s eyes fluttered open at his touch, and she turned her head to look at him, her gaze filled with a mixture of exhaustion and something else—something deeper, more profound.

There was no anger in her eyes, no accusation, just a raw, unfiltered emotion that left him breathless .

For a long moment, they simply stared at each other, the silence between them heavy with unspoken words, with the weight of everything they had been through.

Hades wanted to say something, anything.

He needed to tell her how much he loved her. That even now, when she was confused and hating him, he adored her. She was all the air he needed to breathe. Her kiss was the touch that brought him back from the darkness.

But the words wouldn’t leave his mouth. Instead, they were trapped beneath the layers of guilt and fear of her rejection.

And if she were to utter one more loving word about Adonis, he was going to rip his ears out.

It was Persephone who finally broke the silence, her voice hoarse.

“You saved us,” she said, her eyes searching his for something.

He wondered what she saw in his eyes. Did she see a god of death, a shadow of a man who slaughtered the love of her life? Or did she see him in another light?

Was there still a part of her soul that remembered to whom she belonged?

Hades swallowed hard; his throat dry.

“I had to,” he finally managed to say, his voice rough and filled with a thousand unsaid things. “I couldn’t… lose you. Not again.”

Persephone’s gaze softened, and for a moment, he thought he saw something in her eyes that mirrored his own feelings—a flicker of understanding, of connection, of something that had always been there, buried beneath the lies and the pain.

But then her expression changed, a shadow crossing her face as doubt took hold. “Why… why does everyone think that I was tricked? Why do they think I wasn’t married to Adonis?”

A cold dread settled in Hades's chest, and his body went numb. The question he had been dreading finally spoken aloud.

But how could he explain? How could he make her understand the truth without shattering her completely?

If she knew the truth… That she was Adonis's captive. That he repeatedly raped her. Mutilated her mind and ripped her from the very fabric of her reality.

Hades was not sure he was cruel enough to put her in so much pain.

“I…” he began, but the words failed him again, the enormity of the truth too heavy to put into words.

Persephone’s eyes searched his, her expression filled with a desperate need for answers, for the truth that had been kept from her for so long.

She reached out, her hand trembling as she touched his cheek, the gesture so tender, so filled with hope, that it broke his heart.

“All this time I thought you were lying to me,” she whispered, her voice barely more than a breath. “ But now I’m having these visions, and it appears that there is so much that I do not know.”

Hades closed his eyes, the weight of the truth pressing down on him like a physical force.

He had to tell her—she deserved to know.

Yet, the truth shamed him.

How could he have allowed his Dark Queen to be captured by a mere mortal man in the first place? What kind of protector was he, to allow Persephone to end up in that vile human’s clutches?

But he couldn’t lie to her.

Not when she was looking at him with those eyes, filled with trust and pain and a desperate hope that he could make everything right.

He reached up, his hand covering hers on his cheek, holding her touch as if it were the only thing keeping him anchored to the world.

“Persephone,” he said, his voice breaking under the weight of what he had to say. “There’s so much you don’t remember. So much that’s been… hidden from you. But I swear to you, I will tell you everything. You deserve to know the truth.”

He got up and helped Persephone to her feet.

“Come with me. I want to show you something.” He formed a perfect portal that hovered bright and stable now. Then he took Persephone’s hand and together, they stepped through.