“What did you do?” Athena repeated. Red embers sparked within her silver stare, which glowed in the dimmed space.

“A simple conversation, niece. Nothing more.” He rapped the glass of beer he had ordered. Condensation dribbled onto the table. He was feigning nonchalance, or genuinely unbothered.

Sensing her powers intensify, the sparse number of patrons scattered. Everyone sought to avoid divine fury. Especially hers. Audible pops killed the cameras that were positioned in various corners. The sound barrier blocking the lower level solidified. Silence descended. Hades watched the lounge empty and sighed when even the bartender bolted.

They were alone.

His facade melted. Leather became his signature suit. Ebony with ash-gray pinstripes. His hair leached black and white, the ashen purple fading. Strands dangled over his forehead until he slicked them back. Only his stoic expression remained unchanged.

“She’s done nothing wrong,” he said almost indifferently.

“I realize that,” she seethed. Her fists itched, and she clenched them until her nails punctured the skin. She took three steps, stopping so he was still out of reach. Any closer and she was liable to punch him. “She deserves a love that’s allowed to flourish. Not whatever this is.”

He opened his mouth to speak, but she shook her head.

“She loves you so much, Hades.” Her voice quivered with anguish, and he flinched. “She has never spoken your name, but she was hiding things. She pushed herself to the brink of ruin, and I never understood why. I do now.”

“I’ve never meant to hurt her, Athena.” His tone became a whisper. Tears sizzled down his cheeks with a blue flame following. “I blame the Fates for this. My heart belongs to her, and her alone.”

“Stop this.” Their gazes locked. Stern determination consumed her. “Don’t condemn her to a life of longing.”

“She’s cursed. Our souls are linked.” His head lolled, and he looked at the ceiling. “Fixing this isn’t as easy as you think.”

He closed the distance between them and rested his palm on her forearm. Memories of Pandora and him flowed into her.

Their initial meeting.

First kiss.

The locket, whose design marked her collarbones.

He withheld the intimate moments. Those were private, belonging only to them. What he allowed Athena to see was tender and achingly sincere. Desire hung between them, but it was never only that.

All the emotions he harbored for her Champion surged through her until her body ached and her pulse quickened. She had expected to find his obsession. Possession. Something dark enough to match the rumors. That wasn’t what she discovered.

Their affections were gentle. The kind people spent lifetimes searching for. The impossible seemed possible. Happiness danced through his recollections, but his grief waited beneath.

There had always been a countdown.

Every kiss.

Every laugh.

Every moment.

They stole them on borrowed time.

She tore herself away. Tears streamed down her face as the images haunted her. Each second of yearning and loss repeated until she found it unbearable.

Her legs gave out, and she crumpled to the floor.

Hades only watched.

The warmth vanished from him like a dying flame, replaced by a clinical stillness. This was what made him terrifying.

Not his anger. Not his power.

His emptiness.

It had all been mistaken for cruelty, but it was survival.

The room quaked as his flames surged. Fire raced across the marble while frost crystallized in its wake. Athena had never witnessed Hades lose control. The stories could never capture the icy storm burning behind those electric-blue irises.

The world tilted. Distant screams echoed from the dance floor.

Shadows stretched toward the faded lights. Cracks climbed the walls, branching into places where stone ended and existence began. The marble under her fractured, then knitted itself together, only to split somewhere else.

Reality struggled to correct itself.

The longer he stared, the more the air buckled, struggling to contain a god who could not control himself.

She scrambled to get up and threw her arms around him. His knees folded, returning them to the ground. A sound between a ragged sob and an anguished scream tore from him. He grasped her, and his memories overwhelmed her again. They were darker now; their beauty stained by the weight of his self-hatred.

“Hades,” she sobbed, clutching his face in her palms. “I am so sorry. Neither of you can handle this anymore. It will tear you apart until one of you is gone.”

“You believe I don’t know that? I have spent decades bargaining for her freedom.” He wrenched from her, and his back collided with the booth. His eyelids fluttered, and his chest hitched as he calmed himself. “I brought her here to explain. To have a final night before I hurt her anew. You saw how that went.”

“What were you explaining?”

“The Fates agreed to a deal. She will forget me. Then I’ll have a child with Persephone. And we’ll live happily ever after. With one downside.”

He tapped his temple.

“Her memories disappear.” His finger pressed harder. “But not her emotions. Those stay.”

A laugh slipped from him. Then more.

“She’ll crave someone who never existed. Mourn something she never lost. Ache for reminders that aren’t there.”

His hand trembled.

“And somehow, Athena, this is supposed to save her.”

“What does that mean?” She regarded him as though he were a skittish deer, afraid that the slightest wrong move might send him bolting.

“True love doesn’t disappear just because she forgets me. She’ll yearn for something she can’t quite identify.” His eyes widened. The last piece fell into place. A spark of realization flickered under his unhinged smile. “I require a favor.”

The emotional shift left her reeling. She studied him, certain he would crumble once more. When he didn’t break, she asked: “What do you want?”

“I need you to secure another bargain. There’s a way to dampen the damage done to her.”

His arms fell to his sides, and he sagged with an exhaustion he could no longer hide. He’d never seemed so disheveled.

“How?”

***

Pandora portaled to Athena’s realm as soon as her feet hit the sidewalk outside the club. She slipped through the side door, preventing Thalos from hunting Hades. It wasn’t a fight he would win.

She went straight to the Colosseum.

By the time she noticed her knuckles were raw, she had already lost herself to the rhythm. Three more quick strikes landed on the punching bag before her skin split. Fresh blood soaked through the wraps on her hands.

Emotion swelled inside her.

Decades of anger spilled over. He had taken her choice from her then, and he was doing it again. Worse, she had no idea what choices remained. He decided what was best for her before she could decide for herself.

She switched to kicking the sack. One, two. The second sent it flying through the arena. The chain suspending it snapped with a deafening clink.

Pandora stilled.

She would not cry.

Not for him.

Not for herself.

She had no time for self-pity. Not when she’d known how this would end.

Loving him was like returning to a burning home, because nowhere else offered the same warmth. That was the cruelty of the curse. Not the loneliness, but the craving. She would burn when she walked through the door, but she needed him.

It was the perfect, unending punishment for killing Athena’s brother.

She stared at the sky. It had faded to deep brass; the gold surrendering to twilight. Moonlight illuminated the arena and the destruction she’d left in her wake. Animated constructs lay strewn about the field, limbs still twitching. Their metal frames resembled skeletons. Featureless faces turned toward the same stars twinkling above. Discarded weapons formed a trail that ended at her bloodied body.

“Fuck!” she screamed as her legs buckled.

Her knees struck the dirt, and she curled into herself.

Footsteps disturbed the silence. Familiar ones. Not Athena’s.

“It hurts,” Pandora croaked as Helen gathered her into an embrace. She clung to her. “I knew it would. I convinced myself it would be worth it.”

“Tell me.” Helen’s grip tightened. A promise that whatever Pandora divulged would remain between them.

Even knowing she shouldn’t, she did.

She told her the complete story, starting from the beginning. Marcus. The Fields of Elysium. Hades kissing her after their first meeting. The euphoria his presence gave her when everything else waited behind closed doors.

Once she started, she couldn’t stop.

By the end, her cheeks were wet, and her vision was blurred. Not from tears. It must have rained despite the cloudless night. Weirder occurrences happened. She wiped the rain with quivering hands.

Helen kept quiet for several minutes after Pandora finished. She stroked Pandora’s side, soothing the hollowness that crushed her lungs. Eventually, she could breathe.

“That’s a lot to carry on your own,” Helen finally said. With her chin on Pandora’s crown, the steady rhythm of her heart soothed Pandora. “Did he ever explain?”

“No,” she whispered, clinging harder. “He has explained nothing. I’ve seen him twice in twenty years.”

“I think you should give him a chance,” Pandora moved, but Helen stopped her. “Even though his methods were cruel, he is also cursed. That means he loves you. He has his reasons.”

“I can’t listen to him talk about Persephone,” she huffed and pulled free. Her nose scrunched up with distaste.

“You’ll never forgive yourself if you don’t let him tell his part of the story.” Helen cupped Pandora’s jaw. A soft and understanding look filled her mint-green eyes. “You might not get another chance.”

“You’re right.”

***

Pandora entered Hades’ realm through the River Styx. He sensed her the moment she crossed the border. Of all the souls that passed through his kingdom, he would know hers anywhere.

Kharon would bring her to him. She deserved her space.

“She summoned me,” Nyx stated from behind his throne.

“Did she?” he hummed. His fingers settled against his chin, tapping absently over the light dusting of stubble. “How do I articulate this to her?”

“With honesty, Hades. Quit hiding from her.” She emerged into his view; her expression caught somewhere between pity and reproach. “And stop deciding things for her.”

“Will you continue to visit her? I can make it so that she remembers you and Hypnos.” His breathing stopped. Pandora’s soul crossed into the main cavern, and he felt her presence. It pulled under his ribs. “You are important to her.”

“If that would comfort you,” Nyx agreed before sauntering along the path to the shoreline. Pandora embraced her once she stepped off the ferry. They spoke among themselves, reverence settling over Pandora’s features as she listened.

It vanished when her gaze met his.

“My pixie,” he mouthed, and she looked away. “Let us retire to my office. Prying ears are listening.”

“Perhaps mine is the better option,” Nyx intervened. She touched Pandora’s shoulder reassuringly and summoned a portal.

Pandora didn’t wait.

“Honesty, Hades,” Nyx admonished as she followed.

He could tell her the truth. Unfortunately, he knew what she would do with it. Pandora would fight him. She would choose the torment, the pain, all of it, if the alternative was losing him. He couldn’t allow her to make that choice. Protecting her inherently meant carrying the worst decisions himself.

Maybe it would be kinder to let her hate him until she forgot.

Editor: Lucy Cafiero