She hesitated. What was she still doing in this room? She turned to leave, but instead of finding the door she had entered, she faced a wall of mirrors.

“Going somewhere?”

She twisted toward him.

“Are you holding me prisoner?”

“These are the rules of Iniquity. Once you enter the chamber of a dealer, you don’t leave until a bargain is struck.”

That isn’t what Leuce had said.

“What if I don’t want to bargain with you?”

“You don’t know what I’m offering.”

“If it isn’t a way out of this room, I don’t want it.”

“Even if it means saving your friend?”

Silence followed his question, and Persephone swallowed. “What do you know about that?”

Kal smiled, and it made the words that came out of his mouth next more callous. “I know she will die unless you can find a way to heal her.”

“She isn’t dying,” Persephone said through her teeth. It wasn’t true—it couldn’t be. Neither Hades or Sybil had said so…and wouldn’t they say so?

“That is not what I see.”

Persephone shifted slightly on her feet. She was uncomfortable in this dark room, closed up with a man who had already bargained with her—an exclusive in exchange for her job.

“Why should I trust you?”

“Because deep down, you know I’m right. If you thought Lexa was going to live, would you have come?”

She hated him.

“What do you want?”

He showed his teeth when he smiled this time.

“I have a deal for you. I’ll give you the spell you need to heal your friend if you give me everything.”

“Everything?”

“I want every detail of your relationship with Hades. I want to know how you met him, when he first kissed you, and all the scandalous details from the first time he fucked you.”

“You’re sick.”

“I’m a businessman, Persephone. Sex sells,” he sat back in the chair. “Sex with gods sells better, and you, my sweet—you’re a goldmine.”

“I’m not the only one who’s slept with Hades.” She hated that she said the words at all, but it was true.

“But you’re the first he’s committed to and that’s worth more than the words of a fuck buddy. He’s invested in you which means he’ll do anything to protect you and the details of your private life.”

Persephone suddenly understood. “You want to blackmail Hades?”

“Well, he is the Rich One.”

“But you’re rich,” Persephone argued.

“Not like him,” Kal said. “But that’s what you’re going to help me with, and in exchange, you get to save your friend from certain death.”