“Allow me to help,” Hades said and snapped his fingers, manifesting a tailored black dress and heels. She looked down, smoothing her hands over the fabric which had a faint shimmer.

“Black isn’t my usual color choice,” she said.

Hades smirked. “Humor me,” he said.

Once she was ready, he insisted she accept a ride from his driver, which was how she ended up in the back of Hades’ black Lexus. Antoni, a cyclops and a servant to the God of the Dead, was in the driver’s seat whistling a song Persephone recognized from Apollo’s White Raven album. Despite not being a fan of the god’s music, she’d spent Friday night celebrating her best friend, Lexa Sideris’ birthday at the god’s club where his songs were on a constant rotation. She now felt she knew them all by heart, which only made her distaste for them stronger.

She did her best to ignore Apollo’s incessant falsetto and was soon distracted by a series of messages from Lexa. The first one read:

You’re officially famous.

A tidal wave of anxiety gripped her as her best friend sent several links to ‘breaking news’ from outlets all over New Greece, and they were all about her and Hades.

She clicked on the first link, then the next, and the next. Most of the articles rehashed details of her public reunion with Hades, including incriminating photos. She blushed seeing reminders of that day. She hadn’t expected the King of the Dead to appear in the Upperworld, and when she’d seen him, she thought her heart would explode. She ran to him, jumped into his arms and coiled around him like she belonged there. Hades’ hands pressed into her bottom and their lips locked in a kiss she could still feel.

She should have seen the media storm coming, but after Lexa’s birthday party, she’d spent the weekend in the Underworld, sequestered to Hades’ bedchamber, exploring, teasing, submitting. She hadn’t thought twice about the state of the Upperworld once she’d left. With images like these, it was hard to deny speculation about their relationship.

It was the last message she received that scared her the most:

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT HADES’ LOVER.

It was her worst nightmare.

She scanned the article, relieved to discover there wasn’t any information that would reveal her as the daughter of Demeter or a goddess, but it was still creepy. It said that she was from Olympia, that she had started attending New Athens University four years ago, began with a major in botany and ended with a major in journalism. There were a few quotes from students who claimed to her ‘know her’—gems like, “You could tell she was really smart” and “She was always really quiet” and “She read a lot.”