“Then let me write something else,” she said. “I have a voicemail and an inbox full of leads.”

It was true. The messages had started pouring in the moment she published her first article on Hades. She’d slowly been sorting through them, organizing them into folders based on the god they criticized. She could write about any Olympian, even her mother.

“You can write something else,” Demetri said. “But I’m afraid we’ll still need that exclusive.”

“You can’t be serious,” was all she could think to say, but Demetri’s expression told her otherwise. She tried again. “This is my personal life.”

Her boss’s eyes dropped to the stack of papers on his desk.

“And it became public.”

“I thought you said you would understand if I wanted to cease writing about Hades?”

She noted that Demetri’s shoulders fell, and it made her feel better that he was at least a little defeated by this, too.

“My hands are tied, Persephone,” he answered.

There was a stretch of silence, and then she asked, “That’s it? I have no say in this?”

“You have your choices. I need the article by next Friday.”

That was it—she was dismissed.

She stood and made her way back to her desk and sat. Her head spun as she thought of ways to get out of this situation, other than writing the article or quitting. Working for New Athens News had been her dream since she’d decided to go into journalism her Freshman year of college. She believed completely in their mantra of telling the truth and exposing injustice.

Now she wondered if all of that was just a lie.

She wondered what Hades would say if she told him that the CEO of Epik Communications had demanded a story on them, but also recognized that she didn’t want Hades to fight her battles. She also despised the fact that she knew they would listen to Hades because of his status as an ancient Olympian and not her—someone they presumed was a mortal woman.

No, she would figure this out on her own and she was certain of one thing—Kal would regret his threat.

Persephone didn’t look up from her computer after leaving Demetri’s office. Despite how focused she appeared, she was aware of their curious stares, they felt like spiders skittering across her skin. She focused harder, combing through hundreds of messages in her inbox and listening to voicemails from people who ‘had a story for her.’ Most were about how Zeus and Poseidon had turned their mother/sister/aunt into a wolf/swan/cow for nefarious reasons, and Persephone found herself wondering how Hades was related to these the two.

Lexa checked in during lunch, sending a text.

You doing okay?

No, things got worse, Persephone texted back.

????

I’ll tell you later. Too much to text.

Wanna get drunk? Lexa asked.