Persephone snatched the remote from Demetri and turned off the television.

“They weren’t eager to come to Hades defense when I wrote about him,” she said.

“That’s because Hades is supposed to be feared. He’s supposed to be bad. Apollo he’s…the God of Music. The God of Light. He’s…revelry and beauty. He’s not supposed to be an asshole.”

“Well, he is!”

“You don’t have to convince me, Persephone. You have to convince the world.”

She shouldn’t have to convince anyone, but instead of a world recognizing a psychopathic god, they saw one that had just fallen deeply in love. They equated his relentless pursuit of men and women as romantic, and those who rejected him as unworthy.

It was fucked up.

“Look, if you want my advice—”

“I don’t,” she snapped.

“Persephone,” Demetri seemed desperate. “Look, I know…things haven’t been good between us this week, but I don’t want to watch you get bashed on national television for the next year.”

“Is that because of all the money you’ll lose when people stop buying the paper to read my work?”

He glared at her.

“It’s not about money,” he said. “You want respect in this industry and the reality is that you just lost a huge chunk of it. You want to climb that ladder? You can do one of two things—apologize….” She glared at him so hard, she thought she might melt him with her eyes. “Or write another article about Apollo. Find someone he’s hurt recently. Tell their story.”

Persephone frowned. “I…can’t.”

Demetri didn’t respond immediately. “Maybe you can’t,” he said. “And if not, you know what you have to do.”

“Your advice is shit,” she told him.

Her boss seemed genuinely hurt by her response, nearly flinching when the words left her mouth, but she didn’t really care. He had gone from advocating and defending her to opposing and discouraging her.

She thought he was a fighter, but when the going got tough, he rolled over.

There was no way she was going to apologize to Apollo when he’d hurt one of her closest friends. There was also no way she would ask Sybil for an interview. That would mean exposing her to the scrutiny Persephone was now experiencing.

She couldn’t do that to the oracle. She was rebuilding her life.

Gods this was such a mess.

At lunch, Persephone broke one of her rules and chanced teleportation to the rooftop of the Acropolis for some much-needed air.