The officer didn’t look so certain, frowning down at her.

Persephone’s eyes fell to his gold nameplate and she smiled. “Thank you, Officer Woods.”

The guard smirked; his face reddened. “It...it was nothing.”

She broke free of the officer and headed for the elevators in a daze. Her thoughts turned to Hades’ words: It is only a matter of time before someone with a vendetta against me tries to harm you. How would the god react once he found out about this incident?

When she made it to her floor, Helen was waiting, a concerned look on her face.

“Oh, my gods, Persephone! Are you okay? I heard what happened.”

“How?” Persephone asked. She’d literally just left the first floor.

“It’s on the news,” she said. “There was a crew filming live as you arrived. They caught everything on camera.”

Persephone groaned. So much for keeping this from Hades.

“Did they show the person who threw the bottle?”

“Yes, his face is plastered all over the news.”

Oh no.

Persephone hurried to her desk. She needed to get ahold of Hades before he acted. She knew the God of the Dead would seek his own revenge against the mortal who tried to hurt her, and as much as she wanted him to face some sort of punishment for his rash actions, torture in Tartarus seemed a bit extreme.

The only person she could think to call was Ilias. The Satyr had taken over managing Hades’ schedule in Minthe’s…absence.

The phone rang once before he answered.

“Ilias, where is Hades?”

“Indisposed, my lady,” he answered, pausing a moment before asking. “Are you well?”

“Ilias, I’m fine. Tell Hades not to hurt the mortal—”

She was interrupted when another call came through on her phone. She looked at the screen and saw Lexa was calling. She’d probably seen the news and wanted to make sure she was okay.

She sighed. “Ilias, let me call you back. Tell Hades not to hurt that mortal!”

Persephone hung up on the Satyr and answered Lexa’s call.

“Yes, Lex. I’m fine—”

Except, it wasn’t Lexa on the other end.

“Persephone, it’s Jason.”

The hysteria in his voice made her heart race.

“Jaison, why—”

“You need to come to the hospital now.”

“Okay. Okay. What happened?”

“It’s Lexa. They aren’t sure she’ll make it.”

Persephone felt like she’d just had the air sucked from her lungs. Her heart had never felt like this before—irregular and sick, poisoned by a terror so acute she thought it might have stopped.

Lexa’s in the hospital. They aren’t sure she’ll make it.

Suddenly she wondered if this was the start of Apollo’s revenge.

PART II

PART II

“The descent into Hell is easy.”

― Virgil, The Aeneid

CHAPTER XII - THE DESCENT INTO HELL

CHAPTER XII - THE DESCENT INTO HELL