Parvani smiled sadly, fiddling with the edge of her scarf. “It’s more than the tea I miss.” She hesitated, the words crammed behind her tongue. Eventually she blurted, “Is it possible to return? To visit?”

Hades looked at her, unsurprised and perhaps a little resigned. “I’ve had others ask this of me. I’ve even had some ask to break the contract altogether, though that is impossible. Is that what you want as well?”

Was it? Her first few days here had been miserable, but now . . . she was learning to keep her eyes open to the strange wonders around her. More than that, staying here meant feeding Hajan nightmares. If she went back home, she’d be powerless.

“No,” she said truthfully.

Hades set her cup down. “You are allowed to visit, but only twice a year, when the borders between the worlds of the living and dead are thinnest. When summer fades into the deepest stretch of fall, and when winter thaws into spring.”

Twice a year. Parvani took a deep breath and nodded.

They sat in silence, appreciating the simple calm it brought. Then Hades turned back to her.

“You truly want to stay here?” she asked quietly.

Parvani’s face heated. She met Hades’s eyes, nodding again. What else could she say to the one who crafted comfort just for her, who had read the stories in her heart and let her live them in her dreams?

They were leaning in closer, jasmine and cardamom and the sweet, crisp air of night. Hades touched the side of her jaw, a tangle of a lightning storm caught in her fingertips.

Their lips met, a softness and a sweetness. Her kiss was the last star before dawn, one small torch against the dark that heralded the coming of a greater light.

They murmured the secrets of the world into each other, hidden in the press of heat and hands. Parvani wondered if this was how the sun would feel if the moon ever caught up to it, a coming together of light and dark, a warmth that was eclipsing.

Hades’s lips skimmed down her throat, onto the shelf of her exposed collarbone. Parvani shivered and ran a hand through the dark glossy falls of the god’s hair. Her body was made of a million exclamations, all of them begging for touch.

It was the first time Hades entered their bedroom since their wedding night. This, Parvani knew, was their actual wedding night. Fabrics sliding away from skin, semi-frantic kisses. She marveled at the smooth curve of Hades’s hip. The soft inside of her thigh. Her own body was somehow more beautiful next to hers, and they were more beautiful together, a fusion of memory and creation. This is better than any dream, Parvani thought.

And as if Hades agreed, her sleep that night was blissfully blank.