Destroyer of Light by Rachel Alexander

it, he was rewarded with another wiggle of her bottom against his groin. Heat pooled low in her belly, matching his heat below her.
    Her legs shook and she turned to kiss him. He wrapped an arm around Persephone to support her, turning her further still until she pulled her feet up onto the hard ebony arm of his throne and sat sideways in his lap, mating her tongue with his. She broke away and leaned her forehead against his. “Yes.”
    “Yes?”
    “I want to know you in every way possible as well,” she whispered. He heatedly locked his lips against hers again. Persephone delighted in his taste until he broke off, breathing heavily. Hades grabbed one of her slender ankles before moving his hand up her leg, drawing a slow path inward. “Perhaps very soon we can—”
    A bang on the door thundered through the quiet throne room. Both sides burst open with enough force to gutter the torches.
    “My queen! Lord Hades!” Hypnos flew in, his silver wings beating furiously as he cleared the doorway and alighted in the center of the room, out of breath.
    His eyes flared in anger as Persephone scrambled to get out of his lap. She stood awkwardly next to the throne, righting her clothes.
    Hypnos brought his hands up as if to shield himself from Aidon’s rage. “Aidoneus, please. I wouldn’t have dared to knock on the door, much less come in, if it wasn’t deadly serious!” Hypnos nodded to Persephone. “Forgive me, my queen. A thousand apol—”
    “Say your piece and get out , Hypnos!” he bellowed, his previously aroused mood stoking his anger. Aidoneus watched his friend cower and his wife jump at his voice and forced himself to calm down. “You can apologize for this incident later.”
    Hypnos took a deep breath. “He’s gone.”
    “ What? ”
    “Sisyphus escaped.”
    “That’s not possible!”
    “It gets worse. Aidon, my brother…” The silver haired god’s lip quivered. “Minos and Rhadamanthys are with him, but…”
    “Where are they?”
    “The shores of the Cocytus. Aidon, we need you there. You’ll want to bring the staff.”
    Aidoneus paled and stood up. He looked back to her contritely. “Persephone…”
    “I’m coming with you,” she replied. There would be time for apologies later.

3.
    While Hypnos went to find Nyx, Aidoneus and Persephone hurried down the staircases to the entrance of the palace. Without saying a word, he pulled her close against him and enveloped them both in dark smoke. They emerged from the ether at the farthest ends of the Fields of Asphodel, the darkness dissipating around them. Aidon grasped her hand and walked quickly toward the River of Lamentation, his long strides forcing her to walk briskly. The gray earth and flowering stalks became scattered and shorter as they went, then disappeared entirely, replaced by jagged rock.
    Along the silent River Cocytus, black hooded shades stared into the waters, weeping despondently. The stench of the water made bile churn in Persephone’s throat, bringing her back to a day long ago, when Attica had gone to war and the fields of wheat were razed. Demeter had shielded her from the sight of crows picking apart the remains of horses and hoplite soldiers. But her mother couldn’t conceal the acrid smell of blood and decay. It was as if the Cocytus had washed through those fields, and preserved all the foulness within its stagnant depths.
    Wailing and cursing interrupted her morbid reverie. Just ahead, Thanatos writhed in pain, his wings beating incessantly against the ground like an injured bird.
    Persephone picked up her skirts and quickened her pace, feeling sharp rocks abrade her ankles. She winced at the first scrape, then set her jaw against the pain. Aidoneus jogged next to her in long, heavy strides, his staff level at his side like a spear. She cried out in the direction of the judges. “Minos! What happened?”
    The judge joined her, following as she ran to where the Minister of Death lay. “My queen,” he said, out