Corrupted by Bella Klaus

Chapter Four

As I turned back to the palace’s double doors, a hundred thoughts whizzed through my mind, but the overriding one was that Hades had been right. I really was Persephone, but how had he known?

Based on how he had instantly reverted to calling me Kora the moment the real Persephone appeared, he had probably been bullshitting me the entire time. I wasn’t her. I had been close enough to the original to help him collect all that power he needed to secure the Fifth Faction.

Dami shifted on my shoulder, her little claws digging into my skin and reminding me of the thorns from Persephone’s attack.

Fury burned through my insides. Why on earth didn’t Hades tell me that he was in possession of his wife’s body? I pushed those questions aside. What was the point in speculating when he was right in front of me and ready for a confrontation?

Hades descended the stairs, his features etched in stone. I couldn’t tell if it was chagrin or concern, but I raised my chin with defiance.

“Kora,” he said, his voice sharp. “Caria ordered you to come with her. Why did you leave?”

I ground my teeth. “Why would I want to waste any more time with a bunch of compulsive liars?”

He sucked in a deep breath, his eyes squeezing shut with frustration. “I need your help. Persephone has escaped.”

I reared back. “No apology, no explanation, no attempt to explain? What do you want me to do about your wife?”

Hades opened his eyes, looking into mine with irises as serene as the morning sky. “Kora,” he said, his voice calm and coaxing. “Each time she has awoken, it’s been because you were close. You are the key to luring Persephone back to safety.”

The pulse in my throat quickened, and the knots in my stomach twisted. He may as well have just called me a tool, because that’s what I was to him. And he’d also confirmed that he thought Persephone and I were separate people.

I stepped back toward the courtyard, ready to ask Dami to call us an Überwald.

“Where are you going?” he said.

My lip curled, and I stormed down the driveway toward the palace’s tall iron gates. Traffic rumbled in the distance, reminding me that the entire Human World was out there. The Supernatural World was also available to me if I wanted that, too. My head hadn’t grasped the revelation that I was Persephone, but I grasped one thing:

I didn’t need to hang around a man still fixated on the wife he’d lost, especially since she had arisen and wanted revenge.

“Kora,” he said in a voice as sharp as a dagger.

I glared at him over my shoulder. “Getting attacked by her plants that first time was bad enough. Do you remember when you tried to convince me that I’d done it to myself?”

He exhaled an exasperated breath. “You’re missing the point.”

I bristled. “You gaslighted me—”

“No, I thought you were Persephone’s soul that Demeter had stuffed in a new body.”

“And now?”

He hesitated.

I hissed a breath through my teeth. If I told him right now about the origins of my soul, he would want me more than ever… Because I was a missing part of his wife. But had Hades ever seen me as a person in my own right? I had no memory of being Persephone, and I wanted a man who would appreciate me—not what he had lost.

“Why should I let you use me as bait?” I asked. “Persephone wants me dead.”

“It’s the only way,” he rasped. “The magic you absorbed in the Devil’s Ball must have leached to her—”

“How?” Annoyance thrummed through my insides. When was he going to confirm we were the same person, split into two, or had her appearance changed his mind?

“You’re both connected to me,” he said with a sigh. “Do you remember when we joined magic and you blew out my eyeballs? Persephone and I share a similar link.”

I tilted my head to the side and frowned at the memory of burning Hades. “Alright.”

“Some of the power you attained would have transferred to me. Perhaps I inadvertently sent some Persephone and awoke her.”

I hugged Dami closer, taking comfort from her warm body. She turned her head up, meeting my gaze with green eyes, and let out a concerned meow.

“It’s nothing to worry about,” I murmured into her furry head. “Let’s go and see if we can find you a vet.”

“What’s wrong?” Hades asked.

I shot him my filthiest glare. “Thanks to your stupid court case and your stupid lawyer forcing her to testify as a witness, Mother and her coven imprisoned and tortured Dami the entire time I was in Hell. She needs urgent medical attention.”

Hades inclined his head. “I’ve just summoned the best physician in Hell.”

I glanced over his shoulder. “Where?”

“In my office.” He placed a hand on my arm. “We can discuss the matter of Persephone while he’s tending to your Hellcat.”

I stepped back. “We’re not going with you. There’s a Hellcat at the palace. I’m sure they’ll help me find a healer.”

Hades’ lips tightened, and he glowered down at me with eyes that flared with fire. My head throbbed, my vision narrowed. I tossed my head to signify my defiance and continued down the driveway.

It had probably been a bad idea to walk in the opposite direction from the palace, but there was a building straight ahead, where I could step inside and wait for Hades to leave before I doubled back to the front door.

Hades tightened his grip on my arm. “You’re not going anywhere.”

“What?” I snapped.

“It’s your duty as the Queen of the Fifth to ensure the safety and eternal punishment of its residents.”

“That wasn’t our bargain,” I said.

With a snarl, he teleported me to his office in St. James’s Park. A huge fire crackled in the fireplace, its yellow light illuminating a painting of Hades on his throne with the three-headed dog. The room smelled of mint, burned pine, and a touch of brimstone, reminding me of its owner.

I yanked my hand out of his grip. “Abducting me again?”

“Bringing your cat to her appointment.” He clicked his fingers.

The door opened, and a man in a white coat stepped in. Everything about him appeared normal, from the blond hair to the spectacles, except for his slitted blue irises that resembled those of a cat.

“Dr. Atallus is Hell’s foremost expert on felines.” Hades swept out an arm toward the healer. “He will be able to tell you if your little cat sustained any injuries during her time in captivity.”

Dami raised her head and purred, indicating that whoever this man was, she felt happy to be in his presence.

“Let’s take a look at you.” He wrapped his hands around her small body and lifted her off my shoulder. “Damisa, eh?”

“Can you speak to her mind?” I asked.

Dr. Atallus inclined his head. “Of course.”

Hades raised a hand. “Dismissed. Settle all invoices with my secretary. She’ll tell you where to deliver the cat after you’ve completed your examination.”

The cat doctor inclined his head and winked out of existence.

I stared at the space they had occupied, and bit down on my bottom lip. “Where did he take her?”

“His clinic in Hell.” Hades strode to the fireplace, his shoulders looking stiff with tension. He turned around, letting the flames light up his back. “Which is now under threat because there’s an enraged and unruly goddess running amok.”

“You’re not going to explain why you lied to me this entire time about having a wife in Hell?” I asked.

“Persephone is an empty shell,” he growled. “She doesn’t know what she’s doing, has no soul or consciousness or sense of awareness, which makes her even more dangerous than Samael.”

My heart skipped. This was in line with what Pirithous had told me, but I needed to know more. “What happened to her?”

“The Great Divide.” Hades folded his arms across his chest. “If you don’t return to Hell and assist me with this matter, you’ll be in breach of the contract I signed on your behalf when I gave you fifty percent of my throne.”

If I were a cat, my fur would be standing on end at the implied threat. “How dare you crown me without my permission.” I prodded him in the chest. “You told me I could earn my freedom at the Devil’s Ball. I did what you asked, and now you’re demanding more.”

“That was before Persephone broke free of her restraints,” he said through clenched teeth.

“Why would you need to imprison an empty shell?” I snapped.

“For the centuries since I’ve found her, she has been utterly dormant,” he said in a low voice. “Barely even breathing. Nothing has awoken her, not potions or physicians or powerful spells. I had her examined by the best healers and they all said the same thing.”

“What?” I whispered.

“There wasn’t a trace of a soul within her body. Everything that was once her had been wiped clean, so she couldn’t even operate on muscle memory.”

I swallowed hard. “Where did you keep her?”

His eyes softened. “A beautiful glass coffin. Minthe tended to her every need.”

My brows drew together, but I resisted the urge to ask the insensitive question of why on earth a living corpse might need a lady’s maid.

“You could have at least told me you’d found her body, and that she was alive.”

He swallowed. “The moment you came to Hell, her body became restless.”

“Why?” I whispered, desperate for him to say those words. That I was her soul and I was his wife. That the red-haired woman who had burst into the room was just her vessel and now meant nothing to him. I needed him to tell me that he felt something for Kora.

Hades shook his head. “I have no idea.”

My throat thickened, and my heart sank with a heavy boulder of disappointment. “So, you lied this entire time about me being Persephone?”

He stared down at me for several heartbeats, his chest rising and falling with rapid breaths. “There was a spark in her eyes. Maybe the immense influx of power regenerated her—”

“And you want her back?” I asked, my voice bitter.

“Right now, I want to confine her,” he said through clenched teeth. “Samael has agents everywhere, and Hell is riddled with demons who would love to prey upon a vulnerable beauty.”

“Who can generate enough murderous plants to eat a soulkin?” I asked with a sneer.

He ground his teeth. “Put aside your animosity and focus on the integrity of our domain—”

“Your domain,” I snapped.

A muscle in his jaw flexed. “What do you want from me?” he sneered. “Shall I grovel? Shall I kiss your feet before you understand that what’s happening is bigger than a falsehood I might have uttered to safeguard the Fifth Faction?”

“Yes,” I said with an emphatic nod.

His face dropped. “What?”

I placed my hands on my hips, hardened my expression, and bared my teeth. “Kiss my feet. Grovel. Explain yourself.”

His nostrils flared. “You would have Hades, the King of the Fifth Faction—”

“A man who tricked me into marriage and couldn’t stop lying?” I walked to the other side of the room toward the fireplace, lowered myself into a brown leather armchair, and stretched out my legs.

The leather that made up my long skirt parted, exposing my thighs.

Hades stared down at me, his eyes flaring. “What is the meaning of this?”

I narrowed my eyes. Even though rushing to Hades’ aid was the right thing to do, I couldn’t let him get away with all that deception. And the thought that he would cast me aside still stung. Especially when it was to chase after a woman he had referred to as an empty shell.

“If you want me to help, you’d better get on your knees.” I splayed out my toes.

He stalked toward me, his irises flaring with flame and fury and an inferno of lust. Any other time, I might have lost the contents of my bladder with fright, but today was different. Today, I had centuries of power, and I knew how to employ it.

Hades stood before the armchair, glowering down at me with his teeth bared before dropping to his knees.

My heart flipped, and I swallowed back a surge of excitement. Was he really going to kiss my feet?

“Start with the left,” I said in my haughtiest voice.

He wrapped his fingers around my right ankle, rested its heel on his muscular thigh, and unfastened the leather thong holding together my Grecian sandal. He took his time slipping it off, all the while maintaining eye contact.

“Is this what you want?” His voice was a low, sensual caress that I felt between my legs.

I sniffed. “You haven’t done anything yet.”

Hades laughed, the sound low and deep enough to send a flare of excitement across my nipples. The pads of his thumbs rubbed sensual circles along my ankle bones, and his fingers stroked the sensitive skin on the soles of my feet.

“How about this?” He pressed his lips onto my big toe, sending a spark of electricity all the way up my leg. It settled in my clit, where it sizzled like a sparkler, leaving me wanting more.

I forced my features into a mask of indifference. “It’s hard to tell with something so fleeting. Try again.”

He pressed his thumb into the arch of my foot, sending a wave of liquid ecstasy up my thighs. Then, he kissed the underside of my toe with an explosion of pleasure.

“Is this better?” His deep voice resonated across my entire body.

Heat flooded my core, and its muscles clenched around nothing, needing to be filled. What the bloody hell was he doing to me? Until this moment, I hadn’t considered my feet to be a sensitive spot. But Hades was awakening something within me I couldn’t forget.

“It’s acceptable,” I rasped. “But you’ll need to do it again, just so I can check.”

Hades released my foot, and my insides deflated with disappointment. I was about to protest, when he took the left one and unfastened the straps of its sandal.

A whimper reverberated deep in my chest, urging me to ask him what he was doing.

His brows rose, making me wonder if he could hear my thoughts through our connection. “You demanded that I grovel,” he said. “Then I must do a thorough job, and make sure to satisfy your needs.”

“What do you mean?” My voice shook.

“I have a Queen of Hell holding me hostage and making me genuflect at her feet. I doubt she will relent until I satisfy all her needs.”

My throat dried. I had no idea what the word genuflect meant, but it sounded kind. And since when had my demand for him to grovel at my feet turn into something sexual?

I parted my lips to complain, but Hades took my left foot and ran his thumb along my arch.

A ragged breath escaped my lungs. “What on earth are you doing?”

“Did you know the foot is one of the most erogenous zones in the female body?” he drawled.

“You’re just making that up.”

Hades shook his head. “No.” He blew on my toes. “You have over seven thousand nerve endings on your foot—only a thousand less than the pretty little bud between the lips of your pussy.”

“What are you saying?” My voice trembled. “That I’m walking on my clit?”

His tongue darted out and licked my big toe, sending a wave of excitement between my legs. I sucked in a sharp breath between my teeth and tried not to shiver.

“You feel it,” he said while lavishing the digit with up and down strokes. “How my very touch can make you melt into a puddle of desire. There’s something about you I can’t resist, even though you're infuriatingly unreasonable.”

My jaw clenched. The bloody bastard was twisting facts around to make it sound like I was asking too much—even though he was a liar incapable of uttering an apology. Besides, this groveling was supposed to be humiliating, but it looked like he might have a foot fetish.

I pulled my foot back. “Well, you can stop—”

He clamped his hands around my ankles and engulfed my toe in his mouth.

A rush of heat surged between my legs, making me arch off the armchair with a yowl. His tongue ran gentle strokes on the underside of my big toe, sending wave upon wave of sensation up my thighs.

Sparks of electricity danced around my core. My clit ached and pulsed, feeling twice its normal size. My libido surged to the surface of my mind, pushing aside my resentment, and I leaned back on the seat with my legs spread, moaning, panting, yearning for more.

Hades hummed, the sound low and deep and resonant. He continued licking and sucking my toe until it felt like his tongue was directly on my clit.

I stared down at him, meeting eyes that burned with molten fire. The way he lapped at my toe told me he had done this several times before. The fabric of his pants stretched across his muscular thighs, accentuating his thick, bulging erection.

Reaching down with my free foot, I stroked my toes over his hot length, enjoying how his thick cock-head felt against my toes. He pulsed and thickened under my attentions, and I pressed into his length with the ball of my foot.

His growl reverberated up my leg and into my sex—just where I needed him the most. Just as I was about to cry out, Hades released my big toe with a pop and kissed and massaged a path up my ankle, over my calves, and to my knees, which he parted with gentle fingers.

“I can smell your arousal,” he rasped.

I swallowed hard. “You’re wrong. That toe sucking had no effect on me whatsoever. Besides, you were only supposed to kiss my feet.”

He pushed aside the leather strips that made up my skirt, exposing my soaking wet slit.

“Beautiful,” he rumbled. “I love the way you glisten for me.”

Heat rose to my cheeks. “This has nothing to do with you.”

With an amused hum, he continued pressing a path of wet kisses between my inner thighs, spreading them farther apart.

“I’m going to lick your pussy until you squirt,” he growled. “Then after you’ve coated my face with your juices, I’ll spank your delectable ass and fuck you over this armchair.”

I bit down on my bottom lip, breathing hard through the tremors of my heart. This was the most erotic experience of my life, and I didn’t want it to end. A tiny voice in the back of my head screamed at me that this was a trick. If I allowed Hades to seduce me into silence, I would be forever doomed to tolerate his bad behavior.

My lips parted, and a refusal rolled to the tip of my tongue, but he pressed a kiss on my clit that caused an explosion of desire and want and need.

The fire at my side crackled and popped, mingling with the roar of my blood. His hot breath fanned across my folds, making my clit pound harder than a drum.

“Do you want more?” he asked.

“Yes,” I whispered, even though my inner warning systems screamed at me to say no.

“Then you’ll help me find Persephone?”

The mention of her name was the bucket of cold water that brought his treachery into perspective. Stiffening, I tightened my thighs around his head, trapping him in place. My nostrils flared. Even if Pirithous had confirmed that Persephone and I were the same person, part of me refused to accept that I could exist in two bodies.

I clenched my teeth. “You were supposed to grovel. To apologize for lying to me that you had a wife. How on earth could you turn it around so I’m the one agreeing to your demands?”

He drew back, his eyes blazing. “I will pleasure you with my tongue and give you a fucking that will give you aftershocks for the rest of the year. Take it or leave it.”

Raising my leg, I channelled my magic into the sole of my foot and gave him a hard shove in the shoulder. When he fell back a foot before righting himself, my insides flared with satisfaction.

“My answer is still no,” I said with a sneer.

His eyes bulged, their pupils turning black. My heart skipped. I’d never seen him look this angry.

“What do you want?” he said in a voice sounding like it came from the depths of Hell. “Speak.”

I clamped my legs shut. “Give me what you owe me.”

“Explain,” he snapped.

“An apartment in London large enough for Dami and me, and an income.”

“And you will help me find Persephone?”

Heavy breaths heaved in and out of my lungs. If Persephone had been any other goddess apart from the one whose body my soul used to occupy, I would refuse. But what if she hurt herself while traveling through Hell? If something happened to her, what would that mean for me?

Nodding, I gulped. “And I want a shopping spree. And an apology and an explanation.”

He bared his teeth and hissed, “Done.”