February Thaw Read Free Page A

grew sharper as she put both fists on the back of the couch and leaned toward her son-in-law. "And it's not supposed to be spring for another two months! I want to know what happened and I want to know right now!"
    A single tear rolled down alongside Hades' aquiline nose. "She's left me, Demi."
    Even the most gentle goddess had a line that shouldn't be crossed.
    When the dust settled, He Who Has Many Names picked himself up off the floor and lowered himself gently back into his chair. "You blasted me," he said, shaking his head in disbelief, slightly singed black hair falling over his eyes. "In my realm. In my palace. In my den."
    "That's right. And I'm going to do it again if I don't start getting some answers that make sense."
    Scratching at the stubble on his chin, Hades sighed. "We had a fight," he said in a small voice.
    "What about, and don't say pomegranates because I know that much."
    "But it was about pomegranates, Demi. I had the tree cut down."
    Demeter took a deep breath and counted to ten. "What tree?"
    "The pomegranate tree." When she made it clear she needed more information and what the consequences would be if she didn't get it, he went on. "You remember back when I was courting Persephone..."
    The goddess snorted.
    A patch of colour stained the son of Chronos' pale cheeks. "Yeah, well, do you remember how Zeus said she didn't have to stay with me if she hadn't eaten anything?"
    "I remember."
    Hades took a hint from her tapping fingers and began to speak faster. "Well, as it turned out she'd eaten those seven pomegranate seeds. Anyway, we worked all that out years ago and I thought we were happy, but in the midst of a small disagreement about saturated fats, one of the servants put a bowl of pomegranates on the table. She said I was trying to run roughshod over her feelings just like before and I said I wasn't, then, to prove it, I had the gardeners cut down the tree."
    Demeter stared silently down at him. "The tree that bore the fruit Persephone ate from to become your bride?" she asked when she finally found her voice.
    "Well, yeah, but..."
    "You putz! For her that tree was a symbol of your union and you got miffed and cut it down to prove a point."
    "I didn't want her to be reminded of less happy times," Hades protested indignantly.
    "Did you tell her that? Of course not," she went on before he had a chance to answer. "No wonder she thinks you don't love her anymore. That you regret marrying her."
    "How can she think that?" He started to pace, kicking accumulated flotsam out of his way with every step. "Persephone is the only bright light in my world. While she's here with me, she rules over all. Without her, I dwell in darkness. I adore her. I always have and I always will." Face twisted in anguish, he turned toward the goddess. "You've got to talk to her, Demi. You've got to."
    "Oh no," Demeter shook her finger at him. "I'm not the one who has to talk to her. You go up top right now and you tell all this to my daughter."
    Hades stopped pacing so suddenly Demeter thought at first he'd walked through some spilled chip dip and glued his feet to the floor. "I can't."
    "You what?"
    "I can't go up top. It goes on too far." Glancing up at the ceiling, he looked beyond it to the arcing dome of rock that covered the Underworld. "There's no roof."
    "Don't start making excuses, Host of Many, Brain of Pea," Demeter snarled. "You went up there to get her originally."
    "That was a long time ago."
    "So?"
    "I've got agoraphobia."
    "So stay out of the marketplace. Or don't you want her back?"
    "I want her back more than anything!"
    Not more than I want to get rid of her. "Then get off your skinny butt and do something about it. And speaking of getting off your butt, why is this place such a pig sty? You've got servants."
    "Persephone always dealt with them. I don't know what to say."
    "She's with me half the year." Which was quite long enough. "You can't possibly live like this for all that time."
    "She always leaves