Destroyer of Light by Rachel Alexander

here!… Annessa! Annessa kai Anax!… Pater kai Metra, hear me… Theo kai Thea…
    The shades in Asphodel. She gasped in shock. They were speaking to her. Goddess. Queen. Savior. Mother.
    “Oh gods,” she said, “I can hear—”
    It’s alright, my love, my sweet wife… I’m here; I’ve got you .
    She startled and looked up at him with a sharp inhale. “Your voice!”
    He shuddered. A deep part of him knew, but it shook him nonetheless. “You’re able to hear…”
    Your thoughts , she finished as he held his breath.
    He could hear her as well. Persephone saw his mouth part in awe. She spoke within his mind as he had within hers. Then his eyes closed in pleasure, realizing where he still was. She moaned when he surged forward.
    Then hear this, my Persephone , he said, focused and intent. I am yours. I am yours alone and I love you. Don’t ever doubt that. Not ever. I was as dead as this kingdom before you came to me. I am alive with you . He withdrew and sank into her again. Within you.
    She brought her hands around him and clawed at his back. Aidon… You showed me everything… I had nothing, I was nothing, I was a scared little girl…
    To me, you were always a woman, Persephone. My queen. Always. He cupped her face with one hand and kissed her. I only showed you what was yours. What has always been yours .
    They stilled, clinging to each other, feeling their lovemaking within and through each other, the sensations and movements too much. She sensed each thing he shared with her. Persephone listened. His breath was ragged against her left ear and she could feel his body straining between the instinct to move within her and the enveloping bliss that gripped him when he did so. She could feel those sensations warring within him, she realized. Her hands moved soothingly over his back and she squeezed around him. He groaned, his fingers clenching her skin.
    She listened, letting her perception broaden. Theos… Annessa… Anax… Pater… Sotir… Metra…
    The voices of Asphodel. And deeper than that, welling up in fear and anger, the voices of Tartarus.
    Annessa, you freed that nymph bitch! Free me! I do not deserve to be here… The chains are weakening… Anax, she deserved it!… They have upset the balance further… The end nears for them and we will be free… Briareos can do nothing…
    Persephone felt Hades’s jaw clenching, knowing that he heard them too. The damned. The Titans. She’d had enough of their presence in her thoughts, in their moment together, and cast them away like darkness running from torchlight.
    Be silent. Now! You will intrude on us no more…
    Their voices stopped.
    Aidoneus looked at her with wide eyes. “What did you do?”
    “I…” she licked her dry lips. “I told them to be silent.”
    “I know you did, but…” he said, confusion melting into admiration. “Persephone, this is the first time they’ve ever truly been quiet.”
    Her breath came out unevenly around her words. “It’s… it’s still for you now? That is what you were hearing day and night for aeons?”
    “Yes. But you…” He gathered her up in his arms, sitting back and raising her with him, her body sinking down upon his. My love, you don’t understand… I could quell them before, but now…
    “Aidon, we—ah!” She clung to his shoulders as he pushed deep into her.
    For the first time, for the first time since I arrived, they are quieted. More importantly, Persephone, he is silent. Completely.
    You cannot hear Kronos’s voice?
    No, sweet one, you freed me… My love, my light, my sweet wife… my queen…
    She gripped his back, her fingers tracing the long scar, and held onto him as he drove into her, joining with her again and again. On the edges of perception, they heard the voices of Asphodel.
    Sto Theo, sti Thea! Aristi, Aristi! Chthonios kai Chthonia…
    They were calling out to them. Chanting. Celebrating. They knew she could hear them— that the Queen could hear her subjects at last.