I should have posted this several months ago. I’m dealing with some really intense personal stuff this year, and when it isn’t kicking my ass emotionally, it’s lobbing grenades into my plans. I may or may not post again specifically to talk about what’s going on with me, but that’s for another day.
Anyways, I’m sorry I’m just sharing this now, but I’m in a new anthology! If you remember, I loved Chemical [se]X when I read it and reviewed it in December of 2014. After I reviewed it, I told the editor, Oleander, that if she ever did a volume two to please let me know. She did better than that, and asked me if I wanted to contribute!
I first heard the song Persephone years ago after a friend shared his Escape Key album with me. Michelle Dockrey wrote the song. The line “They all forget I had a choice, y’know/I could’ve chosen not to eat or drink” clicked for me. I knew that one day I would write my take on Persephone.
Hey, guess what I wrote for an anthology about aphrodisiac chocolates?
I changed the pomegranate into a chocolate with a pomegranate filling and I had a story where eating chocolate would be a key part of the larger story. I could’ve gone with other myths (my oldest daughter’s middle name is Athena), but it made sense to do Persephone/Hades.
Often also called Rape of Persephone
I’ve never liked how passive Persephone is often written. So I knew that my Persephone would be in the model of Michelle Dockrey’s. She would make a choice, rather than have choices made by other people about her life. When it came to Hades, I remembered that he didn’t only create Tartarus, but also the Elysian Fields.
Excerpt:
She’d gone willingly to Apollo’s bed. Sun was vital in the growth of plants. But the sex had been….pedestrian. Boring. Uninspiring. Just as she’d always found it.
“What’s wrong with me?” she whispered.
As if in reply, the ground started to shake. Soil exploded upward as a team of black stallions spewed forth. The god driving the chariot was clad in unrelieved black from head to toe. Surely he was hunting some poor lost soul.
Persephone’s breath was knocked from her body when Hades’ powerful arm snatched her.
“What are you doing?” Persephone gasped.
She was shocked when no trees bent to block her abduction, nor did sylphs step forth to attempt a rescue. The only sounds were the pounding of the stallion’s hooves and her own ragged sobs. The iron band of his arm held her tightly against him as the horses dove back into the underworld.
They raced along the River Styx. Persephone remembered the stories she’d been told as a child—always keep a coin in your shoe in case you must pay Charon’s fee. Hades had no need of coins for passage. The stallions leapt the water with no more trouble than she might have had stepping over a small stream.
The landscape passed too quickly for her to comprehend what she was seeing. At times she had the impression of tremendous beauty and peace while music swirled around the chariot. At others, paralyzing fear nibbled at her and cries of agony assaulted her ears. They raced deeper into the Underworld until Persephone knew she would never find her way back to the river.
A building in the distance grew larger. Black as obsidian, with turrets stabbing upward, the castle seemed no more welcoming than the god beside her. The stallions slowed to a stop by the entrance. Hades hefted her over a shoulder and carried Persephone into the castle. She trembled like a sheaf of grain in a wind, too frightened and angry to speak.
It seemed as though Hades walked for hours before she was tossed onto a bed.
“Why? Hades, what purpose?” she asked, tears running down her face.
“Zeus said you can’t bring forth the harvest. He seemed to think that since the ground is dead around you, and the people are dead around me that we would be a perfect match. He gave you to me in marriage.” Hades’ voice was emotionless.
“M-marriage?” Her teeth chattered as his words set in.
“Yes.”
“What are you going to do to me?” she whispered.
“Nothing! I’m not interested in sporting with a terrified girl. Stay out of my way, wife. In time, let’s hope that we can tolerate one another.” Hades frowned, before adding, “Don’t eat or drink anything. Keep out of the kitchen.” He left, kicking the door shut behind him.
Persephone shivered at the finality of the slam of the door. Fear dug into her skin like a bramble. Underneath the fear, though, there was relief. She wouldn’t have to receive the offerings of grain and flowers accompanied by pleas to warm the land for their plows.
From an Amazon review- Delilah Night’s take on Persephone, which had me hooked from the opening lines: “they forget I had a choice, you know. I could’ve not eaten.” I loved how deftly consent was woven into that tale which could’ve gone so easily into Belle & Beast terrain.
Buy it on
- Amazon (ebook and paperback)
- Kobo
- B&N
- Smashwords
