Daughter of the Earth and Sky Read Online Free PDF Page A

aren’t any part of you. They gave you powers and a physical appearance and that’s it. You are nothing like them, and you won’t grow up to be like them either.”
    I ducked my head. “Maybe not the sum of both of them, Hades, but I am something from both of them. If there’s nothing good in him then—”
    Hades brushed a strand of hair off my face and tilted my chin up till I was looking at him. “That has no bearing on you. Look, do you think I’m evil?”
    My mind flashed back to Pirithous, a demigod who’d been working with Boreas, screaming in agony as Hades turned him into stone. “Dark? Yes. Evil? No.”
    “Well, my parents were. They make Zeus look like a saint. We are not destined to become our parents.”
    “I killed Boreas, Hades. Without so much as a second thought.”
    “He deserved it.”
    And I’m keeping something from you. Something terrible. I opened my mouth and tried to tell him for the thousandth time. My stomach twisted and my pulse raced. I closed my eyes against the dizziness and let it go. The feeling went away instantly.
    “Persephone?” Headlights glittered in his eyes.
    “If he pulls the long-lost father card, I won’t go off to the dark side,” I promised him.
    Hades let out a deep breath, and his entire body seemed to relax. I blinked. He’d really been worried. He returned his attention to the playlist while I eased the car back on the road. His fingers flipped deftly over the screen. “Orpheus…Dusk…Orpheus…Dusk…do you have anything on here that doesn’t make people want to jump off a cliff?”
    I made an offended noise but was glad to have the conversation return to normal. “I’m driving. When you learn to drive something more modern than a horse and buggy, we can listen to your music.”
    “I can drive!”
    “Did they even have cars the last time you came to the surface?” I teased.
    “Yes.”
    “Not counting the minute and a half you spent rescuing me last year?”
    Hades fell silent, and I laughed. “I didn’t think so.”
    Despite my teasing, when I’d been driving three hours, I pulled over and let him drive. He would know how to control anything humans made. All the gods who’d been created did. Gods who’d actually been born, like me, had to learn everything the hard way.
    I fell asleep to Hades’ running commentary on my playlist. When I opened my eyes, the sun was peeking through the clouds.
    “We’re here,” Hades announced.
    I yawned. There was a black leather jacket draped across me that hadn’t been there before. It took me a minute to place it before I remembered Hades had been wearing it. He walked around and opened my door. A Greek revival plantation home stood before us, a sign proclaiming it to be the Riverview Hotel.
    “I already checked us in,” Hades said.
    I got out of the car, combed my fingers through my hair, and checked my reflection in the rearview mirror. “I’m sure you’re exhausted.” I straightened my dress. “So did you just want to crash here and hit Cumberland Island tomorrow?”
    “Are you kidding? This is the longest I’ve been on the surface in…” Hades trailed off to think. “Nearly forever. I’m not going to waste a minute sleeping. We should go sightseeing! We’ve got two days, might as well make the most of them.” He gave me a hopeful look.
    I yawned again and reached down to adjust the strap on my sandal.
    “Unless you’re still tired,” he amended, sounding crestfallen.
    I looked up. His shoulders were slumped as he grabbed his suitcase out of the trunk.
    Aww , he wanted to go sightseeing! “Give me five minutes.”
    Hades led me into the hotel and directed me toward a wooden staircase. I kept a hand on the espresso-colored railing. A striped cat raced past me. It was a really nice hotel, really homey. The top half of the walls were white with curvy, wrought iron lights fastened every few feet, and the bottom half was paneled with the same espresso-colored wood of the staircase. The