A Touch of Ruin

Persephone and Lexa help Sybil move out of Apollo’s apartment, which is upscale but empty of color. Hermes confides that Apollo takes pride in his regimen and the things he can control. After they’ve moved Sybil to their apartment, Lexa drops Persephone off at Nevernight, Hades’ nightclub, where she encounters Leuce, a pale, lovely nymph who says she is Hades’ lover. Furious, Persephone confronts Hades, who is in the midst of bargaining with a mortal. He explains that he was Leuce’s lover millennia ago, but he turned her into a tree when she betrayed him. Persephone is upset by the thought of Hades having lovers before her and is “starting to feel like she truly kn[ows] nothing about him” (109). She guesses that he left her the other night because of Leuce, and she refuses intimacy with him, hurt that he didn’t communicate with her.

Leuce visits Persephone at work. She apologizes and asks Persephone to intercede with Hades to get Leuce a home and a job. Leuce remarks, “[I]n ancient times, the gods were feared and revered. Their worshippers were serious about honoring their gods. It wasn’t this…false obsession” (117).