In Neon Gods , erotica source Katee Robertshifts her centering fromDisney villainsto Greek mythology , a kingdom that also happens to be overflow with steamy love story . Today , io9 is revealing the cover and an excerpt that get word heroine Persephone , on the running play from Zeus , see a dark unknown at the River Styx .
First , here ’s a little context so you could see how Robert has updated the classictale of Hadesand Persephone with a modern twist .
https://gizmodo.com/meet-the-erotica-author-whos-making-disney-villains-fuc-1838440067
Image: Sourcebooks Casablanca
beau monde darling Persephone Dimitriou be after to flee the extremist - modernistic metropolis of Olympus and start over far from the backstabbing political sympathies of the Thirteen Houses . But all that ’s ripped by when her mother still-hunt her with an engagement to Zeus , the serious power behind their glittering city ’s dark facade .
With no options leave , Persephone flees to the proscribed undercity and throw a heller ’s bargain with a man she once conceive a myth … a world who awakens her to a world she never knew existed .
Hades has expend his life in the shadows , and he has no intention of stepping into the light . But when he finds that Persephone can proffer a lilliputian cut of the revenge he ’s spend year craving , it ’s all the apology he needs to help her — for a price . Yet every inanimate Nox spent tangled together has given Hades a taste for Persephone , and he ’ll go to warfare with Olympus itself to keep her near …
Image: Sourcebooks Casablanca
A modern retelling of Hades and Persephone that ’s as sinful as it is sweet-flavored .
Here ’s the cover , travel along by the excerption !
Downtown Olympus is just as cautiously polished as Zeus ’s tug . All the storefronts make a unified mode that ’s elegant and minimalist . metallic element and methamphetamine hydrochloride and Harlan Stone . It ’s fairly , but in the end soulless . The only index of what kind of business are contained behind the various methamphetamine door are tasteful vertical signs with the business name . The further from the urban center center , the more individual style and feel seep into the vicinity , but this close to Dodona Tower , Zeus command everything .
If we marry , will he order clothes for me so that I fit seamlessly in with his artistic ? Supervise my hair stylist sojourn to mold me in the image he wants ? supervise what I do , what I say , what I think ? The persuasion makes me shudder .
It takes me three blocks before I realize my footfall are n’t the only unity I hear . I glance over my shoulder to regain two men half a block back . I foot up my step , and they match it well . Not quite trying to close up the aloofness , but I ca n’t shake the hotshot of being hunted .
This deep , all the shops and businesses in the downtown area are closed in . There ’s medicine a few blocks forth that must be a taproom still open . perchance I can lose them in there—and get warm in the process .
I take the next left turn , aiming in the direction of the speech sound . Another look over my berm picture only a individual man behind me . Where did the other one go ?
I get my answer a few second later on when he appears in the next crossing from my left wing . He ’s not blocking the street , but every inherent aptitude I have severalise me to continue as far away from him as possible . I veer right , once again heading south .
The further I get from the center of business district , the more the building start to break away from the cookie-cutter simulacrum . I begin to see trash on the street . Several of the job have bar on their windows . There are even a foreclosure planetary house or two taped to dirty door . Zeus only cares about what he can see , and patently his regard does n’t stretch to this block .
peradventure it ’s the cold muddling my mentation , but it takes me far too tenacious to recognise that they ’re labor me to the River Styx . True fright clamps its teeth into me . If they tree me against the banks , I truly will be immobilize . There are only three bridge between the upper urban center and the lower city , but no one uses them—not since the last Hades died . get across the river is forbidden . If fable is to be believed , it ’s not really possible without paying some kind of terrible price .
And that ’s if I even negociate to reach a bridge .
Terror gives me wing . I check worrying about how much my feet anguish in these ludicrously uncomfortable heels . The cold barely register . There has to be a way to get around my chaser , to find citizenry who can help .
I do n’t even have my crashing sound .
Damn it , I should n’t have let emotion get the best of me . If I ’d just waited for Psyche to take me my purse , none of this would be bump … Would it ?
Time ceases to have meaning . The second are valuate in each harsh exhale tear itself from my dresser . I ca n’t think , ca n’t stop , am nearly sprinting . Supreme Being , my foot hurt .
At first , I scarce register the rushing auditory sensation of the river . It ’s almost impossible to take heed over my own ragged respiration . But then it ’s there in front of me , a pixilated , fatal medallion too all-embracing , too loyal to swim safely , even if it were summertime . In the winter , it ’s a dying sentence .
I reel around to find the men closer . I ca n’t quite make out their side in the apparition , which is right around the meter I realize how quiet the Nox ’s receive . The sound of that ginmill is scantily a murmur in the distance .
No one is coming to save me .
No one even hump I ’m here .
The world on the right , the taller of the two , express joy in a way that has my physical structure fight off shudders that have nothing to do with the frigidness . “ Zeus would like a word . ”
Zeus .
Had I imagined this office could n’t get bad ? Foolish of me . These are n’t random predators . They were sent after me like dogs retrieving a runaway rabbit . I had n’t really thought he ’d stand up idly by and let me get out , had I ? Apparently so , because jolt steals what little imagine I have entrust . If I stop running , they will take in me and return me to my fiancé . He will cage me . There is perfectly no doubt in my mind that I wo n’t get another opportunity to get away .
I do n’t consider . I do n’t plan .
I recoil off my heels and run for my life .
Behind me , they maledict , and then their footstep pound . Too faithful . The river crook here , and I follow the banking company . I do n’t even know where I ’m headed . Away . I have to get away . I do n’t worry what it look like . I ’d bewilder myself into the polar river itself to escape Zeus . Anything is good than the monster who rule upper metropolis .
Cypress Bridge rise up in front of me , an ancient I. F. Stone bridge with editorial that are large around than I am and doubly as tall . They create an archway that gives the impression of result this world behind .
“ Stop ! ”
I cut the yell and plunge through the archway . It hurts . Fuck , everything hurt . My hide stings as if being scraped raw by some invisible roadblock , and my human foot find like I ’m sprint on glass . I do n’t care . I ca n’t stop now , not with them so faithful . I scantily notice the fog rise around me , hail off the river in waves .
I ’m halfway across the bridge deck when I catch sight of the Isle of Man stand on the other bank . He ’s wrapped in a black coating with his workforce in his pockets , fog curling around his legs like a dog with its skipper . A fanciful thought , which is only further substantiation that I am not all right . I ’m not even in the same realm as okay .
“ Help ! ” I do n’t have it away who this alien is , but he ’s got to be better than what act on me . “ Please aid ! ”
He does n’t move .
My steps falter , my body finally start to shut down from the cold and fear and strange slicing pain sensation of cross this bridge . I falter , closely going to my knee joint , and meet the stranger ’s heart . Pleading .
He looks down at me , still as a statue cloak in black , for what feels like an eternity . Then he seems to make a option : lifting a helping hand , medallion extended toward me , he beckons me across what remain of the River Styx . I ’m finally close enough to see his dark hair’s-breadth and beard , to imagine the intensity of his dark gaze as the foreign buzzing tenseness in the zephyr seems to relax around me , appropriate me to push through those final step to the other side without pain in the neck . “ total , ” he order simply .
Somewhere in the depths of my terror , my judgement is screaming that this is a terrible mistake . I do n’t worry . I dredge up the last chip of my military capability and dash for him .
I do n’t bang who this unknown is , but anyone is preferable to Zeus .
No matter the cost .
Excerpt from Katee Robert ’s Neon Gods reprinted by permission . Copyright Sourcebooks Casablanca .
Katee Robert ’s Neon Gods is out June 1 , 2021 , but you could pre - consecrate a copyhere .
https://gizmodo.com/goodbye-gizmodo-these-are-the-hottest-disney-villains-1837303579
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