Scarlett St. Clair is bringing us back to the Underworld for another fun and steamy adventure with Hades and Persephone. It feels like the author—who has made us all fall in love with the story of Greek mythology's biggest lovebirds all over again—has not slowed down ever since she first released A Touch of Darkness back in 2019, but things are clearly just getting started. Most people have already heard of the mind-blowing Hades x Persephone series, but did you know that Scarlett actually has a companion series that goes along with it?!
Not only that, but the second book, A Game of Retribution, is coming out on May 31, 2022 and features even more intense moments between the two legends. But this couldn't be a re-telling without some other gods coming into the fold and stirring up some trouble. This time, it's Hera vs. Zeus and Hades has somehow fallen into the middle of it.
If you’re already curious as to what to expect, here’s the official description from Bloom Books:
"Become enchanted by the fantasy world of gods and mortals in bestselling author Scarlett St. Clair’s reimagined New Greece. Readers are “hopelessly addicted” to the story of Hades and Persephone told from Hades’s point of view.
Hades, God of the Dead, does not take sides or bend the rules. He makes no exceptions to these values—not for god or mortal, even his lover, Persephone, Goddess of Spring.
Usually, fear prevents retaliation.
But not this time.
When Hera, Goddess of Women, approaches Hades with a plan to overthrow Zeus, he declines to offer help. As punishment, Hera sentences Hades to perform a series of labors. Each feat seems more impossible than the last and draws his attention away from Persephone—whose own tragedy has left her questioning whether she can be Queen of the Underworld.
Can Hades maintain the balance he craves?"
Before you run to preorder A Game of Retribution (and maybe even check out Scarlett's other books), don’t miss out on an exclusive and ~super steamy~ excerpt, below!
An Excerpt From A Game of Retribution
By Scarlett St. Clair
“You said you took my picture,” Persephone hedged. “Do you have a camera?”
“I do,” Hades said, and he couldn’t quite place how he felt about sharing it and its contents. Perhaps the closest feeling to describing it was embarrassment, though he also felt a little shameful. He should want to share this with Persephone. He supposed his only fear was what she would think, as always.
“Do you take pictures often?”
“Occasionally. When I find something worth immortalizing.”
Her lips curled. “But you are immortal.”
“I am but moments are not. They are fleeting.”
“Can I see?” she asked.
“Of course,” he found himself saying, despite his concerns, and led her to his office.
“When did you begin this hobby?” Persephone asked as he made his way behind the desk.
“Years ago,” he said. “The technology of mortals never ceases to amaze me.”
And terrify him, if he were being honest.
He pulled the camera from a drawer behind his desk, turned it on, and handed it to her. While it was old, he liked the results he got from the pictures he took.
As she looked through the photos, he walked across the room to pour a drink, hoping it would settle the unfamiliar, nervous energy moving through him. She was quiet for a moment and then said softly, “These are beautiful.”
A faint smile touched his lips, and he heard a click. When he looked, she was lowering the camera.
“There is a moment I want to keep.” Her voice was quiet.
He stared for a minute and then approached, setting his glass on the desk. He touched her chin with his thumb and forefinger and kissed her, pulling back when he heard the click of the camera.
“This moment too,” she whispered.
Hades wasn’t sure what to think, but he did not dislike this. “Will you let me take pictures of you?”
“You already have,” she said.
He swallowed something thick in his throat as he clarified. “Bare.”
She paused for a moment and then answered, “If you let me do the same.”
Hades held her heated gaze and took the camera from her before instructing, “Take off your skirt.”
He stepped back, camera in hand, and snapped a few pictures as she shimmied out of it. When it puddled on the floor, he approached and lifted her onto the desk, drawing her shirt over her head. He took a moment to kiss her mouth and the part of her breasts that pillowed over the top of her bra before handing the camera to her.
“Take pictures of yourself,” he said.
She stared at him for a moment, as if uncertain, so he prompted, “What would you send me when we are apart?”
Her eyes darkened. “And what will you do?”
“Watch,” he said. He took his glass and moved a few steps back and sank into one of the chairs in front of the desk.
It took her a few minutes to get comfortable, but soon she was taking teasing pictures and explicit ones, and the longer Hades watched, the harder he grew. When she was finished, she sat on the edge of the desk with her legs crossed and took a final photo of him. He could not imagine how he looked—half crazed with lust, overcome by a primal need to claim her.
He thought he would go to her, but she came to him, straddling his thighs. She set the camera aside and unbuttoned his shirt. Her hands were hot against his skin as they made their way down his stomach to his erection, painfully restricted by his slacks. She freed it, only to reach for the camera.
Before she captured this moment, she looked at him. “What will you do with these?”
“Can you not guess?”
“Show me,” she said, her voice a breathy whisper.
It was so fucking hot in this room.
He reached between them and stroked himself, timing each movement with the click of the camera.
What the fuck was happening? He had never let anyone take pictures of him before, much less this, something so personal and so fucking intimate, and yet he let it happen, and there came a point when the camera was set aside and their mouths collided. Persephone rose up onto her knees to guide Hades’s cock inside her and they rocked together. As their bodies grew slick and their breaths became ragged, Hades had never quite felt so desperate before, like everything that had come before this moment had made the chase for release so much sweeter. When they tumbled over the edge and lay in a breathless entanglement, Persephone shifted, reached for the camera, and took a picture of their faces.
“I want to remember this,” she said and kissed his raw lips.
He didn’t think he’d ever forget.
Excerpted from A Game of Retribution by Scarlett St. Clair. © 2022 by Scarlett St. Clair. Used with permission of the publisher, Bloom Books, an imprint of Sourcebooks LLC. All rights reserved.
'A Game of Retribution' by Scarlett St. Clair, will be released on August 23, 2022. To preorder the book, click on the retailer of your choice:
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