In many ways, she was still a bud. Pretty promise, not fully in bloom, kept in the quiet safety of her palace. Kore had learned many things since she’d come to Tenebris. It was a place that flourished in direct opposition to her nature. The blooms that craned their bright-petalled heads toward her were scarce in this place, where twilight threw the most beautiful hues and the noon-day sun was beginning to feel garish. Still, she smiled more here than she’d ever smiled in her warm, summer-sweet home.<br/><br/>It had been strange, coming to this place as a bride and finding no groom. There had been, at first, some gossip in the chilly kingdom. Perhaps Kore was something of a curse to their kingdom, blindingly bright thing that she was. For the king to lose both his sons did not seem like it could be happenstance, and both Lumous and Tenebris had been holding their breaths to cry of foul play. Kore had feared she be sent home. But, it seemed Hades was intent to keep the little bloom of the Light Court in his realm and it was her mother left howling.<br/><br/>Kore would have fretted over it, if she’d not been so keen to stay. “It’s so lively,” she hummed, popping a juice-laden pomegranate seed between her teeth. “If my mother saw, she’d worry less, I think.” She was probably wrong. Naïve girl, who’d not thought to fear the man beside her.<br/><br/>She pushed a fall of her long hair from her face, leaning toward Hades’ throne. “I’m happy you’re letting me stay,” Kore said, as if this marriage was little more than permission. It was possible that was how she’d understood it. She’d blushed like a spring rose when they’d taken their vows and she tasted his lips for the first time. Kore had felt silly then, for expecting it to be cold. Instead, it had left a lingering warmth that reminded her very much of home. It had been her first kiss. Innocent, preserved Fae.<br/><br/>Her green eye, shining like the northern lights in the dusky hall, widened when he dipped in close to steal a little sweet from the edge of her lips. It sent a shiver down her spine, hearing him say her name that way. “My king,” she mumbled, the telltale flush of a spring maiden coloring her cheeks as she lowered her gaze. Her chin still in his grasp, she had no option but to endure the heat rising under her skin. Shy, it seemed, for all she’d been prepared for.<br/><br/>It was hard to make real sense of the lessons the twins Aphrodite and Venus had been careful to instruct in the weeks leading to her departure for Tenebris. Though it had not been intended that she’d be Hades’ bride, a bride she’d still been sent to be. They’d explained her duty to her husband, but Kore had no context. She’d never been left free enough to find the things that would make her heart flutter or her skin burn.<br/><br/>Still, Kore had heard stories about her new husband. That he was harsh and as merciless as a winter storm. That he had ridden into battle on the heels of the notoriously bloody Ares and cut down the enemies of the Fae without remorse. A judge and an executioner. Children in Lumous sometimes said his name like it had to be whispered. She wondered if she was supposed to find this frightening. Kore chanced a glance up at him, and a small smile. “Thank you.” She said, quiet, the short distance between them sheltering their voices from the raucous music and laughter.