55 pages • 1-hour read
A Game of Fate
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Chapters 13-18Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of graphic violence, sexual content, substance use, addiction, cursing, death, and sexual harassment.
Chapter 13 Summary: “Redemption”
Four days later, Hades broods over Persephone’s accusation that he is ruthless, countering this barb with thoughts of his charitable work. Hecate advises him to explain his motives to Persephone more plainly, noting that Persephone will come to know all of Hades only if Hades communicates openly.
Thanatos reports that Sisyphus has murdered a high-ranking member of the Triad; the man has used the spindle again, deeply upsetting the Fates. Hades leaves to find Hermes.
At Nevernight, Hades instructs Ilias to detain a dryad who is spying on Persephone. When he overhears Minthe refusing help to a mortal mother, he recalls Persephone’s critique and sharply rebukes Minthe. A bouncer brings the mother to Hades, who heals the woman’s child with a favor and then asks her to keep this act a secret. However, upon discovering that Persephone and Hermes are spying on him through a mirror, he expels Persephone to the Underworld and tasks Hermes with a covert assignment.
Chapter 14 Summary: “A Battle of Wills”
Regretting his anger, Hades goes in search of Persephone and finds her in the Underworld library, where she is examining the stone basin that serves as a living map of his realm. He explains that the basin reveals pathways only to those he trusts; he admits that he restricted her travel in order to prevent her from fleeing while she was angry. They clash over his judgment, and he draws a distinction between saving a lingering soul and resurrecting one whose life thread has been cut. Persephone accuses Hades of playing games with mortals, but Hades explains that he does not control the Fates or death.
The emotional pull between them intensifies. He pins her against a bookcase but grows frustrated when she denies her attraction to him. They agree to communicate instead of retreating in anger. They return to Nevernight, and Hades escorts Persephone out. Hades then confronts the detained dryad, Rosalva Lykaios, making her choose between betraying Demeter or facing his wrath.
Chapter 15 Summary: “A Game of Trickery”
In the Underworld stables, Hades tends to his four demonic battle horses. Minthe brings him a newspaper, which features Persephone’s scathing article about him. He forbids Minthe from retaliating, reiterating that Persephone will be his queen. Minthe is hurt and recalls when she and Hades slept together, but Hades says that their relationship was never meant to be.
Intent upon trapping Sisyphus, Hades departs with Hecate for a shipyard owned by Poseidon. At the dock, Poseidon insults Hecate, who sets his trousers on fire. After they destroy a golem disguised as Sisyphus, the real Sisyphus appears. Suddenly, a wall explodes, revealing a portal and creating an opening for Sisyphus to escape. In the chaos, Hades accidentally snares Thanatos with the enchanted chains. Sisyphus escapes, and Poseidon taunts Hades. Hecate reveals that she sensed magic aiding Sisyphus, and she promises to trace it. Aphrodite calls with news that Persephone is at her club with Adonis.
Chapter 16 Summary: “A Battle for Control”
Hades reaches La Rose, Aphrodite’s club, and finds Adonis forcibly kissing Persephone. Guards drag Adonis away. Hades holds Persephone, wipes the onlookers’ memories, and carries her out. In the limo, an intoxicated Persephone straddles Hades and kisses him. He stops her, restraining his own intense desire, and takes her through a private portal to his Underworld chambers.
She strips and dares him to yield to his lust. He refuses to take advantage of her, but they kiss passionately. He uses magic to compel her to sleep and curses the Fates.
Chapter 17 Summary: “Breaking Point”
In the morning, Hades tells Persephone she was drugged and that they did not have sex. They argue about Adonis. Hades admits to being jealous of Adonis, who touched her without consent. When he confronts Persephone about the article, she says that she did not intend for it to be published. Hades does not detect a lie, but he nonetheless accuses Persephone of hating him, which she denies.
She threatens to publish more articles unless he releases her from their contract. He refuses, and their fury evolves into an erotic embrace. Thinking of her as his queen, he pulls away and tells her that she desires him physically but does not like him. Persephone looks horrified, and Hades vanishes.
Chapter 18 Summary: “The Three Moons”
Hades and Hecate track leads on Sisyphus to an occult shop and confront Vasilis Remes (a Magi, or magic user). Vasilis admits that the Triad coerced him and killed his cat, which Hecate finds to have been resurrected. He also reports that Sisyphus escaped with Poseidon’s son, Theseus. Vasilis explains that on Theseus’s order, he created the portal through which Sisyphus escaped from Hades. Now, after finding relics from the Great War in the shop, Hades locks Vasilis into an invisible prison and orders the shop burned.
Hades visits Aphrodite, accuses her of arranging Adonis’s actions the night before, and threatens to torture Adonis’s soul in punishment for drugging Persephone.
Hades avoids a celebration in his and Persephone’s honor in Asphodel, then returns to his private baths and finds Persephone soaking, wearing a crown gifted by an Underworld soul. A quiet moment turns intimate, and Hades and Persephone perform a series of sex acts, during which Persephone admits that she has never had sex before. Minthe interrupts, infuriating Persephone, who suggests that Hades have sex with Minthe instead. Persephone claims not to want Hades, but he can taste the fact that she is lying. Persephone calls their intimacy a mistake and departs. Hades knows that her words are true but believes that he can cultivate their mutual desire.
Chapters 13-18 Analysis
This section of the novel deconstructs Hades’s reliance on control mechanisms, exposing them as barriers to the emotional vulnerability that he must embrace before he can experience true intimacy. Ironically, although his identity as the Underworld’s ruler is predicated on absolute authority, Persephone’s influence systematically undermines his defenses. His initial response to her critique is to reinforce his controlling actions, as when he restricts her ability to travel within the Underworld, claiming that he does not want her to “leave when [she] are angry with [him] (171). This callous, self-serving act makes it clear that he cannot yet conceive of a relationship that does not operate on his terms, and as the two continue their battle of wills, Hades cannot yet come to terms with the idea of Yielding Control to Form Authentic Connections. His power is both a tool of governance and a psychological fortress, and Persephone’s challenges are direct assaults on the walls that guard his emotional core.
These chapters also engage in a closer examination of Hades’s unspoken motivations, offering up a more nuanced approach to The Relative Nature of Good and Evil. Although the interactions between Hades and Persephone have been fraught with their mutual need to assert control over the events in progress, Hades demonstrates his essential morality when he refuses the drugged Persephone’s half-aware, amorous advances. Given his knowledge of their eventual fate, his restraint demonstrates a degree of moral integrity that contradicts the brutality of his public façade. Additionally, his established methods are further subverted when he grants a favor to a desperate mortal mother without imposing a contract upon her. Notably, his act of unconditional mercy is directly inspired by Persephone’s condemnation of his existing system, suggesting a latent capacity for compassion that transcends his rigidly transactional worldview.
The narrative further complicates the nature of Hades’s bargains by contextualizing them within a cosmic framework. As Hades explains to Persephone, his dealings with the Fates revolve around the issue of maintaining the equilibrium of the universe; if he asks “the Fates to spare one soul, [he] do[es] not get a say in the life of another” (173), and this edict reframes her understanding of his power, making it clear that he is essentially an administrator bound by universal laws.
As Hades and Persephone’s escalating conflict forces them to confront the limitations of their constructed identities, they both undergo a crucial parallel development. Hades, the archetypal ruler, is forced to navigate the unfamiliar territory of emotional vulnerability, while Persephone, a goddess-in-becoming, must reckon with the latent divine powers that she has long been denied. Within this context, Hades’s internal monologues reveal his inner shift as he agonizes over Persephone’s perception of him and acknowledges that his tendency to form transactional relationships is a critical flaw.
Even as Persephone uses her mortal-world identity as a journalist to challenge Hades’s authority, she must deal with the emotional consequences when he in turn challenges her self-perception. As he tells her, “If [being a mortal] is how you think of yourself, you will never know your power” (176). In this way, their antagonistic dynamic becomes a crucible for mutual growth; Persephone forces Hades into acts of compassion and vulnerability, while he deliberately prods the divine rage that lies suppressed within her. The truce they forge in the library, when they agree to communicate rather than retreating from their anger, forces them both out of their defensive postures and paves the way for more constructive interactions.
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