A Game of Fate

Initially self-published in 2020, A Game of Fate is a fantasy romance novel by Scarlett St. Clair. The book accompanies the author’s popular Hades x Persephone saga but is the first in a parallel subseries, retelling the events of the first book, A Touch of Darkness, from the perspective of Hades, the god of the Underworld. Set in a modern world where Greek deities live among mortals, the story follows Hades after he discovers that an ambitious journalism student, Persephone, is fated to become his queen. To navigate their predetermined connection on his own terms, he binds her to a contract: She must create life in his barren realm or remain there forever.

A #1 New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Scarlett St. Clair is a citizen of the Muscogee Nation and has a self-professed obsession with Greek mythology. Her Hades x Persephone series gained popularity through online communities like TikTok’s “BookTok,” and her novels align with a 21st-century resurgence of mythological retellings in the “romantasy” subgenre. By shifting the narrative focus to Hades, this particular novel transforms him from a mysterious antagonist into a complex, brooding antihero, and the narrative openly explores themes such as The Tension Between Fate and Free Will, Yielding Control to Form Authentic Connections, and The Relative Nature of Good and Evil.

This guide is based on the 2021 Bloom Books edition.

Content Warning: The source material and this guide feature depictions of graphic violence, sexual content, substance use, addiction, cursing, death, and sexual harassment.

Plot Summary

As the novel begins, Hades, the god of the Underworld, confronts the mortal drug lord Sisyphus de Ephyra and forces Sisyphus into a bargain for penance by requiring him to donate a significant portion of his income to charity. Later, at his New Athens club, Nevernight, Hades is cornered by Aphrodite, the goddess of love. She uses an old favor to force him into a game of cards; when she wins, she strikes a bargain with Hades. Her terms are that he must make someone fall in love with him within six months; if he fails, he must resurrect her mortal lover, Basil, from the Underworld.

Hades is disturbed by the bargain. Suddenly, he sees a beautiful woman in his club and feels an intense, primal connection to her, and when he discovers a golden Thread of Fate linking his heart to hers, he realizes that she is his destined mate. He approaches her in the club’s lounge, and they play poker, with the stakes being answers to questions. Through this give-and-take method, he learns that she is an ambitious journalism student named Persephone who is rebelling against her mother. When Hades reveals his own identity, Persephone flees in shock. However, because she lost the game, she is now bound by a contract to Nevernight.

Hades learns from the three Fates (the mysterious figures who determine the course of everyone’s life and death) that Persephone is the goddess of spring and the daughter of Demeter; the Fates have woven her into Hades’s life as the “price” for Demeter’s wish for a child.

When Persephone returns to confront Hades about the contract mark she discovered on her wrist, he explains that because he won the game of cards, she is now bound by the terms he has set; she must create life in the Underworld within six months or become a permanent resident.

The situation is complicated when Thanatos, the god of death, informs Hades that Sisyphus has cheated death by breaking the shears of the Fate Atropos. In order to keep Sisyphus alive, the cosmic imbalance has demanded the destruction of an innocent soul in exchange, rendering that soul unable to reincarnate. The Fates threaten to unweave Persephone from Hades’s destiny if he fails to capture Sisyphus and restore cosmic balance.

An ogre named Duncan, whom Hades employs as a bouncer, harms Persephone during her attempt to see Hades. Enraged, Hades returns to Tartarus and brutally kills Duncan. He then learns from Helios, the god of the sun, that his brother Poseidon is protecting Sisyphus. Meanwhile, Persephone, accompanied by Aphrodite’s mortal lover Adonis, comes to Nevernight to write an exposé on Hades’s “cruel” bargains, and this endeavor leads to a heated argument between her and Hades.

After finding Persephone injured by the River Styx, Hades teleports her to his private chambers and heals her. They share their first passionate kiss.

To learn the truth of Poseidon’s involvement with Sisyphus, Hades acquires truth-compelling chains from Hephaestus, the god of fire and invention. Hades then confronts Poseidon and learns that Poseidon gave Sisyphus a magical relic (a spindle), which allowed him to cheat death. Hades overpowers Poseidon and forces him to agree to help capture Sisyphus.

Meanwhile, the growing intimacy between Hades and Persephone stalls when he refuses to help the mortal Orpheus retrieve his dead wife, Eurydice, from the Underworld. Persephone accuses Hades of being heartless and vanishes.

Hades’s assistant, the nymph Minthe, presents him with a scathing article that Persephone has published, titled “Hades, God of the Game.” In response, Hades informs a devastated, jealous Minthe that Persephone is his fated wife.

After Hades fails to capture Sisyphus in an ambush, he learns that Adonis has drugged Persephone at Aphrodite’s club. He rescues her and gallantly refuses her drunken advances. The next morning, they argue fiercely about her article and his bargains.

Over time, their relationship develops into a secret, passionate affair, and they have sex for the first time after a high-stakes poker game during the Olympian Gala; this marks a significant turning point in their relationship. Hades also announces his intention to found the Halcyon Project, a way for souls to rehabilitate themselves; his idea is inspired by Persephone’s critique of his previous methods of governing souls.

Hades and Persephone’s affair is discovered when Demeter confronts them at Persephone’s apartment. The enraged goddess strips Persephone of her favor and forbids her from seeing Hades again.

Aphrodite concedes her bargain with Hades, admitting that Persephone is in love with him. Aphrodite then reveals the terms of the contract to Persephone.

When Hades finds out that Persephone has wandered into Tartarus, he goes after her and finds her being terrorized by the prisoner Tantalus after showing the man kindness.

Back in Hades’s chambers, Persephone confronts him, believing that their entire relationship was a game to win his bargain with Aphrodite. Heartbroken, she tells him that she loves him but asks him if it was worth it. In her rage and despair, Persephone’s dormant power awakens. She creates life in the Underworld by summoning massive vines that trap Hades, thus fulfilling her contract. Believing that she was manipulated, she leaves him.

A day later, an emotionally numb Hades captures Sisyphus and sends him to his eternal punishment in Tartarus. Weeks pass. After watching Persephone’s college graduation from afar, Hades is convinced by his friend Hecate, the goddess of witchcraft, to fight for his love. Hecate orchestrates a meeting, and Persephone runs into his arms. She and Hades profess their love for each other, and Hades uses a favor she owes him to ask that she live with him, splitting her time between the Underworld and the mortal realm. She accepts.