Underneath the Pomegranate Tree (Shayde x Persephone) [Possible NSFW]

[Lord Darkshayde]

The pounding of drums led the way for the strumming of electric and bass guitars. The rhythm was solid, hard hitting, but something felt like it was missing and then he heard it. Konner smacked his own strings to quiet the instrument before turning to Rex the bassist. "Rex, for fuck's sake man. Can you hit the fucking progression or not?"

The shaggy haired blonde threw up a middle finger at the lead guitarist and singer of Darkest Descent. "Look, I'll get it down just lay off me asshole."

Konner was about to say something else when the intercom in the recording booth buzzed to life. "Guys, take five," came the voice of Anastasia, the band's manager, "I need to talk to you Konner."

"You heard her, be ready to get back to it when I get back." He hung up his guitar and stepped out of the booth into the adjoining hallway. The petite brunette came filing out of the sound booth in a torn black T-shirt with the band's name emblazoned on it in a scratchy script. Her lower half was hugged tightly by ripped blue jeans that showed off her figure. "Alright Anny, what is it now?"

"Not here sir," the young woman said quietly before walking to one of the dressing rooms.

Konner's attention was immediately drawn to the respect she showed. He knew it meant there was a matter that actually required his attention. He wondered for a moment if it meant she had finally reappeared. As soon as the dressing room door was closed he commanded, "Why did you call me here?"

From behind a folding screen came a lilting voice, "She called you here because I asked her to." From behind the screen stepped a blonde haired, blue eyed beauty with a figure that had curves in all the right places. She wore a gossamer red dress that flowed over her like the wind. It was cut low to show off her ample cleavage, which she immediately turned into his field of view. "Konner Kain," she said with a giggle, "Could you not think of something less edgy?"

The man stepped over to a couch and plopped down unceremoniously, his black jeans and T-shirt were damp with sweat from the recording session. He didn't have to say anything before Anastasia came to him with a towel and water bottle. He took them and nodded his appreciation. "Get to the point Aphrodite. Is she back?"

The woman rolled her eyes and sat down next to him, throwing a slender leg over his lap. "Oh come on Lord Hades, don't you know how to warm a girl up first? Fine...she will be rising again soon. Atropos will not be able to cut her thread while her sister has hold of it."

He pushed her leg off his lap as he took a swig of the water. "If only I could be rid of those meddlesome witches." He threw the water bottle across the room with a growl. "Do you know where she will be?"

"No," she said, a tinge of sympathy in her voice, "I'm not privy to that. You know if I could I'd put you crazy kids together I would. I'm always on the side of True Love."

Hades rose from his seat and helped the Goddess of Love to her feet. "I know you are dear girl. Forgive me for my outburst, but it has been seventy-eight years and two hundred twenty-five days since I lost her again. They won't keep her from me this time. I will have my Persephone back."

Aphrodite clapped and giggled at the pure devotion she was witnessing. "Now that's the sweet ambrosia I needed!" Her cheeks flushed slightly as the act of love strengthened her momentarily. "Also, Anny...couldn't you inspire something better than 'Underworld Lover' as the band's leading single?"

 

[Persephone]

Curling the last strand of dark hair into place, Kore Knight stared at her reflection in the mirror. The faint trace of mascara smudged beneath her lashes, and with a quiet huff, she reached for a tissue to wipe away the telltale signs of her not paying attention. She had been too distracted the last few days, leading to the next few short hours. Tonight was supposed to be about celebration: graduation, her eighteenth birthday, and the concert... but a strange heaviness lingered in the back of her mind, like a shadow she couldn't name.

The dreams had started years ago, and while most girls her age could blame strange imaginings on hormones or stress, Kore's visions never felt so simple. The man... always the same man... stood at the heart of each dream, his face clear and achingly familiar. Yet, no matter how close she came, he always slipped away... dissolving into mist or darkness before her hands could reach him. Each night left her more restless, more haunted by a longing she couldn't even dare to explain.

Her phone buzzed, drawing her back into the moment, with several messages from her friends waiting to meet up with her. With a grin and a quick reply back to the girls, she tossed her phone back onto her bed. With a steadying breath, she picked up the thin chain necklace her mother had given her earlier that morning. The pendant, a small pomegranate charm, rested cool against her collarbone. It had been an odd gift, she had thought, but her mother's eyes had softened in a way that made her swallow her questions.

"We're gonna be late!" Jenny yelled out when Kore stepped outside into the thick heat of early summer. She was glad she had chosen to wear a dress with two parts, so she could remove one if she got too warm. Her parents were waving her over to them for the traditional graduation day pictures, and Kore shot a look at Jenny, saying, 'You're in this with me.' Jenny hopped out of the car and followed Kore to her parents.

"Oh, my baby girl!" Her mother gushed, a bit teary-eyed. "I can't believe you're graduating and turning eighteen all in the same day!"

"You've known about this for a while now, Susan," her father chimed in, rolling his eyes at his wife's dramatics. "Come'ere, my lil Kandy Korn," he said, pulling her into a giant bear hug.

"You promised you wouldn't call me that anymore, Dad," Kore said against his chest as he crushed her to him. "D-dad... I... air, p-please," she said a bit dramatically.

"You're as bad as your mother," he remarked, letting go and positioning her and Jenny near his wife's prized roses. "Now, on the count of.... PIZZA!!"

"PIZZAAAA!" Kore and Jenny said simultaneously, giggling more than smiling.

"Really, Charles? Pizza?" Susan scoffed and then pulled Kore and Jenny into a group hug. "Now, you girls, please be careful, okay?"

"We know, Mom," Kore replied. "It isn't like you're not going to see us before we go to the concert. There's still that whole graduation thing that's supposed to happen."

"I know, baby, but... you're my little girl—my only girl," she corrected before Charles or Kore could say anything. "I worry about you, is all."

"I know, and we'll be fine," Kore said and started moving with Jenny to her car.

"We'll see you guys at the graduation," Jenny said over her shoulder, opening the driver's door of her Hyundai Elantra. A graduation present from her parents that she got early, since she had already received her acceptance letter to Yale. Sliding into the passenger seat of Jenny's car, Kore let herself smile. Tonight was supposed to be simple: a celebration of endings and beginnings.

But deep down, she couldn't shake the feeling that this night was different... that something long lost was about to find its way back to her...

---

---

The gymnasium smelled faintly of floor wax and roses. Rows of chairs were set in neat lines beneath the banners strung from the rafters, bright colours declaring Congratulations, Class of 2025! The drone of names being called blended with the shuffle of gowns and the occasional whoop from a proud family member.

Adjusting the cap that balanced on her dark curls, Kore's fingers then tightened around the thin slip of paper in her hand. Her heart should have been light; this was the moment they'd all been working toward, but as she walked across the stage, something strange stirred within her. The applause rang in her ears, but beneath it, for the briefest instant, she thought she heard something else: the low, distant echo of drums, steady as a heartbeat.

Blinking against the bright stage lights, she accepted her diploma with a polite smile and made her way down the steps. Her friends and parents greeted her with cheers, tugging her into photographs, their laughter filling the air. Kore laughed too, but her gaze kept drifting to the windows where the sky deepened into twilight. The world felt... poised, as though it were holding its breath.

A few hours later, the cap and gown were forgotten, traded for the short black dress she had chosen for the night. Packed into the car with her friends, Jenny, the driver, Casey, the cheer queen, on her way to Navarro in the Fall, and Annabeth, the saviour, who was going to Notre Dame in the Fall. And Kore... who had put in applications to more than a dozen schools, hasn't opened a single letter.

"I don't understand why you don't just open them already, Kore," Annabeth said from the backseat. "Or hell, give them to us and we'll open them for you."

"Yeah! I'll even promise not to tell you if you got in or not," Casey pitched in next to Casey.

"I'll open them eventually," Kore dodged, giving her hair a bit of a lift, contemplating pinning it up due to the heat. "Besides, we're about to see only the hottest band this summer..."

"You're only saying that 'cause you've got the hots for the lead singer," Jenny teased, pulling into a parking spot and turning off the engine. "But who doesn't. Let's get a move on, that line's bound to be huge!"

The building was already glowing, lights pulsing like a living thing as the crowd funnelled inside. Kore's pulse quickened in response, though she couldn't explain it. It wasn't nerves exactly, nor even excitement... it was like... recognition, like walking toward something that had been waiting for her all along.

Darkest Descent wasn't usually her kind of music, but something about their lyrics, especially this new album, called to her. "Underworld Lover." Even the name made her pulse quicken, though she couldn't say why. As they stepped out into the flood of concertgoers, the distant rumble of drums rolled through the ground, and Kore's breath caught in her throat. The sound was the same one she had always heard in her dreams...

 

[Lord Darkshayde]

Konner had wanted to start scouring the Earth for her, but Anastasia had stopped him in his tracks. He hadn't wanted to listen to the young muse, but he couldn't argue with her thinking. She had made it clear that if he went actively searching for the reborn Queen the Fates would likely move sooner. He had to be patient. Seventy-eight years and two hundred twenty-five days.

Two months had passed. Two agonizing months had come and gone, seventy-eight years and two hundred fifty-eight days, but he could do patient. He had become extremely good at it over the centuries. He did his best to concentrate on practices and focused on making sure that Rex and their drummer Lloyd were as prepared for the debut of the new album. It carried the name of their newest single, and had been written by Hades, with the assistance of Anny. It was a ballad dedicated to lost loves, one in particular that he had been searching for. Tonight, the curtain would rise and the Lord of the Underworld would take the stage.

"You fellas ready for this?!" He called out to his bandmates over the din of the crowd that was waiting for the show to begin.

Lloyd twirled his drumsticks with a flourish and Rex flipped him another bird, but both had shit-eating grins on their faces. Konner reflected for a moment on how he had found the two of them at a failed open mic night. He had been mindlessly wandering that night, but when he found himself in the bar with the pair being booed by drunkards and assholes something sparked inside of him. He had found the next flight of fancy to assuage his boredom.

Now here they were, Darkest Descent, about to take the stage and show the underground scene who ruled over the shadows. Lloyd began with a slight rhythmic thumping on his foot pedal leading into some rapid cymbal work. The fog machines at the sides of the stage began to discharge, filling the venue with a misty overtone. Spotlights of red and yellow flashed and spun, causing the air to seem as though it were on fire. The crowd started to cheer and yell as the percussion continued, raising their voices even more when Rex expertly hit his notes of the bass. The thrum of the two instruments came across, almost like a heartbeat. It radiated out, knocking into the chests of all who could hear it.

Konner had taken his place dressed in an open front buttoned shirt with the collar popped up, and ripped blue jeans ending in black biker boots. He had not raised his eyes from the stage, his forehead laying against the mic stand. His ragged, wild sandy-blonde hair hung low covering his face as his foot started stepping along to the beat, catching his place in it. Throwing his head back he sent his hair backwards tossing droplets of sweat from the tips as the main spotlight shone down on him. His voice slowly raised from a low drone to a wild scream as the rhythm picked up even more.

He took a step back from the mic and threw the guitar into place and instantly started shredding out on the strings. The energy from the crowd was electric and only kept building as the song began...

Underworld Lover Lyrics

Underneath the mountain,
Deep within the earth,
A kingdom lies forgotten,
No more home or hearth,

They stole you away from me,
But soon they'll see the light,
That when you take what's mine,
Your enemy's the night,

[Chorus]
I'll be your Underworld lover,
If you'll only be my Queen,
Rule by my side forever,
Love like no one's ever seen,

She thinks that she can stop us,
Take you again from me,
But your Underworld lover,
Is going to make them see,
[Chorus]

I've dreamt of you for years,
The time it seems so long,
Since I last touched your face,
When everything went wrong,

Stolen love cries out,
Begging to be free,
So meet me where we wed,
Neath the pomegranate tree,

[Chorus] x 2

I'll be your Underworld lover,
If only you'll have me....

The song sent the crowd into a frenzy as they performed, but it wasn't the crowd that Konner was paying attention to. His dark blue eyes had fallen on a young beauty in a slinky black dress. She didn't seem to be reacting the same way as everyone else to the song, but that wasn't the only reason he noticed her. There was a soft glow that seemed to emanate from her, and he instantly knew he had found her. This was the closest he had been in centuries, and now she was just a few hundred feet away. He wanted to leap down and run to her, abandoning everything they had worked for, but something behind her caught his eye. A woman in a white dress with a veil over her face. He saw the scissors raise threateningly towards his reincarnated love and his eyes flashed up to a lighting rig above the pair.

Sparks shot out from above with the sickening sound of twisting metal. A few of the concert-goers had caught wind of what was happening and started to panic which rippled out from there to effect nearly everyone else. The rig finally tore free and came crashing to the ground behind the young girl he had seen. Konner had barely caught a glimpse of the aggressor fading out of existence as the rig connected. He knew he hadn't killed the bitch, but he had at least delayed her.

Jumping down from the stage he ignored the cries from the band and Anny who had run out on stage. He only had one thing on his mind, reaching her...touching her. Once he had shoved enough people out of his way he came to stand in front of the frightened girl. "Miss, I saw what happened," his hand reached out and took hers tenderly, "Are...are you okay?"

 

[Persephone]

It had been Jenny who had dragged Kore into the sea of bodies, her high-pitched squeal nearly drowning out the roar of the crowd. Casey followed close behind, looping her arm through Kore's with a wide grin plastered across her face. Annabeth, ever the grounded one, held their tickets in one hand and muttered about how the noise would probably rupture her eardrums, but even she was grinning.

Kore let herself be pulled along, laughing as Jenny bobbed excitedly to the pre-show playlist blaring overhead. Her friends were already moving in rhythm, and while Kore tried to match their energy, something inside of her stilled the moment the lights dimmed.

Fog curled across the stage, the first notes of the drums hitting like thunder in her chest. The crowd erupted around her, screams, shouts, hands in the air, but Kore stood frozen, her breath caught. When the spotlights finally cut across the stage and Konner lifted his head, her heart nearly stopped beating.

Jenny was thrashing beside her, her hair whipping; Casey jumped up and down, singing before the lyrics even began. But Kore... she swayed.

Slowly...

Dreamily...

Her body moved as if guided by invisible threads, her gaze fixed on the man with the guitar. The voice that rose from him wasn't just music... it was a summons, ancient and intimate. Each lyric curled around her, familiar as a whisper she had heard in dreams.

Her lips parted, her breath shallow, as the words seemed not to reach the crowd, but her. Only her.

Underworld lover... be my Queen...

The world blurred around her; the heat, the lights, even the screams of her friends dissolved until only his voice remained. She should have been screaming like Jenny, bouncing like Casey, but instead, she floated, hypnotised, as if caught in the tide of something she had always known.

Then came the crash.

The spark, the terrible screech of metal tearing loose. The crowd buckled in panic, surging in waves that knocked Kore off balance. She stumbled, falling hard to the ground as screams pierced the air.

For an instant, she thought she was dreaming again. Her vision blurred, lights fractured like shards of glass, and all she could see... through the storm of bodies, through the chaos... was him. The man from her dreams. Not Konner the singer, not the rock star her friends idolised, but... him. The same eyes, the same face that had haunted her nights for years.

Her breath caught as he appeared above her, moving through the madness like nothing else mattered. When his hand reached for hers, she could only stare, awe-struck, her heart trying to hammer itself out of her chest. She wasn't frightened, not of the crash or the chaos, but overwhelmed by the impossible truth that the dream was real, and he was here.

The warmth of his hand against hers sent a shiver racing up her arm, a deep, blooming heat through her frozen veins. Her breath faltered, caught between a sob and a gasp, as something inside her stirred, something vast, ancient, and unnamable. It wasn't recognition in the way she knew her friends or family's faces or the halls of her school; it was recognition that lived in her bones, in the very centre of her being.

The world seemed to slow around her, the chaos of the crowd muffled as though she stood in the eye of a great storm. The press of his fingers around hers was grounding and dizzing all at once, like being tethered and untethered in the same instant.

Visions prickled at the edges of her mind, shadows of a garden at dusk, a tree heavy with crimson fruit, the echo of laughter and tears. They flickered too quickly for her to grasp, like fragments of a dream slipping away with the dawn. Still, she felt them, just beyond reach, as if his touch had cracked a sealed door inside her.

"Are...are you okay?"
​

She gazed up at him, her lips parted, her eyes wide with awe. She didn't know why she wanted to sob, or why her chest ached with longing, but she knew with certainty that it frightened her, and this was not the first time she had touched him.

"I—I t-think so," she was able to manage, finally. "I d-don't think—Have we..." she tried to finish her sentence, but it was ridiculous, but she was saved the trouble of embarrassing herself thanks to Jenny.

"Holy shit, Kore!" Jenny yelled, finally climbing over a bit of the wreckage. "Are you o-- Oh, my god! Y-you're Konner Kain!"

"Yeah, I'm fine, Jen... thanks," Kore muttered, her hand still holding onto Konner's.

​

 

[Lord Darkshayde]

As Konner began helping the girl to her feet she started to speak to him, albeit with shaky breaths, but it was cut off by another young lady. "Kore, was it," he questioned as he stared into her eyes, "let's get you and your friends backstage where it's safe." He looked over at Jen and saw that she would follow him wherever he went and gave a slight smile. He never released Kore's hand, making certain that he would not lose her in the crowd, or ever again if he had his say.

"Konner!" Anny was on the stage jumping up and down and waving. As Konner and his new entourage approached she looked down at the girl he had in tow. She seemed like she was about to say something, but one look at his face told her better. "C'mon, the guys are already safe backstage. Let's get you and your...friends safe."

Anny led them all back to the grungy dressing room and opened the door to an immediate barrage of questions from Rex. Anny just pushed past him and led him out of the way so they could enter. "Yo Konner, who're the babes?" Rex's attention had switched the minute the girls entered the room. Gone were the questions about what this meant for their debut, replaced instead with cheesy flirting with a girl whose name turned out to be Casey.

"Please," Konner said to Kore directly, as though no one else in the room even existed, "have a seat. Would you like some water my lo-." He caught himself before finishing the word, but how he wanted to say it. Unfortunately, he didn't know how much she remembered, if anything at all. Every time had been different. In some lives she knew everything when they touched, and in others she thought him a madman at first. He couldn't press her, not here in front of everyone at least.

Once he had Kore as comfortable as he could make her he heard Rex piping up again. "What the fuck was that out there? I didn't sign up to perform in some death trap!"

Spinning on the bassist Konner's voice raised slightly, taking on an authoritative tremor, "You signed up to play wherever we get signed to play. You want out after one bump in the road?"

"A fucking bump in the road? People probably died out there Konner!"

Five...two men, three women perished in that 'accident' It wasn't so much a thought as an instinct he had for that particular subject. He would make sure they ended up in the Elysium Fields for their sacrifice.

"Um...," Anny spoke up quickly to halt the argument before it started, "the accident will probably work in our favor. A new rock band named Darkest Descent debuts and their first show has a fatal accident? The headbangers are going to eat this up big time." The muse was getting into her element, and it was actually quite entertaining to watch. "Think of the subreddit exploding in activity. The headlines reading, 'Band Rocks So Hard They Bring The Roof Down!'. This might have been just the thing we needed to go viral!"

If anyone knew the minds of mortals it was Anastasia, but that was not his concern at the moment. His Queen was right here within his reach, and he wasn't letting Fate play a hand in their lives anymore. Kneeling down on one knee before her he took her hand in his once more as he said in a husky whisper, "I'm so sorry, we haven't been introduced, I'm Konner Kain. Would you grace me with your name properly?" The world was theirs in that instant, despite the squeals and giggles coming from her friends.

 

[Persephone]

Letting herself be pulled along, she noticed he still held her hand in his. He hadn't released her since pulling her from the chaos, and though part of her knew she should feel embarrassed, or at least self-conscious, she didn't. His grip was steady and grounding, as though it belonged there. Jenney and Casey trailed eagerly, exchanging wide-eyed looks that screamed 'can you believe this is happening?!' while Annabeth kept muttering about lawsuits and concussion protocols.

"Holy shit, Kore," Jenney whispered loudly, practically bouncing as they walked. "Konner Kain just held your hand through a mosh-pit apocalypse. Forget the concert, we're living in a fucking fanfic right now!"

Casey elbowed her. "Fanfiction? Girl, this is destiny. Look at them." She gestured at their joined hands, then grinned at Kore with a wicked gleam in her eyes.

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "Destiny is making it out of this without a broken ankle. You're lucky you didn't get trampled."

Kore barely heard them. His voice, when he asked if she wanted water, lingered in her ears in a way that unsettled her. Familiar, but not the kind of familiar that came from radio interviews or posters in a music store. It was... Deeper. More intimate. Like a memory she couldn't place, but had always known.

She lowered herself into the chair he gestured to, her pulse still thrumming in her ears as his eyes remained fixed on her. For a moment, the dressing room fell away. A flicker of gold light... an orchard. Heavy branches bending with fruit. A hand, not unlike the one holding hers, offering a jewel-red seed against a backdrop of shadows.

Then, another flash; dark stone halls, torches burning low, a crown heavy against her brow. His voice echoed off the walls, calling her by a name that wasn't hers.

She blinked hard, dragging herself back to the present as Jenny squealed beside her. "He's kneeling," Jenny whispered fiercely, tugging Casey's sleeve. "I'm going to die, I swear!"

Casey giggled behind her hand. "Oh, he's so into her. Look at the way he's looking at her. Annabeth, you seeing this?"

Annabeth crossed her arms, smirking despite herself. "Oh, I see it. I'm just waiting for Kore to remember how to breathe."

Kore could only stare down at him, the sound of his name on his lips unravelling something deep inside of her. She should have laughed, should have said something witty, or brushed it all off... but she couldn't. Because when he said her name, it wasn't just the present that answered. It was the ache of lifetimes tugging at her heart in directions she couldn't understand.

And yet... she didn't let go of his hand.

Her throat felt tight, her mouth dry, but she forced herself to speak. "Kore," she said softly, her own name sounding strange in her ears. Her lips curved faintly, uncertain. "Kore Knight."

Jenny squealed outright, clapping a hand over her mouth while Casey all but shoved Annabeth's shoulder in excitement.

Annabeth only smirked, muttering under her breath, "Finally."