Book excerpt: WHO WAS PERSEPHONE before she was the Queen of the Underworld?She was merely A CHILD NAMED KORE.KORE, THE GODDESS OF SPIRING and youngest daughter to Demeter, had kept few secrets from her mother.One was the true extent of her divinity.The other, was her number of encounters with the King of the Dead since she was but a child.It was upon one of these secret meetings, on her seventeenth year that the God of the underworld gifted Kore a simple crystal from his realm.While saving what she hoped would be enough to pay the ferrymen, Kore overhears her mother speak of an arrangement that had been made between herself and Zeus. One that involved Kore's future being torn from beneath her. One she could not stay to be a part of.Kore finds herself fleeing to the underworld in hopes of finding sanctuary with the King. What seemed like a simple journey at first, quickly turns into a fight for her immortal life. Facing cyclopes, monstrous shades, and vengeful Gods of the realm, Kore soon realizes the journey through the Underworld is not the safest for one such as the Goddess of spring.OR IS IT?