Less than a full second later, my feet stumble onto solid ground. My eyes fly open, and my mouth falls open with a quiet pop!. Gone was the raucous atmosphere, loud booming music and screaming patrons of the party, and in its place was the foyer of a giant, glittering palace, that looked like it had been stolen right out of Ancient Greece.

I twirl around in a big circle, taking in the spectacular beauty of the ancient building surrounding me. The white marble walls glisten under the warm light, like they're streaked with iridescent gold, and elegant white pillars frame the doorways, delicately etched with intricate designs. Winding around the edges of the room and up into the roof is a magnificent marble staircase, made from the same pearly marble as the walls. Monstrous diamond chandeliers dangle down from the roof like crystal waterfalls, scattering shadowy raindrops throughout the room. The clattering of my old boots echo against the white marble floors, and I suddenly feel extremely out of place.

My eyes widen as the realisation hits me. I cross my arms self-consciously over my body.

I've just agreed to be kidnapped by the god of the Underworld, and I'm wearing my pyjamas.

"Miss Autumn?"

I whirl around to see a young woman standing behind me, her hands folded behind her back. She looks to be around my age, with skin the colour of chocolate and long black curls twisted into an elaborate braid. Standing around her are three middle-aged men with varying appearances: one has cropped brunette hair and kind, twinkling eyes; the one in the middle, at least a head taller than his companions, has even shorter salt and pepper hair and a carefully manicured goatee; and the third one has wild, unmanned black curls, that appear even darker as he shrinks back into the shadows.

"Hi. Hello. You're all new." I blink in bewilderment and spin around again. "Where did he go?"

"Who?" The girl asks, confusion creasing her delicate features. "Hades?"

"Yes. Him. Where'd he go? I need to talk to him about..." I hesitate, twisting my lips to the side. Somehow I felt that I needed to talk to him about everything and nothing all at the same time. "Something?"

"He's gone. He doesn't tend to linger." The brunette man extends a hand and a warm smile. "Welcome to the Underworld, sweetheart."

"Cool it, Rhadamanthos. The girl has hardly been here for thirty seconds; she doesn't need to hear the reprehensible 'sweetheart' that's always dripping from your lips." The taller man in the middle rolls his eyes and steps forward. The young woman standing in front of him stumbles out of the way, her brow furrowing slightly. The man ignores her, nodding at me. "I am Minos. Welcome."

"Minos? As in King Minos of Crete? Of the Minotaur?" I gape. Minos shrugs nonchalantly, but his eyes glint smugly at my praise.

"You have heard of me, then?" He asks. He glances at Rhadamanthos out of the corner of his eye. "It is good to hear that at least my legacy lives on, isn't it brother?"

Rhadamanthos doesn't respond, but his jaw tightens almost imperceptibly. He keeps his gaze fixed on me and smiles a bright, beaming smile.

"As my brother has already betrayed, my name is Rhadamanthos, and his Minos. Over there is Aeacus, the silent partner in our trio."

My gaze follows his finger and I squeak out a star-struck, "Hello."

Aeacus doesn't respond, keeping his dark eyes firmly locked on the door. I falter.

"Is he..."

"Don't mind him. He prefers four legs over two." Minos waves his hand, recapturing my attention. Simultaneously, both he and Rhadamanthos bow and step back. "We will get out of your hair and allow your maid to show you your room."

"My room?" I frown. "Why do I have my own - oh."

The young woman waits in front of me patiently, ignoring the way my expression drops. "If you would come with me, Miss Autumn?"

My heart sinks. This is happening. This is actually happening. Spencer actually died, the god of the Underworld actually offered to make a deal with me to save his life, and I actually... agreed? And now I'm standing in a palace. In the Underworld. If I knew any better, I'd probably laugh at the absurdity of it all. Me, Evie Autumn, in the Underworld, after being spirited away by Hades? That's the stuff of daydreams.

Or, more realistically, nightmares.

The young woman clears her throat. "Miss Autumn? Are you ready for me to take you to your room? Hades will find you when he's ready, you have my assurance."

"Yes, I suppose he will." I reply with a sigh, my shoulders slumping. I glance up and shoot her a small smile. "I guess I'm ready, then."

She nods and, without another word, briskly walks out of the foyer. I hasten to catch up with her. The halls clatter with the sound of our hurried footsteps, further emphasising the immensity and emptiness of the palace I'd just been spirited off to.

I clear my throat. "So. The Underworld. We're in the Underworld."

The woman keeps her gaze fixed ahead. "If that is what you prefer to call it, yes."

"And that man I arrived with, he's... he's Hades. A god." I hesitate, my mind struggling to accept the word. It feels incredibly peculiar, rolling off my tongue like a big gobstopper. "A god."

She briefly looks back at me, smiling minutely. "It takes a little getting used to, I know."

"'A little getting used to'? You're kidding right?" I laugh a little, rubbing my head with my hand. "This is all ridiculous. It's more than ridiculous, it's crazy. Far too much crazy to take in before ten in the morning."

"Don't worry. You'll have four months to get used to it." She tells me, turning down a small corridor.

The words echo through my mind the same way our footsteps echo through the palace, and my step falters as reality hits me hard. Four months. Four months. I'm really here for four whole months. I didn't get a chance to say goodbye to Minnie. Or the twins. Or Spencer. And now I won't see them again for four months.

Tears prick the corners of my eyes. I didn't even get to say goodbye.

"Miss Autumn?" The girl touches my shoulder, her expression concerned. "Are you okay?"

"Not at all." I wipe my eyes with the back of my hand and flash her a faltering smile. "And it's Evie. If you keep calling me Miss Autumn I think I'll kill someone. It's far too formal for my liking."

"Miss Autumn-" She checks herself, blushing, and giggles sheepishly. "Evie. That's an empty threat around here."

"Right. The Underworld. Place of the Dead." I laugh, running a hand through my messy strawberry-blonde curls. "What's your name? You have a name, right?"

"Of course I have a name. It's Calla." She pushes open a door and holds it for me, gesturing me through. "Your room, Evie."

Wrapping my arms around myself protectively, I hesitantly walk past her and enter my room for the next four months. For the second time in five minutes, my mouth drops open. The exquisitely decorated master bedroom that greets me takes me completely by surprise - I was half expecting to walk into a stone cold jail cell, not a bedroom fit for a queen. To my left, a huge four-poster bed sits proudly, the posts carved into twisting tree branches that spiral up into an intertwined canopy of branches and leaves. A plush turquoise sofa rests against the opposite wall on an angle, facing the biggest television screen I've ever seen in my life. And tucked behind the sofa is a door, adjar just enough to reveal a sparkling white marble bathroom, equipped with a glittering open shower and a jacuzzi the size of a small pool.

"I'm supposed to return in precisely an hour and a half." Calla's soft voice interrupts my astounded gawking. I jolt, turning to see her standing demurely behind me. "Hades informed me you will want some time alone, but he has requested that you attend a meal with him tonight."

"A meal?" I frown. "I didn't realise that my imprisonment included me attending meals with him."

"Evie." Her expression softens with sympathy. "Do not think of this as an imprisonment. He does not want you to think of it that way. You did agree to come willingly."

"Because he forced me to make a deal with him." I point out. "It may have been my decision to agree to his deal, but I didn't really have a choice."

"You always have a choice." The words burst out of her mouth before she can stop them. I blink, taken aback by the sudden outburst, and Calla's face blanches. She clears her throat and looks down at her feet, mumbling, "He's not a bad person, you know. You just have to get to know him to see that."

"He's the god of the dead." I reply tightly. "So forgive me if I don't believe you at this point in time, but I do have a rather tinted view of him at the moment. I don't want to get to know him."

"Don't believe all the stories you hear. And don't blame him for a decision you made." Calla walks over to the door, and pauses, glancing back at me over her shoulder. "I'll be back in an hour and a half to get you ready."

I don't respond, watching in silence as she walks out and pulls the door shut behind her. The second the door clicks shut, my shoulders slump, and I fall onto the bed. All the euphoria that I felt at the sight of my room dissipates into thin air. Suddenly, all I want to do is curl up into a ball, squeeze my eyes shut and forget everything that's happening, like I used to do when I was a child and reality had gotten too much.

I let out a shaky breath and slowly lay back on the plush maroon comforter, staring up at the ceiling. The diamond chandelier sways gently above me, the light skittering across the roof like millions of tiny stars. The tips of the diamond are stained in an ombre from light to midnight blue, creating the illusion of small raindrops falling from the ceiling. I smile slightly. I'd always loved the rain. I could remember the countless times I'd lain in bed, or curled up on the window-seat of my parents' lounge, with a book notched in my lap as I listened to the rain pattering across the roof. No other sound was quite as calming or relaxing to me, and calming and relaxing was definitely in short supply right now.

My gaze skims around the room, following the path of the stars. My frown deepens. If I didn't know better, I'd almost say that this room was designed for me, and me exclusively. From the assortment of cushions peppering the king-sized bed right down to the thick red shag rug blanketing a large part of the room's floor, it was the bedroom I'd always dreamed about - when I'd allowed myself to indulge in such expensive dreams.

Only, I'd never really dreamed about it being in the Underworld.

Talk about irony.

I swallow several times. Tears well up in my eyes as my mind ricochets back to the people I'd left behind. I'd barely been away from them for an hour, and I was already missing them: how pathetic was that? If I couldn't survive an hour away from them, how in the world was I supposed to survive four whole months?

A knock sounds at my door, tearing me out of my dark thoughts. I sit up, hastily wiping my cheeks. "Come in."

The door swings open to reveal Hades.

He steps into my room, his expression impassive. I sit up even straighter and clear my throat, tucking my hair behind my ears.

"Hi."

"You're sad." He states it as factually as one does when they're talking about the weather.

"Yes." I blink, momentarily taken aback, before reassembling my defences in the form of biting sarcasm. "Thank you for that insightful observation, Captain Obvious."

"Why are you sad?" He asks, walking forward to stand in front of me.

"I would think the answer to that question was just as obvious."

Hades sighs, his blank expression wavering for a moment. "I am sorry you are sad. That was not my intention."

"What was your intention then?" I ask, protectively crossing my arms as I stand up. "To make me happy by giving me an impossible choice? Either way, I was going to end up heartbroken, no matter what I decided. You had to know that."

"That was not my intention either." He tells me. My face crumples up in confusion.

"Well then what was your intention, Hades?" I demand, pushing myself up onto my toes so I can look him dead in the eye. "What do you want from me?"

"I only want your happiness for the duration of your stay here." Hades steps back, putting space between us again. If I didn't know better, I'd say something that looks uncannily like pain flashes through his eyes. "Nothing more."

"Yes. Well," I clear my throat and look away. "We both know that isn't going to happen."

He stays silent. My heart sinks. Up until that very moment, a part of me had still held out the small ridiculous hope that he wouldn't actually hold me to this deal, that he'd take me home and be kind-hearted enough to keep up his end of the deal and keep Spencer alive. But Hades' deafening silence shreds that hope into obliteration.

Another, more idiotic part of me held out the even smaller, even more ridiculous hope that this was all a dream, that if I just closed my eyes I'd wake up in the safety of my bed. I gaze down at my hands and curl my fingers into my palms, biting my lip to cut off the squeak of pain that rises up when my nails pierce the skin.

Well that settles it then. Definitely not a dream either. So that leaves...

Reality.

This is my new reality.

Silently, I steel myself. I needed to stop acting like the damsel-in-distress. I wouldn't achieve anything if I continued to pity myself. If I was going to be stuck here for the next four months, I might as well familiarise myself with my new reality; with the god I made the deal with in the first place, and with the world that I had thought was preserved safely in the stories of mythology. I didn't have to like Hades - given the circumstances, I had high doubts that I ever would like him - but I would be stupid if I didn't try to get a feel for the kind of person he was. He was a god, after all. I wasn't about to let him smite me because I accidentally ended up pissing him off.

I look back up at Hades. Only this time, I really look at him. I'd like to say I've always been a good judge of character, been able to figure out what type of person someone was just by looking at them. But, as hard as I study Hades, I can't see past the surface - I can't break past his mask of frigid indifference. He's a complete closed book. My curiosity piques. I broach the silence.

"I didn't expect any of this."

Surprise fleets across his features, momentarily shattering his poker face. "Any of what?"

I motion to my room. "This. My room. The palace. I didn't expect the Underworld to be so... light."

"The Underworld has many names, and, with those names, many associated connotations that are entirely inaccurate. It is not the 'hell' that many of those names lead people to believe. Its proper name is Elysium."

"Elysium? Like the Elysian Fields?"

Hades raises his eyebrows. "You know quite a lot about mythology."

I shrug, keeping my voice light. "A little."

The corners of his mouth turn up slightly. "The ancient Greeks were the most correct, out of all the civilisations, in their beliefs of what Elysium represented. What they did not get right, however, was the very structure of Elysium."

"The structure?"

"Elysium becomes whatever a person thinks they deserve when they die. If they think they deserve to end up in a golden world, populated by angels with wings, then that is where they end up. If they think they deserve to be eternally punished for their sins, then that is what happens." Hades explains. My eyes widen in understanding. "If a person is unsure of what they deserve, or they think they deserve an afterlife that I believe to be unjust, then it is up to my judges or myself to step in. It is all a judgement system based on the individual's morality and their own perception of themselves. Does that make sense?"

"I think so." I reply slowly. "But why the palace? How does that fit in?"

"I am the King of the Underworld." Hades says simply. "All kings deserve a palace. I just created it to look the way I wanted it to. Unfortunately, once you pass the boundaries of the palace, the landscape is a little more revealing of the nature of Elysium. I do suggest you refrain from crossing those boundaries at all costs, should you wish to avoid an encounter with an ungrateful wraith."

"Okay. That's understandable." I tilt my head from side to side in acknowledgement. "Why are you telling me this?"

"Why are you asking?"

I smile at him, bitterness leaking into my expression. "I'm going to be stuck here for four months. Might as well know what my home for the next four months is like, right?"

Hades doesn't reply, but his expression turns glacial at the flip of a switch. The temperature in the room drops several degrees. He turns on his heel, reaching for the door. "The meal is in 3 hours. I expect to see you there. You will be, as you say, stuck there too, until I deem otherwise." He hovers at the door fleetingly, looking at me over his shoulder. "I like the penguins, but I suspect my dinner guests may not. I suggest you change before my return."

I look down at my pyjama bottoms and flush scarlet. By the time I look back up again, he's gone.

- - -

It doesn't take long for me to grow bored of sitting on my bed, with only my thoughts to keep me company, so I make the executive decision to explore my room. I open all the cupboard doors, barely suppressing a squeal of excitement when I unearth the biggest walk-in closet in the world. I pointlessly run water into the jacuzzi, watching the mountain of bubbles the powerful jets create grow with unadulterated fascination. I even indulge in my childish fantasies and jump on the bed, melting into the cloud-like maroon comforter when my legs turn into jelly. At one point, I even try to explore outside my room - but the second I take two steps towards the door, the door handle disappears into the dark mahogany wood. That little discovery cut straight through the elegantly woven illusion, and removed all sense of adventure from me as effectively as a slap to the face.

When Calla knocks on my door exactly an hour and a half after she left, I'm lying on the couch with my feet hanging over the edge, mindlessly flipping through the television channels as I silently stew in my frustration.

"Miss Evie?"

"Here." I reply monotonously, holding my hand up so she can see me. I push myself up to a sitting position and narrow my eyes at her. "I have a question."

"Yes?" She stands in front of the television, hands folded in front of her.

"How is it," I wave the television remote at her. "That the Underworld has thousands of television channels? It's the Underworld. It doesn't make any logical sense."

"This is your part of Elysium." Calla tells me. "It functions however you want it to - including access to television channels, should you wish it."

"However I want it ?" I stand up and fold my arms, my lips twisted up sourly. "If it works however I want it to, then why did the door handle disappear when I tried to leave?"

Calla falters, her brown eyes widening. "I don't know, Miss Evie."

"He will." I say bluntly. Calla's skin pales. "Hades. He'll know, won't he?"