Later that day, I'm in my room, completely enraptured watching my new kitten chase his own tail, when I hear a loud knock. I blink, staring at the door in confusion. Calla hadn't returned since she fled from Hades this morning, and I knew for a fact that it definitely wasn't Hades; expecting two visits in one day from him was just laughable.

The person knocks again, jolting me out of my reverie. I jump and push myself up to my feet, crossing over to the door. Placing my hand on the doorknob, I lean in and hesitantly call out.

"Hello?"

An unfamiliarly nasal voice responds. "Yes, hello. I have your room service here."

"Room service?" I frown and swing open the door. "I didn't order any room service—"

The sentence dies in my throat. The person standing in front of me let out a triumphant exclamation, their voice returning to normal.

"Oh, it is the right room! I could've sworn that red-head I talked to purposefully tried to direct me to the fiery pits of Hell—"

"Spencer?"

Spencer grins at me, his cheeky smirk achingly familiar. "That was my name, last time I checked."

I falter, holding the door. "What are you doing here?"

"I came here for the cotton candy." He deadpans. "Why do you think I'm here?"

"The cotton candy." I throw back at him, folding my arms across my chest.

"Okay. I deserved that." He winces, running a hand through his dirty-blonde hair. "I'm sorry, E. I messed up. I know I messed up. And, look, I know you don't want to see me, but can you at least hear me out before you completely shut me out?"

I glare at him for a few more seconds. My shoulders relax. "Fine."

A relieved smile breaks out onto Spencer's face. He lets out a breathy laugh. "Thank you."

I don't respond, merely stepping to the side. Spencer ducks his head and slips past me. I shut the door and sit down on the opposite end of the bed, watching Spencer silently as he paces around my room awkwardly. He finally settles for leaning against the post of my bed and crossing his arms. The kitten, sensing my shift in mood, trots over to me and twines around my ankles, screaming at me to pick him up. Spencer's jaw just about hits the floor.

"Is that a kitten?"

"Maybe."

"What the hell is it doing here? In Hell?"

"Hades gave it to me."

Spencer scoffs. "You can't be serious."

"Yes Spencer, you're right. I'm not serious. No, instead I went into the Underworld, found a dead kitten, and snuck it into the palace before anybody noticed." I roll my eyes at him. "Yes, Hades gave it to me. Why is that such a surprise?"

Spencer cocks an eyebrow at me, staring at me.

"What?"

He shakes his head, throwing me one of his winning smiles. "Nothing. It's just... surprising, that's all."

I give him a look. "Yeah, that's a great idea Spence. Start off your apology for all the secrets you kept from me with another secret."

Spencer flinches under my withering gaze. "Alright, alright, point taken. Put away your death glare already."

I huff, returning my attention back to the kitten. Having successfully managed to claw his way up my leg during our conversation, he curls up into a small black ball next to me, tired from his intrepid climb. I smile and stroke his head with the back of my index finger.

"I think I'm going to call him Pluto."

Spencer snorts. "Oh come on, E. The Roman name for 'Hades'? Don't you think that's a little on the nose?"

"What? It fits, don't you think?"

"Oh yes, sure it does. Name the kitten after Hades; boost his ego. That'll make our lives so much better."

"What's your problem with Hades?" I ask bemusedly. "He's not that bad."

"I beg to differ. You're forgetting, Miss Autumn, that I've known him for a lot longer than you can possibly imagine." Spencer pushes himself off the bedpost, his questioning gaze flickering to the empty spot next to me. I shake my head at him, but Spencer just rolls his eyes in response and physically shoves me aside, flopping down on the bed with a loud sigh. My gaze narrows.

"You're forgetting that I didn't know that specific detail until a month ago."

He winces. "Evie..."

I pause to let him finish. When he doesn't say anything, I hold my hands up and cock an eyebrow at him. "What? Please, do explain, Spencer. I've been dying to know why you kept something as big as the fact that you're a literal Greek god from me when you, out of all people, know exactly why I hate secrets."

Spencer blows out his cheeks. For the first time in my life, he looks completely unsure of what to say. "I wish I could tell you everything Evie, but..."

"Let me guess. It's a secret that's better left a secret for the time being."

Spencer nods. "You have to understand Evie, this is much bigger than you think. Even if I wanted to, I'm not allowed to tell you everything. Zeus would smite me if I did, and I really don't enjoy it when he does that. The smell of burning hair lingers, you know."

I groan. "That's what everyone's saying, and it's starting to get ridiculously annoying. Can't anyone tell me anything?"

"I can tell you that we all do care about you." He says. I give him a look. "I'm serious, E. Even though we only met you because of Hades'... thing, we didn't realise how amazing you'd be, or how easy it would be to love you. We only half-faked the whole family vibe, I swear."

"Half-faked?"

"Well, yeah." Spencer shrugs, grinning at me. "Towards the end, I think our dysfunctional little group started to believe it really could be a family. Y'know, before Hades stepped in and had me murdered."

"Why did he? Kill you, I mean."

"That's where my inability to talk about it kicks in, unfortunately." Spencer grimaces. "I do need to talk to Hades about that, though. We had a deal that I would die in style, not like a damn dog in the street."

"Of course it is." I wrinkle up my nose in frustration and let out a long sigh. "I've officially decided that I hate all gods. You suck."

"Hey." Spencer nudges me. "I take great offence to that. How dare you associate me with that boring ol' bunch."

"You're missing the point, Spencer."

"I think it's fairly obvious the one missing the point is you, my dear mortal compatriot—" Spencer flinches when I raise a fist, holding his hands up in the air. "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. But I do still take personal offence at that 'hate all gods' comment. We're not all that bad. It's the Egyptians you really have to look out for; they're as sneaky as those felines they fangirl over."

I shake my head, somewhat exasperatedly. "I'm still struggling to comprehend the whole 'we'. I mean you, a god?"

"Oh, come now, Evie." Spencer winks cheekily at me. "Don't deny it. I know you thought I was god-like at least once or twice."

I shove him off the bed. "Could you be any more self-centred?"

He smirks up at me. "I'm a god, Evie. I don't think that's even a possibility."

I burst out laughing. He watches me with a little smile on his face, his cerulean-blue eyes twinkling.

"This is ridiculous." I giggle. "My best friend is a god. My foster-family are gods. I am living in the Underworld with a god. This whole thing is ridiculous."

"That sounds like a dilemma, that does." Spencer responds seriously. He leans against the bed with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Why on earth would you put up with all of that? It's giving you awful stress wrinkles."

"Why don't you come back up here so I can push you off the bed again?"

"Now, now, Evie. What have I said about those violent tendencies of yours?" He tuts, shaking his head. "I can look past them of course, but if you don't keep them in check, Hades won't want you around as much."

My smile vanishes. I clear my throat and pat the bed next to me. "No really, come back up. Now that you've spilled the divine beans, I want to hear all about your misguided godly adventures."

"You don't need to ask me twice." Spencer smirks. Pulling himself up, he positions himself against the plethora of pillows and links his arms behind his head. "Where shall I begin?"

"The beginning?" I reply. Spencer laughs. I stare at him. "No Spencer, I'm serious. Start at the beginning. And leave nothing out."

— — —

The next few hours pass us by in what feels like the blink of an eye. I hadn't realised until I actually saw Spencer how isolated I had truly felt, or how much I had just missed my closest friend. Yes, he'd hurt and betrayed me, but he'd been there for me since I was ten years old, and he never failed to make me smile. And it was because of that, especially in my current predicament, that I knew I'd never be able to stay truly mad at him.

"No. No. You can't be serious!" I gape at him. Over the hours, we'd slowly migrated to the floor and ended up playing a card game, of all things. "You were engaged to Cleopatra?"

"I may lie about some things Evie, but I definitely wouldn't lie about that." Spencer chuckles. "Do you have an eight?"

"No. Go fish." I retort. He grumbles and picks a card up off the pile. I shuffle forward. "So what happened?"

"I was a touch drunk in Egypt one night, and somehow found myself in the royal palace, sharing a bottle of wine with her royal highness. And then I found myself seducing her, in her bedchambers. So naturally, we got married." Spencer shrugs. "It lasted about six hours. Then I unexpectedly had to dash. She was inconsolable, understandably."

"'Unexpectedly had to dash'?" I snort. "What did you do, seduce someone else?"

"More or less." Spencer grimaces. "It would be an understatement to say dear Cleo wasn't very impressed with me when she stumbled across us. She threatened to sic a lot of native Egyptian animals on me."

"You are a disgusting, horrible little man." I shake my head. "Don't you have any sort of restraint?"

"I'm Dionysus, the patron god of wine, revelry and ecstasy. What do you think?"

A soft knock sounds at my door. We both pause, and twist around to see Calla timidly slipping in my door. She bows her head.

"Master Dionysus, Master Hermes has requested you be informed that he is ready to depart. Miss Evie, Hades requests your presence in the dining hall."

"No!" I wail childishly. Then I process what she said. I frown and look over at Spencer. "Wait, Olly's here? Why is Olly here?"

"He's the only one aside from the Big Three who can travel between the realms, so he's my only way down here." Spencer shrugs. "Besides, he had something he needed to tell Hades, apparently. Super secret messenger godly stuff, or something. It didn't take much begging and whining on my part before he agreed to let me tag along."

"Oh. Right." I glance back at Calla and smile at her sheepishly. "Do I have to go? I've been having so much fun playing cards and tearing down Spencer's ego."

Spencer grunts and flicks a card at me. "Leave my ego out of this."

Calla doesn't respond to my question. Instead, her eyes widen in avid fascination as she slowly turns the card around in her hand.

"What are these?"

"They're cards." I laugh. "Wait, are you telling me you've never seen cards before?"

"No." She breathes, looking up at me with a big smile. "Can I try them?"

I glance over at Spencer. He shrugs.

"Why not? Olly can wait; this looks much more interesting."

Teaching Calla how to play cards was the most entertaining thing I'd done in a long time. She seemed to grasp the basic concept of it, but didn't fundamentally understand the basic rules; she wanted an explanation for everything. Spencer wasn't much help either; he teased and poked fun at her until even I wanted to throw things at him.

And then, for some obscure, absurd, unknown reason, we moved onto poker. Which Calla was abysmal at.

After the third consecutive round of complete poker-anhilliation, Calla finally throws her cards down, her face scrunching up in a rare tantrum.

"That's not fair! I don't understand how you can tell!"

I fight back a smile, patting her on the arm. "When you're bluffing Calla, you have to keep a straight face, or we can kind of tell that you're bluffing. That's the whole point of poker."

"Or, on the other hand, you could keep playing the way that you do. It makes the game so much more fun." Spencer offers with an impish grin.

"That's not helping!"

"Helping people was never in my job description." He pushes himself up to a stand, stretching his back out. "Pissing people off, now that's much more in my wheelhouse. I've done a number on Olly; I think he's clear ready to kill me after that extra round of poker. The carpet outside your bedroom is certainly wearing it."

"I did warn you; suggesting he 'make all buddy-buddy with Satan' was only going to get you so far." I roll my eyes good-naturedly. "Do you really have to go?"

"I'd love to stay. Really, I would." He tells me with a small grimace. "Unfortunately though, I'm not able to stay in the Underworld for very long without becoming extremely, violently ill. One of the downsides of being one of the gods not technically allowed down under for an extended amount of time."

"Yet you stayed for the whole afternoon?"

Spencer offers me a hand, pulling me to a stand. He winks. "Anything for you, gorgeous."

I narrow my eyes. "I may have forgiven you a little for what you did, but sweet talking me will get you nowhere fast, Spencer."

Spencer winces. He scratches the side of his head sheepishly. "Fair point. And I will make it up to you Evie, I promise. But right now, I must bid you adieu, for I fear I might implode, and that would look horrible with the decorations in here."

I chuckle, trying to keep my voice light. "You're the biggest drama king I know."

"Yes, well, just you wait until you really meet Hades." He mutters, shooting me a short smile. "I'll be back soon, yeah?"

"Sure you will. Make sure you say hi to Olly for me, will you?" I grin, playfully punching his shoulder. He cringes, his face twisting up in pain. Alarm fizzles through me. I shove him towards the door. "Go, Spencer! You're hurting more than you're letting on, aren't you?"

"Of course he is; he's a god. They all have their own form of a 'show-no-pain complex'." Calla mumbles. She ducks her head with a blush when we turn to stare at her.

"Keep this one close, Evie. She'll keep you sane in this hellhole." Spencer grins, pointing his finger at her. Then he bows, twirls on his heel, and disappears from sight.

Calla huffs, rolling her eyes. "He's always been such a drama king."

I stare at the spot he had just been standing in. "How did he do that?"

"Show off, you mean? I'm sure it comes naturally to him."

I hold back a laugh when I see her face. "You really don't like him, do you?"

"I am not overly fond of him, no."

"Why?"

"I have my reasons." Calla replies shortly. She blanches when she sees the look on my face, and abruptly changes the subject. "Can you teach me another card game?"

I furrow my eyebrows at her, a frown worming its way onto my lips. Despite their reassurances that it was for my 'own good,' and I would find out 'in time', everyone was still being so frustratingly secretive — even Spencer. And the more information I uncovered, the more confusing things got. The more confusing things got, the more they centred around one person: Hades. And the more frustrated I got.

What was going on?

"Evie?" Calla taps my arm. I blink and turn to her, tilting my head questioningly. Her face is brightened with innocent eagerness as she repeats her earlier. "Can you teach me another card game?"

"Yes, Evie." Another voice pipes up from right behind me. I yelp and whirl around, to find Hades watching me with impassive blue eyes, his expression as blank as ever. "Will you teach us another game?"