It doesn't take Calla long to pack a bag for my 'trip,' and it would have taken even less time if I hadn't been dragging my feet in childish distress the whole time. Had it been under any other circumstance, the amount of modern clothing she'd conjured out of my closet would have had me furiously demanding why she'd insisted on stuffing me into the Victorian death traps I always had to wear, but I was too lost in my thoughts to care. All I could think about was Hades, and the look on his face as he had disappeared from my room.

The moment Calla hands me the packed bag, I feel a powerful tugging on my navel, and before I can even say goodbye to her, my room folds in on itself to paint the picture of my old house in England. My feet slam into the ground, the force of the landing causing my knees to buckle. I lurch forward with a gasp, my head spinning, and blindly grab hold of the porch column. I close my eyes, breathing in deeply.

Oh, that asshole.

"Golly gosh, Evie. Are you okay?" Spencer appears in my blurry vision, apprehension dusting his impish features. "What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same question." I toss my bag onto the floor and glare at him. "Weren't you just drinking your body weight in champagne?"

"That was two days ago." Spencer arches an eyebrow at me. "What's got your knickers in such a knot? You haven't been this bitchy since I forgot about you in Bali."

My eyes narrow into slits. I step forward and jab my finger in his face. "There are times, Spencer, when I really question why we are friends. And why I stop myself from punching you in the face when you're acting like an ass."

"Alright. As entertaining as I'm sure this catfight would be, I do have to be the bigger god here." Someone interjects. I look over Spencer's shoulder just in time to see Axel and Selene walk out of the house. Axel steps between Spencer and I and places his hands on my shoulders. He studies me intensely. "What's wrong, Evie? There are only two reasons for you to have violent thoughts: when someone is emotionally frustrating you, or when someone is ripping on Taylor Swift. So which one is it? Because either way, I'll beat the idiot up."

I duck out of his grip with a scowl. "Axel, you're not my brother anymore. Stop acting like it."

"Biologically, no." Axel shrugs. "But I've been looking after you since you were ten years old, and that kind of bond has nothing to do with biology. I've had to deal with years of constant Taylor Swift; that has to count towards something."

"Hey." I point my finger at him. "There is nothing wrong with Taylor Swift. She makes me feel things!"

"What my idiot brother is trying to say," Selene pushes past her twin and shoves his face away, rolling her eyes at his muffled groan of protest. "Is that we know you, Evie. And we know you well enough to know something is up."

"Also, Olly dragged us three musketeers here without any explanation, left without so much of a high five, and then you appeared in a very specific fashion. So, why don't you tell us what exactly you did to piss Hades off and why that also resulted in Evie grumpy-pants already." Spencer butts in, his eyes twinkling mischievously.

I open my mouth to fire off a scathing retort, but the words stick in my throat. All the fury and anger roiling within me rushes from me in a tidal wave, leaving only despair in its wake. I fall down onto the edge of the porch, drawing my knees up to my chest. My head falls into my lap.

"I don't know who was more unreasonable: me, or him."

"Um, yes and yes?" Spencer smirks.

This time, when he sits down next to me, I really do punch him.

"Okay, ow!" Spencer whines, rubbing his arm. He gives me a wounded look. "Geez Evie, what the hell happened?"

"He told me the truth, Spencer." I reply bitingly, glaring at him. That sobers him up quickly. "He told me everything: the truth about the deal, about the prophecy, and about Persephone."

"Everything everything?" Spencer asks hesitantly.

"Everything everything." I affirm. For the first time ever, Spencer looks genuinely abashed. He casts his gaze off to the horizon as Axel and Selene gingerly sit down on my other side. I glance down at my knees again. "I said I needed time to process it all, and he went all ice-king on me again. Next thing I know, he's ignoring me, and then he's spiriting me away from the Underworld, and that's when I ran into you guys."

"You told him you needed time? After he told you what happened with Persephone?" Axel whistles slowly, shaking his head. "Wow. That was monumentally stupid, E. Everybody knows that Hades has serious trust issues."

"Gee Axel, I never noticed that." I reply sarcastically. "Why do you think I'm beating myself up about it all? I just needed time to process it all; I didn't want to leave him forever. I feel like no-one, not a single one of you, realises how hard it is to wrap my mind around this all. You expect me to just be able to accept the fact that my life has been turned upside down by the impossible, and take it all in my stride? You were all born into this; it's all you've known since the beginning of time. I'm only twenty years old, and up until last night I was still human. What you all knew as fact I learnt about as mythology from history books, and suddenly it's become my whole life? Six months ago, all I was concerned about was what the hell I was going to do once I graduated college, not whether I thought the person standing in front of me deserved eternal damnation! How am I not allowed a breather to try and understand it all?!"

"Twenty in a week." Spencer unhelpfully reminds me. "And it was two nights ago. Seriously E, you're a goddess now. Keep up."

Selene reaches around me to smack him upside the head. "What is the use of having you around if all you're going to do is wind her up?"

"I think you're ignoring the obvious, Arty. I'm clearly going to be far more useful when we get Evie out of this depressive dump and into the partying mood." Spencer winks at me. "Just say the word, princess. I can take us to a Hollywood party like that."

Selene's expression twitches. Spencer eyes her warily and moves a good foot away.

"Evie." Selene returns her attention back to me, placing a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "Of course we're not all expecting you to be okay with this overnight. Least of all Hades. He's just—"

"Frustrating? Infuriating? The most confusing person I've ever met?" I offer with a bitter smile. "Someone who still doesn't believe in me, despite how hard I've worked to show him he can trust me?"

Selene sighs. "Evie, you're letting your emotions get the better of you. Stop and think about it for a moment. Maybe you're not the only one who's struggling to understand it all right now."

"What, you think Hades is struggling too?" I ask, trying, and failing, to prevent my hurt from seeping through my tone. Selene nods. "Well then why does he keep shutting me out? Why would he rather shut me out than talk to me?"

"Because he's Hades." Selene says ruefully. "That's just the kind of person he is. He's always struggled when it comes to romance and expressing his feelings, and he always will. That's never going to change, and you definitely can't expect him to change who he is just for you. That's not fair to either of you. You need to show him that he can trust you, really trust you, because he's been hurt in the past by people who have broken that trust beyond repair."

"But I've been trying to show him for months that he can trust me, Sel. And look where that's got me. Every time I think I've finally gotten through to him, he shuts me out again."

"Evie." Selene sighs again. "You know I love you, but you need to stop and think about your actions for a moment. You're being blindly hypocritical right now."

I frown. My gaze flickers over to Axel and Spencer, but they avidly avoid my gaze. "What do you mean?"

"You agreed to become Hades' consort, on the condition that he reveal the truth to you about everything. You immediately make him follow through with that promise, and ask him to tell you what happened with Persephone. Then you tell him you want to leave." Selene gives me a pointed look. "What, or who, do you think that reminded him of?"

I stare at her, my jaw dropping slightly when the realisation hits me. Outrage floods my veins. "No. No! I am nothing, nothing like her. I promised him that!"

"Yes, but your words can't exactly make up for past pain, Evie." Selene chastises, albeit gently. "You told him that he could trust you, and then broke that trust by asking him to do the one thing that he would abhor doing the most: letting you leave. You may have known that you wanted to return, but how could he have known that for sure when the last person he trusted broke his faith completely?"

"Well... you're right. He couldn't have." My shoulders slump, and I cover my face. A garbled moan filters through my fingers. "All I wanted was for him to tell the truth and stop keeping secrets from me!"

"Evie, we all know why you hate secrets so much, but does Hades?" Axel asks, leaning forward so I can see the eyebrow he's raising at me. I hesitate. His eyebrow rises even higher. "Evie, have you still not told him about Ali?"

Spencer smacks my shoulder. "Evie!"

"Well, of course I haven't!" The exclamation explodes from me so suddenly that even I'm shocked by my outburst. All three of them stare at me. I shrink back from their gazes. "Don't look at me like that. How can I tell him about Ali? What happened to her was my fault. I can't tell him about her. He'll never look at me the same again."

Sympathy floods Selene's expression. She reaches over to squeeze my hand. "Evie, what happened to Ellie wasn't your fault.You're the only one blaming yourself. Hades isn't going to look at you any differently if you tell him."

"No. You weren't there, Sel." I shake my head stubbornly. "I can't."

Selene sighs. "Evie, you have to. You can't expect him to trust you if you don't trust him. How can you keep this a secret from him when he willingly told you his? That's unfair to him, and deep down, you know it is too."

My head falls back against the post of the porch with a loud thud. I close my eyes. Selene's right, as always. Deep down, I know I should tell him, particularly considering how much it hurt him to tell me about Persephone. But the more I consider it, the more the fear creeps into my veins, curling its vicious claws around my heart and squeezing until I can hardly breathe.

My heart drops into my stomach. Once I told him what I did, there was no going back, and I couldn't bear the thought of what he would think of me after he learnt the truth.

She's dead because of you.

"Put it out of your mind for now, E. You can ponder about the meaning of life later." Spencer's cheerful tones cut through the dark cloud surrounding me, and I open my eyes to see him wink. He purposefully ignores the look Selene shoots him and squeezes my knee. "You're stuck with us for the next month now, whether you like it or not, and we're going to make it the best month of your life. So tell me, oh Queen of the Underworld: where in the world do you want to spend the best month of your life?"

— — —

"You know, I'm trying really hard not to see the irony in this." Axel flicks on his shades and hands me an ice-cream. "Trying really, really hard."

"What irony? There's nothing ironic about a good ol' family vacation to Greece." I pop a spoonful of ice-cream into my mouth. "Do you have a problem with that?"

"I have a problem with you." He retorts childishly.

My eyes narrow. I hold up a spoonful of ice-cream threateningly. "Don't ruin my birthday month, you prat."

"Is that going to be your answer to everything that doesn't go your way?" Axel looks at me over the top of his sunglasses just so I can see the eyebrow he's raising. "Because that's going to get old real quick."

I smirk and lob the spoonful of ice-cream at him.

"Don't ruin my birthday month, you prat." Ignoring his cry of outrage, I switch my attention to Spencer and Selene, who are strolling down the beachfront ahead of us. "So, you two have taken me on a whirlwind tour of several amazing temple ruins for the past week and a half, but I notice that someone hasn't taken me to any of his temples." I point my spoon accusingly at Axel. "What's with that, big guy?"

Spencer cackles and rubs his hands together conspiratorially. "Yeah A, what's with that? Are you embarrassed?"

We all wince as he sings the last word. Axel glowers at him.

"I'm not embarrassed."

"Well then why don't you lead us to the big crumbling buildings dedicated to worshipping the pants off your pale ass?"

"My ass is not pale!" Axel protests, hurling his spoon at Spencer. He gestures to himself. "Have you seen me? I'm literally a Greek god; Greeks are not known for pale asses!"

"Axel, I've unfortunately seen your ass, and it is definitely pale." I butt in, sniggering at the foul look he shoots me. "What? You know I can't hide the truth. Just like you can't hide your temples from me, so come on!"

Axel groans, tearing his wrist out of my grip. "Let's not."

"Aw please?" I whine, sticking my bottom lip out into a pout. He just rolls his eyes at me.

"No."

I huff and try a different tactic. "You can't say no to the birthday girl, can you?"

"Oh, hell no Evie!" Axel groans again, this time even louder. "Seriously? You are not bringing out the B card right now!"

"Dude, what's your problem?" Spencer asks, throwing himself down onto the glittering golden sand. He whips his shirt off with one hand and lounges back on his elbows. "Why give up the chance to show your divine self off to your baby sister on her birthday week?"

"Because there are no surviving temples to Apollo on Mykonos, you idiot." Axel scoffs, kicking sand over Spencer. "I don't want to disappoint said little sister on her birthday week. We've still got another two and a half weeks left in Greece; I'll show her the temple in Delphi. That's the coolest one left standing, anyway."

My heart shudders painfully in my chest. We've still got another two and a half weeks. I shove another spoonful of ice-cream into my mouth to hide my wavering smile.

"Oh yes, the 'very cool' temple where your pet sat on a stool 24/7 and got high." Spencer snorts, rolling his eyes. "Tell me, did you ever actually visit her, or was she just permanently so high that she thought you were communicating with her?"

"Oh yeah, like you left such an inspiring legacy."

"At least I made people happy! I bestowed the amazing gifts of wine and ecstasy on them."

"Oh definitely D, because getting permanently drunk and giving people the gift of orgasms is definitely something to be proud of. I stopped wars."

"By getting a girl high!"

Axel growls and launches himself at Spencer. "You take that back!"

"They're idiots, the pair of them." I comment dryly, watching as they roll down the beach in a scuffle of sand. I tear my gaze away to shoot Selene a bemused look. "How have you survived for so long around these two? I would've killed 'em both by now, and I've only known them for a decade."

"By disappearing into the forest for several years." Selene shrugs when I give her a weird look. "What? The animals don't talk about their pale asses."

"If only that were the same for Axel." I mutter, shaking my head. I finish off the remainder of my ice-cream and flash her what I hope is a convincingly bright smile. "Hey, can I have the hotel key? I want to change into my bikini before Spencer decides he wants to throw me into the ocean."

Selene doesn't respond at first, her eyes narrowing slightly. She studies me intently for a moment. "You know where the hotel is, right?"

""I'm not stupid, Sel. It's literally a two minute walk from here." I roll my eyes. "You're not going to lose me in Greece, I promise; it's practically your hometown."

"Fair point." Selene laughs, handing me the keycard. From the way my back prickles as I walk away, though, she doesn't take her eyes off me, and I know she wasn't convinced by my bravado.

I smile fleetingly at the receptionist as I enter the hotel lobby and hop into the elevator, pressing the button for the sixth floor. As soon as the doors slide shut, I slump back against the wall, closing my eyes. I suck in a shuddering breath and press my palm to my chest, in an attempt to placate the painful pangs that had been tormenting it all day. I bang my head exasperatedly against the elevator wall. This was ridiculous. I shouldn't still be feeling this tortured, this torn up about what happened. It was almost two weeks ago now that Hades had left me standing alone in my bedroom and sent me from the Underworld. Hades had probably already gotten over it, so why couldn't I?

The elevator door dings, sliding open to reveal the sixth floor. I sigh and step out of the elevator, pinching the inside of my elbows as I head to our room. As much as I wished I could put the argument in the past and stop overthinking everything that had happened, I knew I wouldn't be able to until I returned to the Underworld. What Selene had said to me on the porch that day had stuck with me, and the more time that passed, the more that I regretted my actions. Yes, he had left without really listening to my explanation, but who could blame him? I had barely given him any reason to trust me, and I broke that trust the moment I asked to leave. Hades' trust was fragile, and I had shattered it all over the floor like it was made of glass. All I wanted to do was see him again and apologise for what I had done. Yet, a part of me was terrified of that, because that meant I would have to tell him about Ellie, and I had no idea how I was going to do that.

My heart squeezes tightly in my chest, and for a second, I struggle to breath. I close my eyes and pause, my hand still reaching to open the door to the hotel room. I breathe in deeply and let the air whoosh out through my lips slowly.

No, Evie. Now is not the time for a panic attack. There is nothing you can do about this now: you know that. It is your birthday week, and you should be enjoying yourself. You need to clear your head, get changed into your bikini and go back to the others. Now is not the time.

My eyes flicker open. After a few more deep breaths, the tightness in my chest abates, and feeling floods back into my limbs, enough for me to finally grab the handle and open the door.

I head into my room and kneel down, grabbing my bag from under my bed. Pushing myself up to my feet, I dump the bag onto my bed and begin rifling through it. Thanks to Calla's freakish organisational skills, I find the deep blue bikini quickly, and pull it out of the bag with a flourish.

I zip my bag back up again, and am about to head to the bathroom when something falls out of the top, hitting the bedspread with a soft thud. Frowning, I turn around and spot a small, black box teetering on the edge of the bedspread. I pick it up and inspect it closely, my brows furrowing in confusion. It looks like a jewellery box.

I can't remember Calla packing a jewellery box.