Kezia and I stand in silence, neither one of us willing to back down first. The blue flames dance in the palm of her hand, and even from where I'm standing I can feel the heat licking my skin. I refuse to let it intimidate me though, and keep my gaze fixed on the goddess standing before me.

"Tell me, Kezia."

"No. As I said earlier, I don't know anything."

I grit my teeth. "Yes, you do. I'm not stupid, Kezia. You wouldn't be threatening me if you knew nothing."

"You're the one being stupid right now, Evie. I've already told you what's going to happen if you don't stop. Be sensible for once and drop it. I don't want to hurt you."

"No." I purse my lips as she narrows her eyes into slits. The flame dances closer. "I'm a part of this now, Kezia. Whether you like it or not, I have the right to know what the hell is scaring everyone so much. How am I supposed to help Hades when I don't know what's going on?"

"Have you considered the possibility that Hades doesn't want you to know, Evie?" She asks sharply. "I understand that you want to help him, but getting yourself hurt just to know the truth seems counterproductive. Didn't you tell him you were going to trust him, trust that he would tell you the truth when he felt comfortable?"

My stomach drops. I stare at her. "How do you know about that?"

Obviously deeming me sufficiently distracted, Kezia ignores my question and snaps her fingers again. The flame disappears in a puff of blue smoke. Turning back to the bench, she sweeps the chopped herbs into her hand and shoves past me.

"Go bother someone else, Evie. I'm busy."

"No. I'm not leaving until you tell me what's going on."

She doesn't respond. I sigh exasperatedly. "Ignoring me isn't going to make me go away."

Kezia turns to me with pursed lips. She clicks her fingers. "No. But he will."

She points to the fire, and I turn to see the hound that had been slumbering in the warmth was now sitting up with bared teeth. A low growl rumbles through its chest. My blood freezes. I look back to Kezia and attempt to hide my unease with an arrogant smirk.

"Do you honestly think that'll scare me? I share a bed with a lion."

"Tell that to your face." Kezia retorts. I blanch slightly. "Now leave, Evie, before I tell Noctis to escort you out. You are my friend, but you're wearing my patience thin."

"Kezia, you're not listening to me. I won't—"

"No Evie, you're not listening to me!" She explodes, throwing her hands up in the air. Noctis leaps towards me, lips curled back in a snarl. I stumble back a step, my eyes wider than saucers. "Do I really have to dumb it down for you? There is a reason that Hades is omitting the truth, particularly now. He knows you want to help him, which is why he's keeping you in the dark; he's trying to protect you! He knows from personal experience how much of an impact this all can have on a person, and he's trying to keep you from being tainted by it all!"

"Tainted by what? I've already been impacted by it all considering someone tried to murder me!" I exclaim. She doesn't reply, turning away again. I let out a long sigh before finally giving in and using the last weapon left in my arsenal. "Does this have something to do with Kronos, Kezia?"

Kezia stops dead still. The look she gives me sends chills down my spine. "Where did you hear that?"

Bingo.

I straighten and fold my arms tightly over my chest. "Just before, when you were talking to Minos."

"That was a private conversation, Evie." Her jaw clenches. "What else did you hear?"

"Does it matter?" I ask. She sighs, running a hand through her flaming red hair. But finally, she doesn't have a fiery retort for me. "What's going on, Kezia? What's happening with Kronos?"

"I don't know, Evie. And that's the truth." She cuts me off quickly as I start to scoff. "All I know is that something is happening with Kronos, and Hades is trying his hardest to keep it all contained. Hell, I don't want to know more. That name scares me more than anything in the whole Underworld."

"Keep what contained? Kronos? I thought he was just a myth, let alone need to be contained!"

"Just like you thought your boyfriend was a myth?" She asks. I don't have a response for that. "Look Evie, if this really has something to do with Kronos, then there's a very good reason that Hades is trying to keep you in the dark. Now that you know, will you promise me that you'll actually drop it?"

"Well..." I hesitate, chewing on the inside of my lip. Her eyes narrow.

"Evie no. I know that look. You want to dig around more, don't you?" She groans loudly when I nod once. She roughly grabs my face and looks me deep in the eye. "I cannot stress this enough, Evie: don't. You might be a goddess now, but you aren't nearly strong enough to so much as breathe near Kronos. It's a suicide mission even thinking about finding out what's going on. You need to trust in Hades. You're not even supposed to know what's going on, and if Hades finds out I told you he'll have my head. Literally. Promise me that you'll drop it."

"Kezia..."

Kezia grabs the knife and points it at me. "Promise me."

I swallow hard, before finally nodding. "Okay. I promise."

"You'll drop it?"

"I'll drop it."

— — —

Of course, I didn't drop it.

"Kronos, Kronos. Why can't I find anything useful about you?" I mutter to myself, my finger running along the spines of the books I'm perusing. A title jumps out at me: Structure and History in Greek Mythology. I grin to myself triumphantly. "Bingo."

I slide the book out of the shelf and head back to my spot in front of the fire, blowing the dust bunnies off its spine. Books litter the floor around me, some open on certain pages, some rejected haphazardly to the side, but they all tell the same story. The creation myth. The birth of Hades and his siblings. The Titanomachy. The entrapment of Kronos in Tartarus.

And nothing on what happened after that.

It doesn't take me long to realise my latest find is a dead end, and I throw it away from me with a noise of disgust. My head falls into my hands, and I rub my face vigorously. A moment passes. My gaze flickers up to stare dejectedly into the roaring flames. I'd been here for hours, and couldn't find a single piece of useful information on Kronos. The stream of information stopped the moment Kronos was locked up in Tartarus, almost like the ancient historians couldn't fathom the thought of Kronos escaping — which I could understand, but didn't exactly help me. My frustration bubbles up, burning brighter than the fire in front of me. Something wasn't adding up, but I couldn't, for the life of me, figure out what it was. All I had to go off was what Kezia had told me, which in itself was hardly anything at all. So how on earth was I supposed to help Hades when I couldn't figure out what was going on?

"Usually, when people promise something, their intention is to fulfil that promise."

I startle, looking up. Hades is standing in front of me, his serious features silhouetted by the golden glow of the fire. I don't miss the frustration that rockets through his features.

"What are you doing, Evie?"

I shoot him a guilty smile and hold a book up. "A little light reading?"

He heaves a sigh. "Who told you?"

"Nobody?" I try tentatively, but the high-pitched tone of my voice betrays me immediately. Hades doesn't say anything, watching me with what I can only describe as disappointment. My shoulders slump. "Kezia told me. But please, don't be angry at her; I may have nagged her into telling me."

"You should not have done that, Evie."

"I had to, Hades. I'm sorry, but I couldn't help myself."

"Why? It was only last night that you told me you would trust me, yet here you are."

My heart pangs at the hint of pain in his tone. Desperation causes my voice to rise as I jump to my feet. "I do trust you! But I also want to help you, especially when I can tell that something is worrying you. So, I'm sorry Hades, but if this thing with Kronos is what's worrying you then I need to know why so I can help you. That's what I'm here for!"

His expression softens. "Evie, if we were under any other circumstance, I would not hesitate to tell you. But this is no normal circumstance, and I do not want to risk your safety. I am only trying to protect you."

"I don't need protecting!" I protest furiously. "I've had to deal with my fair share of dangerous situations, Hades; I know how to handle myself! I'm not some fragile little bunny that needs saving from things that go bump in the night, so stop treating me like one!"

The corners of his lips quirk up. "Trust me, you are not a fragile little bunny in my mind."

"Then why won't you tell me what's going on?" I demand. "If you think I can handle myself, then why don't you think I can handle the truth?"

"Because I'm scared, Evie!" Hades explodes. I jump, staring wide-eyed at him. There it is. He turns away, running a shaky hand through his dark hair. "I am worried, and that scares me. The fact that I am worried about this means that it is bigger than we presumed, and I am scared about that..."

He breaks off, his shoulders trembling as he stares into the fire. Alarm courses through me. I've never seen Hades this emotional, ever.

For the first time since my conversation with Kezia, terror wraps her spindly fingers around my spine.

You can't put it off any longer.

You have to tell him.

It's now or never.

"Hades." I say his name softly, touching his shoulder. He doesn't move. I clear my throat. "Don't you think I'm scared too? All I want to do is help, but I can't help if you shut me out. I understand that you're trying to protect me, and I'm sorry, but I've..." My voice wavers, and I swallow hard. "I've learnt in the past that if I let things like this go, if I don't push for the truth, it can hurt the people I care about. And I can't be the reason another person I... another person I care about dies."

Hades turns, his brow furrowing when he catches the agony on my face. I lower my gaze, unable to meet his eyes. His fingers softly caress my cheeks. When I do brave a look at him, his expression isn't accusatory like I expect: it's brimming with tenderness.

"Whose death do you think you are responsible for?" He asks softly, his thumb thrumming away the tear that trickles down my cheek.

I lean into his embrace, the tears falling as freely as the rainfall that's storming my heart. Thick, deafening silence washes over us like an icy wave, trapping me helpless under the surface for several, heart-breaking moments. I can't bring myself to look at him as I release the skeleton that's been haunting my closet for the last ten years.

"My sister. Ellie." I whisper. "I killed her. When she was only ten years old. I killed her."

My admission shatters the silence like a stone through an iced-over lake, creating a shock-wave that splinters through my very core. Instantly, my body tenses, awaiting the inevitable moment for Hades to drop me like a hot coal and step away to safety.

But he doesn't.

Before I even fully comprehend what's happening, his arms wind tightly around me and he's pulling me into a tight embrace. He holds my head to his chest, so close that I can hear the steady tha-thump of his heart. For a moment, I allow myself to surrender to the security of his embrace, clutching onto him like he's the only lifeline I have left. In that moment, the heart-rending truth of reality melts away into the abyss, and I feel whole again.

After forever passes us by, a kiss is lightly pressed to the top of my forehead. Hades' chest rumbles underneath me as his deep, melodious tones cut through the silence.

"Tell me what happened, Evie. I promise, I will not say a word until you bid me to."

I lift my head to look at him through glistening tears. "What if you never look at me the same again?"

"Did you look at me differently when I told you about Persephone?" He asks. I shake my head.

"Of course not."

"Exactly." He brushes my tears away tenderly. "Nothing you do, or say, will ever change the way I look at you, Evie."

A small smile lifts up my lips. But then the reality of what I'm about to do hits, and the smile falls. I sigh. My gaze lowers to my feet.

"Ellie was my twin sister. She was my best friend, and knew me better than anyone, even now. We were the stereotypical pair of twins — finishing each other's sentences, talking in our own language, even being able to communicate without speaking. Our parents used to joke that we were joint at the brain at birth, and they were too selfish to let us exist as one, messed-up person. She was my whole world, and I completely idolised her. I would've gone to the ends of the earth for her, and she for me. We were the epitome of 'ride or die'.

"After..." I stop, the words failing me. I swallow hard, pushing past the trepidation trapping the words in my throat. "After our parents died, Ellie and I bounced around the foster system for a while. Our parents had named my father's twin sister as our guardian in the event of their death, as she was basically our second family, but she had been battling with cancer for years and was too weak to take care of us. She died not long after our parents did, and suddenly we were left all alone."

"Did you not have other family to take care of you?"

I shake my head. "My father's parents died when we were young, and my mother estranged herself from her family before we were born. They were told of her death, but wanted nothing to do with Ellie and I. We were all alone."

Sympathy creases Hades' features. "That must have been an incredibly difficult truth to process at such a young age."

"That's one way to put it." I smile sadly. "I handled it much better than Ellie did. Unlike me, she was the picture of happiness and sunshine, and literally saw joy in everything. She always used to tell me that everything had at least two purposes, even literal rubbish." I laugh a little, shaking my head as a memory resurfaces. "There was this one time where we were walking home from school one day, and she found a box of empty glass bottles that someone had thrown away. Instead of walking past them, like I did, she lugged that box home and stored it in the garden shed. I remember telling her that she was stupid for thinking she could reuse someone else's glass bottles, when, in my mind, their only purpose was to store drink, and for all we knew the bottles had terrible diseases all over them.

"Well, ten days later, Ellie strutted up to our mother, smug as anything, and hands her this mosaic she'd made. Ever since she rescued that box of bottles, she'd spent every afternoon smashing the glass bottles and arranging the shards into the pattern of a flower garden. She had cuts all over her hands, and received an earful from our mother about safety, but never lost that smug grin. She loved that she had proven to me that the 'diseased bottles' actually did have another purpose, no matter what I thought."

Hades smiles a little. "I have a feeling the two of you would have been a force to be reckoned with."

"We were. Our parents used to hate arguing with the two of us." My smile fades as anguish replaces the bittersweet elation of remembrance. "Elliealways felt things a lot more than I did, and had more empathy in her little toe than I did in my entire body. But while I always admired that in her, it was also the reason she broke when our parents died. Where I could box my emotions up and lock them away whenever I was hurt or upset, she wore her heart on her sleeve. Losing our parents, and then the only other family member who wanted us, broke her in a way that I never really understood. Being in the foster system didn't help with that either, because we were never really able to form an attachment to a family before we were moved again. I learned very quickly to hide my feelings and put on a charade, but Ellienever did. That just wasn't in her nature. She was constantly miserable, and the fact that I seemed okay with it all just alienated me from her. She felt like she had no-one anymore, not even her own twin.

"We started fighting all the time, to the point sometimes where Ellie would refuse to talk to me for days. That hurt me more than anything, more than my parents or my aunt dying. Ellie had been my person, my rock, for my whole life, and we had always been on the same page. When she stopped talking to me, I felt like I had lost a part of my soul, but whenever I asked her what was wrong she refused to talk to me. If I had known what was going through her mind, I would have pushed harder, but I..." My voice finally breaks as the anguish in my soul crashes through the walls protecting my heart. My head drops into my hands as the floodgates burst open. Hades starts to stroke the small of my back with a feather-light touch and I close my eyes, drawing strength from his gentle embrace. When I finally find my voice again, my words come out barely above a whisper.

"One morning, I woke up to find her bed empty and cold. On her pillow was a note addressed to me." I swallow hard, my tone trembling as I recite the eight words that haunt me. "'I'm sorry, Evie. I'm not strong like you'. I had barely finished reading the note before I heard a scream, and when I ran out to the garden I found our foster parents standing under a tree, looking up at..."

I cut myself off, unable to continue. Heartache squeezes my heart, so tightly that I momentarily lose the ability to breathe. My whole body trembles as the blood in my veins turns to ice.

"In six months, I lost the only person I had left in the world. Every scrap of her was stolen from me, all because I was too selfish to see what was really going on. If I had chosen to listen to her, chosen to look past my own pain for once, I would have known how much she was hurting, and I could have saved her. But I didn't. And because of that, because of me, she died."

All the strength surviving in my body dissipates the moment I utter that last, world-shattering sentence. Reality crashes into me, and my knees buckle. Hades catches me as I collapse and slowly sinks to the ground, keeping me safely wrapped up in his arms. Violent, heart-rending sobs wrack my body. I cling to him, my grief dragging me down faster than gravity. I'd never had the courage to say those words out loud, but now that I had, they became all the more achingly real. My soul shatters as I openly weep over my sister for the first time in almost ten years.

I'm sorry, Ellie. I'm so, so sorry.

"Evie." Hades cradles my face with his hands, his gaze tender as he wipes the tears from my cheeks. "You are not the reason your sister died. Everyone processes grief differently, and you could not have predicted how she would handle hers. What happened was a tragedy, but you could not have prevented what happened. It is unfair to burden yourself with survivor's guilt when you were hurting as much as she was."

"You don't know that, Hades." I whisper brokenly. "If I hadn't chosen to ignore her, if I had pushed her to tell me—"