My eyes snapped open, suddenly free from exhaustion on hearing hungry snarls.

"Look who has finally come to."

The Drakon spoke, and I inched back on the grass, looking up at the woman who wore a human skin to hide away filthy scales.

"Don't be afraid." She cooed, singing a lullaby to an endless sleep. "I will make it painless. "

The promise set off alarms in my mind, and I began to crawl back on all fours searching madly for amber eyes in the dark woods.

I finally scrambled up to my feet turning my head to every side, but did not find the one I was looking for.

No..this can't be real.

"Where do you think you are going?" She asked, sounding genuinely saddened.

And then I was running away with all my might.

"Who are you waiting for?" The question slowed me down as I turned around, and her head tilted back in an abnormal angle, making the hyoid bone of her neck break through her pale skin.

My scream was still resonating in the damp air when she called out.

"Is it him?"

Soon, a silhouette appeared not far behind her, distinctly of a man, and as her head retook its original axis, he proceeded to move forward.

I had by then stopped in my tracks and began pleading to the fates in my mind. Please, please...

But they weren't kind.

In my confused view a man with a bloodied face stepped out into the light, the same man she had lovingly proclaimed as her wounded lover.

And even from the distance I could see her toothless smile.

She raises to her toes and whisper into his ears, but it was loud enough for me to hear.

"Kill her."

I ran as he took to his feet.

My sense of direction was lacklustre, with towering trees stretching out in all directions in the same likeness.

An eager cry devoted to capturing me could be heard within a horrifyingly close distance.

Something tugged at my ankle, and this time instead of the cold waters I fell onto the forest floor.

I turned my body around as I was dragged wickedly with rough hands, and the face that looked coated by layers of red paint grew deep setting eyes.

I breathed heavily. "Please..."

There was no mercy in those dark eyes, rather only irateness that had reached its peak. Then suddenly a hollow started to grow where his mouth should have been and when its size increased as big as his head, he lunged forward.

I screamed and closed my eyes, but the darkness only lasted a second before my eyes were wide open again.

My breathing did not come haggard and ragged like it had a second ago, but my brain felt it was shot through and it was as if someone was coughing hard at the tail end of a fever inside my chest.

Cool were my hands and feet with dread and instinctively I sat up closer to the bonefire burning high to my side.

But before I could observe my surroundings, a scratching sound came from behind me.

I whipped my head back. The sword dragged across the ground, the first to catch my eyes.

Leaning back against stone walls, he sat, august and solemn in an otherwise bleak background. And then noticing my stare, the god narrowed his eyes.

The nonchalance to it, made me wonder if making the sound wasn't intentional, which had been timed in rhythm to the moment I began to panic.

His amber eyes seemed like starlight in the night sky. And like the stars that shined light years away, they appeared distant, and like that of the closest, one would be burnt to ashes if they dared to near.

But they were same eyes that put me to sleep, the only assurance I desired, no matter the embers of rage within.

"Ah." And only then came to realise.

"I was dreaming." I breathed out, and

my eyes drooped with drowsiness, but a lopsided smile still remained on my lips as if half of my face was paralysed from being slept on for too long.

The dark cloak that was wrapped around me fell away as I crawled.

"Cease moving." He seemed to say.

But before he could get up to stop me, my right hand shot out and grabbed his leg above his heel.

At the moment of contact, I let my body slump, and layed back down on the cold floor while ignoring the pain that came from opposing his demand.

"Stay still." Grumbling, I returned his words when he tried to pull back his leg I had grabbed on.

Don't leave me.

Sleep assailed my senses soon after, if not immediately, and my lidded eyes vaguely remembered the hands that reached for my face.

◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇◇

I was still intoxicated by the mist of sleep, and though my mind was still light, far from real concentration I was aware of the rare comfort and warmth I was gifted for the first time in the past few days.

And however long I wished for it to last, I was becoming more aware of my sleep's end, and some other things that did not seem in order.

First, my moments did not seem as light as when I normally awoke and felt slightly restrained.

Second, gravity seemed be at odds when I opened my eyes to erect tress in the far distance and not a leafy canopy.

And then with certainty I focused my eyes knowing the hard pillow I rested on was shaped like a body.

I fidgeted, but did not panic and lifted my head slightly from the nook of strong arms and a warm chest to an elegant jaw.

"Another bad dream?" A low voice tickled my ears, invoking a deep familiarity in the timbre that vibrated through his chest.

Suddenly I was fully awake, and sat upright finding myself to have been resting on his lap, hoisted from the cold floor.

Hades tilted his head slightly towards me, and whispered.

"Rest a little more."

The tone he used was soft leaving it for me to decide whether or not to, while his hand that remained over my shoulder blades inched to my arm, and gently pulled me back to his chest.

And even though my tired limbs welcomed the considerate suggestion, my mind refused to admit when observing his posture, reclining too far from the stone walls to seem comfortable, but a secure pleasantness for the one who took advantage within his arms.

"No..." I cleared my throat. "I am fine now."

I rubbed my eyes off sleep, but with my body aching with pain with the slightest moment, it felt as though I was moving mountains.

Warm fingers caught my wrist when I unconsciously moved my injured hand closer to my face, and though I would not have used it, I let him place it back on my thighs without pointing to it out.

And with a small smile assessed the bandages that made a straight line over my impaled fingers and then dipped to the crevices of my thumb, and though lacking a professional touch, it was rich with effort and patience.

Out of the corner of my eye I noticed a heap of wood, with only embers remaining in its deepest pit, long since been ignored. And my numb legs stretched, perpendicular to his, but did not make a move to get up having noticed the wound left by sharp fangs on my ankle neatly tended to.

Ah, I scrutinised sensing something more to it than it seemed. I glanced up and around the cave of eroded rock to find trickling streams curtain the other side of its walls.

I looked back at my feet, after catching sight of a familiar water bottle that was left half filled, and then felt the strands of my hair with hesitant fingers, gradually putting two and two together.

My hand dropped from the damp locks that were no longer sticky with blood of red and blue.

Once before, I had made light of his kindness when feeling suffocated and weighed down in debt.

But to joke once again that it was not an every day deal to have the god of the Underworld wash your feet and tend to your hair would have only empowered the burden of indebtedness I felt.

"Thank you."

I glanced up at him, Hades who had been keeping a watchful eye around, immediately met my eyes.

Amber orbs held freckles of brilliant blue, and with time I had come to know how they eroded away with rage into a pool of nothing but flames.

And the more I stared, the more I believed. If his eyes were a gateway, a summer sky above endless maize fields would await me on the other end.

You aren't angry anymore?!

I bit my lips, trying to contain the words from slipping, and a moment later, sighed heavily.

But the action perhaps was misinterpreted as he immediately pulls closer the backpack I had thought I lost.

"Is there anything to ease the pain?"

Dried by the fire, its contents seemed freshly arranged with a stark difference in the well folded clothes at the very bottom.

My eyes trailed from it to the pair of shoes that too should have been lost, but were now kept slanted at their heels, seemingly yet to dry, and under my naked feet was his cloak of gold and silver embellishment laid like a cheap carpet.

And while I had failed to reply within an appropriate pause, he had already pulled out the transparent box labelled. 'I don't wanna use you.'

"Are there none that could help?" He asked referring to the medicines inside and smoothly opened the claps, but at the tips of his fingers, the ever pale skin held hints of red.

"The one with the green inked foil." I said narrowing my eyes.

And meaning to take a closer look at the blemishes, I leaned forward. But the next moment, I found myself being pushed back by the same graceful hand I had wished to observe.

"Mmm?"

His soft eyelashes fluttered as he stared, searching for weariness in my eyes. But soon in realisation that the action was not a repercussion of fatigue, turned away his gaze to the medicines that were dropped.

But the hand that had been passively resting on my lower back, kept a firm hold, sturdy like a bedpost that I could lean on.

I pointed to the bottle when he handed me the painkiller, and not letting my frustration show I popped the pill from its wrapper within a few tries with one good hand.

"I do not think its consumable." He said, and once again held down my injured arm when I attempted to hold the small white pill between the three fingers that were left.

It slipped down to my thighs, but before it could slide down to his, it was caught by nimble fingers and brought to my lips.

My head shrank, fearful to consume a pill without water, and almost yelled.

"No its alright, I usually tested the water I drank after coming here, and never found it poisonous. "

I lightly nudged back against his hand, but it didn't loosen and so I added to reaffirm. "One time I accidentally drank from a stream without testing, but nothing happened, I don't think any of the water sources here are harmful."

"Then test it." He said, leaning half his body sideways to retrieve the bottle while one hand kept me stable.

The grimness to his tone held me back from protesting, and leaning over I plucked the green leaf of a plant I had found along the journey and kept safe in my bag's open side pocket.

I held it up before his face as if to say, this is it.

With a slight nod, he finally brought the water bottle within my arms length.

To open its big round cap, the hand supporting my back, looped around to meet the other, and I was pressed closer to his chest.

I lingered for a second too long when the bind released, and with a pang of guilt and a throbbing heart dropped the testing agent into the water.

"Why don't you use your own?" He asked, the exact moment the mid rib of the floating leaf turned a vivid yellow.

I smiled, and reached out a hand to snatch the bottle while the pill remained in his. "The medicines I can make aren't very effective on me. Some don't even work."

I opened my mouth as he brought the pill closer, but in a sudden attack of nervousness almost bit down on his finger.

And when it was done and over with, I pretended like it never happened.

"It sucks." I commented referring to both the limitation of Apollo's gift, and the taste of the pill on my tongue when not being able to swallow on the first try.

And when I finally did, it was followed by silence.

A silence I wished lasted a little longer when he asked.

"When did Demeter approach you?"

I looked at him before I replied, gauging for a reaction. "The day after we got back from Olympus, she was waiting for me in my room that morning."

I was quite surprised even though I had already guessed that he had came to know of the supposedly secretive meetings I held with the goddess, but how and when, I was not sure.

"Is it true?" I started, for a moment hesitating to ask.

"A part of your soul, is it really here?"

His head tilted, lowering his eyes, and both in anticipation and excitement I held onto his arm.

"Yes." A curt reply, apathetic and uncaring as if speaking of someone's else matter.

Regardless, I nodded feeling my heart aflutter, and overwhelmed with relief and sense of satisfaction that the very reason keeping me together in this cursed land was not a tale of fantasy.

I had a lot more to ask, a lot for me to know, but something told me he wouldn't answer.

"What happened the day you left?" Came another, seemingly casual question making me deliberate whether all the assumptions I had on the goddess and the strange situation she put me in was wrong to very last details.

"She knocked on my door and I let her in, then she started to demand that I leave immediately, but she was behaving strangely, so I told her that I will leave the next day."

"Strangely?"

I was no longer even sure if I should defend the goddess or outright blame her from his neutral tone.

"She kept...twitching and sometimes acted like a different person."

He remained silent as if imploring me to explain.

"She was usually very calm, and borderline cold, but sometimes it felt lile she was possessed." I mentally shut away the eerie memory of my dark room.

I felt him shift, and suddenly there was a slight quiver in his composure , and even though he tried his best to hide it, the effort though miniscule was still visible."What about the other persona?"

It was as if untill this point, his questions were to reaffirm what he had already heard and not a query of things he didn't.

I thought for a while, not finding the right words. "...More emotional, and frantic. When she was like this, she told me to meet the Oracle and also tried to save me."

"You met the Oracle, how?" His quiet voice merged with the darkness of the cave.

"She gave me a blue gemstone on her first visit, and right after she left I got teleported to London."

"There, I met the Oracle with a help of friend. She was all alone in a big house and she told me she will email this lengthy prophecy and then helped me get back.." My sentence trailed off, realising I was blabbering under the gaze of narrowed eyes.

But when the god spoke again, it was like I had imagined the chills I was getting from him earlier, because the one before me had an aura of calmness.

"Are these for injuries?" He held up a tube of white from my bag, that had small wordings of instruction on its body.

I looked at the antibiotic ointment and nodded. "I was planning on telling you about her, because I was suspicious, but she ended up opening the portal and I was forced in."

His movements while uncapping paused. "Did she harm you?"

There was a dangerous gleam in his eyes, the indifference forgotten in a manner that ran counter clockwise to his former attitude.

"No, she didn't exactly harm me, but when I told her I did not want to leave, she pushed me into the portal."

When I finished, I had an inkling that his lukewarm attitude in truth was a curiosity overshadowed by vexation and an immeasurable wrath towards a missing piece I had yet to know.

And the suspicion soon came to be called realisation.

Hades who had listened quietly, narrowed the gap between his forefinger and my forehead to apply the ointment over the wounds that instantly stung.

I controlled myself from flinching back, while he asked. "Do you know of the conditions to enter this land?"

I nodded, closing my eye when his finger outlined my brow. "Demeter told me about them, and how it made me perfect candidate because of my bloodline."

I said slowly as if treading for a safe path on a field of landmines.

His fingers that skimmed over my skin were slow, but quick to retrieve the diminishing paste, leaving me no room to look up and meet his eyes.

"How much of it do you know?" His tone was frosty like a mid winter dawn.

"...I know that demigods can't enter because they are closely related to the gods." I hesitated, uncertain of the tribulation I had waded into.

"And that only very rare humans can see the divine lands. But since they don't survive beyond a young age they are hard to find."

"Is that all?"

His voice that posed the question sounded sharper by a notch, and the the hand that gently pressed against my forehead moved away.

And though I had waited for him to do so, I was no longer confident to think I could level headedly hold its gaze.

"Gods can't enter either."

I sat as stiff as a wooden doll, and then as if my nerves frizzled before the tension, I shivered. "...that must have been wrong." I managed to make out, trying hard to control the involuntarily reflex.

But the sharp eyes were quick to notice the tremors, and in a soothing pace his hand ran along my spine, till finally a hint of respite set in my bones.

I looked up to meet cold eyes, and a colder expression, completely devoid of the warmth of his hands.

"Did she tell you that any mortal gifted with sight could do so? Even if its against their will?"

Asked in all seriousness, the question was urgent as if it came crashing down from the weight of the thoughts it hid, from the conclusions he had already made.

I searched for words in my head for familiarity, but couldn't remember Demeter speaking of such a thing, and felt almost afraid to admit I didn't.

Unable to respond I lowered my head when he called my name.

"Elia." I felt a weight on my shoulder and the softness of dark tresses on my cheek.

He shook his head when I didn't respond, the edge ofbmy shoulder acting as an axis.

"I cannot choose." He said, and soft, heavy breaths caressed the skin over my elbow, where the short and fine hair stood at their ends.

"Between what would be best."

He then raised his head and leaned away, letting me catch only a glimpse of his eyes before he shuts them close.

The fire breathed to life in legends, the very flame that scorched sinners were a pool of lava in his orbs, and hence forth the fury contained punctuated each word.

"Should you have known or not that without the desire to enter, no one, even the perfect candidate can step past the threshold. " In his voice was laughter without humour. "Because both ways, I see this very ending. "

"The same consequences." His eyes trailed down my body with blistering gaze.

If they do not desire to. I slowly rolled the words around in my mouth in a small voice. And though I would have liked to believe I was at my wit's end, I knew.

I had filled half my back with medicines for an uncertain future, yet with expectations that were not stemmed from the cruel phrases of a prophecy.