The next moments are a blur. Rage, blinding and immediate, burns away every thought. I don't remember getting down the stairs. One moment, I'm on the balcony-and in the next, I'm not. Perhaps I jumped.

The Zeus Variant shouts as woody vines shoot forward from my back to coil around him. With no time to struggle, he's rendered immediately motionless-hoisted off his feet with his arms squeezed to his sides, legs locked into place. Charging ahead, I shove him backwards until I've got him pinned against the wall. The vines growing from the other side of my back curl over my shoulder, poised with their sharpened tips pointed at his throat.

"What do you think you're doing to my husband?" I growl.

His gray eyes go wide at first. Then his lip twitches up to bare a fang. He looks a lot like his brother, save for the blue-gray color of his hair-streaked through with silver at the front-his clean shaven jaw, and the piercing coldness of his gaze.

Suddenly, he bursts into laughter. I glare at it him.

He's just like Rhea.

"Nice to meet you too, little sister,"

Wiping his arm off with a black handkerchief to reveal a wound already half-healed, Aidon strolls over.

"Kore, this is my brother, Deius. Deius, this is Kore-my wife and this round's clear victor, I think."

I twist my head around to face him, eyebrows shooting up my face. "This round?"

"It's tradition," offers Deius. "A friendly competition between brothers."

"You're not telling me you beat each other up every time you meet."

I look from one to the other of them, but Deius just grins like an idiot.

"Well..." Aidon laughs uncomfortably, not quite meeting my gaze.

I know the distress I'd felt from him had been real. Tradition it might be, but there's something else to this. I know it.

"You could have warned me. Or, I don't know. Just not attacked each other, perhaps?" I complain as I struggle to release my death-grip. Now that my temper's faltered, it's a lot harder to muster the energy for it.

"Don't push yourself, my love," says Aidon, placing a hand on my shoulder. As the last word crosses his lips, a thrill runs down my spine. "He's fine where he is."

"The problem is he's too close to me," I grumble, glancing up to find the one in question still looking entirely too punchable.

Aidon snaps his fingers, and something large begins to clank and clatter its way down one of the shadowy halls towards us. A man-no, a skeleton-in ancient black armor, bearing an enormous cleaver of a sword.

"May I?" Aidon looks to me as the behemoth skeleton raises its sword over the vine-branch things where they snake across the floor, connecting my brother-in-law and I.

I nod. In the next moment the blade comes down, severing the link in a single, powerful stroke. I feel a moment's anxiety and a bit of pressure-but little else. The vines still clinging to my back go limp. The ones left behind stay put as if grown there, still rooting Deius to the spot. The armored skeleton turns and trundles away.

"Oh come on. Let me down."

Aidon quirks his lip, regarding him for a moment. "Eh."

"You know, you should be thanking me for giving you an early introduction to life at University," says Deius, looking to me now. "Dueling's the best part of the culture. It keeps everyone sharp, helps you hone your skills."

I scoff. "Duels are one thing, but all-out fights? Drawing blood?"

Deius begins to laugh again.

"What do you think the duels are? We're not a fragile little mortals anymore. Things are different for us."

While I process that bit of information, he quiets-concentrating as more electricity crackles outward from his skin. His muscles strain against the branches, which begin to blacken and break. At last they give way, and he drops to the ground.

"Anyway," he says, brushing himself off. "I came to invite you both to a party at my place tonight. In your honor, of course. I felt so terrible we couldn't make it to your wedding, it's the least I could do."

"That wasn't necessary," says Aidon stiffly. "There was a Squall. No one gets through those. It's fine."

"Nevertheless," shrugs Deius, smiling. "Teleia planned it, and it's happening."

With a long-suffering sigh, my husband looks to me. "What do you say to this?"

I scrunch my nose, turning from him to scowl at my new brother-in-law. "The food had better be really, really, really good, after all the energy I just wasted on you."

Deius smiles, flashing both his fangs. "Only the best," he assures me.

~*~

Deius's estate is on the far side of the caldera, closer to the city than ours but still perched just above it all. The moment we step off the landing pad, it begins to sink-taking the Corvus to some hidden hangar that must be very crowded by now. More craft hover overhead waiting to land, and music and laughter filters up to us even over the howling wind.

A lift takes us down to the foyer, where we're greeted by a pair of the largest and most extravagant synthes I've ever seen. They almost look like sets of armor themselves-save their tapered, back-bent legs-crafted all of platinum and silver with accents of gold.

In fact, everything about the place is grand and shining and gilded. It almost hurts my eyes.

From there, the synthes lead us down a long corridor with windows to either side-a covered bridge leading from one rocky peak to another. We step through the broad entryway at its far end to find ourselves in a tower crowded with Variants. Instead of successive floors it's filled with tiered, open levels that decrease in size as they go up. The entirety of the tower's forward face is glass in a rainbow of melting colors, fortified by slender panes.

There's a deafening clap of thunder as an enormous bolt of lightning shoots downward from the ceiling, striking the metal tree "growing" from the open space at the forefront of the tower.

The laughter and talking all quiets as a familiar voice rings out, amplified a hundred times over.

"Our guests of honor have arrived! Welcome, King Aidoneus Hades, my beloved brother! Welcome, Kore Demeter Hades, the world's only Persephone Variant!"

Beside me, Aidon bares his teeth, hissing his brother's name like a curse.

"Damn him."

"Everyone was going to find out anyway."

"They might have at least doubted it before."

I squeeze his arm. Cheers of welcome and even applause break out as we step forward, and I try to turn my grimace into a smile while fighting the urge to cover my ears. Several of the guests bow as we pass. Deius approaches from somewhere near the tree, arm-in-arm with a beautiful, gold-and-silver haired woman who must be Teleia. Her eyes are as warm as his are cold, the color of honey and sunshine, warmed further still by the brightness of her smile.

As Deius grasps his brother's hand, his wife reaches out questioningly, and I step into her light embrace.

"Welcome, Kore. I'm Teleia. It's so wonderful to finally meet you." She kisses me once on both cheeks then draws back, taking my hands in both of hers as she searches my eyes. Warmth floods up my arms at her touch, through my veins and straight to my heart. Standing in her presence-it's like listening to birdsong while sipping honey wine under the sun. I'd imagined a lot of things, when I'd wondered what it'd be like to meet a Hera Variant. But I'd never come anywhere close to this.

"Thank you," I gush. "You have a lovely home." It's not a lie-though the place had seemed entirely too much on the way in, that's changed. What had felt like a cold and glaring brightness has taken on a new shade. A heart behind the radiance that makes all the rest of it ring true.

"You're welcome here at any time," she assures me.

Guiding us over to another lift, the pair leads us to the topmost level, occupied by dinner tables and guests in extravagant finery. Shown to a set of high-backed, throne-like chairs at the center of the head table, we take our seats and the toasts begin.

Some six or so collective drinks in, Deius finally announces the beginning of the meal. A parade of courses, each more elaborate than the last, is trotted out for Aidon and I to take our first share. By the end of it, my appetite for ordinary food is long gone-but I'm starting to wonder where Syntrofos has gotten off to, and whether or not he's got a fresh supply of Ichor.

That's when Deius smiles over at us from his end of the table.

"Hope you saved room for dessert," he says. Just then, the lift opens and two synthes emerge, each with a tall, hovering box like a metal coffin in tow. I feel the warmth they give off almost immediately. Hear the rush of blood from within. The beating of hearts.

The synthes arrange the boxes neatly before us, and my cold Variant blood drains from my face.

Two muzzled humans look out from the heated interiors through narrow glass panels-eyes wild, pale with terror.