The next morning, I wake with a smile on my face so big that it hurts the muscles in my cheeks. I yawn loudly and reach my fingers up above my head, stretching out all the sleep from my limbs. My back clicks into place with a satisfying pop, and I grin lazily to myself.

Now that, right there, is the perfect way to wake up.

I roll over, expecting to see Hades lying next to me in all his handsome, shirtless glory, only to find his side of the bed cold and perfectly made. My mouth instantly dries. I bolt upright in bed, the sheets falling around me in a pool of porcelain cotton as I glance around my room wildly. For a moment, a part of me panics, terrified that last night didn't happen at all. But then I spot his trench coat and bloodied shirt on the floor at the end of my bed, and the panic removes its claws from my chest.

But then the dread filters in, slithering through my veins like a frigid, vengeful snake.

I look around again, this time taking time to investigate every inch of my room, not only with my eyes but with my ears as well. The first thing I notice is the silence. And the moment I notice it, it's all I can hear; in fact, it's deafening. I frown, sitting up straighter. The whole time I've been here, it's never been completely silent. There's always been the muted hustle and bustle of palace life, of all the servants moving around as they cleaned the various rooms or brought news to either Hades or myself, but right now, there's nothing.

Something is wrong. Something is really wrong.

I slip out of bed and dart over to the bathroom, almost tripping over the sheets in my haste to get moving. I get dressed in record time, not even bothering to put on anything further than a pair of navy exercise pants and a black shirt. Once I'm dressed, I take a moment to splash ice-cold water over my face, trying desperately to ignore the erratic beating of my heart. Breathing in deeply, I stare into the mirror, the terror stealing colour from my face just as quickly as it speeds up my heart. I had a feeling; an awful, stomach-turning feeling, twisting my gut up into a demented pretzel. And I couldn't shake that feeling that something was really, really wrong. That Hades was in trouble.

I close my eyes, and try to reach out for Hades with my mind. He doesn't reply. I can't even feel the presence of his mind anymore. My heart leaps up into my throat. I think back to last night, and the finality that I'd detected in Hades tones. I hadn't thought much about it then, but now that I do, the horrifying realisation hits me like a truck, and I actually stumble against the counter.

He wasn't showing me he loved me.

He was saying goodbye.

He doesn't think he's going to come back alive.

Kronos.

"Kezia!" I storm into the kitchen, the doors flying open with a bang. The air around me starts to hum, like someone has electrocuted all the air particles around me and sent them into a panicked frenzy. My words come out short and clipped. "Where is he?"

Kezia startles, turning around with wide eyes. She eyes me warily. "Where is who?"

"You know damn well who, Kezia!" I snap. Black fog starts to curl around my fingertips. "Where has Hades gone?"

Kezia slowly places the knife she'd been holding back on the bench. I don't miss the two, careful fingers she keeps strategically placed on it. "Evie, you need to calm down. You've got a scary look in your eye, and there's an even scarier black fog gathering around you that I really don't like the look of."

"Kezia, I don't have time to play games. Where is he?"

"I'm not playing games with you, Evie." Kezia's fingers curl around the handle of the knife. "But I'm also not going to tell you anything until you calm down. An angry Evie is an irrational Evie, and an irrational Evie will be no help to Hades if she's working with no hands."

"Are you threatening me right now?" I ask incredulously. Kezia merely raises an eyebrow.

"Why don't you keep being irrational and find out?"

I let out a strangled growl of frustration, and throw her a glare that would melt lava. Kezia doesn't budge. I mutter several expletives under my breath, several of them Latin ones that I'd learnt exclusively from Hades on one boring afternoon, but begrudgingly take a deep breath and unclench my fists. I didn't even realise I'd clenched them in the first place.

The moment my fingers release, the air stops humming around me, and the dark fog dissipates around my fingers. Kezia breathes a barely audible sigh of relief.

"Alright. Now, please. Tell me. Where has Hades gone?"

"I don't know." Kezia holds her hands up hastily when I narrow my eyes at her, and gives me a look. "And before you get all scary Queen of Death on me and call back the fog of fatality, I haven't seen him all week! The only mention I've even had of Hades is when someone came running through here this morning, babbling about 'telling the king that Kronos was escaping again'. That's it."

"But that doesn't make sense." I frown. "Hades came back last night."

Her brow raises. "Well that's news to me. What did he say?"

"He didn't say much. He turned up out of the blue, looking like death warmed up, and then when I woke up this morning, he was gone, and—"

"Wait, wait, wait." Kezia stops me with a shake of her hand. "What do you mean, he looked like 'death warmed up'?"

"Exactly that; he literally looked like death warmed up! He was crazy pale, and he could barely stand, and he had this horribly gory wound right across his face—"

"Hang on. Hades was wounded?" Kezia asks sharply. I nod. She swears loudly, rubbing her jaw. I throw my hands up in the air.

"See, that right there, that reaction is why I'm getting all 'scary Queen of Death' on you! Hades is hurt and he's in trouble and I need to—"

"Evie, stop. You need to—"

"Would you stop interrupting me?!" I yell, my frustration finally getting the better of me. Kezia pauses, giving me a pointed look. I let out a shuddering breath and mumble an apology.

"I'm sorry, Kezia. You didn't deserve that. I just—" I stammer incoherently, running a shaky hand through my hair. I glance over my shoulder. "I need to go. I need to find Hades and help him."

"Evie, no." Kezia grabs wrist, spinning me back around. She looks me in the eye. "Stop for a moment and listen. And when I say listen, I mean listen carefully, and that means without making the air around you crackle with your fury. Can you do that?"

I manage a barely coherent grunt of affirmation, but keep one eye on the door.

"Alright fine, I guess I have to take that." Kezia sighs. "Look Evie, I think you and I both have a pretty strong inkling of where Hades has gone, but before you go storming off to save him, you need to stop and think. I know you whole-heartedly believe that you're going to be helping Hades by tracking him down, but don't you think there's a reason he left you behind this morning, instead of taking you with him?"

I hesitate. "Well, yes, but..."

"But what?"

"Well, maybe he wasn't thinking rationally. He was really hurt and really upset and—"

"Evie." Kezia gives me a look that borders on sympathetic. "You're the one not thinking rationally right now. Don't you think any of this is suspicious? Neither of us have seen Hades for over a week, and then the day he returns to recuperate, someone runs through the palace, screaming 'Mayday'? That seems fishy to me, and the person who brought the news to Hades seemed even fishier."

"What do you mean? How did they seem fishy?"

"They didn't feel dead, Evie. And all of the workers in the Underworld are dead. All of them." Kezia stresses. An icy shiver runs down my spine. Kezia notices the fear in my gaze and grabs my face, giving me a hard look. "Be smart about this, Evie. Hades has already gone charging in there, oblivious to what he's going to come across, and it would just be downright stupid for the only other ruler of the Underworld to do the same. You can't leave the Underworld without a patron; you need to stay here. There are people counting on you, counting on your leadership; especially now that Hades is gone, Rhadamanthos is officially AWOL, and Minos is struggling to—"

"Wait."My mouth dries as I stare at her. A heart-stopping realisation dawns on me. "Rhadamanthos hasn't returned?"

"No. He's been gone for almost two weeks now, and—"

I spin on my heel and fly from the room without a word.

A million thoughts rush through my mind as my footsteps clatter down the marble halls. If Kezia's telling the truth, then Hades will have gone back down to Tartarus; an eventuality that I have to try really hard not to worry about. But how was I supposed to get down there? I had no idea how to even find Tartarus, and I couldn't just transport myself around the Underworld like Hades could; I couldn't even turn invisible without being scared out of my mind. So how was I supposed to get down to Tartarus?

Then an idea strikes me. I grimace. Of course it had to come to this.

I dash around the corner, narrowly avoiding running into a flustered worker, and into the garden. Skidding to a screaming stop, I suck in a gasping breath and glance around frantically. Oh, this is such a bad idea.

"Cerberus?"

Silence.

I scurry over to his kennel and cautiously peer around the towering doorframe, swallowing back my fear. "Cerberus? You there?"

Still more silence.

I clear my throat and step into the doorway, seeing no other option other than talking into thin air and hoping he'll hear me.

"Look Cerberus, I know you and I have had what some may call a 'rocky start,' what with you showing me your true form and causing my entire body to fill with bone-chilling terror, and even though I haven't quite recovered from that whole experience... well, I'm really, really worried about Hades. I think he's in trouble, and I really need your help. Please. So uh, could you please show yourself, so I don't feel stupid talking to thin air?"

No response.

I sigh, my head falling into my hands. How am I going to help Hades now?

The sound of a twig snapping behind me sends a jarring jolt up my spine, and I spin around to find Cerberus standing behind me. I jump, swallowing back the scream that rises up in my throat. Cerberus watches me with an intelligent gaze, tilting two of his three heads to the side. He hasn't bothered to hide his true form from me this time either, and the pure immensity of his gargantuan size is enough to freeze me to the spot for several, long seconds.

I gulp, rubbing my arms. "Oh god, you're really here. That actually worked. Okay. Words, Evie. Speak words. You can understand me, right?"

Cerberus growls slightly, as if to tell me that was a stupid question to ask. I laugh nervously.

"Okay, I'm sorry. Do you know where Hades went?"

Cerberus nods his middle head.

"Can you take me to him?"

He watches me silently, all three of his heads slowly tilting to the side. My heart jumps up into my throat. "Please?"

Cerberus sighs and finally inclines all three of his heads. Relief courses through me. "Thank you."

The big dog barks once and kneels down, tilting his shoulder closer to the ground. My eyes widen.

"Oh, no. No, no, no. You can't be serious. I can't even ride a horse!"

Cerberus growls, his dark gaze glittering at me. I gulp and swallow back another protest, shaking the nerves out of my hands as I gingerly step onto the gigantic proffered foot. I barely have time to get a grip fur before the foot is moving and raising me up to the scruff of his neck. I squeak and pull myself up onto his neck as quickly as possible, too petrified to look back down at the ground. Wrapping my arms around his neck as tightly as I can, I hug myself close to his body, my heart thudding in my chest.

"Please don't let me die."

A rumble wavers through his chest, as if he's laughing at me.

Then he takes off.

An inadvertent scream rips through my lips as Cerberus leaps forward, moving faster than I thought was humanly possible. The surroundings of the garden, and then the Halls of Hades, and then the Elysian Fields, pass by me in such a whirlwind tapestry that I have to close my eyes and bury my face in Cerberus' neck. A sick feeling worms its way through my stomach, growing bigger and bigger the more the ground moves beneath us.

If I survive this, I am going to kill Hades.

Cerberus runs for what feels like hours, but in reality, it was probably more like five minutes. When he screeches to a halt, I slowly lift my head and swallow back the lump in my throat, the sick feeling in my stomach clawing its way up my throat like a demented dinosaur. I shakily untangle my hands from his fur and slip off his shoulder, barely able to keep my balance as I drop from the great height. Swallowing hard several more times, I square my shoulders and look up at Cerberus. A quiver wavers through my voice as I smile feebly up at him.

"Thank you."

Cerberus nods all three of his heads, barks once and vanishes, leaving me standing all alone in the Underworld. I wrap my arms around myself, a shiver washing down my spine. The impenetrable darkness around me seems to throb with malevolence, swallowing up all sound and light. The grey flowers seem to turn to me as I step closer, and I watch as a singular flower shrivels up slowly and drops to the ground. If Hades hadn't brought me here before, I would've had no idea where I was.

But I did. Because I could never, ever forget the cave door before me.

My heart thumps in my throat as I creep closer to the door, my entire body shaking. The muffled sounds of fighting and shouting filters through the cracks in the rock, the occasional blast rocking the ground beneath my feet. My heart stops when I hear Hades' voice rise above the noise, the raw pain in his tones seizing my heart in an icy grip. Fear freezes me to the spot.

What the hell is going on in there?

Hugging myself as close to the rock-wall as I possibly can, I edge through the crevice and peer inside. And the sight that greets me is enough to stop my heart.

The crack in the rock opens up into a large cavern that looks like it's been torn apart by a nuclear bomb. Large, jagged rocks lie thrown askew, like a maniacal giant had taken to the walls in a fit of rage. Even as I look around, another blast shakes the walls, hisses of dark energy swirling around me, and I flinch, instinctively covering my head. Shouts echo through the cave, and when I look back up, I have to cover my mouth with my hand to muffle my scream. Every single person that I know is chained up, unconscious, on the wall opposite me: Zeus and Hera, Minnie, Axel and Selene, Spencer and Ollie, even Leia — eight of them in total, their faces pale and streams of blood trickling down their arms from where their electric-blue shackles bite into their wrists. Directly to the right of them is a row of glittering, black bars, with indecipherable white runes glowing ethereally on each bar. And swirling inside those black bars is a pulsing, dark grey fog, within which I can just make out the blurry edges of a ghostly figure, throwing jagged daggers of fog hurtling towards the bars. Icy fear tingles down my spine as I watch one dagger break past the barrier and hurtle through the air towards...

My heart shatters in my chest.

Hades.

Both of my hands cover my mouth as I stare at him in wide-eyed horror. He dangles, unmoving, in the middle of the cave, held aloft in the air by his arms. The same electric-blue shackles pin his wrists together above his head, and even from this distance I can see the streams of blood trickling down his forearms. His head hangs low, scarily lifeless, and even though his eyes are closed, I can practically feel the pain radiating from him. A large, deep gash rips through the front of his shirt, leaving a jagged, bloody laceration right from the top of his left shoulder all the way down to his right hip. Suddenly, I lose all ability to breathe, and I have to physically swallow back the tsunami of fear that washes over me.

Please don't be dead, please don't be dead.

A small movement in front of Hades breaks through the haze of dread, and I tear my attention away from his face to see a man standing in front of him. The man spins on his heel and stalks forward a few paces, his features stormy, before whirling back around and sending another jolt of thunderous power blasting into Hades. Hades buckles in half with a gasp, his midnight-blue eyes flying open. I breathe a sigh of relief.

Oh thank god, he's alive. He's still alive.

Hades glares ferociously at the man in front of him, spitting out a mouthful of blood. "Why, brother? Why are you doing this?"

Brother? I gasp, dodging around the corner when the all-too-familiar man turns and looks in my direction. My eyes grow so big that I'm surprised they don't pop out of my head. Suddenly, it's all so obvious that I want to smack myself. Oh my god. It's Poseidon. Of course it's Poseidon. That's why I almost drowned in Greece. It's Poseidon.

When I peer back around the corner, Poseidon is facing Hades again. Only this time, he has his hand wrapped around Hades' neck in a tight chokehold. Hades' face slowly starts darkening in colour.

"I thought it was obvious, brother." Poseidon hisses. His grip tightens. Hades' cheeks turn a deep purple. "I am trying to free our dear father."

"Why?" Hades struggles to get the words out, his tone weak. "You were there when he was... free, you supported our reasoning for... locking him away. Are you so... bitter that you want to bring... imminent destruction upon us all?"

"You could never understand, Hades." Poseidon snaps. Unconstrained, roiling power rolls off him as he drops Hades and blasts him back into the cavern wall. Hades slumps into a heap with a soft grunt, pain glazing over his features. My throat locks when I see him try, and fail, to get back up to his feet. "You wouldn't understand how frustrating it is to sit on the side while your two brothers ruin the world they are supposed to be protecting. Have you seen the state of the world right now? The realm that I am in charge of, the people I am supposed to be looking after, are in danger of complete extinction because of the infuriatingly selfish attitude of the two deities who pledged to take care of the rest of the world. I am tired of waiting for you two to fix the mess you have made, so I am taking matters into my own hands."

"I have been selfish?" Hades spits. He painstakingly pushes himself up to his feet and wipes his mouth with the back of his hand. His other fist clenches at his side. "I have done nothing but look after you and Zeus from the moment we were all created. I have looked past all of your faux pas, ignored all the idiotic things you have done because somebody slighted your honour, and supported you in the best way I possibly could from my position. I am in charge of the Underworld, Poseidon; my responsibility is to look after the souls once they have departed your realms. So how am I the one being selfish?"