"I have so many questions," I whispered to Cain as we followed Eirene towards a glamping village that made the one Penny wanted to visit at Glastonbury look like a kids' cubby house. "How long until she realises you're not called Leander anymore? Also, what even?"

"It was the era, everyone was an Alexander, and I wanted to be different. It's not the first time I've gone by another name or appearance, either by my choice or anothers."

"And I'm the one who apparently can't be responsible for naming our child" I mumble.

Only it made me think, and not just about naming credits. Leto had never named him. His Other family had been the first with the name Cain, which Hera had taken from him and replaced with Nku, a sheep, as an insult before cursing him as the Fallen One. Since then how many identities had he hidden behind or tried to become throughout the years? Even in our time together he'd been Darius, Leo and the Dark King. He'd really only just reclaimed Cain.

More would soon know him as Emperor.

And one would forever call him Dad.

I stopped walking, my heart feeling like it might burst over how much I realised I truly loved him, while simultaneously aching for all the horrible things he'd gone through.

"Then how do you know who you really are?"

"Well, I know who I'm not." He moved to stand in front of me, taking my hands in his before placing a single kiss on my forehead. "And who I want to be."

There was no way I'd be able to hold back the flood my body now seemed able to create on-demand and hiding my face behind my hands, loud, body-shaking, sobs erupted from me. The more I tried to stop it, the worse it became, even after I was able to lean against Cain's chest and have him hold me.

Never mind him, who even am I these days?

"I'm fine, totally fine. Allergies." I hiccuped, using my sleeves to wipe my eyes like I might be able to take them out and find the damn off switch. "Any idea where she brought us?"

Apparently sticking around to witness one of my mental breakdowns wasn't on Eirene's list of things to do today as the woman had vanished and I had a feeling we were very far from home.

"I'm not sure it's safe to ask you if you're okay, so I won't just yet." He hesitated, looking me over slowly. "And I'm not sure, I thought she might take us to the Crossroads, but I don't think this is it."

I had to agree, this gave off none of the low-grade horror movie vibes and weirdness that place had. It didn't make it any more familiar though, and thankfully I still had my powers as I closed my eyes, took a big breath and tried to get a sense of anyone nearby or something that could give us a clue where we were. All I sensed was power and a lot of it.

"Kara is going to be so mad when they all realise we've gone."

"Let's focus on the here and now."

"Of course, you'd want to do that because this is technically your fault and they're all going to be so mad at you for putting me in this situation. Side note, how many times do you think they'll lay down the pregnancy card again? This morning was brutal." I shudder, anger replacing the achey hurt and insane amount of love I'd been flooded with a second ago.

"Not my fault because you dragged me through the portal. Gaia and Fourth seem to be trigger words for you." He answers through clenched teeth, looking around us as he clearly tried to work out where we were as I just had.

At least he stood a chance at possibly working it out, my other world travel passports were very limited.

"Oh please, you were decided on the Fourth we were following her. Also, not my fault when you whisk me away for what I expected to be, secluded, lion-free, special cuddles, but instead turned out to be a tea party with your ex." I start walking again, and he instantly follows.

"Not my ex."

"No?"

"No."

"Dearest, old friend then, Leander." I stop suddenly. "I mean, like, did she always have blue hair? Are you into that and for an ex, why is she so nice to you when I am guessing you and Portia were hardly Florence Nightingale helping her out of the kindness of your hearts?"

Cain rubbed his face, before pinching the bridge of his nose as he clearly needed a moment.

"Are you jealous, Elle?"

"No."

He laughed and I nearly pulled my sword out to stab him with it. "You know us too well. Portia had a vision. She saw all twelve of Eirene's sisters appear to take her home through a portal. They once had great power and were able to travel through the realms of their own will. I completely believe the stories. They are truly good. Pure. Innocent. I doubt they could harm any, which is why only three remain. If they even count as alive. But yes, we saved her life, and then I attempted to use her to get home by abusing her trust and breaking her heart. It wasn't until I failed their judgement, I realised how wrong it had been to do that."

"Clearly you learned your lesson."

"I did. When it was important to remember it." The intensity in his gaze made me wish this was our lion-free, secluded, special cuddle time and my eyes felt too dry which only made them go all watery to try and fix that.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Maybe I could still stab him and get it over with. "I nearly became the Little Mermaid because of you breaking hearts and whatever!"

Damn these hormones! All of this was exactly why I was happy to stay in our room, rest until I didn't feel so tired, eat my snacks and avoid any kind of adventure that involved walking, riddles and no matter how he spun it, my baby daddy exes.

"I lived with no regret. And I have had a life generally free of consequences."

"Obviously since you and Drac and-"

Cain shook his head, silencing me as he continued talking. "Different circumstances. Anyway, I had no regrets until this unusual female Hunter turned up on a very important day. She literally walked into me outside a church and all I could think about was the colour of her eyes and all the ways that I'd kill the man with her to make her mine."

"Nothing screams love like killing someone to claim their girl. How very caveman of you, Leander. I really underestimated the impression I must have given you when we met after that. Not the English rose you'd been expecting?"

"Indeed, especially since I'd been demanding Portia do what she could to locate you as once the treaty nonsense was sorted, I was going to ensure we'd meet again." I started to feel less stabby and he'd never talked about this how he now was before. "But of course, then everything was revealed and everything else happened."

I could argue more over that but I didn't, taking a second to imagine how everything could have been if things were that different. I'd be in my little manor, doing women things like cross-stitch or gods forbid, piano lessons or whatever they did back then, and this random, scary, yet undeniably attractive man would come in, kill everyone and we'd ride off into the sunset. I bet even the Grimms couldn't turn that into a bestselling fairytale.

"And yet here we are," I whispered, leaving my daydream behind as I bit my lip thoughtfully. Cain inched closer, and I didn't need to be an oracle to know his intention as the rage returned. "Lost in another freakin world because that super nice goddess with the awesome hair, who is known for 'peace', you once used for your own selfish, personal gains, brought us here to apparently see Gaia and get all the answers we have been looking for!"

I sounded hysterical by the end and Cain took half a step back. I didn't blame him. I'm back to feeling stabby again, even after whatever moment that could have been. I want my blanket and bed, and a movie with popcorn. Something violent, but with a happy ending like Die Hard.

"If I go into labour right now, I'm taking you down with me." I threaten before continuing to walk on as if I knew exactly where I was going.

Technically I did, as the village that was spread out in front of us was obviously the destination or at least I hoped it was. There was a lot of power coming from this direction which made me even more jittery and anxious while fuelling my confidence and anger. Maybe I should just skip this whole thing, and hope portals were like phone booths and we could just pop in one and dial home. I'd be willing to drop a house on a witch if it earned me a way out of here.

Information on the Fourth be damned, I'll take the ruby slippers, Glenda.

"Shit, what, why did you say that? Are you in pain, is it happening?" Cain panicked behind me, catching up in an attempt to stop me. "We haven't even done those birth classes Doctor Katie gave us the brochure for."

"I'm fine, just saying!" I huff, slowing down as three white doves take flight across the path and towards the town.

"We should follow those." Cain sighs. "It's probably Eirene."

"She turns into birds?"

He just shrugs, and we keep moving. Despite sensing a lot of power around us, tent doors wave open in the breeze revealing empty abodes, and no other life actually there besides the birds. I have to flex my hands, curling them into fists before stretching again and again as the urge to hold my sword gets worse. Cain keeps looking behind us, which doesn't help and it's hard to pinpoint one singular source of energy. I feel like we're surrounded, yet no one is here.

The birds suddenly go up into the sky, the brightness of the sun nearly blinding us as the clouds part. I reach for Cain's hand, yet the delicate, thin fingers that entwine with my own are not his and where he had been, Gaia now stood there smiling back at me.

"Gaia!" I gasp.

"Hello, Elise. I'm glad you came."

"Where is Cain?"

She doesn't answer and instead starts towards the largest tent, each step twinkling with the sound of the small bells that decorated her clothing as I let her hand go. "This way child."

I don't move, yet find myself suddenly inside with her. The white doves fly in behind us and settle near a golden table, transforming into Eirene and two others with equally stunning coloured hair of purple and green. They fall back into the overstuffed cushions that had been piled up around the space, tiny feathers falling around them and over the table that is soon covered in wine bottles and chocolates. Looking around us, one by one other figures appear around the room. Some women played cards, others painted or read, lounging around as if they had absolutely nothing else to be doing.

These weren't the same wild women that filled the Crossroads.

I felt like I had belonged there and here, I was more like an intruder or worse, a prisoner. Somehow I'd prefer a smelly old dungeon than this show of light and goodness because that's exactly what it was. It was a light faes wet dream, and if someone didn't start farting rainbows I'd be disappointed. Bells, soft giggles and floral, feminine scents mixed with the earthy warmth of the air. It was a dream, more so as a unicorn actually wandered in, nibbled on some of the flower garlands hanging from the roof then trotted on out like it actually had a better place to be.

Was this, heaven?

That place I'd glimpsed beyond the light so many times before?

Something soft brushed against my foot and looking down, my clothes had been replaced with the Grecian-style gowns everyone else wore and the black rabbits that hopped by reminded me of the animals Hecate kept around her cottage. More and more little black, furry creatures appeared, which only helped increase my anxiety.

"Gaia, please. Where is Cain?"

The room stopped, and cautiously I stepped around the rabbits as the prickly feeling of something on my head had me reaching up to find a flower crown. I froze as Gaia stopped, turning to face me; she was more a hologram of light, her form flickering like a candle's flame as she moved to sit.

That wasn't any normal chair.

It was a throne, one I'd once sat on; decorated with furs, flowers and bones. Crystals and feathers that had matched the outfit I had claimed for the God Killer seemed to stare back at me in recognition and yet the mirage faded from monochrome, blacks and greys to gold and white as she sat down. The three-moon symbol above her head matched my wrist tattoo and something red began to rise from the ground. Blood.

Blueberry kicked me just under my ribs, snapping me out of my daydream with a sharp gasp of surprise. Thanks, kid. The blood was gone, but everything else was still here.

"Thank you for coming," Gaia answered.

"Where is Cain?"

I felt the air grow denser around me as one by one the figures began to either inch closer or disappear. The fact I couldn't sense him close by didn't help my mood, and I hoped they sensed that. It had become the longest day and I was over.

"So much has happened since we last spoke, Elise." She stroked the fluffy white fur on the armrests as if they were a pet, her nails leaving a pathway from her touch. "Hecate wishes to be here, only her movements are somewhat restricted these days."

Restricted? "Is she okay?"

"She is well enough." I wasn't sure what that meant for Hecate. "How much do you know about Uranus and his plans?"

"Well, I know enough but whether I share that with you depends on if you are going to tell me where you've sent Cain." Walking closer, she gives little away but many of those animals seem to be following me, gathering around the base of her chair.

My chair.

"I assume you came here to find out answers regarding the Fourth, the one who was able to stop his Erinyes the last time." She sounds bored, disappointed even. I'm not doing what she wants me to do.

I look around, seeing the same disinterest on the other faces, but also the caution. Eirene only wanted me to follow her, until what - what made her decide that Cain could come with us? I look at the chair, the tiny crocodile skulls, and others. The sharp points of the crystals, the bones embedded within the wood and remembered when I claimed my power back. The look on Ivy's face as she realised her Prophet lied. This time when I looked at Gaia, she smiled.

"Am I here to be your entertainment?" I snapped.

"I'm not sure what you mean?" Her innocence was a lie.

All of this was.

This time when my sword demanded attention, I gave it and the few that may actually be as good as they claimed, vanished. The others looked hungry now, desperate for the fight. I'd been in enough battles to recognise that look of insanity; it was probably how I looked too. Nieve chose then to appear in my mind, her voice in my ear whispering curses or maybe stating facts.

There was war in my blood.

"You seek the fourth to do what, fight this battle for you?" Gaia questioned, making me wonder if that was a rhetorical question. "Hecate sings you praises, made you her Empress. I wonder if she, if any of you, understand what such a gift entails."

"We know, and I believe that's mine." I motion to the throne, and she smirks; her golden eyes blazing.

"You are merely a little girl playing dress-ups. Your head is filled with fairytales. I smell your mortality on you like a disease, and that bastard within your womb is just another failure tainting my line." Wow, this day just kept getting better and better. "You can not possibly understand what is coming, I feel you know how unprepared you are. This is my offer, leave now, back to your realm. Be human. Mortal. Live and die as your race was intended to do."

"Excuse me?" Surely I just hallucinated all of that.

"Or die now." Gaia finished with, her tone firm and final.

The woman around me lost their masks, the demons within their human skins coming out to play. Long, snake-like tongues flickered towards me with drool glistening across their fangs.

I swallowed the lump in my throat. "Since I am so young and new to all of this, tell me. Are you the same woman I met in the Crossroads? What is this place?"

Tartarus.

The word slid around the room as if they were chanting for their favourite football team. What or who was Tartarus?

"As I said, Elise. Much has changed since I last met you. The Erinyes return is one matter, Ouranus is another, and one none of us saw. This is an act of kindness; perhaps, my response to your existence will remind him of his place."

If I got out of this, I swear I will read every damn book in that giant, fucking library. Maybe they had an audiobook section?

"Wait, are you scared of him?" Gaia flinched, her hands clawing into the ends of the chair. "Oh wow. You are. So I'm being punished because-"

"Enough. Choose your fate now." She demanded, just as whatever sixth or seventh sense that had always told me when Cain was near flared back to life.

"Seriously? No one has ever let me choose before, so first of all, thank you. That really means a lot." I smiled at her, enjoying the glimpse of confusion on her face. "But like, now I have that option, what do I do? What would you do? Abandon everything you've fought so hard for, and from your bastard remark, I assume my new old life won't include this little guy, or just roll over and will they eat me or just make it hurt a lot?"

"Decide, or I will."

"Fine, before I give you my answer, one more question. Please?" I ask nicely, earning a flick of her hand in response. "Eirene, she really for peace and as nice as they say or just getting one back on Cain?"

Gaia frowned. "The Horai are as they say. She brought you here under false pretences, to repay a favour owed to me. Your answer, Elise."

"Damn it, I was hoping I could use that one later. Nevermind. Oh, and my answer?" I walked towards her, one hand on my belly praying to Blueberry it wasn't about to be the last time I felt him moving under my palm while my sword was as tense as I was in anticipation of what was about to happen. "Option C or D or whatever. I'd rather die stopping the Erinyes and Nieve or even not at all until I'm old and have a nice retirement set up in the Underworld waiting for me. Cocktails. Pool boy. Bingo on Fridays."

"Enjoy death."

She was gone in a ball of light as that was all that remained around me. My power moved as its own entity, a fifth limb that knew what I wanted before I could think of it. The demons barely made a sound as life vanished from the room, some turning to ash, others goo that the rabbits slipped in as they all fled. The second my hand touched the throne it returned to its former look, each rune and marking calling out for me to claim it once again as the tent was torn to shreds around us. Pieces flew like white flags into the stormy sky that bled as red as the ground I walked on, back to him.

There was nothing remaining of the village as I left it, each hidden beast we'd sensed but not seen when we'd arrived was barely a remnant of what it had once been. They didn't matter, and if that was Gaias worse she had to do better. It was then I finally saw Cain, and with foreign eyes, I saw it all like a memory I didn't know I had as Portia's vision came to life. The man that would burn the world down for me, was the one that stood waiting on the top of the hill. As I joined him I realised how right she was in every sense as the lands beyond us were on fire.

"It really was all a trap. Are you okay?" He finally asked, doing more than just looking as I wrapped my arms around him; the tingle of his power searching every inch of my body and beyond.

"I am." After all, a phoenix rises from the ashes and I was prepared to burn.

Gaia had no idea what she just started or maybe she did as the ground suddenly trembled and apparently I wasn't the only thing prepared to burn as a human shape appeared on the horizon beyond the flames. The figure was shrouded by smoke, yet every instinct I had was quick to determine this was some Jack and the Beanstalk level of crazy as those trembles only came in time to each of the giant's steps.

"Remind me again what Tartarus is?" I ask Cain and instantly his face falls. "It's not good is it?"

"Hell. Beyond the Underworld, it is a realm into itself where the truly terrible and banished go." He explains cautiously as if it was a thing and it might hear us.

"Ironic considering you were the King of Banishments like Oprah is the Queen of car giveaways."

"Really? You bring that up now?"

"I have to otherwise I am going to completely freak the fuck out and I really just wanted a rest day. Please don't make me run." I beg.

Cain looked back towards the village. "Destroying that probably didn't help considering Gaia is rumoured to be the mother of those cyclops."

"Setting fire to whatever that all was wouldn't have got his attention and it was a choice of me or them and I'm still here. I am also thinking you weren't put into a five-star hotel, and here you are so point to us in round one." Groaning I look around for some kind of answer that isn't here. "Wait, didn't Apollo kill a cyclops?"

"Yes." Cain frowned. "It nearly killed him twice and he was too full of himself to stop. Not sure how he actually pulled that off, especially since they're mostly immune to our powers."

"So we avoid it, and find a way out instead?"

"They're not the only things in here, Elle." For the first time ever I saw a hint of fear in his eyes. "The ones that Hades won't take to the Underworld come here. The Titans were banished here. Zeus sent, who knows to this world. The cyclops is the least of our worries right now, and depending on how we get out could impact, everything, as unleashing anything down here into any of the other realms would be devastating. Plus, it's not just a realm, there is a being, like Gaia, here. A first. We don't stand a chance, we can't get out of here with force."

"It's not much of a plan, but I'll work with it."

We start walking, away from the giant cyclops and towards the trees we'd arrived by. Cain instantly started looking around where the portal must have been but after a minute or two, we moved on towards another hill, sticking close to the rocks and dead trees on the way. The longer we spent here, the more everything began to age and decay. The grass turned brown and brittle, trees lost their leaves and the sky darkened. Apart from the groaning and roars of the cyclops, there was a faint wailing constantly in the air. I wasn't sure what that was about, and I didn't want to know.

I was focusing on my feet, cursing every decision I had made today when Cain suddenly stopped walking. Bumping into him, I looked up and wished I hadn't as what I saw could not have been a more fitting scene to describe Hell as, and from here it looked as though we were right in the middle of it.

"I am never following you through a portal again."

The look he gave me almost made me question just how much he may or may still love me right now. Cain opened and closed his mouth, clearly trying to work that out too and in that end just made a weird grunting sound that stopped as soon as the crunch of a step was too close for comfort.

Sure enough, our giant stalker literally stepped right over us as we ducked down within the creepy, dead forest and now watched him, as he headed towards a castle shape on a far cliffside.

"Just so we're clear, that's where we're going to go right?" I ask as the giant goes inside.

"Yes, Elise."

"Great, Cain."

He rolls his eyes and starts walking again, while I poke my tongue out at him like the worthy, mature Empress I am.

"Or should I say, Leander?"

This time all I get is a groan in response.