"Now Zeus, if I'm going to be under house arrest for one hundred years should we-" Before Aphrodite even attempted a final protest, Zeus had snapped his fingers, which was accompanied by a roar of thunder. White light filled her vision as the stormy sky, and her modest yacht faded from sight.

Aphrodite fluttered her lashes, squinting hard until her eyes adjusted and she found herself, Apollo, and Ember standing on a very familiar boardwalk.

She looked around, orienting herself until she faced the darkened storefront of her wine shop and a bittersweet smile touched her lips. "We had a good run." She said, looking up at the empty wooden sign above the door.

In just a few moments, Zeus had undone everything she created. She actually, kind of, liked the whole daily business thing. It had grown on her, partying for millennia had its perks, but maybe she really could start helping the mortals again. She did after all have more than enough time now to mull it over, surely one last case of wine on her chaise wasn't too much to ask. She pouted dramatically staring into the dark front windows to find the shop empty of all her hand-picked furnishings. As her self-pity kicked into full swing, Eros and Himeros rounded the corner coming from behind the building.

"I gave her the idea for the shop name," Himeros said, focused on his brother as they walked toward Aphrodite.

"No way! You Had Me at Merlot was my idea, and you know it." Eros argued.

"Where in the name of Hera have the two of you been?!" Aphrodite shouted.

"With Be-" Himeros' words choked off after his brother's elbow lodged into his gut.

"We've been looking for you." Eros grinned. "Hey, Ember! You're okay!"

"Of course, you're both gods too, right? That just makes sense now."

Eros smiled bashfully looking between Apollo and Aphrodite.

"Which ones are you?"

"These are the twins Eros and Himeros, they are both my blessing and my curse," Aphrodite said.

Ember's brow furrowed at the names. "Right, so they're cupids..." her mouth fell open and she looked as if she might lose her balance, "Wait, did you-"

"I didn't shoot you!" Eros screamed.

"Yes, we'll not from a lack of offering to do so." Himeros pointed out.

"Either way you two, we've been banned from the earth for one hundred years," Aphrodite stated nonchalantly.

"You were banned," Apollo corrected, "Zeus mentioned nothing of the twins."

"It was a give-in." She retorted.

"Not fair!" The twins protested in unison, "we didn't even do anything wrong!"

"You go where I go," She replied coldly, pointing two fingers at them and then at herself.

"But, we really enjoy the tall girl, Bel, and don't tell Eros I said so, but I think he actually like likes her," Himeros said, with an air of amusement.

"I'm standing right here, Himeros."

"See! He didn't say I was wrong."

"Well isn't that cute, everyone is falling in love all around me while I have to suffer the punishment for a job well done," Aphrodite said, though it wasn't really a punishment was it? She'd meant to wrap up this whole ordeal weeks ago, she'd earned a well-deserved break from these ever-so-fragile humans. Not to mention, Adonis needed to pay for his insult, she couldn't have him thinking he was safe. The poor fool didn't even know he'd spurned her.

"You didn't shoot Bel did you?" Ember asked wryly.

"I didn't shoot anyone," Eros grumbled. "And I told her the truth, too." He said looking pleased with himself.

"Ember, love, as were the terms of Zeus' punishment, I'd like to clear up any questions you may have. So if you'd step away with me, we can get this business concluded and my exile can begin."

"Unfortunately, I was recently poisoned by someone I thought was my friend in my own kitchen, so pardon my lack of comfort being alone with you... anywhere."

"I will accompany you back to your house, where you can speak with Aphrodite. It may not put you at ease, but as my soulmate, without an equal offense to be considered, none on Olympus may harm you." Apollo reached into his breast pocket as he spoke, "But, if you still feel words are not enough, then perhaps you'd do me the honor of wearing this." He extended a hand out to her, and in his wide palm laid a thin silver necklace, affixed with an arrow charm, the fletching, and arrowhead made of a deep purple stone. "It's amethyst, it will shield you from ill intent." Ember nodded in acceptance, turning her back to Apollo and pulling her hair to the side as he slipped the thin chain around her and secured the clasp.

"Unlike you, Apollo, I don't break agreements," Aphrodite growled. "And I'd like to point out that we could have spared ourselves that little tiff on the boat had you followed through."

"That's called gaslighting," Himeros said with a smile, "I learned it from-"

"Shut up!" Aphrodite shouted, slapping the back of his head hard enough for his glasses to clatter to the ground.

One short trip later, Aphrodite sat across from Ember at a round dining room table, her nails drumming against the glass of wine Ember had served her after she'd forbidden her from opening one of the leftover bottles from the shop.

"Out of curiosity," She asked, "Where is your mother? She never seems to be around."

"Probably working a double," Ember snapped, "She had to rise to the occasion when my father died, not all of us can snap our fingers and have food appear on our tables."

Aphrodite winced. "I shan't defend myself further, but you should know that I wasn't the reason they were driven apart. Your father's infidelity did not begin with me, nor was I his last."

"Is that why you killed him?" Ember bit.

Aphrodite ignored the comment, taking a long drink from her glass. "It had been centuries since a human had prayed to me," She began. "So when your mother's voice found my ears, I thought why not? It's one thing when you receive thousands of prayers a day, there's no way you can even know how to begin answering most of them. But one woman, heartbroken in the modern day, turned to me, well that is something that compels an answer."

Ember's eyes grew dark, "You don't expect me to believe my mother asked you to kill my father."

"No, darling, nothing as gauche as that. She never hated him, she just knew that she'd never be what he needed, and he certainly wasn't what she needed. Who wants to raise a child in a loveless home like that?"

Aphrodite pursed her lips trying to gauge how Ember was taking it, but she didn't flinch.

"So you see, his death was his own doing, unfortunately. He'd grown too comfortable around my finer things, and I had told him he could take what he liked, not realizing he'd make his way into my safe and pilfer relics. One such relic contained ichor, which is the blood of a God. It's deathly poisonous to most who aren't one of us, so when it shattered in the car accident, he didn't have a chance."

Pausing again, Aphrodite watched Ember who was staring unmoving at the table between them.

"By the time I'd realized what was taken, his accident had already occurred. He was never meant to die."

Ember finally met Aphrodite's eyes, an array of emotions dancing across her face. "I don't know anything about him, so I guess I can't argue what kind of man he was, but if it was his own fault, then why come back and set up this whole farce?"

"I rarely fail in any of my endeavors, and I certainly hadn't meant to leave you fatherless, but when I saw your life headed down a path that could only lead to loneliness, I thought I could help fix your trajectory."

"And when I didn't want your help, you tried to poison me?" Ember glared.

"Apollo would never have stepped up unless he had a push. You could have been dead fifty years before he'd have even told his annoying brat of a sister. He gets hung up on little things like the truth, so I did what love sometimes has to do. I got creative."

"You are the most self-serving god among us, don't play this off as if it were for anyone's benefit but your own!" Apollo shouted from the living room where he was keeping watch.

"This is meant to be a private conversation. So I invite the peanut gallery to keep to itself, on the couch!" She shouted back.

"Hard not to interject when you're still trying to disguise your games as altruism."

Aphrodite finished off the rest of her glass with a complimentary eye roll for her fellow Olympian. "Anyway, I don't apologize for the way things turned out, as far as I'm concerned this is a win all around, including the fact that Miranda Milton won't be bothering you any longer, and though I will be detained, I am still quite fond of you. So please do not think twice about calling on me for help."

Ember's anger and hurt were still fresh and she offered Aphrodite little more than a glare. "I don't have any more questions."

With that, Aphrodite nodded and stood. Grabbing her clutch, she made her way to the door and onto the porch. She was greeted by the heartbroken sobs of Eros and Himeros as they hugged Bel and said their goodbyes.

Aphrodite cleared her throat, "It's time to go." She turned back to Apollo and Ember standing in the doorway, "Until we meet again, Ember Michaelson."