The next day when we almost didn't make it to the island. Just as Loki was about to uncover the boat, we heard his brother, Thor, call my name.

"Lady Eden!" he cried, as Loki quickly hid the boat again. "I was meant to tell you at lunch but completely forgot. My father has organised a ball to celebrate you and the other demigod's arrival. It will be held at the end of the week. My mother has offered to have the royal dress maker have something made for each of the girls. That is, if you don't have something already."

"I don't, no," I said. Dresses were not something I chose to wear. "I'd be very grateful."
"Wonderful!" he exclaimed, making me jump. "We will go now!"

"If you hadn't noticed, brother," Loki said, speaking for the first time. "Lady Eden and I are a little busy. Perhaps she could go for the fitting tomorrow?"

Thor looked suspicious. "But the dress maker is only in today."

"Do they have a shop in the town?" I asked.

He looked startled. "Well, yes, but -"

"Then I'll go into town and have my fitting there if they can't make tomorrow," I said hastily.

"Alright, then," Thor said, turning to leave. "I shall tell mother. I'm sure we can get someone to accompany you tomorrow."

I nodded, smiling. "Thank you!" I called after him, but he was already gone.

Loki laughed breathlessly, heading back over to the tree.

"That was close," he murmured.

"Definitely," I said. "But if you and Thor discovered the island, why not let him know we're going?"

He sighed and pulled the boat into the water. I joined him and we set off.

"Thor hasn't been to the island in years, not since we were small," Loki explained. "He's probably forgotten all about the island. If I told him that was where we were going, he'd use it as an opportunity to go on a 'quest'. He'd completely take over my island; turn it into a training ring or something. I just don't want something that is solely mine to become his. As most things of mine end up."

"Oh," I said. "I had no idea."

He smiled humourlessly. "Not many do."

"Well, I said I wasn't going to tell anyone about the island, and I'm not going to," I said.

"Thank you," he whispered, almost to himself.

We arrived at the island in no time at all. I was about to begin the stamina lesson when he stopped me. I raised my eyebrows at him.

"Did we not agree that today I would show you my elemental magic?" he asked.

Oh, yeah.

He walked towards the middle of the clearing.

"I believe splitting the field into four would be a good place to start, each quarter representing the four elements. First, air."

He motioned for me to join him. Suddenly, a massive wind engulfed us. It spun around, causing my hair to fly around furiously. Little bits of earth were ripped from the ground joined the spinning. After a moment, I felt the ground disappear under my feet. I clung to Loki for support, and he laughed. A truly joyous laugh, the first I'd ever herd from him. We too then started to spin, becoming on with the miniature tornado he had created. All too soon, though, we were floating steadily back to the ground. I hadn't realised we'd reached the floor until Loki prised my hands from his arm.

"Sorry," I said quietly.

Smiling, he stayed silence. He walked clockwise to the next quarter.

"Here," he said, "is fire."

I could feel the air explode with a new heat that wasn't there seconds before. Green fire appeared I front of him, a small flame flickering in the left over wind. Gradually, the flame grew. As it grew, it split off into different flames, forming seven medium sized fireballs around him. Each one was a different colour, every colour of the light spectrum, I noticed. The fireballs started rotating around him, blurring together to form a fiery band around his waste, slowly heating up. Then the fire started to expand upwards and downwards, forming a giant sphere of multicoloured fire around him. It was amazing. When the fire began to recede I went closer to him, knowing the demonstration was coming to an end.

I was about to say how amazing that was but he silenced me with his hand. We walked over to the fountain, sitting on the edge of it. After the heat of the fire demonstration, the cool spray from the fountain was a welcome relief. He placed his hand in the stream of water closing his eyes.

The water began to bubble slightly, whirling around his fingers. The water followed his hands as he raised them out of the water. It was constantly moving, going around and around in the football sized sphere as it floated between Loki's hands. He turned and faced me, holding it out to me.

"Create light and place it in the centre of the sphere. When it gets there, intensify the brightness of it. Watch what happens," he said, smirking.

I nodded and closed my eyes, creating a ping-pong ball sized ball of light and floating it towards the sphere. When it reached the centre, I made it shine bright enough to blind a man if it wasn't encased in water. The light shone out of the water in starts and stops, constantly changing as the water flowed. It was like a self powered disco ball. I smiled brilliantly, loving how the light danced across the polished marble of the fountain.

After about ten minutes of watching the light flicker, Loki sent the water back into the fountain, probably eager to start the final demonstration. I dimmed the light to a bearable level before getting rid of it completely. We moved to the final part of the recovering field.

"And finally, earth," he said.

He spread his feet apart in a firm position, rooted and grounded. He raised his hands in front of him, palms facing down. The ground rumbled and I fought to keep my balance. Suddenly the earth we were on rose from the ground, levitating in the air. We rose further and further into the air until our heads were level with the very tops of the trees. Then, parts of our island began to break off, swirling around us leaving trails of mud in the air. This was by far the most impressive. To have such control over earth as to raise it and have it flying around as is it were nothing was truly amazing. Although, looking at Loki's face it was very hard for him. Slowly, he lowered us back to the ground.

When we were safely on the ground he dropped his hands and started breathing heavily.

"That was amazing!" I gushed. "I've never seen anything like it. I mean, yeah, I've seen element manipulation before, but not like that. I doubt Percy has such control over water to do what we did by the fountain!"

He smiled wearily.

"I am glad you enjoyed it," he wheezed. "However, I may need a bit of a sit down. Earth manipulation always takes a lot more out of me that water or fire."

We went over to a tree and sat in its shade. Neither of us said anything for a while. Loki recovered slowly: the strength returning to him obvious in his face. He caught me staring at him, and before I could turn away he'd trapped my eyes in his gaze. I have no idea how long we were there for, but in those moments, with my heart beating faster and vision growing narrower until all I could see was him, I realised something.

I loved him.

With that everything started to make sense. That was why I felt so at ease around him, why his voice gave me the jitters, why I was happy just to be in his company, why I always sort him out when I was alone. Hell, even why I've kissed his cheek twice, something I never normally do to anyone besides my father. After all the times I'd gone on about never falling in love with a god and having my heart crushed, here I was doing just that.

I broke our gaze and leaned back against the tree, curling my legs up into my body.

"Is everything alright?" Loki asked, concerned.

"Yes," I said. "I'm fine."

He too leant back against the tree, seemingly unaware of my sudden revelation.

What in Hades' name was I going to do?