The room was stifling when I woke, Milo was shaking my arm and whining about the heat. His eyes had little dark circles under them and his dark hair was plastered to his forehead with sweat. I sighed and swallowed the groan that was about to follow, it felt like someone had slammed a concrete block into the back of my head and then hit my head again repeatedly with a plank of wood. Milo gave up trying to get me up and instead decided that the space below the desk was as good as any place to hide himself.

I sat up and massaged my temples with my fingertips. Where were we, and where was Henry?

Reality came crashing down and made my head hurt ten times more. I pushed the blankets back and stumbled around the room, trying to think of what to do. Survival 101 said to move, never to stay in the same place more than one night. That was much easier of course when I was't pulling Milo along with me.

I glanced over at him sitting under the desk pretending I couldn't see him. He hadn't gotten any sleep last night which meant he was going to be the crankiest kid the world had yet to see. I moved over towards him and then said, "Milo, honey, you need a bath and then you need to get dressed. We need to leave."

He crossed his arms and then said in a very toddler like way no. I sighed and then got on my hands and knees to pull him out from underneath the desk. When I grabbed him and pulled him out, he screamed. And as James had told me once before, Milo had lungs. He screamed and tried to pull away from me, almost hitting his head against the wall and door to the bathroom.

I forced myself to get him into the bathroom, undress him completely, and then get him in the bathtub.

As soon as he was in the water he stopped and just sat there, his lower lip quivering just the slightest bit. I sat down outside the tub and covered my face with my hands. I had to keep it together for Milo, I had to grow up and get my son to somewhere safe. Milo splashed the water slightly with his hands and then said, "I want daddy."

I looked up at him and my vision swam as tears started to fill my eyes. I wiped my eyes quickly, had to keep it together for Milo, if he saw me crying he would cry; I was not emotionally strong enough anymore to battle him again.

I moved his hair away from his forehead and then whispered, "Daddy's coming, I promise."

I got on my knees and Milo let me help him with his bath without crying or screaming.

When we were done with his bath I dressed him in his clothes again and then put my shoes on. Milo was sitting on the bed, his little legs scissor kicking the air. I sighed as I pulled my hair out of my face and tied it up with a rubber band.

"I want Cerberus." Milo said as he looked up at me. I swallowed the truth and then said, "Cerberus is out helping Daddy. They'll meet us somewhere I promise."

I was making one to many promises to my son that I couldn't keep, but it put a smile on his face to think he would see Henry soon. I picked him up and he wrapped his arms around my neck. I opened the door to the motel and then closed it softly behind me. When I turned around two men were standing at the exit to the stairs, they had their arms crossed and a twin set of evil smiles on their faces. I swallowed and looked the other direction at the wall that cut off my other escape route.

They looked at each other and their smiles widened when they saw me recognize that escape was impossible. I looked at the railing that led to a two story drop next to me. I made my way to it and one of the men said, "Oh now let's do anything to hurt ourselves."

I put my back up against the railing and then said, "You're right, you got me." I set Milo on his feet and took his hand tightly in my own. He looked past me and through the railing at the street below. I gripped his hand tightly and then said, "I have no where to go."

Their smiles fell as they realized my plan, they moved towards me and other spoke this time, "Careful what you do, you could hurt yourself of kill yourself and we have strict orders to bring you back alive and unharmed."

Something inside me told me they were actually sent to kill me, but I locked that thought away as I leaned backwards and took Milo over the railing with me.

He screamed and closed my eyes tightly and imagiened the softest place I could think of to land.

The world shifted and we landed heavily in a patch of tulips. Milo was crying again and I opened my eyes to look up at the sun, a tight smile tug at my lips.

There was a cry of outrage and when I proped myself up Persephone was running full tilt over to me. I sat up slowly and felt the ache in my head grow te times worse than before. Milo sobbed and clung to me tightly as I struggled to stand.

"Are you serious? I'm tired of you landing in my tulips when you come here!" Apparently Persephone had reached us and Adonis was not far behind her. I gave her a smile and then said, "Hello to you too."

She saw the state we were in and then said, "What happened." Her eyes narrowed and her face grew dark, which was surprising considering how sweet and innocent she always looked.

"Do you want a summary or the whole story?" I replied as I stepped out from the bed of flowers. She glared at me and then said, "Summary."

"Olympus was attacked, Henry's MIA, mom's MIA, no idea what happened to everyone else, people hunting me down, need safe place to hide for a little bit."

Her mouth dropped open and Adonis came up behind her, she put a hand on his chest and then said, "Go get the bow and arrows, we might have company."

He blinked and then with a tight nod, took off at a brisk jog towards a small shed near the corner of the house. Persephone grabbed my elbow and half dragged me towards her house. I was reminded highly of her old life and how she used to be in the same place I was. Then again, she hadn't had a crazy vengeful goddess try to ruin her life, and Henry had never gone missing with her. Milo continued crying the whole was up to the house, his soft wails of terror stifled by his hand which he had shoved into his mouth.

Persephone opened the door and ushered us inside quickly, Adonis was already inside notching an arrow into the bow. Persephone opened the door to the small guest bedroom she had and I guided Milo inside. He looked around and then ran back to me and threw his arms around my waist. I sighed and picked him up, he wrapped his arms around my neck and whispered that he wanted to go home.

Persephone watched me set him on the bed and move the blankets so that he could crawl into the bed and sleep. Once he was comfortable I sat next to him and caressed his forehead softly. A few seconds later Milo was out cold, his chest rising and falling softly as he slept. I stood and Persephone moved out of the way so I could leave the room.

I joined her with Adonis in the front room where most of her plants were kept. She motioned to a seat which I took gratefully and said, "What happened? Last I checked you and Henry were riding into the sunset, with Milo in tow."

"You think I know what happened?" I replied, maybe I was being a little rude to her, after all she was letting me stay here, but something about the way she kept glancing out the widows made me uneasy.

"I sure don't know what happened, do you have any idea?" She asked, then I caught the subtle lie in her words, it was buried so deep down though that I was surprised to have felt it.

"You really have no idea?" I replied, my eyes narrowing. Persephone looked taken aback for a moment before she said, "Everyone knows what happened. Everyone knows what's going on."

"Well I don't, which is completely normal for me. And I hate to pull rank right now, but I don't like not knowing, and as your queen I'm going to ask you nicely to tell me." I really did hate making it an order, but I had a feeling I wasn't going to get to the answer any other way. She narrowed her eyes and then said, "James, James is what happened and is happening."

I shift, suddenly very uncomfortable. What had James done, a part of me must have known this, but my heart didn't want to admit the truth.

"What has he done?" I whisper softly, my heart climbing into my throat each second that Persephone stays quiet after I ask.

"He's taken Olympus and is holding the entire Council captive," she looks down at her hands and then continues softly, "He's been planning this thing for five years. When I came to the manor that night, after you'd sent him out for things he'd said, I was going to tell you."

"Why didn't you?" I growled, my voice cold and icy, if Persephone had just said something Henry and I could have gone to the Council and all this could have been avoided.

"I swore to him that I wouldn't tell you. I swore on the River Styx that I wouldn't tell you until the whole thing had taken place." She looked truly ashamed and I felt my frown disappear, she may have been selfish to not tell someone, it hadn't specified Henry I'm sure.

"Why didn't you tell Henry?"

"There was never a proper time, and by the time I got there to warn him you were gone and James had him up at Olympus," She rested her forehead in her hand and then continued, "he wants you Kate, he wants Milo and Henry gone, he thinks that he can get what he wants, oh Kate, he's lost it."

I feel my heart falter, James had captured the entire Council and taken Olympus, just to get to me? Persephone raises her head to look at me and I whispered, "why does he want me so bad, and why does he want Milo dead?"

Persephone swallows visibly and then says softly, "There's a prophesy. It speaks of an immortal child that will vanquish him and retake Olympus, problem is, it doesn't specify who the child is, so James is going around and rounding up all the immortal children. There are only two in the whole world right now-"

She stops when she sees my face and then she looks at Adonis carefully since he's rising to go to the door. She looks back at me and says in a hurried whisper, "The Fates had prophesied these children for years. The strange thing is, it's a boy and a girl. The boy is older, and supposedly he's already born but the girl is coming soon."

Adonis nods to her and then sits down again, Persephone seemed to breath again. I narrowed my eyes and said, "alright then, so I'm just throwing darts at a board but I'm guessing Milo's one of them."

"Kate, both the children are supposed to be Hades's children. That's why the rumor about us never sleeping together went around, it was because everyone thought I was supposed to have the children, but it's you. You are supposed to have the children."

Her eyes are watching me carefully, my brain picks every part of that comment apart before it starts to comprehend. I was supposed to give birth to these prophesy children, Henry was supposed to be their father and they were supposed to retake Olympus. Milo was what, seven? The last time we had let him handle a sword was when Dylan gave him one for his seventh birthday just to get a rise out of me. Milo could hardly carry the thing and Henry and I had put it in his closet in the box so that he could have it when he was older.

This second child though, how I the name of Olympus was I supposed to have another child while Henry was all the way up on Olympus and I was all the way down here, unless-

I felt the blood drain from my face and Persephone grabbed my arm, I couldn't feel the touch though, all I could about was a few days ago when Henry and I had slept together.

Why did this always happen to us? I was seriously tired of the whole someone wanting to take revenge and me magically being pregnant at the worst times possible. Henry probably didn't know, unless the whole impassible desire to sleep with me had been so that this second child could be born. Which would have to mean that Henry had known all along what was going on and hadn't told me. He had been thinking about the future, at least that was what he had told me, and he hadn't bothered to say, hey Kate there's this prophesy about two of our children and you have to have them like right now so that they can go kick James in the ass when he takes over Olympus tomorrow morning.

"Kate?" I snap out of my thoughts and Persephone says, "You have to go, we need to hide you somewhere safer. James thinks I'm on his side, I can feed you information from the inside and pass messages along to Henry."

I shiver and then say, "Persephone, I'm pregnant right now, like two or three days pregnant."

She laughs, it's wonderfully happy and when I look at her she says, "It's just that, Henry has no idea!"

I narrow my eyes and say, "what are you talking about? Of course he does, he knows about the prophesy."

"Kate, Walter never told him, only me, James, and Walter know about it. The Fate's had just missed Henry. He had left on some important business or another and I was about to leave when I saw James eavesdropping on something in the throne room so I went over and listened too."

I blink as that fact registers, again Henry would have no idea that I was carrying his child, I was getting sick of Walter keeping things from us.