Hey guys, I'm SO sorry I haven't updated in ages! I've been super busy ever since the semester started again... Which also means that I won't be able to update very often in the near future. Anyways, enjoy reading and please review!

Hours later when I awoke Emma was still lying next to me, asleep now. Through the windows I could see the sun was setting. Quietly so I wouldn't wake her I got up from under the sheets and exchanged my smelly shirt and jeans for clean trousers. I looked at myself in the mirror, quickly pulled a hand through my hair so it would look at least slightly normal, and went back to the bed to wake Emma up with a kiss on her cheek. It worked. She groaned softly, then opened her eyes and blinked a few times.

'You're awake,' she said.

I nodded.

'How's your head?'

I chuckled. 'Fine.' I never had hangovers.

She sat up and trailed the battle wounds on my chest that had almost disappeared. 'Where are your scars?' she asked.

I frowned. 'What scars?'

'The one that your…Noah's body is covered in. There were scars everywhere. I never dared to ask you where you got them, but they're gone.'

I nodded. Being a god meant only the most extreme cuts would stay on my body as scars. The rest just disappeared, pretty much the same as it worked with humans except my body could handle wounds that were much more severe. 'Yeah. Mortals are more vulnerable. Look.' I focused and as my divine glow disappeared, every battle wound came back and with it a piercing headache. I grabbed my head, pulling on my hair while Emma watched, obviously horrified of what was happening. My wounds were not bandaged and blood came streaming out, until the pain made me stop concentrating and all that was left of the wounds was the blood on my skin.

'See what I'm talking about?' I said, relaxed again.

Emma drew her knees up to her chin and put her arms around them. 'Does that mean that as Noah you're not invincible?' she asked.

I sat down next to her. She looked at me with her blue eyes opened wide. 'I'm never invincible, but always immortal. Don't worry.'

She shook her head. 'I wasn't worried.'

I smiled. 'Good.'

I looked into her eyes for what felt like minutes while she looked into mine, still a bit afraid while not as terrified as before, when a familiar voice interrupted my thoughts. 'You make such a nice couple.' It sounded sarcastic.

Emma looked up, surprised, and stared in disbelief at the person behind me. I groaned. 'Apollo.'

Apollo stepped closer and I turned my body towards him. He laughed softly yet kept a serious look on his face. 'Father asked me to go and get you to come to the palace. Since you haven't been listening to Hermes…'

I shook my head. I knew I had to go back but I wanted to postpone it for as long as possible. 'In time,' I said, hoping Apollo was willing to compromise.

He grabbed my upper arm and pulled me away from Emma. I shook myself free and shoved him away, into the wall, with enough force to have broken the wall if it were built by humans. Within a second, he stood next to me again. He held a defensive stance but had given up on physical fighting. The speed and unnatural grace of our motions, like a dance, had had an impact on Emma: she had pushed herself back against the wood of the bed. I sat back, reaching out my hand to her, but she shook her head, refusing to let me touch her. Strange. I had thought she would need comfort. I looked at Apollo.

'Father may have graced you with a few days to ponder your actions, but he won't take no for an answer anymore. He demands that you be at the council room at once,' he said and turned to Emma. 'Miss Sawyer,' he said in a much friendlier voice, though still not letting his guard down and looking at me from the corner of his eyes. 'How charmed to meet you.'

She relaxed a bit. People did that in Apollo's presence, the way they tensed up in my presence unless I made an effort to not have such an effect. She did not, however, reply to him.

Apollo smiled at her. His dazzling white teeth and golden curls would have surely blinded her, if he hadn't been in this dark room. 'I'm sure we will meet again quite soon.' He then disappeared after reminding me of our father with an angry look.

I looked at Emma, who was clutching her knees again. 'What was that?'

I sat next to her, pulling the bedsheets over our legs. 'My brother. Golden boy Luca, better known as Apollo.'

She stared at the place where he had disappeared. 'I meant that last part. When he said we would meet again. Soon.' I swallowed. Obviously, Apollo had had a vision of what was going to happen, but he hadn't shared it. Even though he had said it to her in a very friendly way, I knew that there was some message hidden behind his words.

'I don't know. I'm sure it's nothing,' I said.

She nodded and looked at her watch. 'Oh!' she said, her hand flying to her mouth. 'I have to go, I have to pack!'

I frowned. 'Pack for what?'

'Tuscany. My mother has been there for a few weeks and asked me to come… So I'm going there for a little over a month.'

Tuscany, hmm? I was in need of a nice trip. I also needed to get away from the family, even if that was virtually impossible, and I couldn't make things right with Emma if she was leaving for weeks. I simply needed to see her as often as I could. Plus, I felt like visiting my palazzo. This was the perfect opportunity.

'Funny. I'm going there next week,' I said. The lie was smooth: she had no idea that the idea of this trip was only ten seconds old. 'Where are you staying?'

'Arezzo.' Her voice was a bit hesitant. 'You?'

Good. Arezzo wasn't very far away. 'Florence. I lived there during part of the Renaissance. Still feels like home.'

She nodded. 'I might go there. For art.'

'Want me to show you around?'

She frowned at me. Clearly, she was mentally debating whether to ever see me again or not. I could see it in her eyes. 'You said you don't like decoration. Doesn't that imply a disliking of art?'

'I like it because it reminds me of when things were better.' I smiled nostalgically as I thought about Roman times, when mortals had worshipped me as one of the most important gods. The only one who had outshone me was Jupiter. Countless monuments had been erected in my name, for my sons were the ones that had started the Roman Empire. Only when Christianity had robbed us of our believers did the other gods cease to respect me. It wasn't until the Renaissance had started that people remembered us again. They did not believe in us, which limited our power in a certain way, but still. We were back. It wouldn't be long before we would once again have the believers we deserved.

'I want to meet your mother,' I urged.

She raised an eyebrow, challenging me. 'I don't trust you with my mother.'

'But you trust me with you.'

'I would, if you were the god of…I don't know, flowers.'

I laughed. 'I won't hurt your mother, I promise.' I took good care to not swear anything. Swearing things was never a good idea for us. At least with promises you could back out safely.

'The fact that you have to promise me this, means that you know you could hurt her. And you would, if you were provoked.' She got up from the bed and smoothed the covers. 'I'll think about it, but don't expect anything. Maybe we'll see each other in Italy.' She turned around and paced out of the room. I stared at her back. Did she just leave me? She wasn't supposed to leave.

'Emma!' I shouted after her, but when she didn't respond I banged my head into the wall, angry at myself. It sounded like thunder.

I wanted to hold her and kiss her like before everything happened, to just be with her. I knew at that moment that I was in love.