A/N: this chapter is a bit lengthy, and there's a lot of explanation behind basically everything. any questions, feel free to ask.

"Myrtle?!" Violet asked, eyes going wide. "But she…"

"She what?" Logan asked, chuckling at her and ruffling a hand in her hair. He was being so uncharacteristically tender, it confused her. "She's old, I know. But all of us are born at different times throughout the centuries."

"You keep saying that," Violet whispered softly, tracing a finger over his chest and trying not to focus on the fact of how warm his skin was. "Born throughout the centuries; what does that mean? I only remember Persephone's life and my own."

Sighing, Logan readjusted his grip on her so they were face to face, causing Violet to blush at the close proximity. In the course of a day she'd become more intimate with this man than she'd ever been with any other person. She'd given him her first real kiss, and he'd been the first one to touch her the way he had in the hall, and then again in the kitchen. And it wasn't even because he truly wanted her, but the woman she had been once. If anything it made Violet's cheeks flame more at the thought, feeling ashamed that she wanted him to have done all of that because of her and not Persephone.

You're being ridiculous, she chastised herself. Not only have you known this man for less than a week, but he kidnapped you. Gods, was she developing Stockholm's Syndrome so easily? Or maybe, she reasoned, the pull she'd had toward Logan since the start was because she'd been Persephone once, so very long ago. And he had been Hades, and they had loved each other.

This is all so insane, she thought to herself, searching the darkness of Logan's eyes for something that would tell her she was not going mad.

"It's a long story, if you're ready for it," Logan said, waiting for her to answer.

Marea snored from the end of the bed, and Violet figured if the dog was so comfortable, there was no use leaving Logan's bed now. It wasn't as if she would be able to fall asleep soon anyways, not with so many questions on her mind that he was suddenly very willing to answer for her.

"Okay."

Logan sighed, brushing her hair away from her face softly. He didn't know why he was suddenly being so affectionate with Violet. Maybe it had been that he'd seen her get hurt today, too late to stop it before she was bleeding and in pain. Maybe it was that he'd admitted to himself in some strange way he wanted her– wanted her how he still didn't know. Or maybe it was that he'd realized he didn't want to hurt her in all of this, and that he was going to try and keep her safe even though he'd been the one to drag her into this war in the first place.

She may have rejected him this afternoon, but he still felt the overwhelming urge to touch her. And he knew it wasn't because he had been Hades, and she had been Persephone. Maybe that played a part, but this irresistible urge to feel the heat of her skin– that was all Logan. When she'd kissed him in his office, it'd caused a spark, and their interaction in the kitchen had set the fire.

He felt like an idiot for such thoughts, and a sap because he barely knew the girl and still wanted her to stay here in his bed with him. But, at the same time, he felt as if he'd known Violet her entire life. And not just because he'd known her in a past life; she was different now, wiser and more broken than Persephone had been. More human, and that was what Logan liked the most about her. She was so completely flawed and yet incredibly selfless that somehow it all made sense; even if he didn't understand, it still made sense.

"What all of Persephone's life do you remember?" he asked softly, watching as her brow creased and she bit her lip, trying to think.

"I remember when she first met you– Hades, at Olympus. They got in a fight, but then it wasn't a fight anymore and…well, she wanted to see him again, I think. But she didn't. Not until she picked that stupid flower, and the next thing she knew she was in the Underworld. And she was…hurt. Hurt because she'd thought Hades, better than anyone else, had understood that she'd wanted freedom, where instead he kept her locked away like a caged bird just as her mother had.

"He tried to make her happy, but she couldn't be because she hadn't chosen to go with him. Had he asked, she probably would have said yes. But he didn't ask. And then one day, he took her to the Apostle Meadows, and she made flowers grow, and he had looked at her in this way…" Violet trailed off, and Logan knew the exact way Hades had looked at Persephone, because it was how he looked at Violet now, like she was this fragile, mysterious being that he wanted to know everything about, and would devote an eternity to that task of. "I mean, after that she didn't completely hate him. And they became friends, and then she–" Violet blushed– "well, he still asked her to marry him even after, and still she said no.

"And then Hermes came, and said Demeter was killing the earth, and Hades had told Persephone she could leave, if she wanted, but that he wanted her to stay. And she ate the pomegranate seeds. And then Zeus made the verdict, and when she came back to the Underworld… Well, she was angry again, because she'd felt trapped with her mother again, and now felt trapped by Hades again, and so it was back to square one and, well, I don't know if it was ten years or a hundred years or maybe a thousand before she agreed to marry him. I don't think she ever told him she forgave him, even when she had Melinoe, or Maleana, which were theirs. I know that much.

"And I know they were happy– her and Hades and the children and…" Violet bit her lip again, the blood rushing to it.

Logan reached up and gently pulled it from between her teeth with his thumb. "And what, Violet?"

"And then suddenly everything gets messy. One second I have this image of her and Hades lying in bed, and her saying she was going to ask her mother to give her more time in the Underworld with him, because they'd just decided they wanted another kid, not a rumor of one, or maybe, oh, I don't know– but she wanted more months with him, and then something happened. Something changed. Suddenly everything hurt, and it all felt different. It flashes from there, faces and images and blood. There's a lot of blood. And then she had to get to her mother, had to save her, and Erebus, he promised he would help her, and he didn't and then she was dying and her mother was already dead and it hurt and she was screaming to keep the children out of the room, and she was telling Hades she loved him because she'd never in her life truly said the words before and then it was just…dark.

"The next memory I have is flashes of my house from infancy, my mom and dad, and the vague recollection of when I was three and fell off my tricycle and had to get stiches in my forehead," Violet said, seeming overly confused and overly frustrated. "What happened? Why'd I– Persephone die?"

Hearing the words from her lips then, what it had really been like for Persephone, how she'd always felt trapped– it left Logan silent for a moment. Because wasn't that how Violet felt now? Trapped and miserable and destined to resent him forever? The guilt that the thought settled in his chest was uncomfortable, and he had the sudden urge to push her away from him, like it would make the feeling stop. He didn't like the feeling; he never had.

But eventually he reasoned with himself that it was too late now. She was here, she'd remembered, and she wanted the truth. After all the torment he'd put her through– the torment Hades had put Persephone through– Logan at least owed Violet an explanation.

"He did love her, y'know?" Logan finally said, clearing his throat uncomfortably. "In his own kind of way. At first it was infatuation, but it grew into more pretty quickly, and he did love her. He just didn't want her to leave, I don't think. He didn't trust her; he thought if he let her return to the surface she wouldn't come back."

"Kind of like you," Violet deadpanned, making Logan even more uncomfortable with the situation. But then she sighed, saying, "I don't blame you," which made him relax, if only a little…

"The reason you don't remember dying…We were mortal then. Mortal memories are a lot harder to recall than the memories of a God."

"Why were we mortal?" Violet asked, brows drawing together. "How's that even possible?"

"People stopped believing in us, and without the veneration, our divinity just sort of…faded. We could still do the parlor tricks, of course. Still lived in our realms, where the mortals couldn't reach. But it was different; we weren't strong anymore. Easily killed. And we'd thought without our magic to keep them there, that's how the Titans had broken out of their cells we'd kept them in," Logan said, frowning. "Turns out, someone set them loose. We still don't know who, but the bastard may as well have just killed us all himself when he did it."

"But if you were losing power, why weren't the Titans, too?"

"They were," Logan clarified. "But they had more of it. The Titans and primordial deities are tied into creation itself– it's easier for them to draw power from their elements. It's how many of us still have extra abilities, like the way you can manipulate nature. Or Evangeline, she can still perform magic. People still believe in the Gods, just not enough people, I guess. But a good amount believe in what we represent, which gives us enough strength to…well, you saw what we can do, today."

"But if the Titans got out, why didn't they destroy the world then?" Violet questioned, her foot rubbing against his calf accidentally as she shifted. It made Logan grimace– she had cold toes. "I mean, you said that there are Gods trying to break them out again?"

"It's because we trapped them away a second time, those of us they hadn't killed already anyways. After Hades lost Persephone, he didn't have much hope left. But along with a few of the other Gods still left, they were able to make a bond to once again trap the Titans in Tartarus. It came at the cost of their lives though. Melinoe was one of those who helped Hades, as was Hecate and Thanatos, and a few others that had survived the Titans' wrath.

"The next thing we knew though, we were born as mortals. It took a long time before we remembered what we had been, many lives for myself. And then somehow, even when we did know, it didn't change things. We've become stronger with each lifetime, the population growing called for more veneration, more power. But we're still mortal. We can still be killed entirely easily.

"As of late, though, others are convinced that they can somehow become Gods again. They think if they take enough divinity from the others, somehow they'll become immortal again. More than anything they want to release the Titans to distract us," Logan said, rolling his eyes. The idea of unleashing such a malicious force as a distraction was ridiculous; the desperation that the Gods had developed over the ages was more than pathetic in his opinion.

"When you say us," Violet murmured, moving to sit up and stare at him with curiosity. "Who all do you mean?"

Logan remained laid out on the bed, staring at her face, and then where her tank-top slipped down to reveal the bandages on her chest, causing him to scowl. He reached out and touched them softly without thinking, making Violet freeze-up. "Zeus, Hera, Demeter, Poseidon, Hestia, Artemis, Athena, Eros, Hecate, Thanatos, Charon, Melinoe, you, me, and other reincarnations. We've found a good few, but not everyone. There is a spell that allows you to seek out their essence, but if they've already been bound to another God, it's a useless incantation."

"Bound?" Violet asked, suddenly reaching out to grab his hand, setting it down on his chest so he wasn't touching her anymore. The action startled him, turned his mood a bit sour.

"Yes, bound. As in you've come to exist with other Gods. When I told you today that we're stronger together, it's because the divinity we have feeds off each other. It's why Demeter hasn't found you, though she has tried; you're bound to me," Logan said.

Technically, Violet was bound to Hecate as she'd been the one to find the girl, but he wanted Violet to realize he was the one that had a sort of claim on her. Finders keepers, as he'd thought when Charlotte had told him Fawn needed to know.

In Logan's eyes, Violet was his if anyone were to ask. Be it a savage kind of notion to feel like you had possession over someone, he didn't care. He wanted her; it made him selfish.

"Oh," Violet said, her nose crinkling. And then she turned to him, looking a bit hesitant. She opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again. "You keep saying Hades the way that I say Persephone– like you're not actually him, or something."

So she'd caught on to that then; he knew the girl was smart, but he was always underestimating the degree of her intelligence, and her perceptiveness too. It shouldn't have surprised him, really, that she'd notice that detail. "I'm not Hades," he said, holding her gaze. "I was, once. But I've lived hundreds of lives since then, Violet. I'm not the same person. It's like when you grow older, and you start to realize how stupid you were as a child. I've had thousands of years to learn from my mistakes."

"And yet you still kidnap me again," she said, and he expected to find harshness in her expression, but instead he found humor. "Just goes to show that you've kept your stubbornness throughout the years, then," she grinned.

"You're one to talk," Logan countered, chuckling at her. "I've never met a more insufferable woman in my lifetime. In many of my lifetimes, actually."

"Then why'd you kiss me this afternoon?"

"Just because I find you insufferable doesn't mean I'm not attracted to you."

Violet blinked at that, and then shook her head, looking a bit crestfallen. And then, suddenly she said, "I should go back to my room. I mean, I've kept you up long enough, and you've answered my questions so…"

Her words, quite honestly, shocked him. The moment she'd opened the door to his bedroom, he'd expected she'd be staying. Apparently that wasn't the case though, because she was already climbing from his bed without a word, snapping for Marea who gave a soft groan before following after her to the door. Logan simply stared after Violet incredulously, watching without a sound as she opened the door and stepped into the hallway.

"Goodnight, Logan," she said before closing the door behind herself, leaving him lying there in utter confusion.

Again, she'd rejected his advances. And he still wanted the damned girl.

"Fuck me," he groaned, moving to turn out the light on the nightstand and lye back down, only to find his pillows now smelled of her. "Oh fuck me sideways." He tossed the pillow she'd laid on across the room, turning away from the spot she'd occupied and sighing. One kiss. One fucking kiss and already he was mooning after her like a horny teenager, that infatuation he'd spoken of earlier set in all over again.

Whatever he'd gotten himself into with this girl, he was way in over his head.

When Violet woke up the next morning, she didn't go down to have breakfast with Logan as she had the last five days. Instead she let Marea out of her room, knowing Logan would let the dog outside, but Violet didn't follow. She simply shut the door behind Marea after shooing her off, sinking down onto the floor to sit Indian style and mope.

She still didn't know what to think of last night. The information had been a lot to take in, and still didn't make much sense. Supposedly the Gods were the ones who made the mortals– why did they need their veneration to remain Gods? And if they drew power from their element, how couldn't they have kept themselves strong even without the worship?

And when had people stopped believing? Greek mythology was still taught in Greece's school curriculum; there were tons of Greek mythology nerds throughout the world too. Violet knew that much from experience. There was fanfiction dedicated to the Gods for Christ's sake. Movies made after the heroes, books inspired by the lore.

Something about this didn't fit…

Not to mention the fact that the Gods were stealing divinity from one another. She'd always thought they'd lived in harmony, except for disputes over which city they would have to worship them… But if that were the case now, Athena and Poseidon would still be at each other's throats, but Logan had spoken of them as if they were allies.

And this spell– to find one another's essences? Shouldn't Violet have felt the pull of it when Logan had sought to find her?

But wait, her dreams, the ones where she'd been in the dark, the cold, the river of flames, a voice calling out for her, little one… Evangeline. She'd been the one to find Violet; that day at the bus stop, when Violet had blacked out, the words found you ringing in her head.

How hadn't she remembered Persephone then, at that very moment?

Or the first time she'd spoken to Logan– the way she'd felt she'd known him even though they'd never met. Or when he'd brought her here, and she'd been around so many souls she had once known. Or when they touched, not just when they kissed.

But then she remembered that dream from last Sunday, the snippets of words, déjà vu in her head every time she looked Logan in the eye, or she'd read a myth in her textbooks that had seemed eerily familiar. She'd always played those things off, like plants perking up to her touch.

Yet there was still the matter of Logan himself. He'd said he wasn't Hades; that he had been once but he'd learned and grown and become a different person. But yet here he was making the same mistakes, earning her resentment instead of her trust. And he'd said he was attracted to her, but for whom– her or Persephone? And that pull she'd felt toward Logan from the start, was that because of him or the person he'd been?

"Goddamn it," Violet mumbled to herself, flopping back onto the floor. This was all so very confusing and she really hated it, especially when the more she thought about it, the more angry she got that he hadn't told her sooner.

Would you have believed him? a voice in the back of her head asked. But would it really have mattered? He would've taken her anyways.

"The prick," she mumbled, thinking about the fact Logan had brought her here and then just dumped her on her own for two weeks to stew and panic. And now he'd come back, and in less than a week had turned her life from broken to completely shattered, not able to be pieced back together.

Groaning, she threw her hands over her eyes and started to, of all things, pray. "Why didn't you let me know?" she asked a God she had kind of, sort of believed in once. Her family had been Chreasters when it came to church; strictly Christmas and Easter goers. But her grandmother– the one who'd given Violet the necklace she'd always worn before losing it the night she was kidnapped– had been a devout Catholic and had always thought there was only one God in the universe, one God who had created all. "What does this even mean then?" Violet asked, uncovering her eyes and looking up at the ceiling. "Are you real? Is any of this is real? Am I in a coma or something? Wait, what about Jesus? Was there a Jesus? What about everything? Oh, fuck, life just, life just sucks."

She continued to lay on her floor then, a good hour before Marea was whining and pawing at the door, and Violet finally went down to breakfast with all the others. It was evident Evangeline had already been through the kitchen. There was fresh squeezed orange juice and waffles lying out, as well as sausage on the stove. Wyatt was sitting at the table, and Chad came in through the kitchen doors in his robe as he usually did in the morning, grabbing breakfast to go eat out in the pool house, which doubled as his room.

Violet sat down next to Wyatt, Marea at her side and whining at Wyatt to give her some sausage from his plate. The boy looked at the dog, then Violet, and raised a brow for permission. "Why deny her?" Violet asked, and Wyatt shrugged, handed Marea half a sausage patty which she happily scarfed.

"So, uh, you feeling any better today?" Wyatt asked, nodding toward Violet's bandaged arm. There was some dried blood on it from where it'd been leaking last night, but nothing really hurt.

"Yeah, I'm good," she shrugged. "Had one cut, had a million."

"I didn't see anything, by the way," Wyatt said sheepishly. "I mean, when you didn't have a top."

"Oh," Violet blushed. "…Good."

It was silent for a while, enough that Violet felt awkward and got up to get a plate of waffles just to fill the quiet in the room. She took a bite from them and hummed appreciatively, giving half of one the Marea. The dog had probably already put on a good four pounds since she'd come to the Fairgrave house, but Violet figured there wasn't much else in a house dog's life to look forward to other than affection, running around in the yard and food, so it didn't much matter if she got fat, as long as it didn't kill her.

Scratching at the bandages on her arm absentmindedly, Violet took another bite of her breakfast and set her fork on her plate, noisily. Where the silence between her and Wyatt could have once been considered companionable, now it was awkward and uncomfortable.

As if he knew what she was thinking, Wyatt looked up at her then, a resigned sadness in his eyes when he asked, "You and Logan a thing now?"

The question brought Violet up short, expression crinkling. "No," she said emphatically. Sure, she'd kissed Logan, a lot, and he'd…touched her, and expressed sexual interest, but he'd less than twenty-four hours ago said he didn't have much fondness for her, only really admitting his attraction after she'd remembered Persephone, and no sooner. Except for that night in the ballroom, but did that really count…?

"They call them hate fucks for a reason, Violet," he'd said.

She scowled.

"Oh?" Wyatt said, perking up considerably at her answer. "I'd of thought after you remembered who ya are that you two would've been all over each other."

"Who I was, Wyatt," Violet said softly. "I mean, maybe that was me once, but I'm different now, y'know? Like, Logan put it in the way: it's like growing up. You're the same from when you were a kid, but also you're not. You've learned new things, had new experiences, met new people. Life changes you, and since I've lived a completely different life form what I once did, it's changed me a lot."

"So you mean you haven't had any lives before this one?" Wyatt asked, seeming puzzled. "Logan's said he's lived hundreds."

"I've just got this one," Violet said. "I don't know why, but besides the vivid details of Persephone's life, the only other one I can remember is my own."

"Huh," Wyatt said, taking a bite out of his waffles then nodding. "Well I guess that makes things less confusing then, right?"

Violet made a sound somewhere between a groan and a sigh. "Not at all… But, hey, there is something you might help me clarify?"

"Yeah?" Wyatt asked, looking eager to be of help. "Name it!"

"Where'd Logan go, the first two weeks I was here?"

Wyatt paled a little at that. "I don't know if I'm supposed ta tell ya that, Vi."

"Please?" she asked, giving him a small pout and batting her eyelashes. It was a cruel move and she knew it, but she did it anyways.

"Fine," Wyatt said, caving like she knew he would. "He was off with his siblings– the other Olympians. They was trying to find more Gods, to make sure they had a good resistance against the nimrods that are all up and about over the Titans."

"Oh," Violet said, blinking. Well, that did make sense, if she thought about it. The spell Logan had talked of, if they all knew of it finding other Gods most likely would be a priority.

"It's not like anybody told me nothin' about it though," Wyatt shrugged, taking another bite from his breakfast. "But I ain't dumb. It's pretty damn easy to pick up a phone and listen to some conversations. They try to keep me in the dark about everything going on, but it's about as efficient as a wet match."

Violet laughed at that. "Of course you'd be the one to snoop… But wait, if you know about all of these things, does that mean that you're a God too?"

"Sorta," Wyatt said, then grimaced as if he were embarrassed. "I'm a Demigod. I guess my ma was stepping out on my dad when she got knocked up with me, and it was by some God that no one can track down now. Somehow aunt Ang knew about my birth though, and that's when Logan got in good with my parents to watch after me, and when he realized what shitty parents they were, he just took it upon himself to be my guardian, considering everyone's real curious who my real old man is an all."

Not to mention the fact Logan knew how terrible it was to have negligent parents, Violet wanted to add, but that was something for Logan to tell Wyatt himself. The personal things that had been said in Logan's bedroom last night were meant to be private; it hadn't been said, but somehow Violet knew it had been known when they'd told one another about their lives outside of all of this Gods-at-war bullshit.

"Do you have any powers?" Violet asked Wyatt curiously, propping her arm on the table and setting her chin on her hand. "I can make plants and stuff grow, but that isn't too great."

"Better than me," Wyatt said. "So far nothin' has happened. Aunt Ang says your powers don't really come in much until twenty-one, but I mean, you kinda disproved that."

"Well, I'll be twenty-one in less than a month," Violet offered. "Before yesterday, I was only ever able to have a really awesome green thumb when it came to tending plants. I think remembering just kick-started everything? Plus, those demon things were really freaking scary."

"I know what you mean," Wyatt nodded. "One time I got curious and tried to go out there, and Thaddeus caught me and went with. We didn't directly deal with any of them, but I watched some lizard-dog thing eat a dear. It was fucking disgusting."

"I minor in Greek myth and even I've never heard of that," Violet said incredulously.

"Tartarus, man," Wyatt shrugged. "What are you gonna do?"

"Yeah," Violet said as she watched him get up and go take his plate to the sink, her words dropping to a whisper as she asked herself more than anyone, "What are you going to do?"