The ridiculously comfortable bed, stunning view and mouthwatering breakfast were only the beginning of Olympic perfection. It felt like I was on the most luxurious vacation in the entire world — which really was saying something, considering that Ares had already taken me everywhere I could possibly want to go and that we had stayed at whichever fancy resort caught my eye in any given place. None of them could hold a candle to the paradisiac bliss of Mount Olympus, even if all I'd so far seen of it in these past three days was part of Ares's palace and his gardens, with their natural pool where I could easily spend the rest of the week. And another week, probably. I was in no hurry to leave.

"How's your hip?" Ares asked from a chaise longue where he was steadily working his way through a large pile of files. Reports, maybe, from whatever wars he had going on. I saw a folded-open newspaper peek out somewhere near the bottom. From what bits of the headline I could see, the article in question had something to do with conflicts in India. On the front page of the file he was reading, something about gang violence in Honduras.

I rested my chin on my forearms, which were leaning on the smooth stone pool wall, and lightly kicked my legs out behind me in the water. I'd barely even thought about my hip today, or about the accident, for that matter. Had it been only three days ago? Time was already passing in a slow haze.

"It's fine," I mumbled lazily, barely lifting my head to speak. "Feels brand new."

"I would expect nothing less from Apollo," he chuckled, and set his document down. "Hey, I think it's time to go home, stellina. You could go back to work tomorrow if you like and — ugh. Hold on."

Hm. I wasn't quite ready to go home yet. Besides, wouldn't it raise questions if I was back to work so soon after the accident?

A slender, dark-haired young man, dressed in the same type of simple tunic as Caios had worn, rounded the corner into the garden and approached us. He kept his head lowered deferentially; if he'd spotted me at all, he didn't show it.

"What does she want, Silas?" Ares said by way of greeting.

The attendant looked up and met Ares's eyes, but dropped his glance instantly when he saw Ares's prickly expression. "Lady Athena urgently requests your presence at her weekly strategy assembly, your grace."

Ares cocked his head. "Oh, that's a weekly thing now, is it? Since when?"

Silas fumbled with his hands, looking around as if he hoped a good answer to that question was hiding behind one of the verdant bushes.

"Again, what does she want?" Ares asked, waving away Silas's hesitation.

"She has a task for you, sir." Silas hazarded another lightning-quick look at Ares.

With a weary sigh, Ares picked up his document again. "Tell your boss to get a lesser god," he said. "She's got plenty of minions to do her shit jobs. I'm busy."

"Um." Silas nervously cleared his throat. "Lady Athena says she needs you specifically."

Ares looked up. His disdainful eyes barely betrayed a hint of surprise. "Well, in that case, I'll come running," he sneered.

I looked back and forth between the two men during the awkward pause that followed. Silas looked like he wanted the ground to swallow him.

"Fine, I'll be there," Ares eventually grumbled. "But tell Athena she'd better invite me to these weekly assemblies of hers."

He threw his head back on the chaise headrest once Silas had backed out of the garden and left. "Leave it to Athena to have her servant summon me as if I'm some sort of minor deity, waiting at her feet until she deems me worthy to pick up after her," he scoffed, shooting a surly look at the cloudless sky.

I heaved myself out of the pool and onto the dark stone. "So why did you say yes?"

He grimaced. "I've ignored her too often lately. Sooner or later she'll complain to father, and I can think of better ways to waste my time. Attending a meeting is the lesser evil." He looked over his shoulder. "Phile!"

Seconds later, Phile appeared in the wide doorway. "Yes?"

"Where is Eros?"

"He left the mountain an hour or two ago," she answered.

"And Harmonia?"

"She's out as well."

Ares frowned. "Anteros? Himeros? Pothos, maybe?"

"They went with Eros."

"You've got to be kidding. What about Pho… no, better not." Ares ponderously rubbed a hand down his face. He kept silent for a few seconds, thinking, then turned his gaze to me. "Looks like you're going to Mytikas, Emma."

"I… don't know what that means," I said. I pulled my knees up and wrapped my arms around them. Mytikas was the mountain's summit, I knew that now, but what was I supposed to do there?

"You're coming along to the assembly," he explained. "I don't feel good about leaving you here by yourself."

There was a certain irony in the way I'd been apprehensive about meeting Demeter earlier, when apparently I was instead going to an Olympian assembly and meeting Ares's archenemy. I bit my lip briefly. "But Phile and Caios are here, right? I'll be fine."

He let out a caustic chuckle. "Emms, I may have trained them to defend themselves and armed them to the teeth, but they're useless against a god. No offense, Phile."

Phile grinned. "None taken. I'm well aware I'm only human."

"Do you expect me to… um." I brought my hand up, but dropped it before my thumbnail reached my teeth. "Can I just sit and wait there until you're done?"

Ares stood, took my hand and helped me up. "Yes. That's all you have to do. I'll be quick."

"Okay," I nodded. "Can you give me a few minutes to get dressed?" But of course, there was no need for that, because with a flash of light my bathing suit was replaced by that same light blue dress I'd worn before and my hair was perfectly dry and braided. "Thanks," I said with a sheepish smile.

Ares kissed me, his fingers creeping down my back until he squeezed one buttcheek through the chiffon, and drew back. He held out his hand, and I took it, fully expecting him to teleport us straight into the assembly, but instead he pulled me with him into the house.

I frowned. "Why are we walking?"

"I'll take any excuse to be late to Athena's meetings," he said with a grin, "and besides, you want to see the mountain, right?"

It would have been a waste to teleport, I could confirm once we had left Ares's grounds. There was something new to marvel at around every turn: a gorgeous waterfall reflecting back small rainbows, an extravagant sculpture garden, a tunnel of tree branches arching over a path. Nymphs and other minor gods and goddesses lounging on terraces surrounded by fragrant flowers, or bathing in natural pools like the one at Ares's palace.

We passed by Dionysus's palace, its marble adorned with grapevines, and then when we rounded another corner, the trees opened up to reveal a scene I would have never expected to see outside of a landscape painting.

The greenery gave way to water, its surface rippling and yet mirroring perfectly the azure sky and the golden afternoon sunlight. Dotted around the enormous reflecting pool, partially obscured by high cypress trees, were more white marble buildings. Across, at the top of a high, wide set of stairs, sat the largest palace thus far, its façade spanning the entire width of the pool. Its rear seemed to be carved into the rock sloping up behind it.

"That," Ares said, "is Mytikas."

I stood at the edge of the water, staring. "This is insane," I whispered. It wasn't the most eloquent response, but it was the only one I could muster.

He laughed, and gently pulled me with him to amble along the pool. It was pretty deep, I could see now through the clear water, and full of animals and plants, including a large family of swans and hundreds of water lilies and lotus flowers.

"Don't you miss this?" I asked him a little later, without taking my eyes off the palace we were passing. Demeter's, I figured, from the bountiful fruit trees, wheat plants and poppies growing around it.

Ares shrugged. "Not really."

"But it's beautiful. It's perfect. It's basically heaven. You have a palace." I tore my gaze away from Demeter's palace and back to Ares. "And besides, it's got to be nice that here, you don't have to hide who you really are. I bet it gets exhausting to pretend that you're human."

His laugh contained no joy, only cynicism. "You forget that very few people on this mountain genuinely like me, Emma. Many more actively despise me. At least humans are indifferent."

"Do they still despise you? Even after so many years?" I couldn't imagine resenting someone so much for so long. They were family. How could that mean so little?

He shot me a wry half-smile. "Haven't you been looking around?"

Just then, as we neared the marble steps, an attendant carrying a large basket of vegetables approached from the right — but the moment she saw us, she froze, then curtsied for only a split second before dashing away, and I realized that it was true. I had been too in awe of Olympus's mesmerizing beauty to notice any of it, but come to think of it... There was that group of nymphs, who had lowered their heads reverently when we walked by, but had peeked cautiously out of the corners of their eyes. The two satyrs who had stopped their conversation the moment we came into view. All the servants who had recoiled with fear, even though Ares had paid them no mind at all. Even some of the many animals had darted from our path.

While I pondered all that, we climbed the steps and entered the building. Ares marched us straight towards a set of massive oakwood doors, and then abruptly turned to the left, leading me up a narrow flight of stairs. The landing where we emerged was across from an open wall that looked out over the sea — but not just the sea; also huge stretches of land on both sides, as if we were at a much higher elevation than I thought we physically were.

"Wait, is that…" In the distance, I saw a large city surrounding a rocky outcrop with white temples on its flat top.

"Athens. Yes." Ares turned and indicated the view on the other side of the open wall. "Istanbul is over there."

But as amazing as it was to be able to see both Athens and Istanbul from here, I was completely distracted already by what I saw in the room below us — holy shit.

Twelve thrones, arranged in a circle and all set on their own low platforms on a golden floor; six of the thrones were unoccupied, including a black one that sat a little higher than the rest. I saw Hermes, writing rapidly on a long roll of parchment, and Apollo slumping in his platinum throne. Next to Hermes was a young god with a wreath of ivy leaves in his black curls — Dionysus, then — and two seats down from him, a bearded man with an ornate cane leaning against his metal throne and an immense scowl on his face as he watched Ares. They were all wearing various types of ancient clothing.

"Ah, Ares, thank you for gracing us with your presence. We have been waiting," a tall, beautiful dark-haired woman on Apollo's right said. She stood with her arms folded in front of her silver throne. Her gray eyes followed us impatiently.

Ares kept his back towards her, blocking the room from my view, while he guided me into a comfortable seat next to an older man with shoulder-length brown hair and a moustache. "I'll be right there, Athena," he said over his shoulder, and addressed the man. "René, I'm trusting you with Emma." His voice sounded nice enough, but the words contained a clear warning note. Don't try anything, I'm watching you.

He tipped my chin up and gave me a long kiss — and then when he walked away, I saw another breathtakingly beautiful young goddess, sitting in an ivory throne with her large eyes locked on me. She didn't look away when Ares descended the stairs, or when he threw the large wooden doors open, or when Athena cleared her throat irritably while Ares took his sweet time pouring himself a glass of nectar.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Emma," René said. He smiled and held out a hand for me to shake. "This is quite the novelty. I don't think Ares has ever brought a companion here, or at least not since I've been on Olympus."

"Oh," I answered dully. "Well. Nice to meet you too, René. Are you a, uh, companion as well?"

"Yes, I'm here with Athena." He laughed when he saw my brow furrow. "I'm her intellectual companion. She is still, as ever, a virgin goddess."

"So you're…" My frown didn't fade. His name was much too modern. "Are you human?"

"Certainly. Athena asked me to join her here in 1650 and granted me my immortality."

My mouth fell open. "What do you do here all day? Don't you miss your life back home?" I'd been enjoying myself on Olympus these past few days, of course, but my time here was all the sweeter knowing that I was going home again. Back to my apartment, my job, my friends. The bookstore on the corner near the bus stop. Friday night drinks.

"I ascended when I was fifty-three, dear Emma," René smiled. "I did everything I wanted to do in my earthly life. All that is left for me is to enjoy what this mountain has to offer me."

I couldn't imagine being content with just sitting around all day on this perfect mountaintop, in perpetuity — and I suddenly understood Ares's hesitation about living here. There was so much more to do, more to see in the mortal world. And maybe it was just because I was still young, but I could think of a thousand things I wanted to achieve or experience before I would ever feel fulfilled enough to spend the rest of my mortal days relaxing and being waited upon, let alone spend eternity like that.

But something dawned on me then. A throwaway comment from Ares, made in his distress over my wellbeing. As long as you are mortal.

I glanced down on the circle of thrones. The unidentified goddess (Artemis, maybe?) was still staring at me, and I quickly looked away from her and to Ares. He had leisurely filled, emptied and refilled his glass of nectar during our conversation and was now walking to his throne, a bronze one on Apollo's left. Next to it was a throne that could only be Aphrodite's, judging from its scallop-shell shape and soft white feathery cushion. The moment Ares entered the circle, his jeans and t-shirt disappeared and were replaced by his gold armor.

"Mother." Ares nodded curtly in the goddess's direction, and plopped down into his throne as if he were joining any generic corporate meeting.

Mother. Oh, no. Hera. I was being scrutinized by someone who was not only my boyfriend's mother, but also the queen of the gods, famous for her vengeful nature.

"Ares," she said, taking her eyes off me ever so briefly to look at him. "I haven't seen you in some time. Will you introduce your friend to me after the assembly?"

"No," Ares replied plainly, leaning back into his blood-red leather cushions and stretching his armored legs out in front of him. He sipped from his nectar.

"Please state your guest's name for the record, Ares," Hermes said, his dip pen floating above the parchment.

"Seriously, Hermes?" Ares said incredulously. "You've known her for months."

"Procedure," Hermes answered, with a shrug of his shoulders.

Ares sighed wearily. "Emma Christiane Sawyer, mortal human, born February fourth, 2744 AUC."

A smile slowly crept onto Hera's face, but she said nothing.

"Ares, is it true you're back?" Dionysus asked. "Does that mean you're stealing Aram back to work at your palace?"

"Not if you're treating him right, Dion. And it's not stealing if I lent him out to you in the first place." Ares looked at Athena. "Why the hell is he at a strategy meeting? Is he here every Sunday?"

Sunday? It was supposed to be Thursday. I tried to count the days, but in the same way I sometimes couldn't remember what I'd had for dinner the night before, now the number of nights I'd spent here was a complete mystery.

"Hey, René…" I said slowly, "how long did you say you've been on Olympus?"

"Hm?" René raised his eyes to meet mine. "Oh, Ares just said you were born in 1991 AD, of course, so it must be nearly four hundred years now."

He didn't even know. Was that what was happening to me while time was getting hazy? Had I lost my resolve and let myself get swept away by Olympus after all?

"The question you should be asking, Ares," Dionysus was saying with a smirk, "isn't why I was invited, but why you weren't."

"Are you boys done?" Athena asked in a tight voice. "I would like to finish the point we were discussing while we waited for Ares."

"Better late than never," Apollo quipped. Hermes chuckled.

Hephaestus, the god with the cane, scoffed. "Not if you ask me. Don't bother next time, Ares."

"As I was saying," Athena said, silencing her siblings with a single stern look, "Zeus's hurricane was sadly not enough to persuade the mortals to abandon the area. He has informed me that he will not be available at least for the forthcoming week—" Hera's lips stiffened — "and that we will have to devise an alternative plan. Suggestions?"

"Can't Poseidon tear a continental fault?" Apollo asked.

Hermes shook his head, but didn't look up from his minutes. "I need the towns in the mountains intact."

"Floods, then?" Dionysus ventured.

"I can do a wildfire." Hephaestus set his glass down on a golden tripod table next to his throne. "I'll need some time for preparations, evacuate the local dryads, but it should get the job done."

"That's never going to work," Ares objected.

"Excellent, Hephaestus," Athena nodded, entirely ignoring Ares. "How long do you require?"

"It's not going to work," Ares repeated, his voice a little louder now.

Athena sighed and slowly turned towards him. "I will discuss the next point on the agenda with you, Ares, but Hephaestus and I have this under control."

"If you just listened—"

"None of us asked for your opinion, Ar—" Hephaestus started.

"I'm trying to help you," Ares interrupted. "You want mortals to leave some place permanently, don't you? A tiny disaster isn't going to accomplish that. They'll come back as soon as they think it's safe."

Hermes's hand hovered above the parchment as he looked back and forth between his siblings.

"I trust that Hephaestus will be able to destroy their cities such that they won't think that for a very long time," Athena said, sounding more than a little miffed.

"But they will! They're going to come back and rebuild!" Ares's frustration was noticeably growing; he sat up straight, hands gripping the armrests of his throne.

"Why are you challenging our authority on this subject, Ares?" Athena asked coolly.

"Because, Athena," Ares said, bristling now, "if you bothered to get off this mountain for longer than a day, you would know that mortals don't work like that."

Athena was silent for a second or two, and when she spoke, her voice was icy. "Yes, you know all about mortals, don't you?" She shot a pointed glance at me.

In a flash, Ares was on his feet. His glass of nectar fell to the floor. "Don't bring her into this."

"You brought the girl into this," Athena said. "Quite literally, in fact."

"Who is she even?" Dionysus wondered aloud.

"Can't you tell? She's clearly—" Hephaestus started, but he was cut off by Hermes.

"Focus, please, everyone," Hermes said, looking up at me uneasily. "Miss Sawyer is not the topic of this meeting."

"You want something from me, do you not?" Ares growled.

Athena raised a brow in response.

"Then you will not even once mention Emma."

Athena waited a beat, then acquiesced with a nod, and he sat down and visibly relaxed. "Don't take this to mean I will do you any favors," he said.

"I think you might consider this a favor from me to you, Ares," Athena answered. She sat down on her throne. "Hades is expected to receive a large number of souls in the near future. We may need your, ah... ardor." She said the last word as if it tasted dirty on her tongue.

He sat back slowly. "I'm listening."

"Analysis of the Fates' projections — Hermes can give you the full reports — tells me most of these souls belong to young men in the greater Caucasus region," she explained. "I have asked Apollo if he can manufacture a plague, but he says this demographic is very difficult to target and he would prefer not to infect the general population."

"Not to mention, I'm really busy," Apollo added.

"Planning a new world tour, are we?" Ares smirked. "How are the ticket sales going?"

I saw the corners of Hermes's lips quirk up a little, and Apollo rolled his eyes but smiled. No one else responded.

"I believe a war is the next best solution," Athena continued.

Ares leaned forward, fingertips pressed together and elbows leaning on his knees. "And you want it dirty."

"I want it done fast," Athena corrected sharply. "But if dirty is what it takes, then butcher away."

"I'm not a butcher," Ares muttered with indignation.

"Sure you're not," Athena replied dismissively.

Ares glowered at her and opened his mouth to protest, but apparently thought better of it and sat back again. "How many?"

"The Fates couldn't give any definite numbers, but I think between ten and twenty thousand this year in total, including civilians. In part depending on you, of course."

Ares nodded, as if that were an entirely reasonable number of dead people to be talking about. "And I take it you already have a whole strategy worked out." The disgust was obvious in his voice.

"Thank you for bringing that up, Ares," Athena said, her lips curving into a smug smile. "I do, but I would like to discuss it with all of you…"

I leaned towards René when the gods launched into a discussion. "How come everyone here speaks English?"

He smiled. "Oh, they don't. There is no such thing as language on Olympus. I haven't spoken my native French in a very long time, although it does feel like we are currently speaking French."

"So… I'm not speaking English right now?" That seemed impossible.

"No, you're not."

"And what happens when I leave Olympus? Will everything suddenly be gibberish again?"

"Theoretically, yes, your situation would be the same as it was before you came here." He frowned. "But you're not leaving, are you?"

My breath caught in my throat. I coughed. "I'm not?" But hardly more than an hour ago, Ares had talked about going home… Though was that even an hour? How could I be sure of that anymore?

"Oh, look, there he goes again," René said, gesturing to the thrones.

"...or nothing!" Ares was saying, or better said shouting, when I reverted my attention back to the Olympians. "I want free rein, or I'm out."

He and Athena were both standing again, near the center of the circle of thrones; but if Ares wanted a shouting match, he wasn't getting one, because Athena calmly stood waiting for him to finish, then said, "I have always been under the impression, Ares, that you will take any opportunity to fight. Forgive me if I don't quite believe that you'll be, as you so eloquently put it, 'out'."

Ares spit on the floor in front of Athena's feet. "You don't want to get your hands filthy, do you, princess? Then give me free rein. Stay away from my battlefields."

"Fine," Athena answered simply.

"Swear it."

"I swear I will stay away from your battlefields."

"On Styx."

She heaved a deep sigh. "I swear on Styx I will stay away from your battlefields."

Next to me, René chuckled. "Ah, she almost got out of that one. Pesky Styx."

I tilted my head. "But she's only talking about the battlefields. What about the rest of it? There's more to war than battles these days, right?"

René nodded appreciatively. "You're a fast learner, Emma."

"Can I trust you to go there with a bit more haste than you had coming to this assembly?" Athena asked Ares. Her eyebrows were raised skeptically.

"Easy, princess," Ares scoffed. "I'm going tonight."

She didn't give in to his derision. "Good. Hephaestus, the wildfire?"

"I should be ready to go by Wednesday."

"Thank you. Hermes, when can I expect the minutes on my desk?"

"About to finish them," Hermes affirmed.

"Excellent. That will be all for today. I will see you all at our next general Olympian assembly," Athena said.

With that, Hera stood up, glanced at me one more time, and left the room, followed by Dionysus, Hephaestus and Apollo. Hermes stayed in his seat, writing the final bits of the minutes.

Ares, still standing, looked up at me — and then with a flash of light we were suddenly in the hall of his palace again. He was still in his armor. "Hi," he said softly, and took my hand.

"Hi back," I said with a tentative smile. "That was… interesting. Athena seems a little bossy."

He laughed. The touch of my fingers on his skin appeared to relax him as always. "She takes her position as Zeus's right hand very seriously."

"But what about her saying she wouldn't get involved?" I asked.

"What about it?"

"Just…" I bit my lip briefly. "Please be careful."

"I'll be fine." He smiled and squeezed my hand. "I'm immortal, remember?"

As if I would ever forget. A surprising bitterness accompanied the thought.

"Sir." Caios had come into the hall. "Shall I ready your chariot?"

Ares spun to face him, but didn't drop my hand. "Yes, please, and have Enyo and the twins meet me at the armory in an hour. Oh, the Machai as well, and inform Eris."

"Certainly, sir," Caios said, giving a single nod, and left us alone.

Ares turned back to me and tenderly tucked back a lock of hair that had come loose from the braid. "I'm sorry for the sudden interruption to your stay, stellina." His lips caught mine. "Duty calls."

I shrugged noncommittally. "It's okay." It probably wouldn't have been a careless vacation anymore, either way, after what René had told me and considering what I was starting to suspect Ares had insinuated with his comment when we arrived here. Maybe it was for the best that Ares was going away for a little while — I needed time alone to think about what all of it meant.

"You can stay here, obviously, while I'm gone," Ares continued. "I can ask Apollo if he wouldn't mind staying with you until Eros or Harmonia is back."

I picked at my thumbnail, unsure of the question I wanted to ask, but decided to go for it. No harm in trying. "Actually, can you take me home? I don't…" I looked up. "I don't really like being babysat."

"Oh." Ares nodded. "Yeah, of course. Sorry. To your apartment?"

"Your place is fine too." The townhouse was by now as much home as my own apartment was. As long as it wasn't Olympus, and as long as I could choose to leave without needing a god's help.

"I would prefer that," he answered earnestly. "If anything happens, anything at all, call for me. I'll be listening for your softest whisper."

Something had changed in Ares in the past few days. Maybe it was the car accident, or maybe it was me meeting his relatives — his ever-present concern for my safety had suddenly been dialed up to eleven.

He took me upstairs to get my phone and my own clothes, and then with another flash we were standing in his living room. It was strange to be in a normal, mortal-looking home again. After Olympus, everything suddenly looked so muted, so flat. So reassuringly familiar, too.

"When will you be back?" I asked. I didn't let go of his hand; the longer I held onto him, the shorter I would have to go without. As much as I wanted time for myself, I had a feeling he would be gone for a while longer than I wanted him to.

"I don't know," he said. "I'm juggling this with Burundi. The small time difference should allow for me to come back here for the night, but there's also something in Central America… I'll text you as soon as I know more."

I nodded, and pulled him closer. "I miss you already."

Ares smiled, and pressed a kiss on the crown of my head. "Not as much as I already miss you."

"Go," I said. "I can take care of myself. Go do your thing."

And after another squeeze of my hand, another kiss on my lips, he disappeared. I sighed, and let myself fall down on the leather sofa. Alone at last, with plenty of time to overthink the past few days — no, week — and whatever Ares was not telling me.

Thank you, T, for the heaps of inspiration + beta read! :)