Chapter 1

Just under a year later, Adena was ready to set her plan in motion. They weren't going to go through the normal entrance, since there was one closer to New York instead of going through Hollywood. She was excited to see the world. To live with living humans instead of ones that were dead. Either just, or long since.

She was excited to finally be leaving, even if it tore her up quite a bit. If it was just her traveling, it would've been much easier to come and go as she pleased. But with her best friend and her wolf familiar, she couldn't use her fire-traveling to leave. Shadow-traveling caused her to pass out after a few second, and while she liked her fire power, shadows were hard for her to even go through at all.

When she was younger, before she'd discovered she could travel by fire, she had tried to travel through the shadows a few times. Getting lost a couple times, and waking up in unfamiliar places, had deterred her from trying again.

She hadn't even gotten herself home each time. Her father had needed to rescue her. She didn't like depending on someone else to get her out of problems she'd gotten herself into. Pride, a real thing in this family. Look at Zeus. And Poseidon. And literally all of the family.

Adena, looking back, was actually mildly surprised that her father hadn't insisted that she learn how to control that part of her heritage. He made sure she learned everything else - including modern geography. And all the other subjects she needed to know, but neither of them thought they would be any use. After all, she wasn't going to be visiting the surface anytime soon.

Joke was on him. She did feel the rush of freedom as she looked around the Underworld once more. Possibly the last time for a long while.

A few months after she turned ten, she had found out that she could teleport through fire. Of course it came as a surprise considering that she was dreadful at shadow-traveling. But the difference was that this new form of travel came far more easily to her. Almost like second nature, as if she was one with the fire itself. It was still exhausting, but it took longer for her to feel weakened. With age, it had become less and less exhausting.

It had come when she'd been wanting to visit some of her ghostly friends in the Asphodel Meadows. She had been playing with her powers, which she hadn't fully been in control yet, when she had felt a burning wind pass over her and in the blink of an eye, she had been standing in front of some very shocked ghosts. Not the ones she had been wanting to see, of course, but the look of absolute horror on their transparent faces for a split second was absolutely worth the new discovery.

Another time, before she'd fully managed to learn how to use the new form of travel, she had been eating and wanted to torment some already tortured souls. It wasn't as simple as it had been the first time. She wasn't going to a safe place, with good people, but instead was going to a place where the worst kinds of people were kept.

Once again the fiery wind consumed her before releasing her in the Fields of Punishment. That hadn't been nearly as amusing. To her horror, the food that had been in her hand was simply ashes now. From then on she was determined to control this power, not allowing herself to even try fire-travelling with a living being. Though it was unlikely that a ghost would get through the fire either. She hadn't dared try.

"Do you have everything you need?" Emma asked for the thousandth time. Adena knew that her best friend was just being overly cautious. It didn't help her confidence in the plan. Not even a little. She wondered if Emma knew that, and was trying to make her think on this longer than she already had.

"Of course." She responded. She did. Maybe. Possibly. Probably not. Thinking things through wasn't really her style anyway, and she could only carry so much. She wasn't going to ask Emma to carry anything. If she couldn't fit what she needed into one bag, then she didn't need it. Most likely. She'd never been anywhere that she just couldn't pop back home to grab what she needed.

Well, there was one thing that she couldn't carry, and she wasn't about to leave that behind. Looking around quickly, she bit her lip. "Where is she?" The daughter of Hades muttered.

"Maybe she ran away from your stupid plan." Emma muttered quietly, and thus it was Adena's turn to snort at a stupid comment.

Hearing footsteps approaching, she knew immediately that those were not the sounds of humanoid feet running. With a smile, she peaked around the corner to catch sight of the grey wolf trotting down the hall. "Here Fia, come on girl." She called over softly. Gently placing her forehead on the wolf's in greeting, she smiled smugly at Emma and they were on their way.

There were so many memories tied to this place that they were about to leave behind. She remembered when she had been given Fia. A gift from the god Hermes, a frequent visitor of the Underworld and the only other deity to know of her existence. For now, that is.

Hermes and Adena had a good relationship from all the years of getting to know each other while he was delivering messages and gifts to the Underworld. She even considered him to be a good friend. It was nice to hear about his travels, about the world that she was missing out on. But that was not her current situation, and she needed to remain focused.

One thing that Adena was really grateful for? Her travelling companions were not loud. That would have sucked. Quickly going through the hallways, it seemed strangely quiet today. Less guards. The perfect day to sneak out. At least it would be less of a task than Adena had been worrying about for forever.

It hadn't taken long to get out of the castle. Though Adena was sad that they couldn't bring Cerberus with her. But the three headed dog was the guardian of the Underworld… and everyone would certainly notice the giant dog to be missing. Everyone.

What was strange was the absence of guards at the boats. A very strange day indeed. Could she really be this lucky? Really? Perhaps she would need to ask her father about security when she came back. One would think that such a thing would be important. Wouldn't want too many wandering spirits in the world of the living. From what she's heard, that's how horror movies start.

Staring at the boat, her stomach began doing imaginary flips. What if she really did fall out and drowned while being burned alive? What if the boat crashed itself by the sheer will of Poseidon? There were so many thoughts rushing through her head.

"Come on. You dragged me out here, you are not chickening out on me now." Emma snapped, breaking through the fog that had filled Adena's head. The fog of nerves that were still making her nervous to get on the damn boat.

"I could die." She mumbled.

"... If you don't get on this boat right now, you will die. I will personally kill you. Fields of Punishment be damned."

"Take a chill pill, Emma."

The look Emma gave her told Adena that she was very lucky that she actually couldn't murder anyone at this point in time. And that she would soon be looking for a way to kill her. "I will not take a chill pill! Get on the damn boat or I swear that I'll find a way to drown you."

While unwilling, Adena finally climbed on the boat and held on almost too tight to her poor wolf. Fia placed her head on Adena's as the child of Hades closed her eyes. They guided the boat to the river Oceanus, which encircled the world. Hopefully it would lead them somewhere ideal.

Thankfully the journey wasn't too long on the boat. For if it had been, Adena would certainly have lost her mind to nerves. "We're ditching the boat when we get to the surface. I am not putting myself through any more of this!" She exclaimed after a while. Her fears were really beginning to get to her as the ride went on. It was even making Fia nervous.

"Calm down, we'll be their soon." Emma said with a sigh. She knew that her fiery friend was not faking this, or being over dramatic. Which made this harder. How the heck was this girl going to handle rain?

Finally they came out of the cave to a place filled with pine trees, the sun shining through the branches. "Where are we?" Emma mumbled, causing Adena to open her eyes.

"I don't know, but let's get off of this thing and find out."

What both girls did not know was that the river lead directly into the lake of Montauk. But Adena did know that she felt a pull to go one way, and she looked in that way as they guided the boat to shore. "We should go that way." She stated simply.

"Oh? And how do you know that?" Emma muttered.

"Just… a gut feeling." Perhaps it would lead to a good place, or to danger. But she knew that she could face a little danger. Eyeing the bracelet on her wrist, she was quite glad for the other gift that she had received from Hermes.