I'd thought demigod dreams were bad when I was sleeping in my house.

They were ten thousand times worse while unconscious.

I passed through the usual gruesome killings of demigods and witnessed something that looked uncomfortably like the Nazis beginning to recruit the Germans to support their cause, and then glimpsed a worried-looking satyr gaze upon my house, before his eyes glazed over and he trotted away, whistling an unfamiliar jaunty tune to himself.

But no, that wasn't even the weirdest thing I saw while dreaming.

That title belonged to when I saw myself.

Like, literally me. It was impossible to mistake that streak of red shooting through my hair. I was older, though — if I had to hazard a guess, I would say I was around sixteen.

My wavy locks of black hair had grown so long, I'd woven them into a long braid. My red streak dangled in front of my face, partially obscuring my right eye. My olive skin seemed paler, almost sickly in appearance, like I'd spent too much time in a place with very little sunlight. My dark eyes stared back at me from the mirror, sadder beyond measure, but also angry, like I'd done something terrible and would never forgive myself for it.

I tried not to think much about what that could mean.

My future self opened her mouth, a scowl twisting her face. I thought she was about to say something wise or give me a helpful warning, but all that came out of her mouth was, "Get up!"

Yeah, I kinda figured I'd have to at one point, was all I could think back, before a jolt went through my body and I woke up with a start.

Surprisingly, I was in a giant, comfy bed, with red curtains the colour of blood drawn to give me privacy.

Woah. I ran my hands along them. They were silk. Given that we were being raised by a single mother in the 1930s, we hadn't had much opportunity to be surrounded by such exotic materials.

Whoever's house I'd shadow-travelled into, they were rich.

I looked around, and forced myself up, my arms still slightly shaky and weak. I felt absolutely exhausted and had the mother of all headaches pounding in my forehead — sadly, I was already kinda used to that, what with all that Timeline ThinkingTM I did.

But perhaps the most depressing thing about my surroundings was that they were also horribly cold. I shivered as goosebumps travelled along my arms, teeth chattering.

Nope. Can't do this.

I let out a pathetic groan and flopped back on the bed dramatically, the springy mattress making my tiny body bounce up and down like I was on a trampoline.

"Ah, you're awake."

"AH!" I was so startled that I instantly ducked under the covers of the bed, frightened.

Yes, I do realise the action was pointless. I'd already revealed myself to the man, after all.

However, there's no point in wondering about what could've been.

There was a huff, and the man who'd spoken pulled the blanket off me. "Don't try to hide. You're the one who landed in my palace."

Palace? I thought wildly, straining to pull the blanket back. Where the hell have I gotten myself into?

"Child, I am talking to you," the voice spoke again, sounding just a tad admonishing. He gave up on trying to take the blanket off me. I would've been annoyed at his tone, if not for the fact that I'd quite literally broken into his house.

The man deserved at least some sort of answer, for gods' sake.

(He hadn't kicked me out yet, either, so that also definitely earned some points for him in my book).

"Well, it wasn't as if I knew I was going to come here," I grumbled, my words slightly muffled by the blanket, which I still clung on tightly to. "Believe me, it was an accid —"

Whatever I'd meant to say, I cut it off abruptly as I lifted my eyes up to the man's face, gaze widening in absolute shock.

He was cold and regal, but somehow, his obsidian eyes held warmth as he looked at me. His hair, long and dark, was pulled into a ponytail behind his head, and his skin was pale, far paler than anything I'd ever seen.

But the thing that caught me off guard the most was the familiarity of the man. It was like my instincts were screaming at me, friend!

No, I shook my head, disbelieving. This wasn't my friend. This was my…

"Father," I breathed, a strange feeling overcoming my senses, like bees buzzing underneath my skin.

He quirked his eyebrow.

"Hello, Callie."

I didn't ask how he knew my name, even though I was pretty sure I'd never met him before.

(Gods will be gods, I guess).

I got up and stood, despite the trembling in my legs.

"Where were you, Pa?" I cried, placing my hands on my hips, acting the part of a regular obnoxious five-year-old who had no idea the gods existed.

Being around the language for so long, I'd spoken in Italian instead of English — by now, it had sort of replaced the latter as my mother tongue. I would've been upset, but honestly, I loved that language far more.

"We never get to see you!"

Hades smiled sadly and sat down on the bed. My eyes tracked him, frowning.

"I cannot come and see you, piccolo," he said, speaking in Italian too.

I scowled at him. "Why not?"

He sighed. "I belong to a different…country, you see." He paused, thinking something over in his head. "The…rules there are very different from yours, and one of them says that I mustn't visit you, no matter what. Believe me, piccolo, I wish to, but I cannot." At those words, he scowled just like me, and the sight of such a childish expression on his face made me giggle.

Who knew Hades, the fearsome lord of the dead, could be so silly?

"Okay," I conceded, dropping the subject. As far as making up stories on the spot went, this one was actually pretty good — for a child to believe, that is — and for that Hades had earned at least a little bit of my respect.

Besides, I knew it would be a very, very bad idea to let the Lord of the Underworld know that someone had escaped from his realm — and have the nerve to be reborn as his daughter, no less. Bothering Hades unnecessarily about answers I already knew was just going to result in a headache, for both of us.

I didn't know about him, but I'd had quite enough of those for a while.

Speaking of the god, he shifted closer to me, peering into my face with obsidian eyes so similar to mine.

"How did you get here, piccolo?" He asked, a strange glint in his eyes. I didn't like that look. "My palace is very hard for people to find, you see."

Which of course reminded me that I'd ended up in the Underworld of all places on my first attempt at shadow-travelling.

Wow, my luck sucked.

First the rebirth, then the nightmares, then freaking Gaea — and now this.

I frowned. "I dunno, Pa. I was running, but then I slipped…I think I fell down." I looked around. "This doesn't look like home, though. Where am I?"

I'd been in Drama Club in my previous life. I suppose those acting skills had leaked through into this life as well.

"You are in my palace, piccolo, there's no need to panic," Hades assured. The glint in his eyes was gone, and my anxiousness along with it. I relaxed, but only slightly. "Just tell me, did you see anything while you were falling?"

I shook my head, still pretending to be ignorant and confused. "I just saw the shadows, Pa. But there were these creepy…sounds." I wasn't pretending to shudder this time.

Shadow-travel was freaky.

Hades stared at me, and I had the strangest feeling that he was trying to extract more information from my lips.

"I wasn't too scared, though," I suddenly added for some reason. "The shadows are nice. They make me stronger."

I stopped abruptly, scrunching up my forehead. "I…didn't mean to tell you that." I glanced suspiciously at Hades, wondering if this was his doing, but he didn't seem to notice.

No, he seemed contemplative. He reached out a hand to touch the side of my head, running his pale fingers through my weird streak of red, murmuring something like, "could it actually be?"

I didn't know why he was speaking in such a strange lilting voice all of a sudden. He must've thought I wouldn't understand through the thickness of the accent.

"Pa?" I ventured, leaning back uneasily. The red streak slipped out of Hades' hands. He looked almost disappointed as it left his grasp, before meeting my scared face and hastening to make his expression friendlier.

He hastened to make his expression more friendly. "It's OK, piccolo, I'm not going to tell." He reassured, before getting up and dusting his black robes off. "I must leave now, Callie. But remember, the method you came here by, it isn't safe for you. Not when you are this young. Try not to do it again, hmm?"

I just nodded. "Okay, Pa," I agreed easily, crossing my fingers behind my back as he turned around and gave me a brief smile.

Yeah, like hell I was going to abandon any hope at being able to avoid the monsters.

But Hades just nodded, satisfied.

He mustn't have been around many kids if he thought I was some sweet angel.

I mean, okay, I might've looked like it, with all that baby fat and pretty hair and all, but anyone who'd been around us five-year-olds for more than two minutes knew that they were 'lying, scheming little brats', in the eloquent words of our grumpy governesses.

I mentally snorted.

Our governesses were not afraid to let their displeasure with us known. It had resulted in some very amusing situations — like when I'd pranked them with buckets of paint and watched hysterically as they dissolved into pure cursing, all composure gone, absolutely drenched in a variety of shades and colours.

"Good girl, Callie." Hades patted my head, and I snapped out of my thoughts. "I will send you home now. Say hello to your mother and siblings for me, will you?"

He ruffled my hair one last time, before snapping his fingers, and sending me into a void of high-speed shadows that whisked me straight off to my bed.

I rolled as I landed, groaning. "Ow."

I realised now that shadow-travel really sucked when you weren't the one controlling it.

I only hoped I hadn't been knocked unconscious for too long.

There was a gasp, and suddenly I was being squeezed to death by a blur of dark hair. "Callie!" Bianca breathed in my ear, pulling back and gazing at me with teary eyes. She backed up and hit me on the shoulder, a. "Where on earth were you?! You've been gone for weeks!"

I winced.

Well, shit.