"Are you gonna tell me what's wrong?" Hercules asked as soon as they were out of earshot.
The Muses were helping by singing an encore about Hercules's own meteoric rise to stardom, but Hercules himself couldn't be bothered.
"I thought I saw someone out there," she said and pointed to a door. "There, let's go in there, and we can talk."
Hercules opened the door without question and then stepped through with her. "You're gonna need to tell me what's bothering you because otherwise, I'm taking you home and searching this whole palace for whatever's responsible."
"I thought I saw… I mean, I must have been wrong, obviously that person wouldn't come here after everything that happened."
Hercules furrowed his brow. "You… you don't mean…?"
"Don't worry about it. I'm sure I made it up in my head. I just needed to be alone with you so I could refocus and feel better."
"But, what if…" Hercules started, but he was powerless to keep talking when Megara unpinned one shoulder of her dress and pulled the neckline down past the linen wrappings that bound her breasts in place. "Uh… if… Meg? What're you doing?"
"We've been married a little too long for you not to know what I'm doing," Megara purred at him. She unwrapped her chest and left the linen wrap on the floor. "I think it's about time we distracted one another from whatever's out there."
"I…" Hercules swallowed heavily, his eyes wide and riveted right where she wanted them.
"It's not fair to tease you, I know, but I'd rather not play fair right now. Make me forget what I thought I saw, please?" She slid her other sleeve off her shoulder and let it fall to her waist so she was naked from the waist up. Her hair was still adorned with her veiled crown, and she wore the golden medallion that bore the Olympian seal of Zeus and nothing else.
Hercules nodded slowly and slid his hand under her skirt. "Will you tell me what happened after this?"
"I will if I still remember," she said with a sly smile. "But I'd prefer it if you made me forget everything that isn't you."
"Oh, then… if this is all right…" Hercules curled a hand around her hip, and he squeezed. "Mm… You keep getting cuddlier."
With a low, dark chuckle, Megara asked him, "Is that what we're calling it?"
"Until I think of another way…" He rested a hand on the curve of her belly. "But for now…" He closed his eyes and slid her across his body to straddle his waist. "Theoi… I could just sit here and think of all the new ways you're beautiful."
"Are you just saying that because it's your child in there?"
"No, but… that's probably something to do with it… You also sang so beautifully… and to think that those songs were written from your own words, and you meant them, I just…" Hercules sighed. He rolled them over so she lay stretched out beneath him and lavished her face in kisses.
Megara reached behind his neck to hold him in place while she fiddled him free of his cape and armor.
Once he was free, Hercules wasted no time. He lifted one of her legs and pressed himself between them.
"You're ready faster than I thought you'd be," she whispered.
"You underestimate how long I've been waiting for this," he whispered back. Cushioning her neck in his elbow, he pressed himself in up to the hilt.
It took her a moment to adjust, but in the sweet strain of that moment, she let go of any notion that she'd seen the man who ruined her life. Her new man was all-consuming, and impossible to ignore.
As if their previous position weren't primal enough, Hercules rolled her onto her knees and elbows. His chin rested on her shoulder, and he whispered, "Forget what scared you, yet?"
"Don't even know what you're talking about."
Hercules chuckled into her ear, clasped her hands in his, and took his time savoring the way their bodies conformed to one another. "I like that crown on you, by the way… It makes me think of how you'll look on Olympus when I take you there to share our eternity."
Ordinarily, Megara might have objected with some rational caution, but he'd driven it all out of her mind. That halo of gold she sometimes saw when he was in her formed around her vision. It was stronger on the side where Hercules pressed his cheek to hers, so she assumed it was the light that emanated from his body.
Her heart was racing so intensely that it hurt, but she relished how he pushed her to her mortal limits. She closed her eyes, but the light didn't dissipate. It was part of her now, the way she could feel her blood course with his divine energy as if it were her own.
Hercules's heat was all around and through her, and she willingly gave herself up to him.
The two of them lay in peace for a long moment until the unwelcome sound of someone knocking on the chamber door dissolved that golden bliss. "Hercules? Megara?" came the voice from the other side of the door.
Through her haze of pleasure, Megara mumbled, "Who's there?"
"It's… it's Cassandra, don't you recognize my voice? Megarion sent me to find you since I've known Hercules longest, so it shouldn't be as awkward for me to be the one who tells you the next act of the night is a play. We're going to have honey cakes, too, and he won't start without you."
Megara let out a long sigh. "Okay, give us a minute…"
"A little more than a minute," Hercules said and kissed Megara's cheek. "We've got to put ourselves back together."
Cassandra was quiet for a moment, but then she said, "I see a man and a woman. They remove their masks. They are known and unknown, with two faces at once. I see chains. Smoke. Fire. A sword."
Hercules growled low in his throat and detangled himself from Megara. "This night just keeps getting better, huh? How long do we have before all that?"
"I dunno, it could be tonight, it could be next week. But you've heard me. I'm gonna go get some cake."