Julie's grilled cheese is full of stab wounds.

She's glaring down at it, frustration and terror plucking her rib bones like the strings of a poorly tuned guitar. She barely hears the others enter, too focused on the mushroom and spinach filled murder scene on her plate. Hazel's words still linger in her mind.

Six days.

She has six days. After that, her best friend will be dead.

"We'll make it." Piper tells her, placing her hand on Julie's back in what's probably meant as a soothing gesture. Instead, it gives her away. Piper's doubt burns through the skin of Julie's bare shoulder all the way through to the bone, searing through layers of skin and muscle like dry leaves in a forest fire. She tries to close her eyes against the feeling, but there are faces waiting for her in the darkness.

Lee. Michael. Charlie. Silena.

Phil.

She can't do it. Not Nico. Julie can't lose him too.

A wafting of cool, summer scented air brushes her senses, and she looks back up from her ruined meal. Jason marches through the door a moment later. He's wearing purple again. His hair is neatly combed and glistening gold against the wire frames of his glasses. His skin is still a bit pale from recovery, but his jaw is set as he moves towards the end of the table with the aristocratic grace of a seasoned, elite soldier. The grace of a prince.

The tangles in Julie's hair feel more apparent than ever. She tries to be subtle about removing them with her fingers.

Percy enters then too, whistling as he walks for the end of the table as well. Neither boy is paying much attention to the other until they both reach for the head chair.

There's a moment where the group falls into silence as the two stare at one another. Julie purses her lips at the sparks flying up from Jason's fingertips as Percy stares him down. She can't decide if she finds the tension between them amusing or terrifying. Especially once she sees the dangerous way Percy narrows his eyes.

Thankfully, Annabeth strides in then and takes the seat herself without even looking up from her tablet, leaving no room for argument. Percy sits down beside her, Frank on his left. Jason slides into the chair next to Juliette. Their knees knock together, and he reaches down to give hers an apologetic squeeze.

Percy's eyes narrow further.

The following meeting is one of the grimmest Julie's ever been a part of. It's pretty clear to them all that the screw up in New Rome was a permanent one - they can expect no aid from Reyna and Octavian's forces. On top of that realization, Nico's time constrained predicament settles in as the poisonous cherry on top of the sunday-from-hell that is this day.

At some point during Hazel's explanation, Jason's knee migrates back into Julie's space, pressing comfortingly against her own. She finds herself clinging to the contact - like she's bungee jumping over a vat of acid, and his presence is her only safety line. Her palm itches. It's prickling painfully. It's agitating her, and every word one of Julie's friends speaks feels like another nail in Nico's coffin. Especially when Piper recounts her visions. Especially, when Julie hears the words from the Sibylline books.

Wisdom's daughter walks alone,

The Mark of Athena burns through Rome.

Twins snuff out the angel's breath,

Who holds the key to endless death.

Vengeance for a princess scorned

Rears passage through the lion's horns.

Giants' bane stands gold and pale,

Won through pain from a woven jail.

A chill sweeps through Juliette. She rests her elbows on the table, head in her hands, and sighs.

"The 'angel's breath.' That's Nico," She says with surety. "Nico di Angelo. Nico of the angel. Those lines are talking about him."

The table nods, looking down at their own plates solemnly. Hazel slips her hand into Frank's under the table. Julie eyes them, the way they both relax under each other's affection regardless of the information just brought the light. It annoys her. She pulls her knee away from Jason's.

"But, shouldn't 'endless death' not be a problem anymore? I mean, we freed Thanatos." Percy asks, biting into his blue pie with a frown. He's holding the slice like it's a piece of pizza. Julie wrinkles her nose at his terrible table manners.

"Not necessarily," Hazel answers. "If the Doors of Death are still open - which they are. I can sense them - Gaea can still call her forces even with Thanatos' interference. We need to close them."

"Do you know how?" Annabeth asks her.

Hazel looks down at her untouched plate. "No...Nico would, though."

"Good thing we're going to find him, then." smiles Frank. He squeezes Hazel's hand, and she's able to muster the ghost of a smile and nod in return.

Julie glares down at her stupid, torn up grilled cheese. The smell is making her nauseous. She pushes her chair back from the table and stands abruptly.

"I'm going to bed. Just catch me up in the morning," She states.

Without meeting anyone's eyes, Julie slides from the room. Maybe she should check the infirmary. She can make sure everything is stocked correctly. Yeah, that's a good idea. That'll be useful.

And it is. It keeps her busy enough to ignore the versions of Nico's face that appear with every blink of her too heavy eyelids. The half melted versions. The versions missing half of his skull. The bloodstained, silver ring adoring a pale hand beneath a pile of rubble.

She ends up sleeping in there too. It's the best place for her to be. That way, she'll be ready if something happens. If anyone needs her.

She'll be ready this time. She swears.

A hand strikes her cheek. Julie falls to the lionskin rug with a gasp, clutching her face. The robed man before her sneers at her crumpled form. He spits. It lands on Julie's back.

"I've had enough of your complaints, girl! I am your father. I am the king. You will wed the monster if I say it is so, and you will please him so he may bless our rivers to be bountiful. Do you understand," He kicks her with a sandalled foot. Julie allows herself to be rolled over, but her eyes stay on his tan, oiled calves, her face stinging. "Or need I repeat myself?"

Julie wants to tell him to go defenestrate himself, but the angry words she wants to speak are not what bubble to the surface.

"Yes, father." She rasps.

The king scoffs. He crosses the room and picks a scrap of white cloth from the golden vanity. He throws it at her. "Don this when he arrives. Perhaps he may see that you have some worth after all, despite your whore mother's curse."

With one last look of disdain at his daughter, the king turns and strides from the room. The door slams shut behind him. There's a slight pause. Then, the rattling of a key in the lock.

Juliette feels a sob building in her throat. A will that is not her own swallows it back, though. Her body moves by itself, lifting gracefully from the floor to limp behind the rose patterned changing screen. She removes her dress and pulls on the garment her father requested.

It's sheer. Thin. Her face burns with the shame of it.

Julie feels the tears come, then. On trembling legs, the princess glides to the vanity and lowers herself onto the stool. She doesn't bother to wipe away her tears. They continue to fall as she pins rubies and sapphires into her dark curls. Eventually, she just paints mahogany colored makeup over their tracks. Over the darkening bruise on her cheek and browbone. It applies smoothly. Naturally. She leans back in numb satisfaction once it's done.

There. Perfect once more.

The room feels cold.

When Julie imagined going on a grand, world-saving quest from the gods, she really should have expected stop #1 to be the middle of who-knows-where Kansas. Why let the kids see the sights of the world before you send them to their deaths, when you can show them wheat? And more wheat! And look at that wheat over there!

No offense to Kansans, but this state sucks.

Okay, maybe some offense. She's feeling a little sour today.

Julie taps her rainbow sneakers impatiently while she waits for everyone to get done chatting so they can get on with this little excursion of Piper's. She knows they need to do repairs. Whatever. But, absolutely nothing in the world is going to make her not grumpy about pulling over their warship so that they can see Mr. D of all people. Percy seems to share her lack of enthusiasm.

"Correct my math," He says, frowning up at the mile marker by the side of the road. "but doesn't that mean we have eight more miles to walk?"

"Congratulations, you can count." Julie snips. Percy frowns at her, and she sighs, checking her attitude. "Sorry, sorry. Yeah, it looks like we'll need to fly a bit further."

Piper nods. "Yeah. Flying's good. We've already spent too much time traveling over land. The earth is Gaea's territory."

Jason hums. He glances around at the group warily before resting a steadying hand against Juliette's back. "I could call for a ride," He suggests.

Percy clears his throat, drawing Jason's attention. He's frowning at where the son of Jupiter's hand is touching Julie's back below her tied up camp shirt. Jason pulls it away quickly, and Percy raises an eyebrow. "Oh, yeah? I bet my ride could get here first."

Jason scowls at him and puffs up his chest. Percy does the same.

Julie and Piper share an exasperated look. Testosterone.

"I think I can handle eight miles, you guys," Julie tuts, examining her cuticles. Whatever soap Leo cut costs by stocking in the Argo has been atrocious for her skin. She'll have to pick up her own sometime soon or she's going to be walking around like Wolverine. "None of you are that heavy. Just get on."

Julie arches to crack her back, does the same with her knuckles, and then pitches forward as her limbs stretch and grow scales. Before long, a fully grown wyvern, boasting shining emerald scales and polished, celestial bronze claw tips (a Christmas gift from Leo. Thanks, Leo!), is bowed before them. Piper hops on without hesitation and wraps her arms around Julie's serpentine neck.

"C'mon!" She calls down to the boys impatiently.

Jason cuts his eyes at Percy, a smug smirk pulling at his scar. "Go ahead," He gestures. "I'll just fly beside you guys. You know, because I can do that."

Can snakes roll their eyes? If they can, Julie's sure that she just did.

Percy huffs. He shoots Jason a dark look, and then hops up onto Julie's back behind Piper and holds on to one of her spines.

"Jules, if you drop me, I'm gonna be very - AGGHH!"

Mr. D (or Mr. B, Julie guesses) does what Mr. B does best. Which is be absolutely, totally, infuriatingly useless. His most helpful information is what he lets slip by accident.

In the wake of Bacchus' shimmering departure, the four demigods stare, wide eyed, at the swaying grain in the fields. The twins - Ephialtes and Otis. That's who has Nico.

Would it be tacky of Julie to say "targets acquired?"

Beside her, Piper shivers. "He's right," She mumbles, rubbing her hands up and down her upper arms. "We should go."

Julie frowns and scratches at her itchy palm. Piper looks freezing. It's gotta be like 90 degrees outside today, though. She glances over at Jason and Percy. They're shivering too, even if they're trying to look like they aren't cold. Puffs of condensation are pillowing from their mouths with every breath.

Juliette's stomach drops as the earth lets out a dark, lilting chuckle beneath them.

Percy cries out in warning, and the three fighters of the group are back to back in an instant, Piper squished into the center of their protective little triangle like precious cargo. Julie's bow is drawn, the icy blue frame feeling much warmer to the touch than her last one did. It fits differently in her hands, too. In a good way, though, so she brushes it off and takes in their surroundings.

Gaea is everywhere.

The rocks, the dirt, the grains of wheat in the fields...all of it seems to be bent towards them. Peering at them. Poised to strike in the Earth Mother's name. Julie eyes some particularly sharp looking gravel with a nervous expression as a haunting voice sounds beneath their feet.

Too late...welcome to my party.

This is so not a party. Julie tightens her fingers around the shaft of her arrow.

What did Bacchus say? A simple, low-key affair with organic snacks?

The voice chuckles. It rumbles through the earth like aftershocks. Julie hears Piper let out a fearful sob behind her and takes a step back, shoulders pressing firmly into Percy and Jason's as she tries to keep calm.

Yes. For my snacks, I'll need only two. The blood of a female demigod, and the blood of a male. So...

Another laugh. This time, Julie feels it. The cold. It jolts down her spine, burning at her eyes, nose, ears, and throat all together. She coughs, doubling over as she tries to expel whatever force it is trying to burrow its way into her body.

I think, I'll let you all decide who gets to die for me.

Piper goes rigid like a statue, eyes wide and clouded over as Gaea's voice begins echoing from her throat. Out of the corner of her eye, Julie sees Percy and Jason gritting their teeth, each moving to place the girls in between them defensively. It doesn't last long, though. Jason looks up in anger.

"Gaea!" He roars, sword clenched between his hands. "Show yourself! Stop hiding out in the wheat, and face us."

Gaea laughs, and the wheat arcs to the sound, bending to point at them like sharpened sickles and scythes.

Such bravado. You all have your appeal, I believe. Choose who is to die...Or I will choose for you.

"We aren't choosing anything, you crazy old mud lady." Percy snaps

There's another jolt of cold through Juliette's body. She looks up just in time to see Percy go rigid and his gaze cloud over as well.

Her lungs freeze. Figuratively. With wide eyes, Julie gets her coughing under control long enough to call out hesitantly. "Percy?"

Sea green eyes snap to her, but there's nothing behind them but boiling rage. She flinches violently and stumbles away from him. She runs into Jason instead, and looks up in relief.

That relief fizzles out at the aggression she finds on his face as well.

Jason shoves her away, and she lands hard on her hands and knees in the dirt, body still wracked with shivers. There's a painful pulsing in her right palm as she scrambles back, but she's coughing and confused. Something is wriggling at her senses, trying to take control. She pushes it back with all her might. There's no time to think about it when Jason is rounding on Percy, and the both of them are raising their blades up to one another.

She's got to stop this. She has to stop this now.

Julie starts pushing herself off her knees, but a boot comes down on her back and sends her slamming into the gravel. She looks back in alarm and finds Piper's unfocused eyes narrowed, enraged, down at her prone form.

Yeah. This is so not a party.

Julie rolls out of the way as Katoptris slices through the place her face had been a moment earlier. She gets to her feet and readies her bow again. The sight before her sends shocks of cold electricity down her nerves.

Piper is glaring menacingly at her. Her dagger poised in an attack position that Julie knows she has never been taught as the sun reflects off the bronze harshly, illuminating the blue sheen in Piper's usually color changing eyes. Behind her, a sword fight has begun. Percy and Jason are at each other's throats, gold striking bronze in a fit of sparks and horrible screeching sounds. That's no spar. They're striking to kill.

The realization settles in Julie' chest like an a two ton anchor. Leo's curse from New Rome. It's happening again. And, this time, she's probably not getting away with just a monkey wrench to the face.

Piper lunges for her, and Juliette curses, dodging the swipe of her dagger in a frantic backbend. The intense cold is still invading her eyes and throat. It makes her have to stop and cough, earning Julie a nice long slice across her upper arm. She hisses through her teeth at the pain and tries to transform, but the pulsing in her right hand becomes unbearable at just the thought. She tries her best to keep up a series of acrobatic dodges that would make her cheer team proud.

What is she supposed to do? She can't use her arrows. She'll kill Piper. She doesn't want to die either, though. She'll have to knock her out so that she can get this cold under control. If she can do that, maybe she can transform and take the boys on.

The thought makes her wince. Julie is often one to toot her own horn, but not even she can pretend that's a fight she's going to win.

She needs a solution. Fast. Preferably one that doesn't end in her being electrocuted or drowned in the middle of nothing-but-wheat-Kansas.

She shivers. Shivers? Yes, shivers. She's cold. Cold = ice. Oh, duh. Oh, please let this work.

"Sorry, Piper," Julie calls, wrapping both hands around the frame of her bow. "I'll let you borrow that jean jacket you like to make up for this!"

Piper snarls and leaps at her again, but Julie swings her bow forward like a baseball bat. She catches the older girl around the side of the head, and Piper goes crashing to the ground, unconscious. Julie cringes at the red mark left behind on the side of Piper's forehead and reaches down to pat her comfortingly on the shoulder.

It is a very good thing Gaea forgot about her charmspeak.

Shaking off the horrifying thought, Julie looks back up at where Jason and Percy are still in the midst of mutual attempted murder. Percy seems to currently have the upper hand. He's got Jason on the ropes, backing away with every deflected blow Riptide rings against his gladius. There are little cuts on both of their faces and arms. Julie doubles over coughing again and fights to catch her breath against the chill in her veins.

Jason lifts a hand, and storm clouds gather in the sky above. Lightning starts to crackle, and Juliette panics.

"Hey, Gaea!" Julie shouts. She draws an arrow and pulls her bow. Oooohhh, this is either a fantastic idea, or Julie's about to get herself killed. "You missed me!"

The taunt lingers in the suddenly still air. The boys' fight screeches to a halt, and both of their absent gazes inch over to rest upon her. Julie shivers. Not from the cold this time. Her heart is beating right out of her chest.

"Two must die," Hisses a voice from Jason's throat. It's high and croaky. It gives her the unpleasant kind of goosebumps.

"One female. One male." Agrees the voice from Percy's body.

Julie gulps. She aims her arrow down towards their feet and subtly takes a step back. "Who are you, anyway?" She stalls shakily.

The boys glare at her and speak in unison.

"We are the Eidolons. We will live again. You must die."

Okay. Whew. Here goes nothing.

"Well then," Julie laughs. "Come and get me?"

Eidolons are excellent rule followers. Percy and Jason both kick off the ground and sprint towards her at inhuman speeds. Juliette lets out an embarrassing squeak of terror, legs trembling as she tries to keep her nerve and let the power build in her hand until the very last minute. The cold in her body is drawn up into her palm, swimming and pulsing around the snowflake shaped marking there until it's practically glowing with divine energy.

Wait, no. Not practically. It's literally glowing silvery white. It's almost blinding.

Julie's nearly pooping herself at the terrifying looks the boys are giving her by the time they've charged up to about ten feet in front of her. Then, she looses the arrow right into the path before them.

The arrow crystalizes mid-air into a projectile of solid, silver ice. It slams into the gravel pathway at their feet and erupts. Ice explodes outwards, painting the whole area in a think layer of slippery frost. The wheat stalks freeze in place all around them like stalagmites. Jason's shoes freeze on the spot, and he topples forward, feet stuck in place. Percy keeps running for a second before losing his balance and slipping backwards. His head collides with the ice, and Julie can practically see the stars dancing in his now knocked out eyes.

With a sigh of relief, Julie slumps forward to her knees. There's flurries of snow floating from the sky, and yet, she's warm again. She raises her palm to her eyes and finds that the snowflake on it has dimmed considerably, looking almost like a very faded white scar.

"This one must die." Spits the Eidolon, struggling in place where Jason's shoes refuse to unstick from the ice. "This one will die."

"Thank gods he double knots his laces." Julie wheezes, bent over in exhaustion.

Jason sneers at her, and Gaea's voice comes out this time instead. At her tone, the earth rumbles, and the frozen stalks of wheat start to snap, raining down all around them like a hail storm. Julie grits her teeth.

Foolish child, the goddess spits. Your blood will serve no purpose for any but I. I know of your fate. I have seen it foretold in my children's-

"Yeah, lady, I really don't care." Julie sighs. She gets up and strides over to Jason, twirling her bow like a baton as the goddess scoffs. Lightning shoots out of Jason's fingertips towards her, and Julie dodges to the side with a yelp, the ends of her hair smoking in the wake of the blast.

How dare you mock me? How dare you interrupt the word of a primordia-

"Night, night." She calls. Julie wraps her elbow around the upper section of Jason's throat (a sleeper hold), presses down on the top of his head, and he's unconscious in her arms a few moments later.

So, not only does Julie have to do the knocking out and carry said knocked out patients through the air by herself back to the ship, she also has to make the knocked out patients not knocked out anymore. This is totally not a fair division of labor.

"What would you dummies do without me?" Julie sighs, holding Percy's nose as she mercilessly pours nectar down his sputtering throat.

"How come I never get invited on the violent trips?" Hedge pouts by the door as Annabeth hands Julie another bottle of nectar for Jason.

Piper winces where she's sitting up on her cot holding an icepack to her head. "Did you have to hit me so hard?"

"'dId yOu hAVe tO hIt mE sO hARd?' Yes, Piper, you were trying to stab me." snips Julie as she irritably shoves the nectar into Jason's mouth like a baby bottle. "Bottoms up, Soldier Boy!"

Leo snickers. "Cat fight. Gods, I would've loved to have seen that."

"Doesn't sound like it was much of a fight," Annabeth chuckles.

Piper goes pink and looks away, muttering to herself. Julie smirks at her, but shrugs.

"To be fair, she didn't use your charmspeak. I'd probably be a Julie-kabob if she ha-"

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" Percy shouts, sitting bolt upright in bed. The quick movement is, obviously, too much for him, and he's scrambling from the cot to vomit into the nearest trashcan seconds later. Julie scowls at him.

"Dude, I just gave you nectar. Way to waste my supplies."

He responds with more gagging sounds.

Julie rolls her eyes. If she has to treat another concussion this week, she's going to hit someone and be treating two.

Jason groans beside her and starts to shuffle to a sitting position too. Julie keeps a stern hand on his chest to prevent him from pulling a Percy, though. "Baby steps, Grace. Wouldn't want a repeat of yesterday."

"What happened?" He echoes Percy's question.

Leo grins at him from the doorway. "Sounds like you all went Paranormal Activity and tried to kill each other."

"Tried to kill me," Julie corrects with a scowl.

Leo shrugs. "Only as a second choice, though, right? They tried to kill each other first."

"Well, I tried to kill you first, Julie, if that means anything," Piper says sweetly, batting her eyelashes. Julie can't fight down an amused grin, but Jason looks horrified.

"We...what?! Are you okay?" He asks frantically, taking her by the shoulders. "Did we hurt you? How did that even happen. I only remember hearing Gaea's voice and then...oh Gods, Percy. He's okay?! I could've killed him! Did I hurt - Why are you laughing?"

Julie slaps a hand over her mouth.

Kill Percy? Hero of Olympus, Percy Jackson?

Oh, goodness. Jason has no idea, does he?

She clears her throat, exchanging amused eye contact with Annabeth that almost sends her over the edge again before patting him on the shoulder comfortingly. "Percy's fine. I knocked all of you out before you could do any real damage."

Jason deflates in relief, but Percy looks up from the trashcan with a frown.

"You kill me? What if I killed you?"

Jason's face drops to a scowl. He shrugs, looking away from Percy with feigned nonchalance. "If there was an ocean in Kansas, maybe."

Percy blanches. "I don't need an ocean-!"

"Boys!" Annabeth interrupts. She leans against the back wall of the infirmary with a tired frown, rubbing at her temples irritably. "I'm sure you would have both done a wonderful job killing each other. But, right now, you need to rest."

"Mhm." Julie hums, crossing her arms and standing above her patients. "Rest, but no sleep. You three have head trauma, so you can spend the afternoon reorganizing my supply closet and thinking about how much you love not getting injured. Maybe that'll give you some ideas for missions in the future."

Percy groans. "Fine, whatever, but we need to have a meeting first. Bacchus said-"

"I'm perfectly capable of telling the others what Bacchus said. Now, go sort my lollipops by color. And, if I count them later and a single one is missing, your ass is grass, Jackson."

"So, the giants have him?"

"Yeah."

Hazel purses her lips. Her eyes drift up to Julie's porthole window and rest on the little glass bottles lining the shelf below it. She lifts from the edge of Juliette's bed and makes her way over to them. Julie watches sadly as Hazel brushes her fingers against the petals of the only living flower in her collection.

Of all the blossoms Nico brought Julie from the Underworld, there's only one that blooms year-round. A white one the size of her fist. Purple veins run through the lily-like petals, eventually converging at a glossy black stem.

From Asphodel, Nico had told her. They're really the only beautiful thing there.

Julie wonders if she'd still find them beautiful if they were all she had to look at for eighty years.

Hazel drops her hand from the flower and closes her eyes. Something about the way the jewel toned glow of the wilted blooms reflects off her dark skin...Something about the way her dark curls are pinned behind her ears today...She looks like someone Julie's only dreamed about. Like a princess. It makes Julie's heart clench with protective urgency.

"We're going to get him back." She states. Hazel looks over at her with wide eyes, and Juliette's resolve hardens. "He owes me too many free meals to die on me right now." She smirks.

That pulls a tearful laugh out of Hazel. She wipes at her wet cheeks and looks over at Julie with an odd frown. "Are you and Jason...What are you two?" She asks.

Julie blinks, thrown by the sudden change of subject. "Um...what?"

"It's just that you two seem very close," Hazel states. There's an angry glint in her eye that takes Julie aback. "Very close from what Leo and I saw yesterday."

Julie can feel her face getting hotter. She opens and closes her mouth like a codfish. "I-uh...I don't know. We aren't really - well we were, but...Why do you want to know? Are you...I thought you and Frank were a thing."

Hazel crosses her arms. "We are. So, I know that I would never act the way you do with Jason while I was in a relationship. Don't you find it shameful to be-?"

"Wait, time out," Julie interrupts her, making a 'T' shape with her hands. Befuddled, she scans Hazel up and down. The shorter girl has her heels dug in, face scrunched into a defensive, determined scowl and arms crossed like a bouncer outside a nightclub. Despite being half a foot shorter than Juliette, she finds the daughter of Pluto can be very intimidating when the need arises. "What do you mean, 'while in a relationship'?" Julie asks in confusion.

Hazel huffs at her in impatience. "I mean, don't you think my brother would be hurt by how you're parading around flirting with Jason? It's shameful. If you're his girlfriend, shouldn't you - Why are you laughing?"

"Oh, gods, another day on this ship is going to kill me."

"Does your father's choice in husbands displease you?"

Julie blinks. This time, as she dreams, she can hear the princess' thoughts as if they're her own. They bounce around her wine-addled mind like curious bees on fig blossoms.

What a strange question. One that's never been asked of her before. She has no answer.

"Is that of consequence?" She hears herself ask in reply.

The man on the rocks frowns at her. His blue eyes have an intensity to them that make her shiver. They're eyes which have seen a thousand atrocities - eyes which have weathered a million battles, ferried countless souls to Charon's docks.

They're the eyes of a man who knows the suffering of lonesomeness and a father's cruelty. They see right through Juliette's useless gown to her soul.

If only her new husband's eyes could see her so.

The man steps forward, and the sheer enormity of his stature strikes her anew. She barely reaches the center of his chest at her full height. Looking up at his strong, handsome face, she feels as though she's addressing something divine.

She is, she supposes. There is, after all, lightning in his veins.

"I will free you from him, should you wish it," Heracles promises her. His breath puffs against her cheeks, hot and smelling of honeyed wine stolen from her husband's alter. "You are ichor made flesh, Deianira. We are kin. Say the word, and I will take you away from here. Forever."

She is a princess. She is a woman. Her marriage was an advantageous one - to a god, no less. She has pleased Achelous, and he has blessed her father's lands with an abundance of fish and clean springs in return. Her purpose has been served, her body used.

She has nothing of value to offer this man. This hero. This renowned son of Olympus. And, yet, his hand comes to brush away the black wisps of her hair from her face, and a thumb rests against the plump of her lips. She parts them and breathes in the smell of his skin.

He tastes of ambrosia. Of nectar. Of the birthrights she's never been permitted to claim.

Long forgotten powers stir within her, and Julie...Deianira closes her eyes and presses a kiss into Heracles' fingers. She draws in a breath, dizzy with the understanding of what she is about to do, and looks up to meet his blazing gaze.

"Yes."