The sofa was so comfortable, better than the one I spent hours on in Ailins attempt at therapy with me. It was soft in that way you sink into it, but still firm enough you didn't feel like a turtle stuck on it's back when trying to get up. Compared to how I felt an hour ago, this was heaven; almost. I refused to open my eyes, to face the person that now sat beside me. I didn't need to look to know he was staring, and his face was clear in my mind.

Brow creased. Worried eyes. Thin lips that tilt down into a frown.

Peeking out, sure enough that's exactly what greets me.

"I know you're awake, I'm not going to magically disappear because you want me to." He sighs, leaning back in the chair. "How do you feel now?"

"Comfy. Thanks, you can go now." I turn my back to him and I feel his hand hovering about my arm as he hesitates, but touches me anyway. I shrug him off. "Don't, touch, me."

It wouldn't have been so bad if I was fully clothed, but fresh from my shower and from letting him see where ever it hurt, left me in my underwear which I now remembered. His eyes burned wherever they went on my back and my first attempt at summoning something to wear failed, and the second.

"You're going to have some new scars." He says sadly after a few minutes.

"No shit." He may have fixed the outside, but inside was still a mess.

"Bunny, please-"

I sit up, turning around and stand up prepared to tell him where he can stick, calling me Bunny, only my body may be healed, but it didn't like my way in which I just moved. My calf cramps, knocking me back down with a gasp as the muscle twitches and tightens.

"Mother fu-" I curse.

Without a word, his hands are on my leg and working out the tension that had just exploded there. It settles quickly thanks to him, but his hands stay put. For a second I'm taken back to another time, where we were different people and he'd worked a similar magic with his hands on my sore body. I'd just gone through another round of hell, we were hidden away in a hotel room after calling truce, and he'd massaged away all my aches pains. Deja vu made me nostalgic for a different time, and reaching out now, I touched blonde not black hair. He leant into my touch and I caressed his face before leaning forward so now our foreheads rested against each other. It was all so clear now.

"I'm sorry." I finally say.

"What for?" Apollo asked, clearly confused.

"For everything. It hurts, you know, but I'm not angry anymore. I don't blame you for anything. You're not Logan. I was holding on to someone that doesn't exist and you, you didn't know what else to do either." I sigh, kissing the tip of his nose. "Maybe you're right. Maybe one day things will work for us, but that time isn't now."

"I love you, Bunny. That was never a lie."

"I know and I love you too. Just, not how you need me to." Even inside the pain weakened.

We sit in silence as we both seem to process all of that at the same time. This was the breakup we needed. We weren't enemies. We didn't hate each other. It hurt, but it was okay. I wouldn't not see him again or avoid him if I did. It felt, mutual, and after all we'd gone through, it felt right.

"I'm still going to say it. What the hell were you thinking going there tonight? What I was worried would happen, happened!" He lectured in that way that grated on my nerves and only confirmed that no matter what, our relationship was never going to work.

"Want a medal?" I shrug. "I can get one made up for you. Worlds biggest know it all, two thousand and thirteen!"

"She could have killed you!" Apollo huffed.

"Technically, I could have killed her too. If you hadn't come along, I could have stabbed her a few more times. Maybe. She's one of you, of us. That gold is going to hurt and I doubt she has a you or a Cain nearby to help her heal up. She might be dead already?"

"You might not always have a me or a Cain nearby either!" He snapped back.

"Minor detail," I sit back in the chair and think about everything. "She really hates me. I know I can have that effect on people, but apart from our encounter in the Underworld, I know I haven't met her before. She an ex of yours or something? One of Zeus's little mistresses wanting revenge?"

"That's the thing, I couldn't get a read on her. It's like, she cloaked herself. She could be in here now and I wouldn't know." He adds, both of us cautiously looking around the space.

"Doubt it. I got her good, so she'd be feeling it enough that she wouldn't be quiet." I have to smile at that. If she didn't die and she did try to come back, well she was pretty damn stupid. "But we got the rocks. I'm hoping Ailin agrees with the Valkyries idea of destroying them. If she doesn't, well they might just end up missing from storage and never be seen again anyway."

"Seems a little easy. I would have thought she'd have a backup plan," He muses. "You don't start something like this and not. Have to give her credit, she's done a number on her followers."

"She was positive she was going to beat me so maybe she doesn't? Vampires also once believed in what Selene sold to them, so I don't think they have a good track record of picking their cult leaders." I ask him about talking to Hermes and how she could be moving around with his portals, and to see if Hades had found anything else out. "She has to be stopped. Nothing that happened has changed that."

"You don't honestly think I'm going to-" He started.

"Yes, I do. We're friends, well, we're working on it right? So be a pal, and get your people to talk my people, which is technically just me, especially with my new role that Ailin gave me." I smile and he is hating this. I can tell.

"I should just lock you away somewhere. You just can't help yourself can you?" He sighs, running a hand through his hair.

"You have your talents, I have mine. Blame my powers." I shrug.

"I'll see what I can do." Apollo finally caves.

It's awkward as we do some strange half hug, chest bump, punch an arm, wave, dance to say goodbye. The second he's gone I take a deep breath, and finally manage to get some clothes on, though shoes are another story and I stay barefoot as the urge to get a drink has me going to the bar.

"You seem, better." Eric frowns, looking me over.

"He's a healer." I shrug, offering no further explanation. "Drink?"

He puts a glass of lemonade in front of me, and smiles. "On the house."

"There better be some tequila, gin, or vodka in this."

"After your last visit, the Valkyrie are a bad influence. You weren't drinking that night, and from your reaction the following morning, you did something you regret and it wasn't the first time. Look, I've been where you are. Drinking doesn't fix anything. It dulls the pain, is a bit of a distraction, for a while, but it's going to catch up to you again once your sober." He lectures.

"He's right, Elise." Kara stands beside me. "I sense great pain inside of you. We all have something dark in us we want to avoid. We know that better than any. Nothing here, in those bottles, will heal you."

"Is this an intervention? My parents have always threatened me with one of these," They stare at me straight faced and don't even blink. "You drink mead until you pass out every night. Are you actually lecturing me on being sober?"

Eric sighed. "Don't get mad with us Elise. We're just calling it how it is. The girls have faced their demons, I've faced mine. We're not judging you, we just know what it's like being on the other side. The grass is greener over here, promise!"

"I'll be the judge of that, but not tonight. You have no idea what I've been dealing with," the lemonade turns amber, loses the bubbles and finds some ice. "Thank you for your help, Kara. I owe the Valkyrie a great debt."

"No, Elise. We do not work that way. We had our deal, which we both shall honour. The rest, is merely a token of our allegiance to one another." She touches my glass, the lemonade reappearing. "Feel the pain. Embrace your feelings. They do not make you weak, or any less a warrior. Even the bravest of us are still scared. It's okay, to feel."

She heads back upstairs and Eric is suddenly busy with a small group down the other end of the bar. I take off the golden ring, and tuck it into my back pocket before glaring at the lemonade. It would be easy to change it again, leave and go to my own bar where Paul would never even think to cut me off. Instead I take it with me and go back upstairs, where Kara is picking at a platter of meats, cheese and fruit. My stomach growls and she taps the cushion beside her.

"Meghan has called to tell me they have transitioned the stones into your kinds care. They are all on their way here now." She motions for me to eat, and I do. "You fought well tonight, Hunter. The girls told me what you did."

"They work well together." I tell her.

"Many years of practice. None of us start out knowing what we do today, and it doesn't matter where you begin. Just so long as you learn along the way." She smiles, sipping her mead which makes my stomach churn for a different reason. "I'm glad you chose the lemonade."

"I don't think I could have that again, not anytime soon anyway." I cringe.

"It's a lesson." Kara smirks.

__________________________

It's early when I get home. The house quiet with everyone asleep. Alfie and Annipe are down at the river, and I don't disturb them, putting on the coffee machine instead. Mum is up first, surprised to see me sitting at the table, and with one look she's holding me tight.

"You alright love?" She asks, kissing the top of my head as she finally lets me go and pours herself a coffee.

"Yeah I am." I smile.

"Apollo still in bed?"

"I'm not sure where he is, we are, we're working on just being friends now." Her mouth opens and thens shuts, before she gives a little nod. "It just, well, he isn't Logan is he and we're from different worlds and it wasn't working. He just realised it before I did, you know?"

"I know, love." She reaches out and squeezes my hand. "What will be, will be."

"Motto of my life at the moment." My phone beeped and a notice from Ailin appeared calling a meeting at eight am. "Council meeting. I better go get ready."

"Will you be home for dinner?" She called out, as I went to go into my room.

"Should be. I'll let you know."

Opening the bottom drawer, I hold the tubes of sand and send them to Kara. I got a text barely a minute later from her thanking me, and falling onto my bed, it still smells like him. They're in the wash thirty seconds later and looking around my room, all other traces of him having been living here too, were already gone.

"Elise?" Artemis asks softly from the doorway. "We just heard, are you okay?"

"What?"

"Apollo just found us, and told me about-" She says sadly.

"Like now, this morning?"

"Yes?"

"Summon him, bring him here, how ever you all communicate or whatever." I demand. She frowns, but does it and sure enough, Apollo and Hermes are by my bed.

"Everything alright?" He asks, instantly looking around.

"You just told her that we broke up, Hermes too?" Apollo nods. "Told anyone else?"

"No, I just, it happened last night, and-" He mumbles, trying to explain himself, but clearly unsure what he needed to explain.

"How did she know?" I ask them.

"Who knew what?" Artemis asks now.

"The psycho chick that has it in for me. She knew we broke up, but only we knew, until this morning. Even the Valkyrie were clueless until you left the bar." Then I thought of the one other person who did. "Portia."

"What she got to do with this?" Hermes growled.

"She came just after you left," I tell Apollo. "She is the only other person who knew."

"Portia would not betray you," Apollo sounded pretty damn sure about it.

"He's right. She is very protective over you, Elise." Artemis assured me.

"The Valkyrie said she's been using other people to go through the realms. My first thought was you, Hermes. You all have been coming and going for months now."

"If I made mistakes like that, the King would have my head. I close them off immediately, no one could sneak through without me sensing them!" He defended.

"She does cloak herself well. It took me a second to even work out she was there, and not just one of the others caught up in the fight. I didn't even get a look at her." Apollo added. "Portia can slip through anywhere and through anything. I don't know how she could somehow follow her, without being noticed. Cloaked or not."

"If she's still alive, she'll be weak. Perhaps weak enough that she wouldn't be able to travel how she has been or least make some mistakes to work out how it happens?" I look at Hermes, who seemed furious over the prospect someone was getting by him.

He vanished, and the three of us just awkwardly stood there for a moment.

"Right, well, I might go to the warehouse from last night. See if there is any sign of where she went from there?" Apollo murmured, disappearing just as quickly as Hermes did.

"He isn't as okay as he appears, if that helps?" She said as he left.

"Are any of us?" I sigh. "It's for the best. We're adults. We can manage this, friendship thing."

"Honestly, I thought you'd be a little more-" She paused, and I didn't want to hear it.

"Let it go Art, it is what it is."

Hermes reappeared, his face flushed. "She's gone. There was something leaving a energy all over the passage. I don't know why I didn't pick it up when we came through this morning, it would have passed us right by!"

"And the other side, she would be near our home?" Artemis had her turn at sounding furious.

"Dead end. I couldn't pick it up, even with her track from the portal. There was blood though, so where ever she is, she's hurting." He tells us.

"Can you see Portia's, energy, in your passages?" I ask him.

"No, we use different ones. Why?"

"Portia came through last night to check on me, and obviously she must have come then too. So she would have had to have been where Portia was to use it?"

"Yeah.It's not too hard to sense if you know what you're looking for. She could be using both of ours at any time." Hermes mumbles. "Don't tell the King. He'll, well, don't tell him."

"How do you sense a portal? Can I do it?" I ask.

"Maybe, over time." He shrugs. Holding his hand out, he closed his eyes, before reaching over and grabbing mine. "Do you feel that?"

"No."

"Now?" He peeked out to look at me, and I shook my head.

"Close your eyes Elise. Focus on the air, breath out and follow your breath as it goes around the room." Artemis instructed.

I tried.

Still nothing.

"It might help if you travelled more to get a sense of it." Hermes suggested.

"That's not too practical." Artemis warned.

"I go to Hades little thing when we train?"

"Different again. He opens up a dimension already in this world, not in another." Hermes sighed. "One day kid. It takes time."

He sounded so much like Zane then, I couldn't stop myself from smiling at him.

"We should pay a visit to Hades," Artemis suggested to Hermes. "I'm glad, you're doing okay, Elise. We're still friends too, aren't we?"

"Of course!" I tell her, giving her a hug before the pair disappeared.

Checking the time, it was only seven and I still had hour to the meeting. Needing to talk to Portia, I wasn't sure how to get her attention. A big I'm sorry probably wouldn't go a stray either and thinking of her, I got the same little tickle I did when looking for someone or something, which meant she was still in this realm.

Instantly I went to her, and froze as I appeared in the living room of Raya and Keiran. Portia sat cross legged on the lounge giving Olivia a bottle, while Raya slept on the chair beside her. She also looked very un-Portia like and somewhat more Ms Huntington, so I'm not sure which one of us was more surprised at seeing the other.

"Elise, is everything alright?" She asked first.

"What are you doing here?"

"After our, last visit, I decided to come and check on the baby. Raya offered for me to stay, and this little darling was giving Mummy a hard time while Daddy went to look at some bad vampires!" Portia spoke to Olivia who ended up refusing the bottle, and turning to look my way.

The reality of the situation hit me then.

"We have to move them, away, far away from here. Somewhere new and safe!" Raya woke up then, yawning before waking up much quicker at seeing me.

"I was dreaming of your voice, makes sense now. How are you?" She asked, stretching and then getting up to come over to me. "Don't be mad. Portia told me last night, I'm sorry if my bad advice caused-"

"Doesn't even matter. You have to go. Pack up everything you need."

"What? Why?"

"You told her, about my breakup?" I asked Portia, whose face paled.

"Yes, but I didn't mean to and-"

"Pack up. Now. Call Keiran, no I will find him and bring-" I do just that, snatching him from the booth at McDonalds were he sat with two other Hunters. "Help them pack up!"

No one moves as I start to grab baby things from the floor. "Actually, forget it. We'll buy you new things. Whatever you need."

"Elise, calm down. What's going on?" Raya asked, grabbing me by the arms to make me stop.

"You're acting a bit crazy," Keiran added cautiously, his coffee still in his hand.

"She was here. She will know about Olivia now, we have to go." The only reason I hadn't completely lost my shit at them was because Hermes had told me she had gone back to their realm.

If she wasn't dead, she could come back.

If she wanted revenge, it wouldn't be hard to get by coming here. She could have even sent her followers the tip off about these guys for all I knew.

"Magic protects us here, it's-" Raya started, sounding slightly panicked but clearly hoping I was just having a mental break.

"It's not safe. She has been using Portia and Hermes portals as they travel between the realms to bring herself in. No one except what I thought was the three of us knew about the break up until this morning, but she was talking about it last night." I tell them.

"Impossible. I would-" Portia stopped, her old lady look disappearing as the real Portia returned. Her eyes white and creamy before she blinked back to their normal blackness.

"What did you see?" I demand. If not for Olivia in her arms, she'd be across the room with a knife to her throat. "Tell me!"

"She's right. It's time to go." Olivia is passed to Raya, who shakes as she holds her daughter. "There is dark magic on its way, by nightfall the first will arrive."

"Pack what you need or can't leave, I promise I will replace everything else." I tell them.

"You don't have to do that, Elise." Raya looks at Keiran and he runs into their bedroom.

Raya gathers a few of Olivia's toys from the floor and Keiran soon appears with a suitcase and two smaller bags.

"That's everything. We still keep a go bag or two, just incase." He shrugs.

"We'll go to the council first. I'll ask Ailin for help," I tell them.

Soon enough that's where we are and she doesn't even look surprised to see us all as we appear in her office.

"How is your little one?" She asks, coming over to see Olivia.

"Ailin, she's in danger." I tell her.

"No, she's not. Not anymore at least." The demon smiles softly as Olivia puts out a hand to her. I swear I hear her purr. "Come this way."

We go into the elevator and Ailin presses a code I hadn't heard of before. The lights stop changing on the control panel and the doors open into a space that would rival the penthouse I had just stayed in.

"What is this?" I ask her.

"A secret. Until everything is sorted out, they can stay here. It's completely undetectable by magic from any realm."

"How can you be sure?" I ask her, watching the little family set their bags down by the dining table, and slowly look around their new temporary home.

"Because Cain set it up, I guess for moments like this?" She shrugged. "Now, we have a meeting to go to."

Portia followed us out, and from the look on her face I had a feeling she knew about this place too.

"I'm sorry about last night." I tell her as we go back into Ailin's office.

"Don't be. I felt your pain, it's why I came. You seem, better now?"

"I am. But still, I'm sorry."

"So am I. I am most curious about what has been going on. This, creature you mentioned, has so far gone by undetected by us all it seems. I will return to the other realm, see Hermes and perhaps, we can find out more." She smiles, before hugging me. "I am glad you are okay. Visions can change, Elise. With you, they always do."

"Did you have another?" I ask hopefully.

"No," she frowns. "But I sense something, different, about you. It's a good thing."

She disappears and Ailin takes her place as we head towards the lower levels where the meeting is being held.

"She's right, there is something different. But I think it was there all along too."

I feel it too, and any who turn up to Raya's place tonight will also be feeling it - whether they want to or not.