"And, three, two, one," I raise a finger, a satisfied grin settling on my lips when I hear the familiar crash and thundering roar of my beautiful Hadania storming her way into my place of solace.

"Mjoki," she shouts, her velvet voice is as soothing as it is fear invoking. If one were to combine the sweetest honey with the most poisonous plant, that would be her note. A symphony of death and destruction that you would never hear coming because her melodic chorus is all too overpowering. "I know you're in here, you son of a bitch."

My grin widens. She's not wrong. Loki, my father, is one hell of a bitch.

Before I have the chance to call out and let her know that I'm sitting in wait, I hit the marble wall on the other side of the room, destroying several very expensive sculptures as I go, and collapse on the floor, face first, with a grunt. My low laugh sounds more like a groan as I roll on to my back and peer through white dancing dots at the Goddess standing on the other side of the room. Her stance is rigid, her beautiful skin ignited with rage and her silk smooth hair cascades down her shoulders, not a strand out of place despite no doubt flying here at the speed of light so that she can kill me with her bare hands.

I slowly pull myself up and think that perhaps I've taken things too far this time. She doesn't usually throw her beaming blasts of power at me until we've verbally sparred for a moment or two. I like to think of it as foreplay.

"Hello darling, you seem upset?"

She bares her teeth, lifts her fist and again, I'm sent into the wall at a force so great, I'm winded. I cough and wait to come right before I stand up again. It'll take a moment.

"You've gone too far this time Mjoki. Too far. You can hurt me. You can do it time and time again. But you can't hurt my people. Fatalities, Mjoki. You killed three of my girls."

I stand up again, feeling right as rain and stare at my love. I had considered the fact that there could be casualties when I left a stolen shield belonging to Hel, my dear, vengeful sister, at the land of Amazio, so that Hel didn't find it with me. Hel wouldn't have had to find the shield to serve her revenge though. Its power is enough to kill Amazonians at a mere touch. My beautiful Hadania isn't just an Amazonian though. Her father is Vidar, God of Vengeance. She can withstand the power of another God. I had been hoping she'd find it first and I'd laugh when she threw it like a frisbee straight back in here.

That was how these things went. I ticked her off. She appeared and then, if I was lucky, she'd let me ravish her. It's clear that I've pissed her off past the point of her shaking her head with disapproval though.

See, although we steal these brief moments of touching and teasing, we were born to hate each other. Born to be sworn enemies. Hadania was raised to see that I die and with me, my bloodline. That's what happens when your father kills her father.

Vidar, Hadania's father tried to kill my mother, Freya, for changing the desires of Hadania's mother, Hippolyta.

Are you still with me?

Freya believed that it was unnatural for Gods to reproduce with Amazonians. So Freya altered Hippolyta's desires and thus, she fell out of love with Vidar. Naturally, this really pissed Vidar off. He tried to kill mother. So, father killed him but at this point, Hippolyta was already pregnant. Enter, Hadania. She was born with the beauty, grace and strength of an Amazonian but with the power of a God. Not to mention her father was the literal God of vengeance. She certainly got that part of his DNA.

And as we encountered one another, over the course of our existence, we've fallen in love. She refuses to acknowledge it in any other form aside from the occasional mind-blowing quickie. I'm convinced that if she wanted me dead, she'd have killed me by now. She's not weak at all. She might even be stronger than I.

"Baby," I put a hand across my chest and raise the other in surrender. "It was a sincere accident. I never meant for them to die. I promise."

She shakes her head and I can't help but let my gaze move up the length of her bare legs to her waist cinching armour- and gold-plated arm guards that fit around her biceps. Gorgeous.

"I am going to kill you this time," she announces, piercing me with such hate that I can feel the power radiating and seeping into my skin. It tingles. It'd burn me from the inside out if I were mortal. "I should have done it a long time ago. The mind games are over, Mjoki. This ends. Right now."

She walks forward, slow and purposeful and I'm in awe of her glorious perfection. I would do anything for this Goddess. Anything except resign to living with those women that can't accept the fact that our parent's war is not our own. They won't accept that Hadania loves me. She would be banished if we were to be caught and she won't choose me. She doesn't trust me.

Her hand goes into my black, shoulder length waves. Her gaze softens and I see distorted images moving in her eyes. Images of pain and suffering. She's conjuring up her vengeful rage. She's talking herself into hating me enough to kill me. So be it.

Her movement is so abrupt that I might have missed it if I hadn't been watching the immediate future in her golden gaze. She wraps her hand around my throat and squeezes. She's strong. She's so powerful that I would grin with pride if I could.

"I can't let you kill me, my love," I rasp and then I snatch her wrist, twist it and throw her at the pillar that stretches a hundred feet toward the ceiling. It collapses and debris falls around where she lies on the floor. I crouch beside her, brush her hair from her face and anguish at her suffering. "We're not done. Not even close, baby."

"Yes," she grunts. "We are."

She kicks out, knocking me to the ground before she stands up and kicks me again, sending me across the room. I land on both feet and don't miss a beat before I'm walking towards her again. She meets me halfway and our fists and arms connect, the impact causing thunder in the marble parlour. She strikes, I block. I strike, she blocks. We know each other's patterns all too well. When she lunges to hit again, I clutch her wrist, spin her around so that her back is to my chest and put her in a choke hold. I can smell the heavens in her hair.

"You see?" I mumble beside her ear as she thrashes. "We know each other. We're in perfect sync. We could move together in a much more sensual way baby. It'd be more fun."

"No," her breathing is loud, but I know that she could break free if she wanted to. "We don't belong together. We keep proving that to ourselves. You just don't know how to take a hint."

She throws herself forward, sending me into the air, before I land on the ground, she kicks me straight in the face and I whip around and around and around before the wall eventually intercepts and I leave a God sized hole in the marble.

I groan. She is not holding back.

"Stop being a coward and kill me," she snarls. She's so hot when she's mad. But if that's how she wants it.

I breathe in and create the illusion that I'm still on the floor in front of her, when in fact, I'm behind her. As I drive a small dagger into her side, the illusion of me dissolves and she cries out, collapsing forward. I spin around and catch her before she falls. She scowls at me, clutching her waist.

"Bastard."

"Darling," I syphon her pain and hold her close as she lies in my lap. "We don't need to kill each other. I'm so bloody in love with you. Be with me. I know you feel it too."

She shakes her head and sits up, shoving me out of arms reach. We sit on the ground, facing one another and I long to be near her again.

"I will never know if what I feel for you is real, or if you've controlled my desire, bent it to your will. I'll never know if it's real love or a mind game, Mjoki. Mischief and the power to change desires, I'd be an idiot to allow myself this. I don't trust myself and I certainly don't trust you."

To be honest, that's a fair concern. "I promise that I have never bent your desires. Just your back."

She sighs when I wink at her.

"You're a liar. You killed three of my girls and you risked Hel invading our land. I'd have lost a lot more women if that had happened. Is this your idea of chivalry?"

"Well, in my defence," I said, crossing my ankles and leaning back on one hand. "I thought you would find the shield before anyone else. This evening is not going at all how I had planned."

"I'm sure my dead Amazonians feel the same way."

I shrug. "You win some, you lose some."

I see the spark of rage in her features before she lunges forward, throws me down so hard that my head shatters the floor beneath me and then she straddles me with her knife at my throat.

"Now, this is more like it," I cough through a light laugh and grip her thighs that rest on either side of my waist. She's got me right where she needs me. She could take my head off my shoulders with ease. She could end me, just how she claims to want. But hesitance and hurt stirs in her eyes. The most beautiful orbs that I have ever seen. They're like an ocean of gold, deep, whirring, silver flakes appear like the glittering tips of a sunbathed lake.

"I can't let you live," she whispers, a tear slipping down her velvet cheek. "It is my destiny to end you. It has been from the moment I was born."

"That was never our fight," I tell her, my skin pressing against her blade as I speak. "It wasn't ours. You're made for vengeance, my love. But you were also made for strength. Be strong enough to choose your own path."

"Perhaps that path isn't you."

"Perhaps not. But if you feel nothing, if you believe that I would deceive you into loving me, do it. Slash my throat and end this now."

I relax, letting her know that I'll die for her. I will. I give up.

Her lip trembles, I can feel blood trickling down the side of my neck where her knife has nicked my skin. Again, I can see the future in her gaze, the same way that she is seeing it. A future together. In love. Children. But she's confused because from the time she was small, she has been trained to end my bloodline. Not continue it. And I can understand where her hesitance would come from. She never believed that it would be in our cards. But I know better. I know that I haven't ever persuaded her desires. That's how I know that she loves me. That's how I know that I'll die for her. I'll die and if I died, any trickery I'd placed on her would lift and she would know that it was real. She knows that too and that's why she hesitates.

I think that she's made up her mind. I can feel her knife easing off. I can see her expression softening. But before I can sit up and kiss her, a blast comes from the left and she's thrown so hard that I hear her bones shattering.

"No!" I sit up, a scream tearing through me as I look to where her body lies limp. When I turn to where it came from and see Pearoltha at the threshold of the parlour, I seethe with hatred. Hippolyta's abhorrent sister.

"She wasn't going to kill you. So, I guess I had to kill her. I told her, I warned her, end it. She's pathetic when it comes to you."

"Those of you who can't let an ancient feud go, are pathetic."

She wore a smug grin as she circled the parlour, watching me. "Loki is an evil asshole, but he and Freya were right about one thing, the Amazonian's should never have been with your kind. Self-righteous. Full of greed. More power than one needs. And she is a product of that. She's a disgrace and I've had to bow to her since her mother died of heartache. Heartache that she didn't even know she had because Freya messed with her mind. No one should have the power to alter someone's heart."

"I agree, which is why I've never done it."

She scoffs. "I know that her love for you isn't real. Impossible."

"Whatever helps you rest at night, witch."

She snarls and throws power from her palms. Power that knocks me over and leaves me gasping with pain. "Yeah I know you're not pure Amazonian. Witch. You're a mutt. The result of an affair. Your precious sister probably thought you'd understand her love for a God. Since you were a half breed yourself."

"My sister died because of that half breed," she points at my love, still on the ground. Panic rises in my chest. "Her mother died because of your parents and you're trying to tell me that her love for you isn't persuaded by your ability to mess with her emotions. Please."

"Hadania understands that it isn't our fight."

"It'll always be her fight," Pearoltha spits. "But if she won't end it, you can die together."

She morphs a gleaming sword from thin air. One that I recognize. One that was made to destroy Gods. I have no idea how she acquired it. But I won't let it fall. Not on my Hadania.

I leap forward, weaving from her strikes and she lashes out with the sword, I hear its blade whip through the air, near missing each time. I watch her movements; I dip to the left and then I grip the blade in my hand and grunt at the heat searing my skin. I squeeze, drawing all of my power into my fingertips in order to shatter the sword. It's draining, I feel weak, but the blade begins to tremble. Pearoltha pushes back, fighting it, attempting to rip it from me. I might have been able to complete the destruction of the sword if it weren't for her screaming some sort of spell that shoves me with a brute force until I'm sliding across the floor and into the body of my love.

"Hadania," I mumble and kneel beside her. She's still alive. I know that much. But for how long?

From the corner of my eye, I see the silver gleam falling toward her. It's plunging toward her neck. Before it makes contact, I raise a hand and catch it again, slowly raising my head until I'm staring into the wicked face that wants to hurt the Goddess that I love.

"You would kill her? She's family."

"She's a traitor," she's breathless, pushing the handle of the sword down while I hold the blade, my hand the only thing between that and Hadania's throat. "We don't care for those."

"Our parent's have nothing to do with us. Kill my father. Kill my mother. I don't care. Your fight is with them. Not us."

Loki and Freya would have her dead before she could lift a finger, but it'd be fun to watch her try.

Suddenly, the sword is kicked, I lose my grip but Pearoltha doesn't and then Hadania is standing in front of her. She crosses her wrists, the golden plates encircled around them connect, and the sound is ear shattering, but it throws Pearoltha so hard into the wall that I think it impossible she'd survive. She doesn't have the strength of a God. But she has the healing of a witch.

I stand up and Hadania throws herself into my arms, her lips meet mine and my hold on her becomes tight. Tight out of fear, love, need. When her feet touch the ground, she parts herself from me but I'm desperate not to let her go.

"It is real," she whispers, holding my face. "It's real, Mjoki. And it scares the hell out of me."

Pearoltha ruins the moment, of course. She stands up, groaning. If I thought she looked pissed before, it's worse than ever now. Her battle cry echoes off the wall as she runs forward, sword raised. Hadania meets her in the middle and the two engage in a clanging of sword and knife. I watch in awe. My magnificent Goddess is majestic. She moves with the step of a feather but she's fast with the speed of a snake. She's fierce. So fierce. The battle goes on and I can feel a niggling at the edge of my mind. The witch is messing with me. No doubt attempting to trick me into subduing Hadania or something hideous like that. The thing is, she's a half breed and I'm a God. Mischief is in my blood.

She angers me.

With a wave of the hand, there are ten more of Hadania, all circling Pearoltha. She startles, becoming unsure on who to fight. I give her a wicked grin, wave and watch with delight as Hadania strikes out and severs her head from her shoulders.

My illusion falls and so does Hadania. To her knees. She trembles as she looks at her aunt's decapitated form. I kneel beside her, take her hand and syphon some of that anguish.

"Don't," she rips her hand from mine. "This never would have happened if it weren't for us."

I sigh. "So, what, we spend the rest of our lives denying how we feel because our shit head families can't let their feud go? That doesn't seem fair." I push my hand through my hair with frustration. "And for the record, she tried to kill us first."

"I'm aware," she snaps from behind her curtain of hair that has fallen forward. Soft waves of pure heaven. She sure knows how to piss me off though.

"Look, get over it, alright? She's dead and if she wasn't, you would be." She glares at me, warning me to shut up, but I'm not done. I stand up and pace back and forth. "Don't get in a mood with me. You'd never have killed her if you didn't care about me. You saved my life. I'm man enough to admit that. Now quit with the attitude and just admit that you love me."

"I killed her because she was trying to kill me!"

"Oh, and that moment before she attacked," I threw my arms wide. "It's real Mjoki. Was that bullshit? No. It was a confession. Now stop it and come here."

She leapt to her feet, threw me against the wall and held me at the throat.

"You're such a pain. How could I love someone so frustrating!? I should have just ended this and gone home for a damn bath. Now, I can never go home!"

"Well it'll be worth it," I shouted, shoving her arm off me and switching our position in one quick movement so that she was against the wall. "It'll be worth it because we'll be together, and I love you and you love me. So, damn it, marry me Hadania. Let's have a wedding that no one will come to and we'll consummate through the whole damn ceremony because no one will be there to watch!"

She was breathing heavily, staring up at me.

"Marry me," I whispered, leaning in to kiss her throat. "Be my Goddess for the rest of our existence."

"Fine," she snapped, and I leaned back to see her angry smile. "Fine. Yes. I'll marry you."

"That's my Goddess."

Thanks for reading my super random short story ! Love You x