"No! Release me this instant!" Kore woke the dead with her screaming, and all the other residents of the underworld. Charon saw the black chariot flying overhead and raced towards the castle. Thanatos and Hecate also exited their respective chambers to see what the commotion was.

The car landed outside the black palace and Hades again dragged Kori out and held her under his arm as he stormed inside. Eos exchanged looks with Hecate as Hades walked by them with a screaming Kore. "Oh styx!" they swore and ran after Hades.

Hades went towards his room but Hecate and Eos blocked his way. "My lord! You're not in your senses!" the witch revealed.

"Get out of my way, witches!" Hades growled, attempting to push past them. They resisted and managed to shove him back. He stumbled back, but would've easily recovered if Thanatos hadn't punched him across the face, making Hades finally release Kore.

"Eos, get the princess out of here!" Thanatos ordered and Dawn didn't need to be told twice. She quickly grabbed Kore's arm and lead her to the twins' room.

Hades saw her leaving and got up to chase after, but Thanatos held him back, dragging him to his room. "My lord! You've gone insane!"

"Yes! For her! Release me now Thanatos or suffer my wrath!" Hades struggled.

"He's been struck by desire," Hecate explained as more Underworlders joined them.

Hades growled and grumbled and the god of death required help holding him down.

"I'll need to dispel the damn arrow from him. Lie him down!" Hecate ordered.

Hades resisted being put down while many deities held him. Eventually, Thanatos had to ask Hypnos to put him down. With Hades locked in slumber, it was easier for Hecate to remove the spell he was under.

"Why would the Goddess have done this?" Thanatos asked.

"Haven't you heard? The fates announced Kore is to be his queen."

"Yes, but why should the Olympians have to interfere? He loves the princess already."

Hecate smirked. "I suppose no one told the goddess of Love itself. And it wasn't even a regular arrow; it was one of Eros' most potent ones. Not only did it amplify his emotions, it drove him to mania."

Thanatos chuckled at his friend's misery. ''Ah, love.''

"Which is why you'll new see me do it," Hecate passingly spoke as they left Hades's room.

"Why? Even Hades himself is not free of it. Why should you be any different?"

"Because, Thanatos. The price of love... is grief. I should never think to give anyone else the power to give me grief."

"Do you think his love would make our lord experience sorrow?"

"Oh I'd bet on it. Take tomorrow for example. He'll come to his senses and remember his tyranny of today. Then he'd feel rotten for making Kore afraid of himself and forbid her from seeing him no matter how much he wants to meet her himself."

"Ah, so you are a witch, then. Tell me, then. What's her highness doing right now?"

Eos ran Kore to the twins' room, startling them. Helios was roused from sleep, while Selene just smirked in her mirror.

"Have all the gods gone mad?!" Kore yelled once Eos let her go.

"Isn't a full moon some nights later?" Helios yawned, accusing his sister.

"I didn't do anything...recently," Selene replied smugly. "I guess I shouldn't have told you all those stories."

Selene walked over and sat at the end of the bed, reclining on her forearms as she paid full attention to what was happening before her.

"It's not your fault. She's not here willingly," Eos answered them as she sat. "Hades dragged her down."

"No way!" Helios exclaimed, crawling over to sit by Selene. "What for?"

"The fates have declared Kore to be Hades's queen," Eos told them.

Kore spun around in her tracks, shocked as this was the first she was hearing of this. She ran over and fell by Dawn's feet. "Is it true? Do not be mocking me, Eos."

Eos leaned down and caressed her face, smiling at the lovelorn princess. "What reason would I have to lie?"

Kore jumped to her feet and spun in glee, hands clasped at her heart. "Oh, this is such wonderful news! I might not have heard anything so great before. Now I suppose mother and Zeus's actions make sense, but why should Hades have dragged me down? He could have simply asked and I would go to the ends of the world with him."

"Hecate says he's been struck by love," Eos told her.

"Why would he have to be struck? He loves me already. I know he does!"

Eos smirked. "I suppose that explains the insanity."

"What I don't understand..." Selene said as she got up from the bed, "is why we aren't hosting the biggest feast ever in all the nights! After all, it's not every night the king of the dead claims a Summer princess."

Kore ran and took Selene's hand as they spun around. "Why not, indeed! Oh, we shall paint the town pink! Flowers everywhere..."

"Flowers? In the underworld? But no light phases through our earthen skies."

"I believe the goddess is quite prepared to face the darkness. She has been for some moons, haven't you?" Selene cupped her face as they recalled the night from Kore's childhood.

"Why, it must be fate! I've loved him longer than I can remember, before I even knew it! Well, let's not disappoint destiny. The earliest the better."

"The earliest the better, send her home, Charon," Hades ordered once he'd recounted the events of the night prior.

Charon didn't speak in the presence of those superior to him. Thanatos replied instead.

"Which one? Olympus, where Zeus rages? Or Sicily, where Demeter hides so desperately? My lord, you must come to terms with the fact..."

"No, Thanos!" Hades yelled as he stormed out of bed. "This cannot be her home! Not where she fears me. Not where I cannot trust myself with her," he said, replying to his forlorn reflection in the mirror.

"How do you expect me to face her, friend?" He walked over to Thanatos, exposing his fiery blue aura that sent Olympians quivering. "Like this? How could I hold her to love the monster that I am! Oh, I cannot bear to imagine how terrified she must have been. Of me."

Thanatos rolled his eyes and secretly passed a handful of stones to Hecate. The witch pocketed her winnings and took her turn to speak.

"I believe she's already over it, my lord," Hecate revealed to him. "Distracted herself with planning her marītāre."

Hades spun around towards her, shocked as this was the first he was hearing of this.

"Marriage? What marriage? There can be no marriage here."

"Well, you best let her know, then."

"I cannot face her, Hecate."

"Since when has my lord embraced cowardice?" Thanatos reminded him.

"I am not afraid, Thanatos. I love her too much to watch her fear me. If I saw her, I would want to make her mine in the breadth between a single heartbeat. She's a goddess of summer. She has no place in the underworld," Hades told himself more than anyone else, and resolved to stay away from Kore no matter how much it hurt him.

In the opposite end of the black palace, Kore was resolved to find her husband. She left the celestial titans to plan her wedding as she marched through her new home to look for Hades. In her search, she heard disembodied voices calling out her name. Kore smiled and went in their direction. These voices had always helped her get to him. She followed the voices down the spiraling staircase, coming out into an abandoned hallway which was familiar to her.

Hades had grown tired of staring at his reflection, and burned the vanity as he stormed off to get some answers. He'd warned them before, and they'd distracted him earlier. This time, he wouldn't leave until they changed course. The vines burnt from the blue aura as Hades angrily marched into the Moirai room.

"What have you done?"

His anger significantly countered the calm the fates possessed, preparing themselves for his arrival.

"You are aware

"we do not

"interfere,

"My lord," the sisters sang in chorus, their voices a lull.

Hades sighed, fury slighted. "The daughter of Demeter has no place here," he said, touching their deathly accessories as he walked towards them.

"The daughter

of Demeter

is your queen."

His hand crushed an unfortunate skull. "She is a princess of Olympus! Spring is her life, and I am death." Hades bent to pick up the glass eye that had fallen out from the skeleton, and caught her reflection. "Kore cannot live here," he said to the eye.

"Then let her leave," Clotho came up behind him, her long sleeve flowing as she reached under his arm to take the eye.

"The princess does not belong here," Lachesis held her sister's hand, forcing Hades to lift his arm, and stepped into his personal space.

Atropos hung upside down in the air, face across his. "The fates are ever in your favor," she rolled her r in his mouth and he closed his lips on hers.

Taking matters into his own hands, Hades again gave into their charms, intending to break her heart and make her leave. Kore had indeed caught him in the act, and was furious as she thought of her husband in the arms of others. Angry as she was, she caught onto his trick, and still was determined to stay.

She was back in the twins' room, dressing herself up when Selene took her to join the residents for dinner. Apparently they were the last to arrive as everyone else was already sat and eating. The only seats available was the chair second to Eos and the chair across from Hades. Kore quickly sat beside the goddess of dawn, making the other people rearrange so that now Thanatos was sitting across Hades.

"I don't believe that's your seat, love," Eos asked subtly as she arranged a plate of Olympian food for Kore.

Kore huffed, leaning back with her arms crossed. "The seat's for the Queen of the Underworld. And according to your king, I'm still a princess!"

Hades smirked as he listened to her exhaustions, and quietly continued his dinner. "You're not eating?" he asked after some while had passed.

The innocent query angered her. "Have you also forgotten I am a goddess? I could go on for weeks without eating."

The rest of the diners sat staring between the two spouses.

"Apologies if my hospitality offends you," Hades continued to rile her.

"Ugh! Here!" Kore slid her plate to him as she jumped up to her feet. "You enjoy your hospitality. I'm going to bed."