Our landing in the dark was not as hard as I had imagined. The worst part was Quintenn landing on me. At first I thought my lungs had burst or something, because I couldn't breathe properly. But he coughed pretty loud in my ear, and I knew it was him crushing me. "Quintenn..." There was so little air in my lungs that I couldn't even finish my sentence. I totally forgot about it in a second though. I was too focused on the strange feeling of knowing that I'm blinking, but the black colour completely surrounding me never changes and now I don't know if I'm blinking or not-

"Ugh..." Quintenn groaned right into my ear again. I felt him roll off of me to my left somewhere. "We're in the Underworld. I can feel it. Something brought us here." His voice is so close. Then his arm is feeling around for me, grabbing at my leg, then my back and stomach. Despite the near-death experience, I could help but laugh at the unexpected touch. His hand jerked back, and instead reached for my arm to help me up. "Sorry. I didn't take us here. I can't shadow travel with humans too often, and I already used it on your brother a few days ago. Who would-"

"Usually I don't extract intruders myself." At the sound of the new voice, Quintenn's hand tightened around my wrist and his breath in my ear became short. "But my son has told me quite a bit about you. I guess someone who means so much to someone relatively important to me is not an intruder." A blue fire suddenly perched itself on a crevice in the wall, illuminating the rocky tunnel we stood in. At the outskirts of the ring of light stood a tall, dark figure with flaming red eyes and a stare as cold as ice.

Quintenn yanked me down to the ground, telling me silently with his eyes to kneel like he was currently doing. "He's the Roman version," he whispered worriedly as I knelt next to him. Was that supposed to mean something to me? Roman version of what?

As I looked back at the dark-haired man, I immediately knew he was Nico's father, because for a second I thought it was Nico. It startled me how much his eyes resembled Nico's. Then he smirked, and the resemblance faded, throwing me off a little bit. "Yes, he did tell me you were a bit... slow, due to an injury. I don't know why he would maintain interest in someone like you. But that is not my concern. I have come to give you a wedding gift."

My mind blanked. Wedding? Whose wedding??? I looked over at Quintenn, my eyes wide and confused. He stared back at me, mouth slightly open. "Oh, I suppose my son hasn't had a chance to tell you yet, what with you disappearing for a near week and now passing into the Underworld." My eyes found Pluto's again. He shrugged. "Oh well. Act surprised for me when he does, will you? Anyways, your wedding gift is that I have arranged for your friend to be cured of his illness. By arranged, I mean I had Apollo cure him. Apollo believed it was cheating for him to essentially give you a gift with my name on it. But I traded him well for it, and he soon quit his complaining. I figured it might be more reasonable to cure your friend now instead of bringing him back to life after he was dead, which is the only thing I personally can do. That may have had a greater effect you and therefore been more meaningful that way. But it would take too long. Your friend was scheduled to die in six months, which would most likely have been much farther past the date of the wedding than I would appreciate-"

I was still processing the first "wedding". Quintenn shook me lightly by the arm, probably checking to see I hadn't gone into a vegetative state from the shock. After careful consideration of my words, I decided to gently interrupt him. "My Lord Pluto," I stuttered, keeping my head bowed. "What friend of mine had an illness?" Why was that my first question? What about the wedding business?

He began to slowly pace the width of the cave, his hair a light blue from the torch. But he seemed rather pleased about something. "'Lord', eh? What a polite son-in-law I have acquired. Anyways, I believe his name is Jacob. Or Jake," he said with a roll of his eyes when I didn't understand. "Zeus, Nico didn't tell me you were this dim. Jake had cancer of the cerebral system. He has, however, made a miraculous recovery as of five minutes ago, and Apollo has a brand new diamond flute to prove it. Nico also failed to tell me that you have a Strigoi as your protector."

Here Quintenn flinched and stared intently at the floor. Pluto glanced at him as he paced by, the slight disgust evident on his face. "I have prepared a hellhound for you instead. He will meet you after you have left the Underworld. I can have this removed."

"My Lord!" I quickly held Quintenn's hand just before Pluto snapped his fingers, probably to send Quintenn to oblivion. Quintenn was shaking next to me. "Thank you for your very generous offer, which I gladly accept. But, I have one more request for my... wedding gift." Gosh, that felt strange to say. "Quintenn has of his own will, for the most part, protected me for many years." I couldn't remember how many. Screw my stupid injury. "I wondered if he might be able to live on the Isle of Paradise. And maybe stop being a Strigoi, if he wants."

Quintenn stopped moving. I looked over to him and was surprised to see him already staring at me, a tear sliding down his nose. Is that happy-crying? He wants to go to Paradise, right? Did I do the right thing? I guess I should've asked first...

Pluto glanced between the two of us, his hand still up in the air. Then he completed his snap, and Quintenn disappeared. Just as suddenly as he arrived into my life, he was gone. I felt kind of... sad. And the more I thought about it, the sadder I became. "Your wish has been granted. Now, in regards to your younger brother-" this is where my brain began to follow along- "you have to retrieve him the old-fashioned way, I'm afraid. I've also decided to give you a diamond flute as well. That stuff is quite useless to me. Travel down this tunnel and you will come to a large opening filled by a lake. In the center of the lake is the Isle Puerorum, where your brother is currently staying. I'll see you soon, and more often, I suppose."

With no fervor, no puff of smoke, he was suddenly gone and replaced by a glittering flute resting on the rock floor. The fire also died out, but the flute gleamed against the walls with plenty of light. I didn't move for a few minutes, just sat there thinking about everything that had just happened. Quintenn was gone. That was the biggest deal right now. I hope that he was happy. I hope I made the right decision. Jake is better. That's good. I didn't even know he had cancer. I wonder if he knew. I wonder if Mandy knew. And Nico wants to marry me? I have no idea why. I'm not that great. I'm also a lot of work now, after that car crash. And I have Joel.

I stood and reached for the flute in the near-darkness, sighing heavily. Everything will be figured out when I get Joel back.

Within a few minutes of walking carefully through the jagged tunnels, I saw a pale blue light ahead. Around the corner opened a very sudden wide cavern stretching so high above me that I couldn't see the ceiling. A deep lake started at the very opening of the cave, and out in the middle, about a hundred yards away, was an enormous jungled island. A few torches here and there illuminated what I could see of it. Children between the ages of 0 and 12 were scattered about the surface, playing or singing or staring sadly out across the lake into the darkness. Though it was difficult for me to see from that distance, I thought they all had completely black eyes. No irises, only pupil.

Except for one blond-haired, blue-eyed child who sat by himself on the sandy shore, picking at his little pants and glancing back at the fun like he wished he could join in. Seeing him again almost had me bursting into tears. His red, flushed skin compared to their pale, milky-white bodies made me so incredibly happy. Ok. Time to try out this flute. Hopefully he can hear me from here.

I lifted the flute (finding it surprisingly heavy) focused completely on him, and blew my first note.

The voices immediately died down. Everyone's head whipped around to look at me, including Joel. I stared only at him, though. His eyes lit up and he smiled. My first note died, and I turned around towards the tunnel to walk as I continued playing. Immediately I heard tiny footsteps following behind me. Unlike the story, there was no urge to turn around. I just wanted us to be out of there, as fast as possible.

We wove through the darkness for about five minutes, which I'm glad for because I was beginning to realize I had no idea where the exit was. But soon enough I had reached an opening that overlooked an ocean, foaming and splashing near the mouth of the cave. The sun was long gone, replaced by stars and a crescent moon. Warm air washed over me, welcoming me back to the land of the living. I stopped playing, almost too afraid to turn around. But when I did, Joel lay asleep on the rock floor, breathing slowly and steadily. I stared at him a long time before I got the courage to kneel by him and touch him. Then I was pulling him into me, smelling him and feeling his hair and hugging him and sniffling. Memories bombarded my head, of me holding him like this early in the morning, when he can't sleep until I get home from work. He waits up all night for me, half-asleep when I get there. God, I love him.

When I turned back around, I noticed for the first time Nico sitting on a small rock in the dark by the cave. He was staring at me, and in the dark it was hard to tell, but I thought I saw tear stains on his cheeks. At first he was shocked. Then his face held such rage that I actually felt afraid for my life. He approached me without saying a word. The closer he got, the more my panic attack took hold. When he was close enough, he grabbed me around the waist and, with no warning, shadow travelled.

After those few sickening seconds of black-and-white and spinning and almost vomiting, we landed on solid earth and soft grass. He let me go as I dropped to the ground, catching my breath and calming my headache. I noticed for the first time through all that had happened that day how utterly exhausted I was. Joel was still asleep. I recognized we were in the backyard to the new house. "I cleaned it," Nico said, seemingly reading my thoughts as he walked ahead of me and opened the door. I followed in, warily glancing at him as I passed. But he didn't touch me. The inside was nothing like what I last saw. No blood, no upturned sofa, books all in their original places. All clean. I lay Joel down on the couch, covering him with a spare blanket, before turning around to see Nico still standing by the open door. The look in his eyes told me to follow him out into the yard again. I did. He closed the door behind us. I faced him, my eyes boring holes into the grass. He stood directly in front of me, still looking incredibly angry. I knew what was coming.

"I felt your soul pass into Hell." He broke the silence quietly. I braced myself.

The first hit was hard and piercing, a slap across my face. I staggered backwards at the force, but steadied myself and stood in front of him again. My eyes still didn't meet his, and I didn't raise my hands to block any further hits. His first seemed to break the dam, and he struck out again with more force. I barely had time to recover before he punched me again, this time in the stomach. Soon we were on the ground, him sitting on top of me and me closing my eyes, just trying to get through it. My nose cracked at one point, and through it all I felt blood leak out. "I thought you were dead!" he yelled at me between punches. "I thought you were dead! I thought..."

He ceased fire. We were both panting and I opened my eyes when I felt water on my cheeks. Nico's face was wrapped in a halo of his black hair, then the stars, and his eyes were dark and watery. I couldn't help but think that every time I saw him from this angle, which happened more often than you'd think, it was like seeing him for the first time all over again. I reached up a hand to wipe his eyes. "You always-"

I didn't get to tell him how beautiful he was. He leaned in and kissed me. It was desperate and sloppy, wet and salty with his tears and sticky and sweet with my blood. I don't know how long we lay there like that, his lips moving mine in a rhythm I didn't understand. The breathlessness and the pain and the metallic smell and the night made everything a little euphoric and timeless.

Finally he pulled back, his crying reduced to sniffles now, and lay his head on my bruising chest. "I thought you were dead," he whispered.

I ran a hand through his hair, much like I would Joel's. "I know."