The peace didn't last long, and the shouting started within the first ten minutes. Deciding it was best to go break it up, she wrapped a towel around herself and left Letari to her fun.
Walking out of the bathroom, she went still as she took in the scene.
They had frozen and it might have been comical had it not been so odd.
Uzo was holding a knife and trying to stab Daemon, Daemon on the other hand was trying to strangle Dirdos, Kai was trying to keep Jaia from helping Daemon and Hades was standing against the wall, arms crossed and enjoying the view. Versalis was back on the windowsill with Jagum on the floor beside him, both enjoying the sun.
All eyes turned on her as she yanked the door open and it banged on the wall, bringing their fight to a stop.
"What are you doing?" she demanded, angry at the lot of them.
"Dirdos decided it was a good idea to tell Jaia and Daemon about your little tryst that almost got you killed," Versalis said, chewing on the edge of his nail.
"That's none of anyone's business," she snapped and the three in question turned on her, furious once she had confirmed it.
"You three need to stop. I am not going to be anyone's plaything." She pointed at Dirdos. "I will not be your lover." At Daemon and then she turned on Jaia, his face hostile. "Don't even get me started on you. Go home to your wife," she snapped, pointing towards the door.
Dirdos was smug, thinking he got the best of the three, but she stalked from the room, and she heard a thump and a grunt as someone was hit.
Getting dressed, she leant her forehead against the post of her bed and just tried to breathe through it all.
"What's the matter with you?" Hades asked.
She opened her eyes, seeing his feet not far from her. "I'm tired, Hades, can't you just give me a break?"
"A break from what? Your life? Responsibilities?"
"I don't have any responsibilities anymore."
"You have a responsibility to Winter."
"Winter is gone."
"Winter would not abandon the heir. You just need to fight."
Turning on the God, she was suddenly angry. "I did fight, they had me for two days trying to force me to renounce Winter, they were ready to kill me."
"Poor little Princess, all tuckered out from two little men trying to hurt her."
She wanted to scream at him, his condescension at her rubbing her all wrong and she would have loved to stick Uzo's knife in him.
"What did they do? Kick your shin?"
"They burnt me with iron, with fire, they cut parts of me off. What is your problem?" she finally demanded, seeing no change in him.
"Are you a child? Should we coddle you? 'Oh, poor me, she took my magic! Someone make it better, I'm too weak!' You're a Goddess, act like it!" he snapped while she fumed.
"You don't know what you're talking about," her voice was hostile, her exhaustion and irritation coming out in the threat of violence that would have had her friends scurrying for cover.
"If you want your magic, then go take it! Kill her if you have to. It's yours, so go get it. Unless you're a coward," he sneered.
She saw red for an instant, though if that was from rage, near blacking out, or a combination of both, she didn't know.
"Get out," she said in a low voice, turning away from him.
He grabbed her shoulder and jerked her back around, his hand flying, but she was ready.
Lifting her arm to block the slap and pivoting, his back hitting the wall across the room as she drove her foot into his side.
The door was suddenly filled with anxious faces, but Hades was smirking at her.
"If you're so tough, go get it," he said, goading her.
She simply turned and walked away from him, not having the energy or willpower to fight him on top of everything else.
Leaving the suite, she started down the hall and sighed as she heard someone following after her.
Rubbing her eyes again, she slowed down a little to let them catch up and then immediately regretted it.
Jaia had caught up to her, his face tense.
"Did you really do that with Dirdos?"
"Jaia, not now…" she said, her shoulders slumped.
"Tell me. Did you want to give yourself to him?"
"It's none of your business."
"Are you so ashamed that you can't even admit it?" he taunted.
She stopped, looking up at him. "Are you so jealous that you can't accept that I may want to have even a shred of happiness? Even just a moment?" she demanded, tired of him and everything he represented.
"Being with him won't make you happy."
"How could you possibly know that?"
"Because he only wants you to collect you. Once he gets bored, he'll find another pretty or shiny thing and forget about you."
That stung, and she stepped back from him. "And what do you want me for, Jaia? Your mistress?"
His face darkened, eyes flashing in his anger, but she only shook her head.
"I'll be no man's whore. I don't love you, and I don't want to ruin your marriage."
His cheeks flushed, though she didn't know if it was from anger, or the thought of her being a whore.
"If you remembered me, you wouldn't think that," he growled.
"Well, I don't remember you, so it doesn't matter."
"I think you're starting to remember me. I can see it in you, the way you watch me."
"Maybe it's because I see you as a threat."
"The only threat I pose to you is stealing your heart."
She snorted and turned away from him, but he caught her before she could escape.
Yanking her arm free of him, she backed away to put as much space between her and him as was possible.
"Don't you ever touch me…" she growled, her skin tingling where his hand had rested on her.
"You need to remember," he said, angry and hurt by her rejection.
"I don't have to do anything," she retorted, taking another step back and finding her back against the wall.
"Please Etani, you have to remember me," he pleaded as he inched closer.
Panic filled her at his approach. He had her cornered, where was she going to go? She could go through him, but that would upset Kai if she broke his brother.
"No, I don't, I don't have to do anything, stay away from me..."
He closed the distance to her, and she growled low, a warning sound that he ignored completely and when he reached for her, she panicked, and her fist flew.
He had prepared for it, and he caught her wrist, teeth bared as he crushed her arm against the wall behind her.
Her free hand rose, and she curled her fingers around his throat in a death grip, but he didn't seem to care at all.
"I'll never stop trying," he growled, sending a thrill of panic going through her.
"Why Jaia? Why can't you just leave me alone?"
"Because I love you..."
"You're married!" she gasped. He was leaning closer and every cell of her being was screaming at her to run, to escape him.
"I made a mistake in getting married, I was weak and didn't want to be alone." His face was only an inch from hers as he spoke.
"Please just let me go, Jaia. I don't want to remember." She was the one pleading now. She was terrified at what would happen if she remembered everything.
"I don't care," he growled.
His fingers curled in her hair, and he tilted his head down even as he turned hers up, meeting her lips with his in a hungry, greedy kiss.
Pain ripped through her brain, and she whimpered, but he refused to let go of her, pressing himself into her as his lips began to move against hers.
She was trapped, and the pain built the longer he held her until she felt as though her brain was boiling in oil.
Breaking the kiss, he growled softly, and his voice was husky with need. "I love you so much, Etani..."
She couldn't move or think through the pain and his eyes dropped, releasing her wrist to brush her cheek with his thumb.
"Don't cry love…"
His eyes were hooded, lips parted and glistening with his saliva and even as he found her mouth again, her eyes slid shut.
Her body refused to respond to command, and he drew her hand easily away from his throat, allowing him to press even closer to her.
Her mind felt as though it were fracturing, and she tried to piece it all back together frantically, tried to hold it together, but it wasn't working, and she could see movement inside the cracks. With a flash of horror, she knew those memories wanted out, and she curled herself around them, trying to contain them.
His fingers trembled as they trailed down over her throat and then down her arm to wrap tightly around her waist.
"Please forgive me…" he murmured, not seeming to notice her stillness and her breath hitched, fear filling every cell as his hand dragged through her hair. "Marry me, Etani... be mine forever…"
"Jaia what are you doing?" someone cried, and he looked around, angry that someone had interrupted and protective of her.
She screamed inside her mind as her memories would be blocked no more and they flooded into her, flashes of his face and his words, flashes of him. And along with them came pain like she had never thought possible. It wasn't only physical, her heart splintered into a million shards. Her body broke, and he leapt away from her as she began to scream.
He cried her name, but she couldn't hear what he was shouting.
Falling forward onto her knees, she clutched at her head and hands found her, trying to calm her as voices were trying to be heard. It was impossible for anyone to hear while her unbroken agonised scream echoed around the corridor.
She knew him, she knew what he had been to her, she knew what he had done, and it tore her soul apart to see it all again, his savage glee at her pain mere days after telling her he would never love another. His running when he was no longer bound to her, every time he whispered that he loved her, the first feel of the ring on his finger, his hunger and need for her. Everything hit her like a physical blow, and she screamed in agony as it tortured her.
Someone clutched her face, trying to get her to open her eyes, others were shouting and finally her eyes opened but she couldn't see through the tears, a blurry face inches from hers, but she couldn't hear them over her screaming that she was unable to stop.
She had never known pain like she felt then, her body vibrating with it as every touch and kiss was felt anew, every stabbing loss and every disappointment, every attempt to close down her heart to him. She felt it all in an instant and her eyes lifted. Her vision clearing as her tears fell, and she found him.
His face was white, terrified, and he was shouting, trying to get to her while other fought to stop him, but he froze as their eyes met and he saw.
They all saw in that same instant, the loss and the pain, and the hatred for him.
His face fell and Kai's eyes grew huge, but it was Daemon who forced himself into her line of sight. She didn't care that he had a syringe, didn't care that it stung as he slipped it into her arm.
Finally, her screams eased, her pain beginning to fade as a cool lethargy started to spread through her.
"Make it stop..." she whimpered, begging him.
His eyes were furious as he pulled her to him, her face buried in his chest as her broken heart's pain found voice in sobs.
"If you come near her again, I'll kill you. Kai be damned," Daemon growled as he lifted her from the floor. "You destroy everything you touch, and you couldn't be content just having her not remember you, could you?"
Blackness was creeping at the edges of her vision, and she embraced it eagerly, screamed for it to hurry up. She didn't want to hear any more, she didn't want to feel any more. She just wanted it to stop, and she understood why she had gone to the fairies. She was tempted to go back, to beg them to do it again, but she didn't know if they would, now that she wasn't Queen.
"You're a selfish, cruel bastard who couldn't be satisfied with what he had. No, you have to have everything, and it doesn't matter what happens to them. It never matters to you so long as you have what you want. I'll burn in the underworld before I let you have her this time. You had your chance, and you threw it away. You don't get a second one."
She pulled at the blackness, trying to hurry it along.
"You don't get to choose for her, Daemon. If she comes to me, I'm not going to turn her away," Jaia growled, ignoring his brother's pleas for him to stop talking.
"Go back to your wife where you belong. You're not man enough to deserve her."
Jaia growled, furious, but he was being forced backwards, forced to retreat while he was trying to get to her.
"Jaia, you have Selene. Why can't you just be happy?" Kai asked in a tiny voice, scared of the rage in his brother.
"I don't love Selene," he growled, and everyone turned as a pained cry came from down the hall.
Jaia swore, pulling himself free of Kai. He stood torn for an instant as the redheaded vampire fled.
"Go on, Jaia. Run after your wife while we try to recover what you have broken," Daemon said snidely, his movements to shift her making her world swirl nauseatingly.
"Fuck you, Daemon. I'm not giving up on her. Etani is mine," his eyes found hers and his face hardened. "I love you Etani, I'll have you as my wife if it's the last thing I do."
His words made her stomach clench, and she closed her eyes as fresh tears fell, Daemon snarling furiously, stepping forward but Kai stepped between them to block Daemon.
"Go to Selene, Jaia. Sort out your marriage. I'll make sure she's okay," Kai said, and Jaia finally roared before he stalked away, and the peace of blackness found her as though it was waiting for him to leave.