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him. He probably knew more about me than I did.
    Hades dug into his rock shrimp with gusto while I ate my salad. Eating out wasn’t always easy for a vegan, but I managed. We talked the entire time, laughing and flirting the day away. Beneath our playful banter, I felt an undercurrent of nerves. I wondered if this was the calm before the storm, and we were both here, clinging to some shred of happiness before it all got ripped away.
    The news that Zeus was alive had more of an effect on Hades than I’d anticipated. He’d hidden it well, but I could see he was worried. I didn’t know if it was because Zeus was after me, or if it went deeper than that.
    I wasn’t that worried. Zeus had been alive forever and hadn’t done anything noteworthy enough for anyone to find out he was still breathing. Why would he do anything differently now? I was more concerned about Thanatos. He could come and go to the Underworld as he pleased, kill humans with a touch, and had an army of Reapers at his disposal. But Hades didn’t know he was a threat.
    Later, we walked along the pier hand in hand, enjoying the cool breeze while the sun sank into the sea. A photo booth caught my attention, and I dragged Hades over to it.
    “I don’t do pictures.” Hades pulled back on my hand putting up a token resistance, but I noticed he didn’t stop walking in the direction of the photo booth.
    “It’ll be fun, please!” I pulled on his hand a bit more, and he took another step toward the photo booth.
    “Have you ever seen a picture of me?” Hades protested. “Of any of us? It’s a thing, we don’t—”
    I dropped his hand and stared at him in complete shock. “You’ve never had a picture taken?”
    “We’re immortal. Pictures, paintings, images, they start witch hunts.”
    I blinked. I’d never considered that. “I guess it makes sense…being scared that some dead human will make it to the Underworld and go, ‘Hey, that’s the guy from the out-of-focus grainy picture I saw once.’”
    Hades smirked. “I was thinking more about you.”
    “I have a driver’s license, a passport, a photograph in fifteen years’ worth of yearbooks counting preschool, social networking accounts, and a mother who might have actually invented scrapbooking. If having pictures taken is some kind of immortal foil, I am thoroughly screwed. But it’s fine. You probably wouldn’t photograph well anyway,” I teased, walking away from the photo booth.
    He caught my hand. “Wanna bet?”
    Countless dollars and strips of photographs later, Hades and I emerged from the photo booth laughing.
    “Burn that one,” Hades tore off the last picture of one of the strips.
    “Why?” I snatched it back from him. “It’s fitting that the Lord of the Underworld look like a corpse.”
    He snatched it back and tossed it off the pier. “Yeah, looking like a corpse is fine. It’s the evidence of the bunny-ears that must be destroyed.”
    “Fine,” I conceded. “As long as you burn this one.” I tore off the end of another strip that featured a smear of my face captured mid-motion. A sharp pain went through my head and I grimaced, clutching the picture so tight that it crumbled.
    “Everything okay?” Concern clouded his features.
    “Just a headache.”
    “Why didn’t you say something?” Hades admonished, pulling me towards the hotel.
    I resisted, and he looked at me in surprise. “It can wait,” I said, with more confidence than I felt. My powers could burn through me, causing all kinds of pain and anguish before completely destroying me.
    Typically, I would use my powers throughout the day in goddess lessons with my mom and then visit Hades. He would show me more tricks and then siphon away the excess powers. I hadn’t had much of an opportunity to use my powers today, and I was starting to feel the effects of the buildup.
    Hades waited for me to offer him an explanation.
    “Today’s been so much fun.” I walked to the edge of the pier, looking at the