Looking up at Kai and Jaia, Etani touched Kai's cheek gently before she left the room. Kai made to follow her, but Jaia stopped him with the suggestion that he should get dressed first.
It only took him a second to pull on clothes, and then he was following after her, Jaia behind him. Hades turned to watch, curious to know what it was she had planned.
Turning slowly, she found Versalis dozing on the windowsill, his lanky body cramped into the spot. The man could sleep anywhere, even with his body twisted into a knot and his feet on the side wall of the window above his head. Approaching him slowly, Etani woke him with a gentle brush on his cheek, her fingers going into his hair to brush strands of hair away from his face.
His eyes opened slowly, and he looked up at her, sleepy and pleased to see her.
"Versalis, my love, I need your help," she breathed.
He was suddenly very awake, his pale violet eyes going around the room. Seeing no imminent threat, he placed his feet on the carpet and stood, wary but happy to have been asked.
Dropping her eyes from his, Etani reached for the top button of his shirt. It came free, and Versalis' brows lifted in surprise before a wicked smile came over his face. "If you're keen to get me naked, we could go to my room," he teased.
Kai snorted when Jaia growled in warning.
Ignoring this, Etani reached the bottom of his shirt and brushed the fabric back from his chest, his smile turning down into a frown at the soft brush of her hand.
"You're not cold anymore," he said. But she could only shake her head. She did not want to think about the loss of Winter.
The fabric fell away, and Etani looked down at his chest. The sunburst pattern had changed, darkened, and moved until it had formed a pattern remarkably similar to the one on her wrist. It was directly above his heart, starting delicate and radiating out to form thicker markings, all sharp angles and twists in a dark red that was almost black.
What had her magic done to him? The gem was gone, his neck bare, nothing but the markings remaining.
"What's that?" Hades asked as he approached.
Etani traced the pattern, her hand stopping just above Versalis' skin. She was scared to touch him again, scared to make it worse.
"It happened when the gem burst," he said slowly, watching her fingers with the same fascination she had for his markings.
"You're moving fast, little Goddess." They both looked up at Hades and he smirked at them. "You chose him to be your bearer. Your little locked box, so to speak."
Neither of them spoke, and Etani could only assume her face was showing the same confusion as Versalis had on his.
"Don't you know anything?" the God snapped, looking irritable. "A bearer is someone who carries your magic; who bears your magic. Do you get the reference, or are you too dense?" He seemed to decide they were both too dense to understand. "A bearer is someone who is capable of containing magic. It is a personal, unconscious choice made by most Gods to either bear their own magic or give it to another. Most of us keep it, as very few trust another like you trust him. He is the bearer of death. He can allow you access or cut it off. He can control your magic, and it's probably a good idea: you're unpredictable, emotional and irrational at the best of times."
"So he has control over her?" Jaia demanded.
"Don't worry, vampire; he only has control over the magic, not the woman. If he wants to get between her legs, he'll have to do it the old-fashioned way: by not being a possessive little shit like you."
Versalis laughed. Kai hid a smile, but Jaia looked furious. Etani kept her face neutral.
"You, bearer. To give her the magic you simply have to touch her. The hand is fine, groping is unnecessary, but who knows with you lot? I recommend you try that away from the volcano." He motioned to Jaia, who looked ready to explode.
"Stop teasing him," Etani scolded the God, and he smiled slightly, amused by her defending Jaia.
"Starting to remember him or are you falling for him all over again?" he asked, and it was her turn to glare. "I wouldn't recommend either, he's volatile. Go with the other one, at least he'll treat you well."
"Stop it," Etani snapped.
Kai's face was flaming red, Jaia looking at him in a whole new light.
"Fine, you have to want to give it to her, but to take it back you only need to will it back to you. You've put yourself at risk giving your magic to another. If he wants you to stop mid battle, you will be left vulnerable for a few seconds while you are being stripped of your magic," Hades said, looking down at her.
"I trust him," she said, and Versalis' eyes lit up in pleasure.
"You're an idiot. You cannot trust anyone but yourself. Go save your uncle, and be a stupid girl," he snapped, clearly bored with them all.
Glaring up at him, she looked at Versalis and he shrugged, offering his hand to her.
Hades immediately backed away, dragging back the chair he seemed to favour more than any of the others and it was clear why after she slid her hand into his.
A delicious pain started at her shoulders and stretched out, the whisper of feathers announcing the unfurling of those enormous black wings.
Taking her hand from his, she traced her fingers down his cheek and her lips met his, soft and loving. He was hers, her protection, and her sheath. He owned her, and she liked it.
He smiled, drawing back from the kiss and lifting her hand to show the mark that had appeared on her wrist. Looking down at his chest, she realised that most of the markings had gone, and it was in that instant that she realised they had been wings spreading across his chest.
Curling his hand around the back of her neck, he placed his forehead against hers and stared down into her eyes, smiling slightly at the odd, almost joined feeling that they shared, like he was in her mind, and she was in his.
"Bring him back," he growled.
She nodded once, smiling as she drew back from him. She didn't know how she knew what to do, but she felt it like it had always been there in the back of her mind, just waiting for her to realise, and she thought of where she wanted to go, the place that was no place, the place where she had hidden, and he had found her and pulled her back.
Her wings folded forward and wrapped around her in a deep, comforting warmth, and then she was falling.