This is it. Grab some popcorn. This is NOT going to be a light chapter. Thank you all for all the encouragement and support. On that note, probably grab some headphones and allow yourself to be transported for this one too ;).

The following morning I am visited by Hades in my chambers.

Upon prying the wooden doors open, he finds me immediately crouched on the floor, with one leg loosely chained to one of the four posts encircling the magnanimous bed. Fortunately for me, the links were long enough to allow free movement to anywhere within the suite-but nothing more.

I open my mouth to plead again. To urge him to see reason, but he holds his hand up and cuts me off.

Without sparing another precious moment, he begins:

"Tomorrow, in the throne room, you will see your Lover. I will release you and you will go to him, for just as I'd expected, he has stricken a hefty bargain for...you"

I look up at him hopefully, but the look he returns quickly dispels all inklings of hope.

Tiny fissures of his power begin to travel their way up his sleeves as I shake my head. I don't want to hear anymore. Nonetheless, he continues. "When you do...you will kiss him" He flinches as he says this part, his jaw still set tense and his eyes bearing pure contempt.

"You will kiss him like it's the last time you will ever get the chance. Like there is to be no tomorrow" he grits out, his eyes cold and brooding.

I continue shaking my head in refusal, already knowing what this will lead to. As he approaches me, I scoot myself as far back into the furthest post as the chains allow. I don't know if it's fear or madness that propels me to continue to push, even as my shoulders collide with the post, its rounded surface now biting into my skin and threatening to crush into my spine.

Ignoring this, he crosses over to me and bends down in front of me on one knee. His eyes search my face and he watches me, like a ranger checking a wounded animal for bruises. Allowing his elbow to rest atop the other knee, he continues while his sparks travel their way to the tips of his fingers.

"You will kiss him as...you once kissed me." He pauses and despite my flinching, cups his hand to my cheek.

Upon contact, a certain dizziness begins to overtake me as I notice the tiny sparks dancing their way onto my cheek.

They don't hurt, but I fear the next thing he says will...more than a dozen-fold of his power ever could.

"Please, Hades" I plea.

But his lips only draw closer to my ear. I feel a smooth, cool metal being slipped into my hand and I shudder, surprised. Grazing my thumb against the oddity, I immediately recognize the infallible shape of a handle thats runs into...a long. Sharp. Blade.

Not just any blade...but one of Stygian iron. Mined only in the underworld, it was one of the few rarest weapons capable of killing a god.

Time manages to stop, truly stop, just before his voice drops to a cruel whisper:

"You will drive this dagger through your lover's heart."

My stomach sinks and as my pulse quickens, I can hear the blood roaring in my ears. His command infiltrates my synapses and a sudden uncontrollable bloodlust erupts in me. Like a gulfing flame awaiting the sweet taste of destruction, irregardless of my own wishes.

He drops his hand and rises to his full height, angling his chiseled features down at me.

Is that...pity?

Shaking my head again, more tears fill the brim of my eyes as I study my hands. One of them now bears the blackish blade that is destined to topple the course of history and destroy the man that I love.

"What have you done to me?" I cry solemnly. I want to throw the blade across the room, to drop it and scurry away, putting as much distance between me and it...but I can't. My body just wont let me. Not even after I sit there for minutes, straining against the invisible restraints of his command, to no avail. At this level, it could be considered more of a curse.

Now shaking from the strenuous exhaustion, I glance up at him through my tear-soaked vision.

"Please don't make me do this, please. I'm begging you, I'll do anything else. Not this, Hades, not this."

He hesitates for a brief moment, before offering an almost sympathetic sigh.

"There is no other way, Lillith. But I grant you one oath. Once you do this, I swear to forever bar myself from using my abilities against you again. Your mind will be yours-and yours alone lest the bounds of this oath be broken by death, and death only. So let this be my last command."

'To that I, Hades, Ruler of the Underworld, first son of Kronos, seal my oath to you, Lillith of the mortal realm' he swears, officially sealing his oath in the far breeches of my mind as required by one of the fates' sacred ordinances: 'A lord shall forever be bound to his royal oath.'

"Consider it Mercy" he adds taking my chin in his hand. Leaning down to bring his nose to mine, he finishes: "Something I am not quite used to."

He affords me one last mulling look before turning away and departing.

The weight of the world crashes down around me and I collapse to the ground.

"No!" I cry out to the door, long after it has been shut.

I snatch off the thin black circlet resting atop my head and thrust it against the wall. The delicate jewelry, which naturally should've shattered, simply ricochets off the hard surface and lands gracefully on the floor, without so much as a thud or a skid.

I lay here for hours: crying, restless, hopeless, sprawled under the crushing weight of my own misery, with the blade still snuggly fastened in my right clutch. I'd even considered plunging it through my own chest a few times but his curse wouldn't allow me to.

I sniff and fight more tears.

How was I ever going to forgive myself?

I cry and cry and cry. Even long after my ducts have protested, parched from my hours of depletion, still yet, I cry some more. Sorrow makes a meal of me all through the night and as day breaks, sleep still hasn't found me.

I lay on the cold marble floor, sulking. Vulnerable. No less a queen, yet all the more so powerless.

Some hours later a few servants escorted by several guards, have come to retrieve me. It's time.

"He's really here?" I ask shakily up at the ensemble. One of the maids is compassionate enough to offer me a curt nod before speaking: "We're here to prepare you for the coronation, your highness." She beckons towards the bathing chamber.

At the top of my lungs, I proceed to let out a loud strangled noise, crying out in defeat with my eyes shut. I feel a dozen pair of arms on me, lifting me, and escorting me to bathtub...and I don't protest.

I dont have any fight left in me.

It is just before sunset when I sit in front of the vanity as the servants add the last finishing touches to my hair and makeup. One of them reaches into a box and draws out my tiara. Its amethyst gem glistens under the light of the red sun peeping through my bedroom window. Such a beautiful thing never belonged in a place like this. I think to myself sadly.

My eyes water again at the sight of it.

How sick, I continue thinking to myself, as she plops in onto my head.

The finishing touch.

I stare at my reflection in the mirror.

Horrendously beautiful.

Dangerously beautiful.

I reach down into the deep pocket carefully fashioned into my dress and run my fingers over the smooth, concealed cutlass.

I will more tears to come, but I'm afraid I have exhausted them all.

*****