Evadne's eyes widened the moment she stepped into the penthouse living room. It looked like a war zone, glass shards, broken decor, shattered picture frames. The chaos made it seem like a tornado had passed through.
"Cas," she rushed to him immediately, her face etched with concern as she spotted Casadin slumped against the wall, eyes closed, blood trickling from his lip and bruises swelling on his face.
His eyes fluttered open at the sound of her voice. "Princess," he murmured, voice hoarse and weak.
She quickly knelt beside him and gently helped him up.
"Baby," another voice croaked, and her head snapped toward it.
There, just a few feet away on the cold floor, was Hades, looking just as wrecked as Casadin. His shirtless and blooded, one arm clutching his side, and his eyes, tired but clinging to her, were pleading.
"What the hell is wrong with you two?!" she snapped, half in disbelief, half in panic.
Evadne glanced around. The first room closest to the chaos looked just as destroyed as the living area. Glass everywhere, furniture overturned. She spotted another room across the living space, its door still close. Judging by the state of everything else, it looked untouched.
Carefully, she guided Casadin toward it.
"Baby, help me too," Hades said quietly, reaching out and clutching her calf weakly. "I've got broken ribs too…"
"Just wait, okay?" she said over her shoulder, trying to remain calm.
"Oh my God, Casadin!" she shrieked as Casadin kicked Hades hard in the ribs on the way. Hades grunted in pain, curling on the floor.
"I'm sorry, Princess. My foot slipped," Casadin said weakly, but the evil gleam in his eyes betrayed him.
Evadne narrowed her eyes. She caught that.
But Hades wasn't about to be one-upped. Before they could take another two steps, Hades grabbed Casadin's ankle and yanked it, nearly sending him sprawling to the floor.
"Motherfucker!" Casadin barked, barely catching himself.
"Oh my GOD, Hades!" Evadne shouted in disbelief.
"My hand slipped, baby," Hades echoed in the same innocent tone Casadin had used earlier.
"Can you two stop?! Do you want to die right here?! Because if that's the plan, I'll leave you both to it!" she fumed, cheeks red with frustration.
"He started it!" they chorused in perfect sync.
"I said stop!" she shot Hades a glare. "Stay there, I'll come back for you!"
Hades groaned in reply but obeyed.
She opened the untouched room, instantly recognizing it as the master bedroom. Minimalist, sleek, and screaming Hades. Gray-themed, clean lines, a massive bed in the center. Aside from a side table, a coffee table with a loveseat, and a desk setup, the room was bare.
She led Casadin carefully to the bed, helping him lie down.
"Stay here. I'll help Hades now," she said sternly.
Before he could protest, she was already out the door.
Moments later, she returned with Hades and guided him to the opposite side of the bed. He was about to lie down when Casadin suddenly yanked the pillow from beneath Hades's head, causing it to slam into the headboard with a loud thud.
Hades winced, but retaliated immediately, grabbing Casadin's pillow and yanking it free as well. Casadin's head hit the wooden panel with a dull thump.
And then it started.
A full-on pillow fight.
"Can you stop?! Aren't the bruises enough already?!" Evadne shrieked, voice vibrating with fury.
"And don't even say it, " she pointed a sharp finger at both of them.
They paused.
And then pointed at each other.
"Princess, I think… I think we need to go to the hospital," Casadin said weakly as Evadne stood and rubbed her temples.
"And what exactly will you say at the ER?" she asked, voice sharp. "That you both tried to kill each other? What was the reason?"
"You." they both answered in unison, without hesitation.
Evadne blinked.
And just like that, her face turned crimson.
Her jaw clenched. She turned her back on them before she exploded.
"Stop trying to kill each other," Evadne said over her shoulder, not even bothering to turn as she made her way to the bathroom.
There was a large soaking tub, big enough for the two of them, maybe even three if they didn't mind tight space. But knowing those idiots, she'd probably walk in to find one drowning the other.
She was about to fill the tub when she remembered something. Hades's penthouse was located in Aurivale, the same exclusive building where Zeus's penthouse was. The very one gifted to her by Jupiter and Angelina Falcon when she turned fifteen. She never actually stepped foot in it, but she remembered the floor plan they sent along with a note, "Some of Ceres and Zeus's things are still there. Make of it what you will."
Instead of the tub, she turned on her heel, walked out, and approached a door near the veranda. Just as she thought, it opened up into the private indoor pool and Jacuzzi area, pristine, untouched, elegant. She walked to the edge and began filling the warm water.
"Baby, do you need help?" Hades's voice was soft, strained, but filled with hope.
"Stop calling her baby, you piece of shit!" Casadin growled.
"I can call her Vee, wife, or baby if I want. She is my fiancée," Hades shot back, jaw clenched.
Evadne didn't say anything. She stood at the foot of the bed, arms crossed, expression cold and unreadable as she stared them both down like a disappointed teacher watching two delinquents argue over a stolen sandwich.
The room fell quiet.
The two boys shifted awkwardly, then gulped as her eyes slowly narrowed.
"Are you finished?" she said flatly. "Would you prefer I hand you both knives instead so you can really finish each other off? Save me the trouble?"
"Princess, we were just talking," Casadin offered sheepishly, forcing a smile despite his swollen cheek.
Evadne rolled her eyes.
"Strip. Keep your boxers. You're both getting in the pool."
"Ahm... Princess, we're injured," Casadin said, confused. "We should be going to the hospital. Not... dipping in warm water."
She shot him a look that could pierce through Kevlar.
"Right. Now you want to be treated? After you tried to kill each other and broke bones, now you're acting like rational adults?" she said with biting sarcasm.
That shut him up. Casadin sighed and began peeling off his torn shirt. Every motion made him wince. He hissed as he stretched too far.
Evadne stepped closer to help him.
But the moment she reached for his belt, Casadin jolted in alarm.
"Princess, wait…" he said, mortified, grabbing her wrist.
"What?" she asked, confused.
"Don't… don't unzip that," he said quickly.
"Aww, is the mighty Casadin shy?" Hades taunted from the bed, a wicked grin on his face. "What, still a virgin?"
"So what if I am?!" Casadin snapped, his face flushed crimson. "At least I'm not a fucking manwhore like you!"
Evadne held up her hands. "I'm just trying to help. You're wearing boxers under those, right?"
"Of course I am. I'll unzip. You can just… pull them down after," Casadin said in a flustered mumble, clearly dying inside.
"Fine." She backed off, biting her lip to stop herself from laughing. Of all the filthy, perverted thoughts he ever threw at her, this was the one that got him bashful? The irony was glorious.
She turned to Hades and raised a brow.
He hadn't even attempted to remove his pants. His upper body was already bare, lean muscles tensed from the pain, but his gaze was stubbornly fixed on her.
"Why aren't you undressing?"
A flicker of red colored Hades's cheeks.
"I'm not wearing anything under," he admitted.
"Of course you're not. Your dick was in Selena's mouth when I walked in," Casadin threw in smugly, aiming straight for the kill.
Hades shot him a murderous glare, but Casadin only grinned wider.
Hades looked to Evadne. His voice came soft but cocky. "Don't worry, baby. I was thinking of you the whole time."
Evadne blinked.
Her jaw dropped a little.
"What the fuck." That was all she could manage.
Evadne walked into the walk-in closet and grabbed a clean pair of boxer briefs along with two large towels for the two lunatics still trying to kill each other with their eyes on the bed.
She tossed the boxers toward Hades without a word, then gently helped Casadin to his feet and led him toward the pool area. After settling him by the water, she returned to Hades and helped him limp to the edge as well.
Once both men were inside the heated pool, bruised and simmering with silent rage, Evadne didn't say anything. She simply reached for the hem of her dress, pulled it off over her head, and stepped into the water in her matching black lingerie.
The moment her body slipped beneath the surface, both men went rigid, their eyes wide as they stared, completely caught off guard.
"What?" she said flatly, raising an eyebrow. "Is this the first time you've seen a woman in her underwear?"
Casadin recovered first, a cocky grin tugging at his bruised lips.
"Of course not. You forget, my phone lock screen is you in a swimsuit, and my wallpaper is you naked in the bathroom," he said smugly, shooting a challenging look at Hades.
The smugness didn't last long.
"But seriously, Princess… I really think we need to go to the ER," Casadin added, his voice light but pained. "I know you're mad, but maybe you could postpone the punishment until we're not dying?"
Evadne exhaled deeply, the sound soft but weighted with something heavier. The sigh silenced both of them.
Her expression changed. Calm, unreadable, but serious.
"I told you I had something to say," she said, her tone grave. "This situation… it actually helps me say it."
She looked at Casadin then. Directly. As if memorizing every part of his face before everything changed.
She had made this decision last night. Whatever his reaction would be, whether anger, betrayal, or disbelief, she had already accepted it.
"I know you'll have questions," she began, voice steady, "but can you promise me something? Let me speak first. Let me finish before you ask anything."
Both men nodded in silent agreement, tension thick between them.
"I have a secret," Evadne continued. "And Hades… he knows part of it."
Casadin's expression flickered, hurt. She saw it in his eyes. She heard it in his thoughts. Why him? Why not me? Do you trust him more?
"I told you too," Evadne said gently. "But I made it sound like a joke, so I know you didn't believe me."
She inhaled, then dropped the words with calm finality.
"I'm a mermaid. And I can read minds."
Casadin blinked. He thought she was still joking.
But then, the water shimmered.
Her skin began to glow faintly beneath the surface. The air shifted. The pool warmed, not from the heaters, but from something else entirely. And the water… it moved, like it recognized her. Like it lived for her.
Then, they felt it.
The burn. The searing, agonizing heat crawling inside their bones like fire.
"MOTHERFUCKER!"
The scream came in unison from both Casadin and Hades as they doubled over in pain.
It felt like every bone in their bodies was being snapped and reset, every nerve dragged across flames.
"Princess! What the hell is happening!" Casadin shouted, his voice shaking as his eyes nearly rolled to the back of his head.
"It's water therapy," Evadne said simply, unbothered as she leaned back against the pool's edge. "Every molecule of water is healing even the tiniest internal damage, bones, nerves, tissue. Inside and out."
"BABY!!! I'M GONNA PUKE!" Hades groaned, clutching his stomach and trying to climb out of the pool, only to find he couldn't.
"You can't get out," Evadne said without emotion. "Your body is still healing. It's critical you stay submerged until it's done."
And then, like a final act of defiance, Hades leaned over and vomited into the pool.
"FUCKING HELL, HADES!" Casadin gagged, recoiling as if his soul left his body.
But just as suddenly, the pool water shimmered… and the mess disappeared. The water turned pristine again in seconds, like it had devoured the evidence.
For over thirty minutes, the men endured the cruelest healing they could imagine, sweat mingling with steam, teeth grinding, and breath hitching as their muscles tensed, locked, then released over and over. Like being broken and reborn again and again.
Evadne simply watched. Her gaze occasionally drifted to the glittering skyline beyond the glass wall, completely unaffected.
Finally, the torment dulled.
The pain vanished.
And for the first time, Casadin and Hades realized, they felt light. Whole. Their cuts were gone. Their bruises faded. Their joints… perfect. It was like stepping out of the best full-body massage of their lives, but one that nearly killed them.
Evadne finally turned to face them.
"Feel better?" she asked, arching a brow.
"Princess, where's your tail?"
Casadin asked instead, half-serious, half-wicked.
Evadne looked at him, stunned, but when she focused, she caught a flicker of his thoughts.
Not fear. Not mockery.
He was accepting what she said.
And beneath the curiosity… there it was, an unholy image flashing through his mind.
What her tail might look like, glistening, scaled… and how it would feel wrapped around his waist, coiled tight at his lower body, keeping him still.
Evadne burst out laughing.
It was too much.
For weeks, she had wrestled with the terror of telling him the truth.
She had imagined a thousand ways he might look at her afterward, horrified, disturbed, disgusted.
Like a freak.
But instead, Casadin, his perverted brain and all, took it in stride.
"Princess?"
"Baby?"
Their voices overlapped in concern, Casadin and Hades calling her at the same time, worried.
Evadne waved her hand. "Sorry! Sorry! I'm okay!" she choked between quiet laughs, calming herself.
For the first time in a long while, she was okay.
She didn't feel judged.
She didn't feel alone.
She felt… brave enough to continue.
"I'm not really bipolar," she began quietly.
"The bipolar symptoms they diagnosed me with… they weren't from some chemical imbalance. It was because I could hear thoughts. Everyone's. All the time."
She didn't look at them, not at first.
She stared at the water rippling around her fingertips.
"I didn't understand it growing up. I just thought I was going crazy. But maybe the meds Dr. Jean gave me helped suppress it somehow, or maybe I just learned how to drown the voices out. Either way, the older I got, the more it faded."
She took a breath.
"But on my eighteenth birthday… everything came back all at once. The thoughts. So clear. Loud. I suddenly knew who they belonged to. And then the nightmares began."
She looked up then, at both of them.
"According to Dr. Uriel, who's actually the Angel Uriel, by the way, just moonlighting as a bored psychiatrist, the nightmares are memories. Of my past life."
And then Evadne told them everything.
She spoke of things Hades had never heard, and Casadin had never imagined.
The truth about her therapy.
That every session wasn't just about breathing or silence, it was time-travel into pain.
A pain that belonged to a girl who shared her older sister's name, Ceres Evadne, First Princess of Vaelundis in another world called Solmara.
She spoke of the suffocating burden of her birth, the betrayal of family, the trauma of being defiled and discarded like nothing, and the sickening loneliness that came after.
And why, despite all that, she had chosen, in this life, to honor her parents.
Because this time… she had real parents. Ones who gave her love she never had before.
She would do whatever it took to make them happy.
"I don't know how I became a mermaid," she admitted.
"But the more I learn about my past life, the more pieces start falling into place. Maybe I'll understand eventually. Maybe I won't. But I've stopped running from it."
She turned to Casadin now, her voice trembling.
"I wanted to tell you first," she said, and her eyes filled with tears.
"I really did. But I got scared. What if you looked at me differently? What if I stopped being your Princess?"
She swallowed hard.
"I didn't even mean to tell Hades. It just… happened. That night by the Hudson River, I was searching. I thought maybe I'd find someone else like me. Instead, I heard him. Screaming. In his head. Saying he didn't want to die yet."
She closed her eyes, remembering that moment.
"I spoke to him. Through his mind. It scared the hell out of him."
She let out a breath.
"After that, I told him the truth, not to comfort him, but to mess with him. To screw with his head. But the more I told him… the lighter I felt. Like someone was finally carrying a piece of my burden."
Evadne's voice broke, her hands trembling as she clutched the edge of the pool.
"But when I couldn't hear his thoughts anymore and he confessed, I didn't know what to feel. I didn't know if I could believe him because I could not hear him. It was like something in me cracked. One part of me screamed that I liked you. But the other part…"
Her eyes flicked to Hades, then back to Casadin.
"The other part whispered that liking him… wasn't such a bad idea either."
She broke down.
The sobs came hard and fast, her chest heaving with every word.
"I don't know what's wrong with me!" she choked out. "It's so wrong. It's so selfish. I feel like I like you both. As a whole. At the same time. And I hate myself for it."
Her voice dropped to a whisper.
"I don't know how to choose. Because no matter what I do, someone's heart will break. And I don't want to hurt either of you. But I'm hurting too. And I don't know what to do anymore…"
She broke down completely, gripping her arms, trying to contain it all but failing. The vulnerability, the guilt, the storm of everything she'd held in for far too long.
And for a brief moment, both Casadin and Hades could only stare at her, their hearts breaking and burning all at once.
Because no matter how torn Evadne felt between them…
Neither of them wanted to let her go.
Not now.
Not ever.