Hades knelt in front of Evadne and took both her hands in his.
He lifted them to his lips and kissed them, eyes closing as if that simple act might somehow be enough for her to feel how deeply sorry he was for what he had done to her the night before.
"I am sorry for what I did last night, baby," Hades said, his voice low and unsteady. "I know my insecurity was not enough reason to do that. No reason would ever be enough to justify what I did to you… and I am so sorry." Tears gathered in his eyes. "I do not need you to forgive me. But I promise I will try to be better. I know I will not be able to do that immediately, but I will do my best. Please… give me a chance?"
Evadne reached up and wiped the tears forming in Hades's eyes, even though her own were filling too. Then she nodded.
Relief rushed through Hades' chest so quickly it almost made him dizzy. He bent forward and kissed Evadne on the lips, then on her temple.
"Thank you," he whispered against her skin. "I love you so much."
Then he wrapped his arms around her, and Evadne hugged him back just as tightly.
Casadin could only let out a long breath. He turned away and went back into the kitchen to get the breakfast he had prepared for Evadne. He carried it into the living room and set it down on the center table.
By the time he returned, Evadne was already seated on Hades' lap, and Hades had buried his face in her neck, still whispering apologies and I love yous against her skin.
"Breakfast first," Casadin said, his voice cool when he looked at Hades, though it softened the moment Evadne turned toward him.
Evadne could feel that there was still some anger left in Casadin toward Hades, and she was not going to force them to make peace. She knew she just had to wait and let the two of them work through it themselves while she held on to both of them.
"Drink your milk first, Princess," Casadin said, handing her a glass of warm milk.
Evadne took it and obediently sipped from it.
Then Casadin looked back at Hades.
"What was that you asked earlier?" Casadin asked, unable to let it go.
He had seen the urgency on Hades' face when he came rushing in earlier and asked Evadne that strange question. The question had been forgotten the moment Hades saw her tearful face, but Casadin could not let it rest. The voice in his head kept whispering at him to ask.
Hades stilled for a moment, then looked from Evadne to Casadin.
"I had a dream," Hades said at last. "I talked to Caelithariel."
"Caelithariel?" Evadne and Casadin asked at the same time.
"Who is that?" Evadne asked.
"The name of the angel me," Hades said.
Both Casadin and Evadne widened their eyes. Evadne even moved off his lap and onto the lounge chair beside him so she could see his face more clearly.
"You met him? How?" Evadne asked, disbelief plain in her voice.
By now, the three of them should have been used to strange things happening around them. And yet, every time something like this occurred, they still could not help but be shocked.
"He visited me in my dream," Hades said. "He said he used the last of his angelic power to speak to me. And just like what you told us before, baby, he had black-and-white wings. His left wing was white. The right was black. He looked older. More mature. Taller. Firmer. The same kind of build Casadin has now."
"Why did he talk to you?" Casadin asked, worry cutting through his curiosity. "And isn't that dangerous? If he used up all his remaining angelic power, what if something happens to you because of it?"
"Maybe I pissed him off too," Hades said, trying for humor, though it came out thin and tired.
Then he looked at Evadne.
"He told me it was not your fault that you could not mark me. I really fucked up, didn't I?" A faint, bitter smile touched his lips, but the regret in his eyes remained. "Even my angelic self had to use his remaining strength just to knock some sense into me."
Hades exhaled before continuing.
"He said the reason you were able to mark Casadin is because his connection to your human soul is stronger than my connection to yours. That's why you could not hear his mate call. But you were able to hear Seradomiel's." He glanced at Casadin. "That's your angel name."
"You mean it was the angel me who called… and Vee's human soul answered?" Casadin asked.
Hades nodded.
"Then how can Vee mark you?" Casadin pressed.
"He said Vee is not whole yet," Hades replied. "There is still a part of her that has not awakened. That part is the one that would answer his mate call. And until that part of her awakens, my angelic power will remain detached."
He paused.
"We were only able to talk for a short time. But when I asked him how I would know which part of her we need to awaken…" Hades looked back and forth between Evadne and Casadin. "He said one name."
Evadne's fingers tightened around the glass in her hands.
"Calvareth," Hades said.
"Is that name familiar to you, Princess?" Casadin asked.
Evadne nodded, looking from one man to the other.
"She was the woman in the Veil," Evadne said quietly. "The one who told me she was part of me."
Casadin and Hades could only stare at her, momentarily speechless. Then both of them waited, silent and intent, for Evadne to finally tell them the whole truth about the woman in the Veil... the truth she had not shared before because they had all feared that the angels under Michael's command might somehow hear their thoughts.
"You think the one strongly connected to me is that woman?" Hades asked.
"I do not know," Evadne admitted. "I still do not fully understand what she told me. She said she was the part of me that had been left behind in the Veil when I escaped. She also said that I had to embrace the other part of myself first… and that my memories of her, and the answers to the questions I need answered, would come at the right time."
"Do you think we need to return to Noir Village so you can fully embrace your Narf self?" Casadin asked, leaning forward. "So you can become a complete Narf?"
"I really do not know," Evadne said, shaking her head. "And would that still even be possible? I already passed the proper age for the Bloodletting, remember?"
"Did he say anything else?" Casadin asked, then frowned deeply. "What was that name again? Your angel name?" Frustration slipped into his voice. He had never been good at remembering names, and the one Hades had said earlier sounded impossibly ancient.
"Caelithariel," Hades and Evadne said at the same time.
"Right, him," Casadin said. "Did he say anything else? And what was my angel name again?"
"Seradomiel," Evadne answered with a fond little smile.
Casadin made a face. "Nope. I am sticking with Casadin. That name sounds ancient."
"Because it is, mate," Evadne said, unable to stop herself from laughing.
Casadin immediately smiled and reached out to touch her cheek.
"There's that smile," he murmured.
At once, Evadne's cheeks turned pink. She knew he had done that on purpose, just to make her smile.
Hades smiled too, but a small ache still rose in his chest at how easily Casadin could coax that expression out of her.
He crushed the feeling as soon as it appeared.
Casadin was right. The two of them needed to swallow their jealousy and stop letting it control them. Control him. What mattered most was Evadne's happiness.
Then Hades' eyes widened.
He suddenly sucked in a sharp breath as he remembered something else Caelithariel had said.
Both Evadne and Casadin turned to him immediately.
"Hubby?" Evadne asked, concern rising at once when she saw the color drain from Hades' face.
"He did say something else," Hades said, swallowing hard.
Evadne and Casadin waited.
"He said…" Hades paused, and the words seemed to weigh heavily even before he spoke them. "He said Ceres' death was not an accident."
"What?!" Evadne and Casadin cried out at the same time.
"Hades, that is not a good joke," Evadne said immediately... but she could already see from his eyes that he was telling the truth.
"I am sorry, baby, but that is what he said," Hades replied. "He said that if we want to awaken the missing part of you, we should start there. With her death. And that her death was not an accident."
"How is that even possible?" Evadne whispered, shaking her head.
Ceres' death had caused unbearable pain... not only to the Monteverdes and the Falcons, but to countless people who had loved her. She had touched so many hearts because of how big her own heart had been, even while high society had called her a villainess.
The Falcons had lost their only son too, because Zeus had never truly survived Ceres' death. He had blamed himself for leaving her side for only a brief moment... a moment he believed would never have happened if he had simply stayed with her.
And now they were being told that her death had not been an accident?
That was impossible.
"How could it not be an accident?" Evadne asked, her voice beginning to shake. "The news from that day, every story we ever heard... everyone said Ceres died saving a little girl who was about to be hit by a truck that had lost its brakes. How can that not be an accident?"
Her breathing turned uneven as the questions kept spilling out.
"According to Mommy and Daddy, and even Dee, my sister would have been safe where she was standing if she had not run toward that child. If she had not rushed forward to save her, she would have lived. So how can that not be an accident? How?"
She kept repeating the question, circling it again and again because it simply did not make sense.
Hades had no answer.
Casadin was quiet too, because if Evadne herself could not make sense of it, then how could he?
Child.
The voice in Casadin's head whispered the word.
"What?" Casadin said aloud before he could stop himself.
Evadne and Hades both looked at him immediately.
"The voice in my head," Casadin said slowly, answering the question they had not yet asked, "just said… 'child.'"