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“What can I tell you, brother, this little prisoner of mine tamed me.”

“Okay, now as her uncle and seeing her go from nappies to giving her piggybacks as a kid, I really don’t want to know any kinky shit between you two,” I said, giving Lucius cause to smirk down at her and mouth,

“Kinky shit,”to which she giggled.

“Okay, moving on,” I prompted.

“Thank the Gods,”Lucius’s brother muttered.

“What I really want to know is how we get Ella back?” I asked, now looking to the only two people around this table that could answer that.

“I think we can all take from the fact you were stabbed and screaming her name in midst of your feverous state, that she was the cause?”

I gritted my teeth at Tyr’s question.

“Still a sore spot there, buddy, might want to rethink your words,” my own brother offered.

“She has had her powers returned, I don’t know how, but she isn’t the same as before when she had them, Garmr is controlling her in some way,” I informed them with a grit of my teeth.

“That was like before, only it was more gradual the first time. By the end, it was almost as if she had forgotten her old self completely,” Lerna said in a pained tone.

“Yes, well that information might have helped when first going in there,” I snapped, making her Lerna sigh and admit,

“I was hoping it wouldn’t come to that again.”

Again… My jaw clenched so hard, I thought it would crack the bone.

“My question is how did you break it the first time?” I asked, as this was the only thing at this point that I wanted to know.

“We just needed a branch,” she said, making us all react as one, but it was Amelia who said,

“Er, come again?”

This made Lerna wince before clarifying.

“I should be more specific.”

“Yeah, that would help,” Marcus said dryly, getting an evil glare from Koro.

“She needed to come into contact with a piece of white poplar tree.”

I frowned.

“But why?” I asked.

“We discovered the only way to bring her back was to remind her of her old life. Touching the branch of the white poplar tree belonging to Hades is linked directly to their mother,” Koro replied, making my Amelia ask,

“How?”

“It is the tree our father had planted after learning of our mother’s death, it is said it holds a piece of her soul, one that she promised to our father always. The last time, as soon as my sister picked it up, it secured her back to her old life enough that she remembered who she was. Only after that were we able to get her away from Garmr,” Lerna explained.

“So, this tree, where is it?” I asked, wishing I had known this shit first so as I would have had a backup plan.

“It’s in my father’s castle, planted in the garden he had made for her,” Lerna answered.

“I acquired a piece of it some time ago, doing so without his knowledge, as we thought it best not to inform the King at the time,” Koro explained.

“Why not? Wouldn’t he have helped with it being his daughter?” Amelia asked, as clearly the kid grew up with loving parents. Not the type that built her a temple prison and then left her there for the rest of eternity.