** spoiler alert ** Aidan - good looking and famous - 5 oscars, loved the world over... a giving man, one who liked his life and his fans... but his brother, Donner invades his life and takes it all away... donner has always been jealous of him, and plays on his good nature and guilt to work himself in as his overpaid manager - and Aidan buys him anything he wants, and yet it still isn't enough... when Donner asks for 5 million, Aidan finally says no, and Donner undermines him with his friends, his fiance, his fellow actors etc, and the publid - telling all sorts of lies and too many are believed. And when Donner attemps to kill him, Donner is put in jail, and Aidan retreats to his isolated mountain home, staying away from everyone and feeing his anger...

Leta, and Onera, dreamwalker - who lost her beloved husband and daughter and emotions to Zues' anger at another Onera... she battles the god Pain (who killed her family), trying to stop him from hurting humans... and she finally locks him in stasis with a curse that keeps him in stasis untill and unless someone with his ring calls him forth with the sacrifice of someone he/she loves - and she had gambled no one woujld sacrifice a loved one... but Donner finds out about this, and calls Pain awake... Leta has also been in stasis, but awakens with Pain and determines that Aidan is the target...

she vows to protect Aidan - and draws on his anger to reinforce her strenght and power... and in 24 hours of meeting him, he is forced to confront the unimaginable, to trust where he never thought to trust again... and Leta has feelings - at first she attributes it to residual of Aidan's feelings, but her brother m'ordic tells her they are getting their emotions back bit by bit...

the final battle is when donner and Pain (in Donner's son's zombie body) try to kill Aidan & Leta when they are sleeping... they battle, with the help of Deimos (a future book?) and Aidan finally confronts his brother, and sees him for what he is - and gives up his anger and resentment - which destroys Pain, and then Donner is rearrested...

and Deimos takes him (like Scrooge's ghosts) to the past, to see his brother's jealousy from a young age, to see the present and his manager's true regard and friendship and caring for him to Mount Olympus - where he attempts to defend Leta against Zues, but Leta takes the lightening bolt meant for aidan and dies... Hades had been present and had been trying to calm Zeus unsuccessfully - and then then Aidan is returned to his own life...

and his manager and his wife, and two other friends show up to share christmas withhim, and he opens his doors and hearts to them... calling the manager as he is driving away to say he will take the movie deal... and then Leta knocks on his door.... Persephone asked hades to release Leta after seeing their love - and hades can, and she is mortal with Aidan... a year later, expecting their baby... ahhhh