𝟬𝟭𝟮. it could only be you

AERA WAS SEVEN when she met Luke and fourteen when she fell in love with him. The first thing she noticed about him was his offhanded, laidback demeanor—how he kept perfectly calm when the monsters attacked, how he shrugged off certain topics like his father when it was brought up, how easily he smiled even if it wasn't genuine. And his voice. The way Luke spoke was so passionate, yet detached at the same time, as if he didn't care what people thought as long as he knew what he thought.

For the first month or so, being around Luke was exciting because she just couldn't catch drift of what the guy was thinking. Because of her family's unpredictability, Aera had grown up being able to read other people's emotions. It was a survival instinct. She secretly made a game out of guessing the meaning behind Luke's micro expressions—what the little changes in his tone of voice or the little smirks on his face meant, and she was rewarded with an addicting sense of satisfaction whenever she got them right.

Luke was like a puzzle Aera could never finish solving because the pieces were always changing and always shuffling. He had been interesting from the day she met him and he never disappointed when it came to bringing her some form of entertainment when the routines at camp got too repetitive and draining.

And despite his flaws, Aera could feel that Luke loved her. Maybe not in the romantic way she fantasized about, but he loved her. He remembered all of her favorite fashion accessories, no matter how small, helped her pick out the prettiest outfits even though he cared little for clothing, and gave her gifts all the time.

A new hairband because "it would look good on you".

A bottle of perfume because "we recruited more demigods."

A vase of flowers in it "just because".

"I've got the most beautiful girl in the universe on my team," Luke would jokingly tell Aera whenever she asked what the occasion was. "Isn't that enough reason to celebrate?"

Beautiful. While she thoroughly loathed that word with a burning passion for restraining her all her life, Aera could instantly see herself getting used to hearing it, so long as it came from Luke's lips. Everything sounded a hundred times more attractive coming from his lips: boring battle strategies, evil orders to take down the gods...

If Luke was anything, he was charming. The age gap between them made him the coolest, smartest, and most mature boy she knew. He was a gentleman, opening every door for her and holding her hand through large crowds. He often vowed to get rid of everyone who stood in her way.

Maybe that was why although Aera had been spoiled with gifts, the most precious present Luke had ever given Aera was a sleepy promise on the beach.

During their voyage through the sea of monsters, Aera had complained about being bored, constantly adrift at sea. Luke then ordered the whole Princess Andromeda crew to stop at the nearest island so Aera could have some time to relax.

"Anything for you," he had said charmingly, ruffling her hair. It would take another three years before Aera realized how nothing he did had ever been for her sake.

The weather had been perfect that day, not too hot, but not windy enough to mangle up her hair either. The distant chirping of seagulls mixed with the sound of rushing waves produced a relaxing ambiance across the thin, white sand which was warm and squishy under Aera's sandals. The clear blue sky reflected against the ocean water, making the sea glimmer like turquoise quartz. Though the view was breath-taking from the shore, Aera couldn't help but feel a little sad.

At camp, she rarely went to the beach unless she had a heavy dilemma to ponder or some drama in Cabin Ten to evade. It had turned into a personal tradition and even though she had no present problem to worry about, being on such an exquisite coastline evoked old, hidden emotions Aera had thought she'd already taken care of.

Despite her best efforts to push it aside, Aera couldn't shake the deep sense of homesickness that clung to her. She missed camp, missed Silena, and sometimes even missed her sisters—well, most of them (except Jolina, of course, that beyotch).

There was a part of her, buried deep down, that nagged at her every day, questioning whether she had made the right choice by turning her back on the gods. Could they really change the course of fate? Could Aera really prove herself worthy of something bigger than what she had been taught?

"Aera!" Luke called out.

Her melancholic mood seemed to melt away immediately, just from the sound of his voice. Aera couldn't help but smile seeing Luke wave at her from across the sand. She loved hearing him say her name.

Nearly bursting with excitement, Aera hurried over to greet him, the ends of her long, flowy sundress flailing behind her. She had been so preoccupied holding onto her sun hat to keep it from flying away that she hadn't realized he met her halfway.

Almost mechanically, Aera wasted no time in fixing her appearance. She had to straighten her dress and make sure her makeup wasn't—

"Don't bother," he said in a soothing voice, putting a stop to her frivolous work by ruffling her hair. "You get prettier every time I see you."

Aera forgot all about fussing over her appearance, turning bright red. At that moment, she almost forgot her own name. She bit back a smile, consciously monitoring her own heart rate. Luke's smile was so gorgeous. It was so unfair.

"Lying is bad, you know," she said. "You're setting a bad example."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Luke denied with a wide grin. "I've never lied in my life."

Aera's eyebrows shot to the sky. "Oh, really now?"

Luke nodded. "I'm an always honest guy."

Oh, I'll show you honesty, Aera thought mischievously. She brought her arms down in a sweeping motion as hard as she could, splashing Luke with a spray of seawater.

Big mistake.

Luke then made it his mission to drench Aera in as much seawater as he could. They spent an hour running wildly through the water trying to get each other back. By the time they called a truce, Aera's dripping hair had more tangles than a jewelry box full of necklaces. The two of them eventually settled down in the shade of a palm tree to rest.

Aera got back to work again, patting down her clothes and her hair with the towels Luke had ordered the bear twins, Agrius and Oreius, to retrieve from the ship. When the bear twins arrived with the materials, the three of them had a momentary discussion a small distance away without Aera, which looked pretty heated.

Luke's face was set tightly the whole time and Agrius kept using big hand gestures. It only ended when the smaller one (Oreius?) went "hee-hee!" like Michael Jackson. He kept laughing like he was having an asthmatic fit until Luke and Agrius both stared at him. Agrius barked something at his brother before dragging him away by the ear back towards the ship.

"What was that about?" Aera asked when Luke returned to her.

"Nothing important," he answered vaguely, dropping down next to her. "Just a few updates about camp."

Aera didn't ask for more. She didn't want Luke to think she was second-guessing her choice to join him, or that she didn't trust his leadership. He had already been so antsy since his poison scorpion failed to get rid of Percy. Aera didn't want to make his mood worse, even if she privately anticipated updates about Thalia's poisoned tree and whether or not that stupid fish was finding The Golden Fleece like they intended or not.

So, Aera just smiled and nodded, giving Luke her full support. As long as she stayed by his side, everything would be okay.

For the next hour they sunbathed, in which Aera enjoying listening to Luke's voice. They chatted about random things like what they wanted to eat for dinner, if the new monster recruits were going to be submissive or rowdy, and whether a sword or a dagger was a better weapon.

Conversation was so fun with Luke; his responses were always creative. Aera could never grow bored of hearing what he had to say. His voice was also very unique, not the typical husky, deep voice the other girls in Cabin Ten were into; it was light and airy, almost bouncing from word to word.

Aera liked it most when they were alone. When it was just them, he didn't try so hard to be "Master Luke", the rebel of Olympus. He was just Luke. Her Luke. His heartbeat sounded the most relaxed around her. The lines of the scar running down his face appeared much less harsh. She felt grown and important, being able to put him to ease like that.

Aera liked having him to herself. It felt like she had won the prize of accompanying him, something so many others in the world were envious of. Maybe she had turned her back on Aphrodite, turned her back on love, but that didn't mean she had to turn away from Luke.

At some point amidst the lull of the seagulls and Luke's safe presence, Aera drifted off to sleep.

When she awoke, the sun was starting to dip toward the water.

"Aera," Luke whispered. The shadow of him hovering over her dimmed the sun. "Aera, it's time to go."

She pretended to be asleep. Bathing in the sun's faint rays with Luke's sleepy voice as alluring as the ocean waves, Aera wasn't sure if she had woken up from a good dream or to a good dream. She was so relaxed she didn't want to leave.

"You must be exhausted," he uttered. "That's okay. You'll need the strength to train more later."

The thought of returning to that cold, dark room made Aera's stomach twist. She could still taste the sickeningly sweet nectar on her tongue, sticking to her throat like poisonous syrup, and the burning sensation of too much divine power surging through her veins, too much for her mortal body to handle. It felt like fire and ice tearing through her, her very essence fighting to reject the power that was being forced into her.

If it hadn't been for Luke's constant, unwavering reassurance, Aera was sure she would have crumbled under the weight of Kronos' grueling training. Since Aera wasn't nearly as physically powerful as the boys on their team, the Titan had somehow come up with the idea that if Aera consumed more divine food than a normal demigod, it would enhance the godly part of her, making her more immortal than human.

But the reality of it was nothing short of torture. The first time Aera had tried to swallow more nectar than healthy for a demigod, her body had violently rejected it—she threw it up, followed by a murderously high amount of mortal blood. The pain had been excruciating, like her insides were being ripped apart, her very flesh burning from the inside out as her body fought against the unnatural power coursing through her.

The only way they could force her to take it was by restraining her and injecting higher and higher dosages of nectar directly into her veins. Most days, only Luke's voice could calm her down enough to stop fighting against the binds that tied her to the armchair.

"You know, at first, I was worried about what other people might say," Luke continued, to her surprise, "but I never had doubts about you. I knew you would understand what they couldn't. You've been making so much progress with Kronos' guidance. We make a great team. Later, I'll have one of the dracaena go with you if you want to explore town later. You deserve some fun. These mortals shouldn't have anything funny up their sleeves."

The thought of danger seemed to sober him. Luke peered down at Aera with a subtle frown. "Never mind. I'll go with you after the meeting instead. Yeah, that's a better idea. Yeah...that way I can get you whatever you want." A mischievous smirk spread across his mouth. "It's been a while since we went shopping together. Pick whatever you want. I'll get it for you."

Aera bit her lip in excitement. She had the intuition Luke wasn't fibbing. If they really pulled off this plan, Kronos could grant them anything. Aera didn't even know where to start looking for her rewards. The possibilities were endless. It made her tired thinking about it.

It must have shown in her face because moments later, Aera felt Luke scooping her into his arms. Aera bounced in his arms gently as he carried her back to the ship.

"Yeah, just rest," Luke said as he gently adjusted her in his arms. "I'll protect you. Even if the sky falls on us tomorrow, I'll be right here. You don't ever have to worry about being alone again, Aera. I swear to all the old gods and the forgotten."

His words, though comforting, felt more like a promise than a declaration of affection. He was always the protector, the one who kept her safe when she needed it most—but never more than that. There was no hint of anything more in his voice, nothing that suggested he saw her as anything other than a little sister.

The rhythm of his heartbeat was steady and calming, and Aera couldn't help but lean into the warmth of it, the steady assurance he always offered. She let herself rest in the moment, feeling safe, even if the safety was more about his presence than anything else.

Even if the sky falls on us tomorrow, I'll be with you.

That phrase echoed in her mind, but it only deepened the ache in her chest. It wasn't that she didn't appreciate it—she did, more than she could put into words. But she wished, just for once, that he would look at her differently. That he might see her as something more. Still, she knew better than to expect that. She was seven years younger, the one who looked up to him, the one who relied on him. He had always been like an older brother to her. And she knew deep down that's all she would ever be to him.

Aera allowed herself the briefest moment of hope, the kind that only someone younger and more naive could. Maybe, just maybe, he cared for her in a way that went beyond being her protector. Maybe one day he'd see her as someone more than just the little girl who followed him around. But she knew it was a fantasy, something that wouldn't ever come true.

Aera drifted off to sleep in his arms, the comforting certainty of his presence a balm for her restless heart. She held onto the illusion that she had made the right decision. She had chosen him, and that was all she could do.

"PLACES, PEOPLE!" Drew was shouting and clapping, and generally causing mass commotion around the cabin that sounded like the behind-the-scenes of a chaotic fashion show, "Chop chop!"

Aera had woken up that morning and instantly wanted to unalive something. Dramatic? Maybe. Uncalled for? Absolutely not. Drew was already up and stomping around the cabin before Aera could open her eyes.

"This cabin isn't going to clean itself!" Drew shouted. "Rose, what are you doing? I told you to refill the micellar water. Yeah, so where's the micellar water? Mhmm, yeah, you better get it, sweetie. Kyle! What kind of cheap cologne did you just spray everywhere? Gods! It smells horrible! This is Cabin Ten, not Abercrombie & Fitch. And Simon! Ugh, Simon! Stop blubbering over your crush! How many times do I have to tell you he's straight? Pull yourself together and go wash your face. You look like a pufferfish."

"Remember, people!" commanded Zuri, Drew's right-hand gofer. "If you're wondering if it's clean enough, just ask yourself: can I eat caviar off it?"

"You can eat this dick," one of their sisters, Mei, muttered under their breath.

Meanwhile, Aera groaned loudly and flipped over in her bunk; her fleece duvet and silk pillowcase were comforting enough to lull her back to sleep from whatever hot mess that was going to unfold.

Then Aera heard someone mumble incoherently just above her head, "What should we..."

"What?" Zuri demanded harshly.

"What should we..." that person mumbled again. Was that...Lacy? Oh, who cares? Aera certainly didn't.

"Ugh, speak up, Lacy!" Zuri said impatiently and now suddenly Aera had to care because they were being blemishes to her beauty sleep. "You know we don't speak loser."

"WHAT SHOULD WE DO ABOUT AERA?" Lacy hollered loud enough for the people in Greece to hear, then made a squeaking noise as if jumping up to cover her mouth.

"Gods, Lacy, you don't have to shout," Zuri said irritably. Then she cleared her throat. "What are you waiting for? Wake her!"

"But what if she..."

"What if she what?"

"What if she forces me to carry explosives or-or-" Lacy gasped. "Cuts me mushroom bangs!"

"Not the mushroom bangs!" Mitchell exclaimed, horrified.

"Aera's mushroom bang era was pretty hideous," even Zuri acknowledged.

"Well, you have a choice, hon," came Drew's response, her voice sickly sweet. "It's either mushroom bangs or The Shoes of Shame. Oh, and F-Y-I, you'll be wearing those for two months if you don't wake Aera up in the next thirty seconds."

"But-but-but-"

"Twenty-nine," Drew started counting in an innocent tone, "twenty-eight, twenty-seven..."

Lacy shrieked. Aera heard a bunch of shuffling and then a poke on her side.

"Aera," Lacy whispered, as small, but highly annoying as a wisp of baby hair. "Aera...psst...Aera!" Poke. Poke. Nudge. Nudge.

That's it.

Aera just about had it. She burst her eyes open and sent the first person she saw to Tartarus with a death glower. Lacy screamed at the top of her lungs and leaped behind Mitchell while the rest of the cabin tried to become one with the walls. Even Zuri and Drew had backed up several paces. They were all well aware of how dangerous Aera's sleepless temper was.

Drew's wandering eyes landed on Piper.

"Hey, Dumpster Girl." She snapped her fingers at their badger hair sib. "Tell Aera breakfast starts in ten minutes. We're not going to be late because of her."

Piper, in her rebellious emo girl phase or something, turned her nose up at the order. Though the awake part of Aera (which was finer than loose powder) still found it slightly impressive she could resist Drew's charmspeak. "Uh, can't she hear you?"

"She can't hear anyone," Rose whispered to Piper, hefting a tub of micellar water in front of her face like that would keep Aera from hearing her. "Her body's here but her soul's still putting lipstick on Hypnos."

"I can hear you," Aera said calmly.

"She can hear you!" Mitchell shrieked. Lacy screamed again and ducked under the nearest bed. Rose spilled the micellar water all over one of the fuzzy heart-shaped rugs. Zuri fell backward, her Louboutin flying into the air. Chaos. Chaos.

Wordlessly, Aera rose up in bed like the dead and assessed her surroundings. Cabin Ten was exactly the miserable place she remembered leaving behind four summers ago: a life-sized dollhouse with all the bunks pushed against the pink walls and a raised runway stage set up in the center of the cabin. Stage lights were dimmed around the perimeter of the runway. At the very back was that stupid black table-clothed judge's panel with three open seats. The white window trims were covered by pastel blue and green lace curtains, which matched the sheets and feather comforters on the beds.

The boys had their bunks on one side and the girls on the other, separated by the stage and several sections of matching curtains. Every camper had a wooden camp chest at the foot of their bunk with their name and whatever cute designs that fit their personal aesthetic painted on it. Everyone's clothes were neatly folded and color-coordinated in their chests...at least that's the story they recounted to the head counselor.

Nothing much had changed except two new bunks and the rotating roster of posters and pictures that had been taped up of whichever trending celebrities they thought were hot. Aera was inwardly satisfied to see a mini BTS shrine in the corner. Back in the day, Jolina only let them listen to country music because of Blake Shelton. Aera made a mental note to sacrifice a few burnt offerings at breakfast later to the only god she really worshipped: J-Hope.

Meanwhile, the other Aphrodite kids—about a dozen girls and six guys—all watched Aera, not daring to speak.

Normally, Aera would have loved the attention if not for the fact that her six and a half hours of sleep had been filled with bad memories she didn't want to remember.

"What are you looking at?" she snapped.

The entire cabin seemed to unfreeze. Instantly, everyone went back to work, rushing around, making beds, and folding clothes.

Drew rubbed her nose and checked her lashes in a princess handheld mirror. Zuri sauntered off to retrieve her Louboutin. The only person that had the guts to come up to pre-skincared Aera was Piper, who somehow even had the courage to plant her giant rump on Aera's precious seafoam green duvet with little cartoon pegasi on it.

"What was that about?" Piper questioned, squashing Aera's favorite pegasi, Cheyenne, with her massive behind.

Aera glared at her. Here she was probably looking like a total zombie and here Piper was, still gorgeous and glamorous in the light of Aphrodite's makeover. Her hair was styled like a supermodel's and her skin was perfect. And Piper wasn't even flaunting it. She kept trying to mess up the magic, raking her fingers through her hair, and rubbing the eyeshadow off with her sleeve, but of course, nothing worked. The magic makeup just reapplied itself. Her do popped back to perfection. Oh, the monsters Aera would slay to have her curves....

"I know," Piper groaned, catching Aera's look and covering her face with her hands. "I look stupid. I get it. Stop staring at me like that."

Her words didn't make Aera's irritation any better. Without another word, Aera got up and marched into the bathroom with a mission. Upon flinging open the door, some new sibling she had never seen before ran out of the bathroom in fright, screaming with toothpaste running down her chin and all.

Behind closed doors, Aera immediately went into manic morning routine mode. She whipped out every last self-care item she could find in the bathroom of Cabin Ten (which was quite literally everything you could imagine) before hopping into a steaming shower, where she scrubbed, exfoliated, shaved, shampooed, and extra-conditioned.

Post-shower was where the real ritual began. Under-eye patches went on first, followed by a subtle blow dry, hair mask, hair mousse, and then twisting into a heatless hair curler. Next, Aera sat in an ice-cold gel face mask for ten minutes before brushing her teeth, applying body lotion, and then going to town with a firming serum, a jade gua sha, and two vibrating face rollers to de-puff. Skincare came after that, in which Aera indulged in her favorite eye cream, lash serum, toner, essence, moisturizer, and SPF.

By the time she was finished, Drew had been pounding obnoxiously on the door for five minutes straight. Aera had to wrap herself in a pale pink silk bathrobe and take her makeup out of the bathroom to stop that electric-pink-eyeliner-wearing lunatic.

"Finally," Drew huffed, her makeup kit, hairdryer, and brush under her arm. "What took you so long? Did you strap bombs on another sister in there or something?"

"No," Aera answered lucidly, side-eyeing Drew as she passed her toward the bathroom, "but it's only 7 am."

Drew slammed the door and locked it at the speed of lightning.

Trying not to let Drew's words get to her, Aera planned on booking the rest of that day's agenda by picking out the perfect outfit to wear until she saw Piper still sitting on her bunk, looking more lost than a WASP mom at Victoria's Secret.

"Are you ready?" Piper asked immediately upon Aera's graceful return.

"For?"

Piper stared at Aera like she couldn't tell if Aera was joking or not. Hint: she wasn't.

"Our quest," Piper said slowly. "Remember?"

"Oh, that's still a thing?" Aera yawned. "I was hoping we'd wake up and wouldn't have to go anymore."

She walked over to her bed and shooed Piper aside to make room for the outfits she was going to prepare. At the same time, Isha darted around Aera, totting an extra large box of condoms and stashing them under her bed like a horny, underprivileged squirrel.

Piper laughed awkwardly.

Aera mentally bookmarked Isha's hiding spot for later and began digging through the chest at the foot of her bunk for something to wear.

"So," Piper spoke again, "I was thinking—"

"Ew, don't do that," Aera said, still going through her clothing. Was it a mini-skirt or a circle skirt kind of day today? "You'll get stress acne. Leave thinking to the ugly and untalented people. Like Annabeth."

"Um," Piper said. "I don't think Annabeth's ugly or—"

"Ugh!" Aera looked up from her chest to roll her eyes. "Does anybody around here have taste? Don't tell me her vomit grey eyes and premature fine lines are attractive to you."

"OK, forget Annabeth's appearance," Piper continued pointedly. "You got claimed before. Is there any way to get rid of the makeover? Or make it less—"

Aera pulled out two dresses from the chest, one turquoise and one blue, and held them up for Piper to choose. "Which one?"

Piper barely looked at them before saying, "Turquoise."

Aera threw both dresses across the room. They lodged themselves on stupid, unsuspecting Mitchell, dangling there on his tall, scrawny body like a coat rack. "Turquoise? Piper, that's the worst idea you've had since you cut your own hair."

Piper shrugged. "At least I didn't have mushroom bangs."

"Oh, you get magic-makeover-ed once and now you're the hair expert?"

"You don't need to be an expert to know how bad mushroom bangs look."

Aera frowned. "This is why you have no friends."

"Says the traitor."

It wasn't much of a compliment, but Aera was stunned. The newbie was even sassier than her? Could Aphrodite not let her have one thing?

Apparently not as Lacy raced up to Piper with a pile of clothes in her arms, fully ignoring Aera's divinely gorgeous presence. She looked around furtively like she was delivering nuclear materials, her two blonde pigtails swaying every which way.

"I brought you these," she whispered, scooting a considerable distance away from Aera. "This is just, you know, a backpack, some rations, ambrosia and nectar for emergencies, some jeans, a few extra shirts, and a warm jacket. The boots might be a little snug. But—well—we took up a collection. Good luck on your quest!"

Lacy dumped the haul on Aera's bed and started to hurry away, but Piper caught her arm. "Hold on. At least let me thank you! Why are you rushing off?"

Lacy looked like she might shake apart from nervousness. She peered guiltily in Aera's direction like she had spilled red lipstick in her white Valentino bag. "Oh, well—"

Piper seemed to finally read the room. "You're scared of Aera."

"Who isn't?" Mei muttered under her breath.

"I can hear you," Aera said for the second time that morning. Mei started whistling and folding her already folded clothes.

"Huh?" Lacy laughed nervously, with obviously forced enthusiasm. "No! I'm not scared of A-Aera! Ha-ha!" Aera cocked a brow at her. "Please don't make me deliver bombs or have mushroom bangs...evaluations are coming up."

"Evaluations?" Piper asked.

Aera shuffled through the bottom of her chest. Ugh, did she really not have any cute clothes in here? Jeez, no wonder she hated this place so much. "Lacy, explain evaluations to Piper. Big words aren't part of my morning routine."

"Yes, Aera!" Lacy saluted her. Then she used several big words to explain what evaluations were.

"Seriously?" Piper asked incredulously when Lacy was done. "You guys rank people based on their appearance?"

"It's tradition," Aera answered plainly, tossing another ugly blue dress onto Mitchell. "Just like the Rite of Passage."

"Rite of what?"

"Ooh!" Isha, finished with her condom-hoarding, interjected. "Let me explain this one! Please! Pretty please!" Aera gave a nonverbal signal of permission. "Right, so the Rite of Passage is totally cool! You get someone to fall in love with you. Then you break their heart. Dump them. Once you do that, you've proven yourself worthy of Aphrodite."

Piper stared at Aera as if to check if Isha was joking. "Break someone's heart on purpose? That's terrible!"

Aera tried not to roll her eyes again before she put colored contacts in them. She had nearly forgotten the three newbies were practically all boring do-gooders like Jason. The other Cabin Tenners just look confused at Piper's shook reaction.

"No?" Isha said. She turned to Aera with a curious sparkle in her big brown eyes. "You finished your Rite of Passage last summer, didn't you, Aera? With Luke?"

"No way!" Mitchell gasped, wiping the dress off his face to see better. "I thought he totally broke your heart!"

"Nah uh!" another sibling, Katie Lynn, proclaimed from her bunk across the room. "Aera had Luke wrapped around her finger. 100 percent. I mean, hello? He made her the commander of his army! Isn't that so romantic?"

"Really?" Lacy squeaked. "You broke Luke's heart, Aera? That's so cool!"

Ignoring the vague sadness that weighed on her chest, Aera tossed her curled hair over one shoulder and forced a smile. "When am I not?"

Despite the funny expression Piper had on her face, the rest of the siblings erupted in excited cheers, whispering and murmuring about how they just knew Aera crushed Luke's puny heart all along.

Of course, none of them knew the real reason Aera was promoted. Or what words had passed between her and Luke when she had tried stopping him from getting inside that stupid coffin.

"The transformation has already started," Luke had told Aera moments before Kronos' resurrection on Mount Orthys. "There's no other alternative. We have to see this plan through till the end at all costs. This is it."

Standing before him, Aera was battling seven different emotions all at once as she soaked in their circumstances. This wasn't it. This couldn't be it.

"You'll have to forgive the guards that kept you waiting outside," Luke continued in the absence of her response, almost conversationally, "The telekhines are just obeying orders. I wanted to be the one to tell you."

Something in his slightly trembling voice was almost combative, as if Luke wanted to flaunt in her face that even though he was on the verge of dying, he was still more powerful than her. And he wasn't even looking at Aera when he delivered the terrible news to her.

With his back toward her in the main hall of the Titans' fortress, Luke's attention was trained on the row of black marble statues that lined the walls: images of the Titans who'd ruled the universe before the gods. Once, Aera had looked up to these statues for guidance, and now they were scowling down at her in disapproval for what she wanted to do.

"If you do this," Aera began shakily, laboring to keep her voice from weakening, "there's no going back. Kronos will take over everything: your body, your mind, your very soul." All the air seemed to rush out of her lungs as she drew another sharp breath. "It'll be like you never existed."

Luke kept his back to her. His voice was deflated when he spoke, lifeless, like the reality was now sinking in for him too. "What other choice do I have? We've exhausted every route we could and nothing. We can't keep delaying the inevitable. It has to be done."

Aera crossed her arms. "You never followed things by the book before."

"What are you suggesting?" Luke asked jadedly. "That I disobey Kronos' orders and suffer his wrath?" He scoffed a little. "I'm not you."

"No," she said sharply, pride bruised. "You're not. Because if it were me, I'd find another way."

Funny enough, only her defiance seemed to be worth enough for Luke to turn around and slowly walk to her, his expression biting and bitter. "You still don't get it, do you? I'm doing this for you. If it's not my body he takes, it'll be yours. What do you think all that nectar was for? Did you really think Kronos saw potential in you? No, he saw you as another vessel."

For some reason, Aera couldn't accept that. Though she couldn't remember the last time they'd had a conversation without malice, she couldn't let Luke go through with this.

"You swore I would never be alone again," Aera said calmly, putting her power into her words just as Kronos had taught her. Luke recoiled from her like the sentence was boiling acid. "We'll never be able to see each other again. Is that what you really want? To be here on Earth as an empty vessel, but away from me in spirit forever? Is your hate for the gods worth more than your love for me?"

Aera struck a low blow, but she had to do it. She couldn't lose him. She needed the confirmation that he still loved her. Hurt overpowered the stubbornness in Luke's eyes.

"Aera." He shook his head. "You can't do that. That's not fair."

"What's not fair," she said, her voice gaining momentum, "is you telling me you'll stay with me forever and then sacrificing your entire being as soon as I let my guard down."

"You knew exactly what you signed up for when you left camp with me," Luke argued when Aera got too emotional to concentrate. "You knew all the risks and all the sacrifices we were preparing to make."

Aera wanted to throw a mountain of expired beauty goods at Luke. How could he stand there and be so selfish after all their progress? How could he still not understand how she felt about him? Why did he have to be so stupid?

Aera was so overwhelmed with frustration, she almost didn't hear his next remark because of how quietly he uttered it: "And it's not like your choices didn't have an effect on this decision."

"How is this my fault?" she demanded to know.

"That day on Mount Tam," Luke brought up, matching her severeness, "you threw your match with Percy on purpose, didn't you? That's how he saved the Ophiotaurus."

Aera froze. She felt like she had just been turned into one of the black marble statues. She could've lied. She should've lied. Lying was Aera's first language, her mother tongue, and yet staring into the disarming eyes of the boy she loved, she couldn't get a single word out.

"I knew it." Luke retreated from her, shaking his head incredulously. "How could you let him win?" Aera opened her mouth and then closed it again. He turned on her vehemently. "Do you...love him?"

"Of course not!" Aera denied fervently. Though she currently hated him more than anyone alive at the moment, Aera was completely appalled at the idea of loving anyone but Luke. "Why would you even—"

"Then why did you help him?" Luke demanded. "The Ophiotaurus was my-our last chance!"

Aera wanted to say something, anything, to get Luke to be on her side again, but what could she say? Everything Luke was saying was true, no matter how much she'd rather get stress acne than admit it. The only problem was why it was the truth. Why did she do it? Percy Jackson was her rival, the foe she swore to cut down each time she picked up her sword. And yet...

Luke paced back and forward in front of her. Aera could feel the distance between them deepening the longer she struggled to explain herself. Then he stopped, cast a fleeting glance at the flickering sarcophagus at the end of the room, and let out an empty laugh. "I was wrong to doubt Atlas' judgment. He was right."

For the first time ever, Aera arrived at the consensus that she had no idea what to say to appeal to Luke. He had just received The Curse of Achilles, as per Kronos' command, making his body physically immune to almost every power in the world. Sweet talk and heart-racing tactics just didn't cut it anymore.

"About what?" she asked tentatively. "What did he say?"

"This isn't about you and me," Luke jeered. Aera flinched at how mocking he sounded. "Or making a difference in the world. This is about you and getting what you want. You'll do anything to achieve your goals. You'll hurt anyone to show that you can. Gods, you even blackmailed Silena into being our spy!"

Aera had never felt more betrayed. "I was trying to help you!" Even if he didn't feel the same way about her, this was too cruel.

"You were trying to leave an impression," Luke opposed forcefully. "To prove that you could be useful to Kronos. To prove that you could be more useful than me."

A horrible realization seemed to sink into Luke's face right then, seeping into the cracks of the scar that winded down his face and illuminating all the worst parts of himself that he had kept at bay for Aera's sake.

"That's what this whole thing has been about, hasn't it?" he said with alarming finality. "To prove that you're not just a pretty face. That's why you jumped at the first opportunity to get back at the gods..." He hesitated and it felt like someone was taking a frozen wrench to Aera's heart. "...and that's why you spared Percy."

In a silent standstill, the sheen of the floor reflected against their faces like a mahogany piano—pure black and yet full of light. Outside, the darkened sky had swirled into a huge funnel cloud. Aera couldn't see Atlas from the mountain's peak, but she could still hear him groaning in the distance, his pulsating heartbeat still toiling under the weight of the sky. Even the nastiest creatures in the world had a heartbeat, proving that they were just as disposable as mortals.

Aera had once felt what The General was feeling before; Annabeth wouldn't have fallen into their trap if it hadn't been Aera holding the weight of the sky after all. At that time, Luke had hated Aera's plan to lure their enemies to Mount Tam more than anyone, not wanting to witness her bear such a painful burden. She hadn't told him before she told The General, and he had been so upset that she went behind his back that he refused to speak to her for three whole days. It was only until Thalia pushed him off the cliff and Kronos had to turn back time to bring him back to life was Luke finally swayed after all of Aera's tears.

If letting Luke's soul go for eternity was her karma for making him suffer watching her hold up the sky for those four hours, Aera was certain the universe was beyond a facial repair.

"Luke," Aera implored again, regaining her senses just enough to remember that appeasing a person's feelings was supposed to be her strength, "Don't do this. This doesn't change anything. So what if I spared Percy? It was a moment of weakness. I just felt sorry for Annabeth."

"Think about everything you and I have been through together," she pleaded. "I've done everything you said. I've given up everyone to be with you. Can't you see? I..." She swallowed her pride, choking out the words, "I love you. You are the most person I love the most."

Aera reached for Luke, hoping to make him waver, but to no avail.

"Stop kidding yourself." Luke angrily pushed her hands away from his face and Aera stumbled backward into the black stone. His voice had been so breathy and so fragile, floating lifelessly around the suffocating air in Mount Othrys, Aera couldn't tell if he was speaking to her or himself. "You don't love me. You never loved me. It's the illusion in your head you're in love with. That's what you don't want to lose. Not me. You don't care about me. I'm just another accessory to you."

At that moment, Luke's demeanor was so dissociated from the boy she loved, Aera took another instinctive step back to get away from him. Even in their worst moments, he had never used such a cold and distant tone to speak to her, like she hadn't been by his side for the past 8 years.

Luke closed in on Aera, cornering her into the black wall behind her, leaving her no room to run from the darkness.

"That's..." Aera faltered, her heart accelerating against her will, "...that's not true."

"I know you better than anyone else," Luke stated with a savage smile. He loomed over Aera, beautiful and cruel, like an Angel of Death arriving to take her. "I've been watching you spar since the first time you picked up a sword. You only take the offense when you can't defend yourself anymore. You came to camp because your father didn't want you and then you came to me because camp didn't want you. You'll latch yourself onto anyone who makes you feel extraordinary because of how powerless you are on your own. As much as you like to pretend you're strong now, you are still that weak, little girl who was stupid enough to leave everything behind, just to serve me—"

Aera let her hand fly across Luke's jaw.

Luke took the full force of her slap. He stood there in front of her, unmoving and unflinching, as Aera's chest rose and fell with heavy breaths. He wasn't going to change his mind.

"I'm done trying to play into your fantasies," Luke decided quietly, marking the turning point from Angel of Death to Death itself. "It's over, Aera."

Despite how much it slammed her ego to hear it loud and clear, Luke had voiced precisely how Aera felt. Powerless. Weak. Years and years of training came down to this exact moment. After a lifetime of fighting against the grain, beating all odds, and withstanding the most demoralizing insults from others, in the most crucial moment where she should've pulled herself back up to fight, Aera backed down. She cowered.

Before her first tear could fall, Luke called in his guards to drag Aera out of the room. The last thing she saw was Luke stepping into the golden coffin and Ethan Nakamura's one eye watching her in bewilderment before the doors closed.

Thinking back, Lacy couldn't be more wrong. Luke had never reciprocated Aera's love but he clung onto it, turning it into something that could be weaponized against her. If anything, he'd passed the Rite of Passage, not her...

Then Drew stormed out of the bathroom, fully prepped for the runway and ready to rain more hell on their cabin. She locked eyes on her next target: Kim, who was taking pictures of herself on a polaroid camera.

"Kim, would you stop taking pictures of yourself?" Drew commanded. "Your sister's going on a quest!"

"Why?" Kim said. "It's not like she's going to jail."

"Have a little compassion!"

Kim blew a bubble with her gum then turned the camera around and flashed a picture of Aera, who was already in position on her bed with the siren-eyes smolder pose that she had perfected.

"Um, thanks?" Piper blinked rapidly in the aftermath, buffeted by the flash.

"Send me those later, 'kay?" Aera winked.

"Oh, for Aphrodite's sake!" Drew exclaimed, snatching Kim's camera and tossing it out the open window.

"Hey!" Kim protested, which was obviously ignored.

"Get dressed, Aera!" Drew scolded with all the stress of a single millionaire mother living in Calabasas. "You're going to make us late for breakfast. Not all of us are on a detox smoothie diet."

"Aw, is that a hint of concern I hear, Drew-bear?" Aera leaned back on her bed and rested her palms behind her. "I thought you were gonna be mad at me until the Judgment Pavilion forces you to confirm the plastic surgery rumors. Guess you just love me so-o much, don't you?"

Aera blew a kiss at Drew, which the younger girl grimaced at.

"So, you did get lip fillers," Zuri said in amazement.

"For the last time, I did not get lip fillers!" Drew exasperated, but anyone could tell she reeked of guilt and botox. "I told you it's my gloss. It has special lip plumping properties!"

"So do lip fillers," Mei pointed out.

Drew turned so red in the face, Aera thought it was going to explode. Not wanting to clean up that hot mess, Aera interjected before Drew could go full blown diva on Mei, "So, Drewie, are you not going to see your favorite sister off to say ta-ta forever? Then you can finally get rid of the editor-in-chief of Olympus Vogue. The 'Cabin Ten's Top Ten Hero Hunks' column would 100% be yours."

"Ooh, 'Cabin Ten's Top Ten Hero Hunks' is my favorite column!" Katie Lynn pitched in.

"Do I even want to know what that is?" Piper asked.

"It's exactly what you think it is," Mitchell said.

Drew nodded off in thought, her face getting less red. "I do have better taste in heroes than you..."

Aera wrinkled her nose. "Mm, debatable. Luke was number one for three months that one time, remember?"

Drew shook her head. "Doesn't matter. Don't try to bribe me. This is still my cabin."

"Yeah, yeah." Aera waved her off.

Drew seemed to grow even more miffed, her nostrils flaring like a bat in Balenciaga. She turned towards her next prey with another fake smile. "See, Piper, hon, we're a good cabin here. A good family! But Aera, though...you could take a warning from her."

Aera rolled her eyes and continued looking for a proper outfit.

"See," Drew said. "She might look nice, but she's not a good role model to follow. Not only did she betray our cabin but she also did that horrible thing to our siblings. Why? Because she was jealous."

Piper glanced skeptically at Aera. Aera suddenly didn't feel so hot anymore.

"Uh, Drew," Mei said, looking nervously between Aera and Drew. "No offense but I don't think you should—"

"Oh, all the other cabins love to talk about what happened in Manhattan," Drew continued, taking advantage of the uncomfortable silence that ensued. "They call Aera the sibling killer."

"Jolina wasn't much of a sibling though," Mitchell grumbled as if trying to defuse the tension.

"Mmm-hmm," Drew murmured, throwing him her forked smile. "Another day on garbage patrol, Mitchell. But anyway, I'd be careful around Aera if I were you, Piper. You must have heard about Silena by now. Silena was Aera's best friend and look what happened to her. She died. And Aera did nothing."

Before Aera could say anything, Piper shot to her feet like she was about to charge Drew. Lacy and Mitchell each grabbed one of her arms to keep her back.

"What?" Drew taunted, feigning innocence with an indifferent shrug. "It's not like I'm making this stuff up. We don't need our image tarnished by traitors or sibling killers or—Aphrodite forbid—spies, now do we, Piper?"

Aera studied them from her bed. Piper was glaring defiantly at Drew with her fists clenched, but it was clear she was stronger than both Lacy and Mitchell. She was holding herself back. The anger was still flaring in her eyes, but it was more tamed now. Drew's words made her nervous, Aera realized. Was Piper hiding something?

"It's too bad you won't be around," Drew heaved a melodramatic sigh. "But if you and Aera do somehow survive your little quest, don't worry, I'll find somebody to set you up with. Maybe one of those gross Hephaestus guys. Or Clovis? He's pretty repulsive." Drew looked her over with a mix of pity and disgust. "Honestly, I didn't think it was possible for Aphrodite to have an ugly child, but...who was your father? Was he some sort of mutant, or—"

"Tristan McLean," Piper said heavily. Aera stopped short.

"Oh my god!" half the girls screamed at once.

"Sweet!" Kit exclaimed. "The dude with the sword who killed that other dude in that movie?"

"He is so hot for an old guy," Lindsay said, and then she blushed. "I mean I'm sorry. I know he's your dad. That's so weird!"

"It's weird, all right," Piper agreed. Her eyes traveled desperately to Aera for help.

Aera was just as shocked as the rest of them. Not because Piper's dad was this mega ultra famous movie star, but because Piper didn't seem like the type of girl to show off the fact that her dad was a total DILF. Maybe she wouldn't be boring as rocks after all.

Drew went pale in the face, obviously put in the hot seat for being wrong.

"Your dad is Tristan McLean?" she scoffed. "You're lying. Piper, that's so begging for attention."

Several of the kids blinked uncertainly.

"You mean he's not her dad?" one asked.

"Her last name is McLean," Aera threw in casually. The cabin got excited again.

"No way," Drew argued. "She's faking it."

"You mean as fake as your Louis Vuitton bags—"

"What are you all still standing there for?" Drew snapped, whipping back around at the rest of the cabin before Aera could expose her knockoffs. "It's time for breakfast, people, and Aera and Piper here have to start that little quest. So, let's get them packed and get them out of here!"

Drew broke up the crowd and got everyone moving. She called them "hon" and "dear," but her tone made it clear she expected to be obeyed. Drew sent Aera one last death glare. Gods, her little sister could be so dramatic sometimes. Aera wondered where she got it from...

Rolling her eyes, Aera got up and quickly resumed her quest for a suitable outfit in her trunk. Piper joined her somewhere halfway, shuffling through the clothes Aera rejected without another word.

For once, Aera appreciated the silence. She wasn't feeling particularly chatty after Drew had aired out her dirty laundry like that.

Drew had no idea how Aera felt the day that Silena and Luke died. It was one bullet after the other. Silena and then Luke. Just like that, they were gone.

It didn't help her guilt that Aera could have run away long before that.

Over the course of the months following Kronos' resurrection, Aera had several opportunities to desert the Titan, now that Luke was no longer there. Every night since then, Aera mentally prepared for every scenario—which things she would take with her, which guards were the easiest to sneak around, which footsteps were Kronos/Luke's. She rehearsed line after line in the mirror of what she could say to convince camp. She could say Kronos blackmailed her, Luke manipulated her, and the army kept her captive. If worse came to worse, she could cry, grovel, and beg.

Aera knew she could have convinced them all to take her back, even Annabeth. She was sure of it.

But instead of deserting the Titan, Aera stayed, watching every opening to leave slip by. She hung onto what remained of Luke. Not because she believed their cause would succeed or because the thought of what Kronos could do to her petrified her.

Aera stayed because even though it was impossible, she believed that her and Luke would make it, that all the pain would be worth it in the end. She was tortured by the hope she once carried that everything was going to turn out alright if she endured. Hope, once her greatest comfort, had turned out to be her greatest disappointment.

Because Aera's relationship with Luke was crazy, complicated, and dangerous—and that was the only kind of love she had ever known.

And so it was inevitable that their relationship would end, exactly how it had always been—crazy, complicated, and dangerous.

"Why?" Aera cried bitterly. Luke's head was in her lap in the throne room of Olympus, about to take his final breath. She couldn't understand his actions no matter how hard she tried. "Why did you..."

"It had to be you," Luke choked out, his lips glistening scarlet. "It could only be you."

"You're a liar!" she whimpered, seizing the front of his shirt. "How could you make me do this?"

"The most beautiful girl in the universe has reaped my soul." Luke forced a laugh and then coughed red painfully. "That's not such a bad fate. You did the right thing, Aera."

Aera shook her head miserably, gripped by shock, grief, and lament. This? This was the right thing? How could it be?

"You deserve better than me." Luke's voice seemed to lose all its strength as he stroked Aera's face with bleeding, shaking hands. "You always have. I wish it could have gone differently, but this is the end. It's time for you to move on."

"You're not leaving me," Aera sobbed, undesirably, uncontrollably. "YOU'RE NOT LEAVING ME!" She clung onto his body. "You swore I wouldn't be alone. You promised! You promised..." Her voice broke out.

Luke's touch was the gentlest it had ever been, leaving her hand around the cursed blade to collect Aera's spilling tears, but determination blazed in his blue eyes. He wasn't sorry. He didn't regret what he had done. What he had made Aera do.

"I pray the next time you fall in love," he whispered, "you'll choose someone who won't break your heart."

I won't ever fall in love again, Aera vowed to herself. Not without you.

After losing her chance to say goodbye to Silena, she had been brutally plagued by regret. But as Luke died in her arms, all Aera could wish for was to be anywhere but there in his final moments. Maybe that was selfish, but Aera was now almost positively certain being the villain was a far less agonizing choice than whatever this fate was.

And the funerals after were only more proof of that.

Aera had never been a stranger to death. She could still remember being at her grandmother's funeral ten years ago. In Korean culture, it was tradition for the wife of the eldest son to prepare the funeral rites. Since her mother had abandoned her right after she was born, Aera, at barely six years old, had to take care of it instead.

That day, countless people had come in and out to bow at her grandmother's altar. They all uttered a few words of condolences here and there. Aera couldn't hear them. Or see them, really. It was like she was sitting at the bottom of a swimming pool. Eventually, she needed to come up for oxygen, but the water was still, and if she came out of it, she'd break the peace, gasping and flailing for air. So Aera mulled there in her little pool of emotions, despite slowly drowning in it. That was the first time Aera learned how suffocating grief could be, how all-consuming.

Unable to comprehend it, Aera knelt mindlessly at her grandmother's altar alone, overhearing a couple of relatives' friends speak solemnly behind her.

"I don't get it," they conversed in hushed whispers at a respectful distance away. "Pil-sook was such an energetic woman despite her years. She had been doing so well up until last year. How..."

"I heard it was dementia," another said. "She started seeing things that weren't there. Monsters, she said. Monsters that were out to get her granddaughter."

"The nurses said Pil-sook often rattled on about how her granddaughter would have to suffer in the near future. In her mind, she must have thought she couldn't protect her granddaughter. The thought alone must have broken her spirit. You know how much the old woman doted on Aera."

The others murmured in agreement.

"What a shame..."

Aera felt a body sink into the mat next to her. It was her father.

Aera had expected him to be angry and emotional. He was his mother's pride and joy after all.

Mr. Kim was one of the youngest South Korean businessmen to make it in America. He was young, successful, and attractive. He had graduated top of his class from Harvard, won multiple entrepreneurial accolades, and owned several mansions spanning across the United States.

What truly made Mr. Kim great was that everything he had, he rightfully earned from years of dedication, sacrifice, and hard work. He was the perfect son, the perfect person. The only flaw Aera's father ever had in his life was her.

"If you had been born a normal girl," her father said to her that day, with neither reproach or resentment. His voice was empty, void of emotion, like he was plainly stating a fact, "this never would have happened to your Halmeoni."

Her father's face was free of tears, set in a calm, almost peaceful expression as if he was also going to a better place, far, far away from Aera. It would have been better if he had yelled at her, or publicly berated her, or shown any sort of emotion that showed Aera that she meant something, anything to him, even if it was rooted in hate.

Instead, her father regarded her with total indifference, condemning her to run away from one broken home to the next.

From then on, Aera made it a point to never be normal again. She was going to do whatever it took to stand out, to be extraordinary. If this world was going to drag her down, she might as well have fun the whole way down. People called her selfish all the time, but sometimes Aera internally wished she could feel what it was like to be normal, to fit in somewhere and belong to something bigger than herself. To feel like a necessity, instead of a burden.

"What's she doing here?"

"How dare she come here!"

"Don't get too close! She's the sibling slayer! She's ruthless!"

Aera followed Ethan Nakamura lifelessly down into the amphitheater without a word as words spread like wildfire among the campers. She must have looked horrendous, her battle gown tattered and stained with blood; her hair a wild, frizzy mess.

She didn't understand why Chiron was forcing the traitors to attend the funeral rites for all the fallen demigods. It seemed more like punishment than closure. Nobody wanted Aera there. Aera certainly didn't want to be there either.

She arrived at the campfire just as they were placing the last shroud on the body of a fallen camper. She couldn't see their face under their burial garments, but she guessed they had to be younger than her, maybe twelve or thirteen.

Her eyes started to sting against her will. Around the unknown camper's neck was an empty cord. No camp beads. Not a single one. Even their shroud was a simple grey cloth with no design on it.

It was a taxing endeavor, but Aera sucked up her tears and steeled her nerves. How could she cry when she was the one who had done this? Because of her, this demigod, someone even younger than her, someone she didn't even know the name of, was going to be buried before they even got claimed.

If you had been born a normal girl, this never would have happened.

You'll hurt anyone to show that you can.

You're a monster.

When Silena and Luke's shrouds were burned, Aera wrapped the first set of thorny rose vines around her heart. She didn't cry. She didn't grieve. Aera didn't deserve to be sad or to mourn. She had no right. Even if both Luke and Silena had left her with a bloody ledger.

If only Aera hadn't been so weak and so powerless, this would have never happened. All her loved ones had left this world. Since that day on Mount Olympus, Aera's soul was nowhere to be found either. In neither The Land of the Living or The Underworld. Luke had given Aera the validation she needed to become secure with herself. Without him, all of the wilted flowers he bloomed in her garden had withered once again.

Perhaps, Aera had taken it all for granted. Perhaps, she hadn't appreciated it enough when Luke was still like a big brother and that's why everything bad that's happened to her has happened.

Aera spent the whole morning wallowing in her heartache and dreading what was ahead. She felt so empty, even after dressing herself in a ravishing purple ballgown and stuffing Piper's backpack with all her favorite skincare products. It wasn't until a cluster of campers excitedly showed up at Cabin Ten's door did her feelings recede.

"Ugh," Aera grimaced at Will Solace. "What do you want?"

"Good morning to you, too," Will said back.

"Guess what's happening on the lawn!" Butch exclaimed. "Leo's riding on a giant metal dragon!"

Aera couldn't believe her ears. "He's riding on a what?" She dropped her hair comb immediately and pushed past the group of campers cluttered at the doorway. "Out of the way, you extras!"

"Hey!" Will was right on her tail, shouting after her. "Stop calling people extras just because you don't know their names!"

The dragon on the green was huge. It glistened in the morning sun like a living penny sculpture—various different shades of copper and bronze—a sixty-foot-long serpent with steel talons and drill-bit teeth and glowing ruby eyes. It had bat-shaped wings twice its length that unfurled like metallic sails, making a sound like coins clattering out of a casino slot machine every time they flapped.

"It's beautiful," Piper muttered. The other demigods stared at her like she was insane.

Aera thought Leo was the insane one.

The dragon reared its head and shot a column of fire into the sky. Campers scrambled away and lifted their weapons, but Leo slid calmly off the dragon's back. He held up his hands like he was surrendering, except he still had that crazy mad scientist grin on his face.

"People of Earth, I come in peace!" he declared with two peace signs in the air.

The kid looked like he'd been rolling around in the campfire. His army coat and his face were smeared with soot. His hands were grease stained (Aera sincerely hoped it was just grease), and he wore a new tool belt around his waist. His eyes were bloodshot. His curly hair was so oily it stuck up in porcupine quills, and he smelled strangely of Tabasco sauce and oil. He looked absolutely delighted. "Festus is just saying hello!"

"That thing is dangerous!" an Ares girl shouted, brandishing her spear. "Kill it now!"

"Stand down!" someone ordered.

To Aera's surprise, it was Jason. He pushed through the crowd, flanked by Annabeth and that girl from the Hephaestus cabin, Nyssa. Jason gazed up at the dragon and shook his head in amazement. "Leo, what have you done?"

"Found us a ride!" Leo beamed. "You said I could go on the quest if I got you a ride. Well, I got you a class-A metallic flying bad boy! Festus can take us anywhere!"

Aera was actually slightly impressed. "As long as there are seat warmers."

All heads turned to her. Aera did a princess twirl so they could all get a good look at her dress.

Jason came forward. Aera thought he was going to compliment her appearance and profess his undying love in front of the rest of the campers, but all he did was squint at her.

"We're going on a quest to defeat something powerful enough to capture the queen of the gods and you're wearing a ballgown?" Jason questioned as soon as he saw Aera's marvelous outfit.

"Yes," Aera said, without remorse, "is there a problem?"

Jason scratched the top of his head. For his health and safety, Aera hoped he was aware that he was treading on extremely thin ice here. "I don't mean to overstep, but don't you want to wear something a little more...comfortable?"

"Well, I feel the most comfortable naked," she countered. "Should I take all my clothes off then?"

"Aera," Piper groaned, strawberry face in hand, "please do not take all your clothes off."

Leo snickered from the top of his new sixty-foot-long dragon toy. "Don't think those guys would mind."

He jabbed a finger down at the crowd that had formed on the green. A bunch of kids were shoving each other aside, trying to catch a glimpse of Aera in her ravishing royal purple ballgown which hugged her every curve and flowed down to her feet. Her black wide-brimmed hat gave her that mysteriously hot enchantress vibe, the lace flowing gracefully down her hair. Even Aera had to admit, she outdid herself this time.

Aera blew them a kiss from her red lips, eating their attention up for breakfast. Many months had passed since last summer. It was about time they got over that silly war and appreciated the finer things in life, like Aera's beauty. She only wished Luke were here to see how hot she looked...

Now that Aera was on her way to another quest that fared nothing but death and premature fine lines, the longing for her old love has intensified. She missed his voice, his fighting expertise, and his dangerous smile. In all the years they had known each other, Luke had never let her break a nail, and more importantly, never doubted her fashion sense. Something that big dope Jason clearly didn't get the memo for.

"Do you have something to defend yourself with?" He kept interrogating.

Aera flashed him her favorite tube of lipstick. "It transforms into a sword when I do this." Aera uncapped the lipstick and it sprung into a wicked celestial bronze blade. She twirled it around a few times before capping it back into lipstick and applying it over her lips. "I have more lethal weapons in my clutch, of course. A lady can never have enough weapons. Not that it's any of your business."

Jason looked over to Piper, maybe for support, maybe because he was completely, utterly gobsmacked by how radiant Aera was (the latter was more probable). Whatever it was, Piper turned pale, trying to hold in a laugh. Hmph. At least somebody around here had some taste.

"Um, I really hate to rain on your fashion show, Aera," Leo, of all people, interjected, "but, um, I'd really suggest we get going, guys. I already picked up some supplies in the—um, in the woods. And all these people with weapons are making Festus nervous."

Jason frowned. "But we haven't planned anything yet. We can't just—"

"Go," Annabeth said. She was the only one who didn't look nervous at all. Her ugly face was sad and wistful like this reminded her of better times—times she wasn't obsessed with a black-haired dolphin. "Jason, you've only got three days until the solstice now, and you should never keep a nervous dragon waiting. This is certainly a good omen. Go!"

"But what if she gets—"

"Aera's worn worse." Annabeth crossed her arms, staring Aera down with her ugly grey eyes. "Don't worry about her outfit. Any enemy you meet is more likely to flee at the sight of how ridiculous she looks than stay around long enough to figure out if she has a real weapon on her or not." Butch snickered. Will elbowed him.

Aera rolled her eyes. She didn't even want to get into whatever that was about before she had her daily hair vitamins. Annabeth was just a hater*.*

Concern was still emanating from his face, but Piper nodded and Jason seemed convinced. Leave it to that self-righteous do-gooder to trust the word of the sashimi fanatic over his own super hot quest member.

Ugh. Aera was too pretty for this. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and was about to board the giant metal dragon when another voice cut through the grassy clearing.

"I don't believe it," a boy's voice said. "You're actually going?"

The throng of demigods that came to view the commotion parted like the Pink Sea for Ethan Nakamura.

Most of them edged as far away from him as possible. If there was any other notorious traitor that the campers feared, besides their number one idol Aera, it was the son of Nemesis. Not only did he just radiate dark and dangerous "cross me and I'll-pulverize-the-makeup-off-your-face" energy, but he was also known to hold a grudge and get you back tenfold.

Always in a black leather jacket, always playing with knives. His black eye patch was totally eerie, but his one eye was even more unsettling, so dark and so full of horrors no one could stare into it longer than a couple of seconds. He had a pretty nasty temper too. Aera remembered his hobbies included stabbing people in the neck and punching walls in his free time.

It was actually kind of attractive when Aera thought about it. Or maybe she was just entering a brooding bad boy phase.

"Nakamura!" Aera smiled sweetly, going up to him. "Come to see your old comrade off?"

Nakamura's skin was pale as if he hadn't seen the sun in several days, or months. His hair was an unruly black mop, even messier than Leo's. He had thrown on an extra large black sweatshirt and black gym shorts. He reminded Aera of an emo pirate.

He studied her with his one eye and then Jason, and then the dragon. His expression seemed angry and bitter, but then again, when was he not angry and bitter?

"The last time we spoke," he said, narrowing his one eye at her, "you said you wanted to paint Hera's nails with her own ichor and now you're going on a quest to save her?"

Aera shrugged. "Who knows? Maybe I'll finally give Hera that mani-pedi she so desperately needs." Leo coughed awkwardly. Then Aera caught the pointed look Piper was shooting her. Ugh. Fine. She'd play nice.

Aera cleared her throat. "I mean, I am...um, repaying my debt! Like any other good do-gooder, I too...am now overflowing with love for the gods. Ha-ha!"

Nakamura picked at his ears. "What?"

Aera frowned. Piper nodded at her in encouragement, urging her to keep going.

"I...I've thought about it and I decided I wanted to do better." At lying through my teeth. Aera sniffed. "No more fighting. No more rebelling. No more trashing the gods' fashion sense, even though it sucks. I'll be a hero from now on. I moved on. I am reformed. I glowed up."

Ew. What was Aera even saying? Gods, if only Piper hadn't been so menacing threatening her with what skincare she could and couldn't pack in her backpack like that...

"Reformed?" Nakamura reiterated with enough spite to turn heads. "Reformed? Kronos should have been reformed. They can't even find my girlfriend's body because of what you did!"

Aera gasped along with the other campers at his bold proclamation.

"Kronos?" the other demigods asked.

"Girlfriend?" Aera asked.

Aera took a humble step back. She wasn't going to be anybody's mistress, no matter how bad or brooding he was. She was way too pretty to be a side dish.

"Ethan," Annabeth cut in passively, horrendous grey owl eyes suddenly seeming anxious, "Maybe you shouldn't—"

"Where is she?" Nakamura demanded forcefully, getting all up in Aera's face, "What have the gods done to her?"

"Ethan," Annabeth tried again, more urgently, "Don't—"

"It's okay, I understand," Aera said empathetically. This caused everyone to look at her, but the the only thing Aera was looking at were Nakamura's uneven bare legs under his wrinkled black gym shorts. She sighed pitifully. "If I had tan lines like yours, I'd be upset too."

Nakamura swung his fist at Aera.

It was a nice, good, clean punch in the face. The kind that used to make Aera excited to fight in spars.

Piper, however, flinched. Leo shifted uncomfortably on Festus. Annabeth seemed frozen in her tracks. The campers scrambled backward. Jason surged forward. Aera stopped him with a hard glare. The last thing Aera needed right now was someone who had no faith in her to stand up for her. She touched the corner of her lip gingerly with her thumb. She was bleeding. How exciting.

"Let's be honest here," Nakamura snarled. "You're just playing sides. You're not doing this because you're sorry. You're doing this to get on the good side of the gods."

"I don't want anything from the gods," Aera shot back. And she honestly couldn't be more honest than that. "In fact, life would be so much easier—for everyone, really—if the gods stopped bothering me."

"That's a lie and you know it," Nakamura seethed. "If you wanted to cut them off, you wouldn't be going on this quest!"

"Guys," Annabeth interjected. "Let's not do this here. There are people—"

"I'm only doing this to fix all of the things that Luke screwed up!" Aera defended, not so amused anymore. "To you, he's this legendary commander or martyr or whatever. I was his closest...friend. Now that he's dead, I'm left with the disgusting task of cleaning out all the skeletons in his closet."

"Don't pretend you're doing this out of responsibility." Nakamura scoffed. "You're just a coward. And so was Luke. You two should've finished your mission instead of letting your feelings get in the way."

"It was Luke's choice to die," Aera insisted, an unusual urge to justify her actions overcoming her. "You saw how stubborn he is when he makes up his mind. What could I have done to stop him?"

"You should've died," Nakamura told her, with absolutely zero mercy. Aera bit down on the inside of her mouth, feeling like he had just struck her again. "It should've been you! Instead you're running again. You ran from your family and your friends...somehow you even got away from a Titan. All you do is run. It's pathetic."

In that moment, Aera wanted to serve one nice, clean punch back to him. Piper put her hand on her shoulder. Her eyes kept changing colors and it made Aera dizzy, but the message was clear: we have a bigger battle to fight.

Nakamura shook his head disgruntledly when Aera backed down. Maybe he was counting on a good, old-fashioned beating. "You can run all you want but you can't hide from yourself. Eventually, past will catch up and when it does, you'll wish you had made that choice instead of Luke. That's justice."

An ice cold, sinister smile spread across his face, one gruesome enough to have the old monsters they used to work with run for their mommies. "In fact, how about I speed up the process for you? Consider it a favor from one old comrade to another."

Nakamura drew a knife and rushed her. He had to be twice Aera's size. She had caught sight of him multiple times in the war; he was a good fighter.

Before he got close enough, though, Nakamura's eye suddenly bugged out and he crumpled to the ground. Annabeth was right behind where he stood, holding an emptied out syringe where his neck used to be.

"Libra!" she called over a dark-haired camper with olive skin. "Get him back to the cabin. Make sure he stays inside this time."

Aera didn't get why that blonde parasite looked so offended when she had said the exact words to Aera just the day before. Was Annabeth pitying her? That was gross.

After retrieving the syringe from Annabeth, Libra and several of her siblings picked Nakamura's unconscious body up and started carrying him back towards the cabins.

Leo grinned stupidly. "What a nice, cheerful dude." Festus seemed to creak in agreement.

"What's his problem?" Piper grumbled protectively.

"Ethan's behavior has been erratic since he got here," Annabeth said, facing Aera, even though she didn't ask or even want to know. "Sometimes, he has hallucinations and thinks the other demigods are monsters he needs to fight, like he did in Antaeus' arena. Up until recently, it's been Mr. D who's been helping him but since the gods went AWOL, it's gotten harder to keep him from hurting the other campers. We've been doing everything we can to find a way to take care of him." Annabeth did a once-over at Aera. "Luckily, he didn't get to your dress."

"Is that supposed to be an apology?" Aera asked tartly.

"It's an explanation," Annabeth clarified, staring at her fiercely. "Something you need to find on your quest." Annabeth nodded her head grimly towards Jason, who was still watching the Nemesis kids carry Ethan Nakamura away. She said to Aera lowly, "I don't trust him."

Aera crossed her arms. "You don't trust anyone."

"Maybe not," Annabeth agreed, to Aera's ultimate surprise. "But something about him gives me a bad feeling..."

Aera didn't get it. Weren't they on the same soul-sucking, style-ridding, do-gooding team?

Annabeth seemed more skittish than usual, fidgeting with her camp necklace and rubbing her father's college ring. Gods, was Annabeth worried about her? Now that would make Aera re-evaluate her fashion sense.

"Don't die looking for the Little Mermaid," Aera blurted before she could really be insulted by female Prince Eric. "There are still too many outfits in your closet I have to roast."

"I won't," Annabeth vowed. "You still owe me an apology for burning my dad's crimson college sweater."

At that, Aera almost cracked a smile. Then she remembered she was supposed to be hot and mysterious and Annabeth was ugly, so she killed the smile.

Jason came back to her side. "You ready?"

Aera half-expected him to do something sweet like hold out his hand to her or help her onto the dragon by letting her use his back as a step stool or something (Luke would've), but instead, Jason just stared at her with hopeful blue eyes. He was nervous.

After the morning she had getting ready and the nightmares that should've been sweet dreams, Aera decided to cut Jason some slack. For now.

"As I'll ever be," she sighed. "Let's just get this over with."

Aera turned and boarded the dragon for their quest, hoping this time, this time, it wouldn't destroy what was left of her.