𝟬𝟭𝟬. the beauty of beauty and its curse

THE CATFIGHTS in Cabin Ten were notorious for being as thrilling as any gladiator fight in the ancient days. Besides Aera, the Aphrodite kids may not have produced a real warrior in over a hundred years, but even the Ares kids knew to step aside and watch the spectacle. There'd be earring-removing, shoe-throwing, hair-pulling―the whole nine yards. Brownie points to whoever could yank out more of their opponent's hair extensions (the Ares crowd went wild for those spoils of war).

The catfights were usually caused by pretty shallow things like a stolen pearl necklace or leaving the straightener plugged in. They got especially bad during evaluation season, where everyone was tense and anxious and they had no one to take it out on but each other. Looking back, that was probably the most poisonous thorn about being part of Cabin Ten's flower garden. Despite how ugly it got or how impossible Jolina's demands were, no one wanted to leave.

Cabin Ten only had each other. None of the other demigods would be able to understand why every single camper in the Aphrodite Cabin woke up before dawn to spend four hours getting ready for the day or why beauty was more important to them than any other basic necessity like food or water. They'd be laughed at or scorned if they went to anyone else about eyeshadow fallout or dieting tips.

So, no matter how deeply the thorns cut into their skin, none of the Aphrodite kids would let go of their flowers. Because they knew if they did, they would have nothing left.

Maybe that was why Drew went totally Tyra Banks on Aera when she tried to stop her from getting rid of stuff from Jolina's reign.

After Hera's super annoying message about busting her out of some jail (which Aera obviously planned on ignoring), Piper had fainted like a damsel-in-distress during her camp tour, the mermaid-devotee had forced Johnny Bravo to Cabin Fifteen for some memory-jerking beauty sleep, and Leo was ... doing whatever it was Leo did.

That left Aera with an ample amount of free time to perhaps file her nails or have a secret romantic rendezvous with one of the dryads before she left on her grand getaway to Paris. That was until Chiron had practically beauty-napped her against her will to Cabin Ten for some quote and quote "overdue sibling-bonding time". It soon became clear that the only thing that was overdue for Aera, however, was a facial appointment for her impending stress wrinkles.

"What's all this?" Aera questioned as she stood over the group of pink cardboard boxes near the fire pit in the center of the cabins.

Drew snapped on her bubble gum obnoxiously, twirling a lock of hair around her finger. Aera found it hard to believe this was the same girl who got straight A's all throughout middle school and was obsessed with cable-knit sweaters. "Um, we're doing a spring clean, duh."

"It's December."

"Whatever." Drew rolled her eyes. "The seasons move around us, we don't move around them."

Aera nodded, doing a critical once-over. "That explains your outdated outfit."

Lacy, Mitchell, Stephanie, and Kit, who had been moving the boxes out snickered on the sidelines. Drew's lips curled at Aera, but her attention had been enraptured by the binding of a scrapbook sticking out of one of the boxes.

"Wait a second." Aera reached down to pick up the familiar conch-shell-lined book. It felt like a giant beauty blender had sunk into her chest. "This belongs to Silena. We made it for her 16th birthday. Why would you throw this out?"

"Well, it's not like she's here to look through it," Kit put in. "Her mortal family didn't even want her things, either."

Drew gave their brother a side-eye that was electrifyingly intimidating with her bold pink eyeliner. For a second, Aera almost felt proud. "Kit, shut up! Gods, can't you read the room? Go back inside and sort out my shoe collection! In color-coded order!"

Kit sauntered off, muttering under his breath about how Drew's color-coded shoe collection was the only rainbow he didn't support. Aera was amused.

"Take this stuff back inside while you're at it," she ordered, saving her energy for later. Aera knew there'd be snider comments to endure than Kit's, but it was cute that Drew had defended her. "Or the cleaning harpies will have a field day with Silena's old box hair dyes. We do not want to be responsible for gorgon green hair again."

Aera turned to check out the cabin when she realized that neither Drew nor her other siblings had moved a muscle. Did she stutter? Instead of heeding her command, the siblings were looking at Drew intently, as if waiting for her command. OK, weird. What was going on here?

Drew cleared her throat. "We can't move those boxes back inside."

"Why not?" Aera demanded, peeved. "Are your ankles swollen from those hideous shoes you always wear?" Aera heaved an airy sigh. "I told you not to wear those nurse shoes so much. They're not cute and they're not good for your feet."

"Actually," Drew said, showcasing her shoes in a grand gesture. "I wear stilettos now."

Aera quirked a brow, unimpressed. "Do you want a gold star on your cheek?"

"Those nurse shoes," Mitchell put in quietly, "have become The Shoes of Shame."

Aera suppressed a grimace at how lame that sounded. "The Shoes of Shame?"

"I had to wear them for a week once," Lacy whimpered. "They don't go with anything!"

"They really don't," Aera agreed. She and Silena had been worried for years that Drew would die and be buried in those awful orthopedic nurse shoes that she lived and breathed by during her Grey's Anatomy phase. Jolina had taken 20 points off every month and Drew still wouldn't trade them for anything more comfortable or stylish. At least pick one. How could a pair of shoes be both uncomfortable and ugly?

"That's why you should've cleaned the cabin spotless when I asked you to, silly," Drew said to Lacy in a faux sweet voice. "Next time, it'll be two weeks."

Lacy shrieked in horror and ducked behind Stephanie.

"Lacy shouldn't have to wear those shoes," Aera said pointedly, not liking where this was going. "Making anyone wear those shoes is a hate crime against Aphrodite."

Drew pursed her lips. "Like you care about Mom."

Aera deadpanned on Drew. As if sensing what was about to happen, Stephanie pulled Lacy and Mitchell back a few steps.

"You know it's true," Drew asserted, but Aera could see her eye twitching the way it always did when she got anxious. "You've never cared about what Mom thought."

It wasn't what Drew had said that bothered Aera. It was her tone. Aera may have left Camp Half-Blood years ago, but she was still the senior camper here. She wasn't going to be disrespected by the younger sister who used to copy and paste her style.

"And you've always cared too much about what Aphrodite thought," Aera shot back. "That's why you'll never get anywhere as the head counselor." Drew opened her mouth, but Aera didn't let her start. "Those shoes are a hazard. No one in our cabin should be wearing them. Throw those into the fire, not Silena's stuff."

"It's not just Silena's stuff," Drew defended. "We're throwing out Jolina's old Vogue magazines and—"

"Who said you could do that?" Aera demanded.

Nobody hated Jolina more than Aera, but what made Drew think she had the jurisdiction to be getting rid of all the previous head counselors' things? What had she done with Aera's possessions?

"Um," Mitchell squeaked, leaning down to grab the boxes, "you know, I can just..."

"I'm the head counselor," Drew declared, stepping forward a few paces as if that were to scare Aera. Mitchell instantly dropped the box back on the ground. "What I say goes. If you have a problem with how I run the show around here, then maybe you shouldn't have betrayed the camp."

Lacy started chewing audibly on her nails. Stephanie toed a piece of gum on the ground. Mitchell seemed too stunned to speak. Aera thought Drew would've backed down by now, but her sister was surprisingly taking her in stride.

"Maybe I shouldn't have," Aera contended bitterly. "If you were going to be this stupid with your decisions."

"Stupid?" Drew exclaimed dubiously. "I'm not just burning these to get a smoke facial. I'm trying to move on, Aera! Something you should be doing instead of running away!"

Drew didn't like being laughed at, which was what Aera did exactly.

"Was that your little attempt at rebelling against me?" Aera taunted crudely. "You know, you might be able to fool everyone around here with your charmspeak, but not me, Drew. I know you. You're weak. You have poor judgment. You can't make any decisions by yourself because you always find a way to screw it up. Like you did with your last relationship. Oh, sorry." Aera feigned sympathy, putting her hand on her chest. "Your one-sided crush on Tiffany Flores wasn't a real relationship, was it? So much for Aphrodite's rite of passage."

Drew stepped forward. The rest of their siblings lurched back. Aera braced herself, getting ready for a catfight. Drew would take the easy bait. Aera hadn't felt the rush of a sibling brawl in a long time. Catfights hit different than regular fights. She would enjoy this.

Instead, Drew gave her head a defeated shake, her voluminous curls bouncing sadly against her shoulders.

"I didn't want to believe what the others said," Drew said miserably. Her voice was barely above a murmur, but somehow her words resonated loudly in Aera's ears like they were being amplified on a speaker. "But they were right. You have changed. You are a traitor. Silena would be so disappointed if she was here."

Her words struck a nerve. Why didn't she seize the opening? It was right there.

"No," Aera said lowly. "You don't get to do that."

Every last trace of arrogance seemed to fade away the longer she stared into Drew's sorrowful eyes. She had wanted a tussle, not whatever guilt trip this was.

"You don't like that I don't respect your shots as the new head counselor?" Aera seethed, her anger rising to her ears. "Fine! Make me wear the Shoes of Shame or put me on bathroom duty. But don't you dare pretend for one second that you actually care about me because you are not my sister!"

"Who would want to be?" Drew exasperated as Aera snatched up the two pink cardboard boxes. "All you do is hurt the people who love you! You abandoned Silena! You let her die!"

Aera ignored her, making her way out of the pavilion with what was left of Silena's stuff. She didn't have a destination, but anywhere was better than here. Where she might actually murder Drew. Maybe then Aphrodite would finally pay attention to her children for once.

"Where are you going?" Drew demanded, starting after Aera.

"Drew, no!" Lacy protested, pouncing on Drew's arm and clinging onto it with all her might. "She could hurt you!"

"Fine!" Drew yelled after Aera, trying to fling Lacy off. "Run away! That's all you know how to do!"

Aera kept walking.

"Don't come back!" Drew continued as Lacy and Mitchell held her back. "I dare you! I didn't need you back then and I don't need you now!"

Aera let her feet take her to the Big House. Must have been the heels' doing. They had been collecting dust in that musty, dusty house after all. They must have been missing the ugly place already.

Her feet were starting to hurt from all her fabulous strutting (which was more strenuous than it looked), so she set down the two boxes on the porch and perched on the steps, careful not to wrinkle her dress.

You abandoned Silena! You let her die!

Aera couldn't believe that for a second. There was so much Drew was oblivious to.

Back then, Jolina's ranking system had rendered everyone's efforts obsolete. It didn't matter how beautiful you were, it mattered how much more beautiful you were than the person next to you. Cabin 10's tier list was constantly changing, constantly upping the stakes, forcing each child of Aphrodite to go farther than the previous to attain what one person considered beauty.

Beauty is pain was the morale Jolina preached to justify the extreme measures her siblings resorted to under her pressure. So, after many, many failed attempts of reaching for her ever-heightening standards, Aera sought out a different pain instead.

Two years before she abandoned camp, Aera had tried to deviate to the path of a nail-breaking, hair-rifling demigod champion, only to discover how cruel these so-called heroes could be. To them, being pretty meant that was the only talent a person could have. Beauty couldn't coexist with brains or brawn on the battlefield.

Because of the dainty physical features she possessed and the dazzling clothing she liked to wear, every half-blood Aera ever tried training with sneered at her efforts, insisting that she was the one who needed saving, not the one who did the saving. Annabeth used to shrug and tell her, "Some people belong on the battlefield and some people don't."

Aera couldn't accept that. She knew she was just as capable as the next demigod.

So, what did she do?

She ran to the next crowd, the crowd that promised to appreciate and celebrate her every talent without bias—Kronos' army. For a while, Aera received the recognition she felt she deserved. She had almost lost her life multiple times in his grueling training. The Titan, too, didn't believe she was worth anything until she proved herself. She had turned her back on the camp to support Luke, she didn't have anywhere else to go. It was only upwards from there

Aera had no choice but to climb the ranks of the Titan King and earned the respect of his monster army. Appearance wasn't important to Kronos, results were. Aera learned how to use her beauty to her advantage, how to exploit the underestimation that arose from a pretty face and successfully transform it into progress for the reformation of the Titan Lord. Even if it permanently altered her body...

Along the way, Luke taught Aera to master every kind of weapon that ever existed. He was an inspiring leader and everything she aspired to be. She had fallen for him harder than Icarus when he came to her with plans of razing Mount Olympus and building it all over again from scratch. A new world sounded pretty chic for someone who wasn't accepted anywhere in her own. Even ferocious monsters in arms weren't such unpleasant company compared to Camp Half-Blood.

Aera loved the power she carried as one of Kronos' commanders. If she couldn't make Camp Half-Blood love her, she would make them fear her.

Now that Luke was dead and the remains of the Titan King had been dispersed beyond repair, it was like none of that even mattered. Everybody wanted to toss Aera aside like last year's fall collection. Everybody wanted to be her enemy. There was no love for her at Camp Half-Blood.

And Drew? Drew was going to spend the rest of her life playing the role of someone she wasn't, just to fill the hole left behind by those who came before her. Her patronization towards Lacy had reminded Aera far too much of Jolina. The Shoes of Shame sounded exactly like some twisted punishment Jolina would brew up to exercise control over her siblings.

So, who could Aera blame for Drew becoming the person Aera and Silena had spent all their youth trying to protect her from?

Well, that answer was a no brainer.

"Your sisters have fought gracefully," Aphrodite had the nerve to say to Aera the day the gods decided to spare her. They'd been speaking on a balcony overlooking Olympus, or what was left of Olympus. Aera imagined Annabeth was already foaming at the mouth with plans to rebuild this good-for-nothing place. It was despicable.

Aera had lost far more than she had bargained for―her purpose, her love, her naturally frizz-less hair and Annabeth got her dream job and a boyfriend who chose her over immortality? So unfair.

"Silena died a hero," Aphrodite said gingerly. "Let the truth be buried with her for now."

Aera had already planned on doing that. From the moment she saw Silena charging the drakon in Clarisse's armor through Kronos' vision in the throne room, she had made up her mind that this wasn't what she wanted. Admittedly, Aera had made some awkward and unappealing miscalculations the past few years, but she had never wanted anyone to die. Not Beckendorf. And least of all Silena.

Nevertheless, the thing about Aera was that she didn't like being told what to do. Especially not by an absentee godly mother who had treated her like an immortal blemish her whole life.

"What's in it for me?" Aera challenged. "If I stay quiet, the blame of what she's done will trickle onto me."

"Oh, little dove." The sigh Aphrodite let out was utterly melodramatic.

Aera had heard stories of how her mother looked different to every set of eyes, depending on what that person found attractive. Aera remembered seeing Aphrodite twice before this―once at camp and once at Jolina's Sweet 16. The first time she had looked like Taeyeon from Girls' Generation―Aera's favorite Korean idol at the time. The second time she'd caught a glimpse of Aphrodite, she looked almost like Annabeth―honey blonde princess curls, big blue and grey eyes, and tan skin. Aera had grown up in a predominantly white neighborhood in Beverley Hills, after all. Valley girls were the standard.

Currently, Aera couldn't figure out who Aphrodite resembled, but her appearance was familiar―inky black hair styled to her shoulders, a v-shaped jaw, round, espresso brown eyes, and a peaches-and-cream complexion as if her porcelain skin had been recently colored by the heat of battle. Funny enough, Aera could have sworn she saw Aphrodite in the mirror this morning...

"This universe will throw rocks at every shiny thing it sees," Aphrodite said pitifully. "Beauty and loneliness have always come hand in hand, the same way love and death have. That's the beauty of beauty...and its curse."

"Stop saying things that don't make sense," Aera retorted. "If I wanted a riddle, I would've asked a sphinx."

"Do not hate her too much," Aphrodite urged. Aera couldn't tell if that was a motherly plea or a divine order. "Silena. Jolina, too. Your sisters had scars only they could see."

Aera felt a stab of betrayal, which was ridiculous considering Aphrodite had always been her enemy, never her ally.

"And you think I don't?" she demanded. "You don't think I've suffered enough? You can mourn them all you want, but they both took the coward's way out. Now I have to live with their baggage. And contrary to popular belief, I hate wearing purses!"

Aphrodite surveyed the view of Olympus―toppled statues, uprooted trees, broken marble. Aera should've been proud at the damage she inflicted upon the gods, but it all felt like a waste, like she had devoted hours to perfecting her makeup and ended up not even leaving the house for anyone to admire it.

Aera had a feeling she would acquire no recognition from this. She had been there when that Cyclopes hoisted Percy Jackson up on his shoulders and proclaimed him the Savior of Olympus. History was written by the victors. Aera's contributions had already started fading into nothing the moment she surrendered. Why had she surrendered?

"I've never been given much credit among the gods," Aphrodite admitted softly. "My children are often laughed at. They're dismissed as conceited and shallow."

Aera laughed coldly. "I wonder where they got it from."

"But you have shown the world that you are more than a pretty face," the goddess continued, glancing back with so much determination in her eyes, the air turned warm with love. "Try as they might, no one can deny your beauty or your power. You have sacrificed much in the name of love. Between you and me, I think you've proven yourself beautifully."

"It wasn't for you," Aera said through gritted teeth. She had to make that clear. "You didn't do anything, so don't try taking the credit."

Aphrodite nodded. She smiled, which had to be the world's prettiest pacifier to quell Aera's demigod tantrum. "You may not have been able to see me, but I was always there. It's hard for me to show tough love to my dearest children, but I believe, sometimes, it must be done for them to truly blossom."

Aera retreated a step from the goddess. Must be done. Must be done?

Aera was overcome with so much rage she could hardly articulate or even breathe.

"That is such..." she choked out, her fists trembling at her sides. She growled, "Do you even know what Jolina did to your other children? To me? Do you even care?"

Instead of blasting her on the spot or turning her into a porcupine like any other god would have, Aphrodite stroked the front pieces of Aera's hair. Intrusively, Aera wondered if she'd be cursed forever with cuticles and flab if she slapped the goddess' hand away.

"There are lovelier things coming for you, Aera," Aphrodite told her, brushing Aera's hair behind her ear. "But they will not be easy to obtain." Aera's confidence waned and Aphrodite's image seemed to flicker, as if suddenly unsure what form to take. "You will experience many more heartbreaks ahead and break even more hearts in result."

"Well, what can I do?" Aera scoffed, half indignant, half weary. "Vanity has always been my fatal flaw. Like mother, like daughter, right?"

Aphrodite simply smiled. "Remember, love is the most powerful motivator in the world. It spurs mortals to greatness, but it is not a preordained process. It cannot control your fate. Who you choose to love matters the most. The pride you place in yourself is measured by the love you have for those around you."

Aera's war regalia had been scuffed and her best battle ballgown under it was tattered from clashing with Percy Jackson, but it felt as if the goddess had stripped her completely bare. Aera had never been more uncomfortable under her mother's gaze. She sensed the goddess could see right through her armor, see right through her skin, and into her heart.

Aphrodite reached out and cradled Aera's face the way one would cradle a delicate Greek sculpture. The immortal goddess studied Aera's face closely, which was more heart-wrenching than anything the demigod had ever sustained fighting in a brutal war with many casualties. She gazed woefully at Aera like she was a beautiful tragedy waiting to unfold.

"Do not let the love you give get in the way of the love you are meant to receive," Aphrodite said at last. "It is a complicated and devilish thing, your heart. Others may be deceived by the illusion you have tailored from the hatred you have faced, but I have seen the real you, my daughter. I have heard you. You loved all your friends until the bitter end. You loved Luke enough to let him go. And that is what saved Olympus this time―what will save Olympus every time."

"Stop it," Aera snapped angrily, but her voice was weak, cracking like the marble below her. She shook her head as if that would help her shake off her emotions. It didn't. "I don't get what you're saying. If this is your way of punishing me, you're going to have get in line."

Gently, Aphrodite wiped the tear that had slipped traitorously from the corner of Aera's eye. The goddess murmured in a tender voice that, for a second, made Aera feel like she was the most loved person in the world, "Be kinder to yourself, my love. A heart can only take so much, even one as strong as yours."

Sitting on the steps, Aera felt sick from reliving that moment. Aphrodite had to win the Worst Mom of the Year award. The goddess had really tried tricking Aera again with yet another empty promise, just to dump her back to the place she hated the most and force her to be another disposable pawn again. Aera wanted to throw up, but she forked her fingers through her hair and took a deep breath to ease her pulse.

Aera didn't care about whatever her mother had been talking about―whatever "lovelier things" lied ahead or whatever pride she put in her capacity to love. The gods had taken away everything that she loved and hung her out to dry. And now she was supposed to go through even more nail-breaking hardships with Hera being captured and her memories being stolen? Hard pass.

It was so bad, Aera wanted to give it a zero. But she couldn't do that, so she gave it a one. She was angry. She was so angry. At the gods, at The Fates, at that stupid, rotten, undeniably hot Jason for giving her such an ugly tattoo and refusing to be seduced...

After all, anger was easier to handle and oftentimes prettier, than what Aera really felt inside. Just like how the rest of her siblings would never let go of their beauty, Aera would never let go of the barbed rose vines wrapped around her heart. Or its broken pieces would simply fall apart.

Aera glimpsed at the two pink cardboard boxes―at the scrapbook with a photograph of Drew, Silena, and Aera in front of the Eiffel Tower taped to the cover. Drew had pushed Aera when the camera clicked and Silena was laughing at Aera's totally offended reaction. Times had been so much simpler back then. So simple, it had deceived Aera into thinking happiness could be hers to keep.

Maybe Drew had been onto something after all. The past deserved to burn. Along with everyone in it. And if Aera was going to be dragged into another stupid scheme of the gods, she was going to seize whatever opportunity she could to sever those ties for good...

‧₊˚♡

It wasn't the queen of gods being abducted that scared Aera, it was the way Jason had randomly gotten up during the campfire and started chanting in Latin like the rent was due tomorrow that did. She knew he had the vibes of a total nerd, but she didn't think he would be that geeky. In Aera's experience, geeky people were the worst when it came to romancing because they always had to be right. And that wasn't right because Aera was always right.

"You-you just...finished the prophecy," Rachel gasped like a fish out of water. "—An oath to keep with a final breath / And foes bear arms to the Doors of Death. How did you—"

Aera was intrigued. Even the girl who saw the future couldn't see that coming?

"I know those lines." Jason winced and put his hands to his temples. "I don't know how, but I know that prophecy."

Aera sniffed. "Wow. Handsome and bilingual. It's almost as if you're asking me to fall for you."

A couple of her siblings giggled to themselves, but were silenced by a single glower from Drew. Ugh. Her sister sure knew how to hold a grudge better than she knew how to do a cut crease.

In addition, Jason glared at her, but that just made Aera's attraction swell. As did his electric spear when he summoned it.

"Wasn't that..." the detestable fish lover hesitated, pointing at Jason's weapon. "I thought you had a sword."

"Um, it came up tails, I think," Jason explained. "Same coin, long-range weapon form."

"Dude, I want one!" yelled somebody from Ares cabin.

"Better than Clarisse's electric spear, Lamer!" one of his brothers agreed.

"What a showoff," uttered Tiffany Flores, Clarisse's girlfriend, who did not look like a happy camper about Clarisse's signature weapon being outdone in her absence. Clarisse's siblings all zipped their mouths. They knew her girlfriend's temper was even worse than Clarisse's. "Screw Jason and his electric spear!"

"Oh, believe me." Aera licked her lips. "I'm trying."

She won herself another glare.

"Electric..." Jason then murmured to himself, like that was a good idea. "Back away."

Aera didn't need to be told twice. That thing looked like it could skewer a lot more than marshmallows. Jason raised his javelin, and thunder broke open the sky. Every hair on Aera's arms stood straight up. Lightning arced down through the golden spear point and hit the campfire with the force of an artillery shell.

Jason lowered his lance. "Um...sorry."

Miffed, Aera patted down her hair, making sure all the static in the air wasn't giving her fly-aways.

Chiron brushed some burning coals out of his messy beard. He grimaced as if his worst fears had been confirmed. "A little overkill, perhaps, but you've made your point. And I believe we know who your father is."

"Jupiter," Jason filled in. "I mean Zeus. Lord of the Sky."

"Wait, wait, wait." Aera interrupted after she had fixed her hair. "Am I high on campfire fumes or did the first Great Prophecy not revolve around a child of the Big Three? How did I not know he existed?"

"Probably because you were too busy making out with the empousai," Lou Ellen Blackstone mocked. Several kids coughed up laughs but Aera ignored them and focused indignantly on Jason instead.

Aera had to endure years of that irritating shark boy being the only demigod formidable enough to fill the role of her rival when all this time this amnesiac hunk had been hiding wherever it was amnesiac hunks hid? So not fair! Aera would not have minded dishing it out with Jason in the Second Titanomachy. Then again, maybe it was a good thing Jason hadn't been a part of it, for the war might have ended too quickly if Kronos' enemy had looked like this...

The prophecy Rachel had given for Jason's quest was so bland, Aera almost fell into a beauty nap. She didn't understand why the demigods were so stunned about it entailing death and loss when literally everything they did entailed death and loss. Their diet practically consisted of death and loss.

Aera would like to say the campfire got more entertaining from there, but that would be a big, fat lie. She was even closer to a beauty nap when they all started shouting about how she didn't deserve to go on the quest, blah, blah, blah, blah, as if a couple hurt feelings could stop Aera from leaving this dump with a hottie like Jason.

As screaming protests were being thrown across the amphitheater, Aera placed her hands behind her and daydreamed about all the cute outfits she would bring. It was winter, after all, which gave her an excuse to not pack light. She contemplated paying her friend, Chu Chu, a visit. That son of Hephaestus probably still had her twin angel guns. She hoped he had kept them polished like he promised.

Then Aera's attention tuned back in when Piper's voice sliced cleanly through her musings.

"It's Jason's quest," Piper said to the crowd, her voice compelling even Aera's short attention span to listen. "He gets to pick whoever he wants."

Piper sounded so confident, and so convincing, the rest of the campers started to mumble in agreement and nod along with her. Aera fixed her line of sight on Piper, who was now adorned in a white floor-length, sleeveless gown. Aera squinted (respectfully) at her sister's low v-neck collar. Huh. Guess under every ugly duckling was a swan slumbering beneath.

Piper caught Aera staring. Aera nodded at her in approval. Blushing, Piper defensively shuffled all her hair forward to cover her chest. Aera would have to curse Aphrodite again another day for not letting her inherit a more voluptuous figure. Piper looked amazing. She was going to break so many people's hearts. Aera couldn't wait.

By the time the campfire ended, Aera hadn't intended on bringing Jason with her to start a fire in the woods, but she thought it was only fitting for the person who invited her into a whole new era of clothing-ripping suffering to help her destroy the remnants of the old one. She never would have expected, however, to get such an early confession out of him, let alone a confession that wasn't even about her.

She was someone I liked.

Aera had known Jason a day, but she couldn't even fathom the fact that someone that wasn't her had fluttered his heart. Out of all the memories an attractive, do-gooding boy could have, Jason remembered a girl he had feelings for? Big words were not part of Aera's brand, but this was preposterous.

Normally, Aera wouldn't care how many people were in someone's heart, as long as she owned the whole thing, but this was some next level romance she was being excluded from. Like The Notebook level romance. Aera played it cool though, because jealousy didn't look good paired with her heart-killing red dress.

"What was she like?" she asked, keeping her voice even.

Jason gave her a cautious look like he was trying to decipher her motives. It took him twelve whole heartbeats to eventually realize that was a fruitless effort and spilled the beans.

"It's fuzzy," Jason confided. "I can't remember much about her."

"But you remember that you liked her?"

"Yeah," Jason answered. The speed and certainty at which he responded was blatantly insulting. "Pretty much."

Aera didn't bother asking for more. She tossed the teddy bear Beckendorf had gotten Silena for Valentine's Day into the fire and watched it burn. If she ever met this hideous Arachne of a girl...

Aera would have to congratulate her on the incredibly dense bullet she dodged.