Aria wasn't used to being the Olympian's personal handmaiden. It was only the past couple of years, after the Second Giant War, that they'd started taking notice of her. It made sense, because they'd only known of her existence for approximately that long.
With everything said and done, her father, Poseidon, had done an excellent job hiding her. It was for her safety, he'd said.
It was rare for an Olympian to have two children with the same mortal. It was even more rare for that Olympian to be Poseidon, god of the sea and one of the Big Three. Especially if said god had sworn a pact with his brothers not to sire any more demigod children.
Poseidon knew that his son's existence would be testing his brothers' patience, but he knew that adding a daughter to that would just push them over the edge. So, with no other options, he took his baby daughter from her mother and hid her. First, Aria had lived with the god and his wife, Amphitrite, in their underwater palace. She spent her days with Nereids as her nannies, ocean nymphs as her sisters and playmates, and dolphins as her overprotective older brothers. It was only when she turned five that she began to realize that she was a bit different than her brothers and sisters. Before she could really understand that she didn't belong under the sea, her father moved to her California, where she lived with a mortal family who had no clue what their new adoptive daughter truly was. Aria imagined that they didn't really know what to do with a girl who cried because she couldn't see her mermaid friends or dolphin brothers. They must have thought she had a crazy imagination.
As all demigods do, Aria began attracting monsters. Because of her parentage, the monsters tended to be on the more deadly side. When the young girl woke up to a vicious hellhound slobbering all over her bed, Poseidon led her to Lupa, the immortal wolf goddess. And so, at ten years old, she left the mortal world behind. Lupa lead her to Camp Jupiter, where she trained and fought and tried to ignore the whispers and stares that came with being a daughter of Neptune. Romans didn't exactly love the sea, and that dislike extended to Aria. It didn't help that during her first war games, she panicked and made fifty-foot-high jets of water erupt from the earth around her, toppling anyone who had attacked thinking she would be an easy target. Instead, where she would've been openly bullied, her fellow campers feared her. In Aria's experience, fear made children do cruel things.
The only connection Aria had ever had with her father was the glowing trident that appeared over her head the night she arrived at camp. Other than that, there was no message, no kindly smile from above, nothing.
On particularly hard days, when her cabin mates would put rotten seaweed or dead fish in her bunk and act perfectly innocent when she found them, Aria would sneak into Neptune's temple on the hill, and talk to her father like he was actually there. She shared her troubles, fears, and the hope that one day her life might make sense.
And that's how she met Nico di Angelo.
One night, when Aria had brought her warmest blanket to curl up against the statue of Neptune, she was startled out of her thoughts by a boy who couldn't have been any older than eleven or twelve.
"Hey," he said, the light glinting off a deadly looking sword hanging at his side. "What are you doing in here?"
This boy didn't look like a camper – he wore a black t-shirt with a ghoulish silver skull emblazoned on it, instead of the standard purple shirt, and his hair hung into his eyes, not sheared into the standard regulation hair cut for boys. He must not know her yet as the freak water kid, she decided. Aria didn't know how to treat someone who didn't already know her as the shame of Camp Jupiter.
"This is my father's temple," she said, lifting her chin and tugging her blanket a little tighter around her body. This boy seemed to have brought the chilly outside air in with him.
The boy raised his eyebrows – they almost disappeared under his hair. "You're a child of Pos…Neptune?"
"Yes." Aria didn't like the way he was appraising her, almost like she was an enigma that he couldn't wait to crack. "Who are you?"
"Nico di Angelo, son of Ha…Pluto. My father sent me here as an ambassador."
"An ambassador?"
"He wanted somewhere safe for me to stay. I tend to get chased by monsters a lot," Nico said, his lips tilting up into a wry smile.
"Me, too," Aria said, warming up a little to this strange boy. "I had to come here when I was ten because it wasn't safe for me in the mortal world."
"It tends to be like that for children of the Big Three," Nico nodded.
Aria furrowed her brow. "The Big Three? What's that?"
The boy's eyes widened momentarily, as if he'd said too much. "Uh…it's more of a Greek concept than Roman, but the Greek counterparts of Jupiter, Neptune, and Pluto were thought to be more powerful than the other Olympians since they're the only sons of the Titan Saturn. So, their kids are usually more powerful and attract more monsters."
"So…Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades are some sort of big triumvirate?" Aria asked, frowning in confusion. This was the first she'd ever heard of possibly being more powerful than the kids that made her life hell. If what this boy was saying was true, she could finally make them dirt.
"Basically. Hey, what's your name?" Nico asked in an effort to change the subject.
"Aria Jackson," she said, sticking out her hand.
For a moment, Aria was sure that she'd done something to scare this child of Pluto – his eyes widened and his nostrils flared, and he looked like he was about to bolt from the dark temple.
And then the moment passed. "Nice to meet you," Nico said, taking her outstretched hand, but his smile wasn't the same as it had been before.
From then on, Nico was her only friend at camp. Every time he visited, she begged him to stay longer, just so she would have someone to talk to other than a dusty old statue of her father. When he was gone, Aria was even more miserable. The other campers found it hilarious that the two outcasts had made such fast friends, and kids would whisper about her when they thought she couldn't hear. It's a match made in hell, they said. Only the son of death would be attracted to that weirdo.
Aria let the whispers and rumors roll off her back like a duck under water, but each taunt and cruel word fed a fire inside of her. She channeled her anger into becoming more powerful than her tormentors. While her peers were socializing and enjoying their time as kids, she would sit near the Little Tiber and practice controlling the water to do her bidding. Aria suspected that salt water might be more responsive, as she was a child of the sea, but she wasn't allowed to go outside the border of Camp Jupiter. Who knew what deadly monsters lurked in the shadows, just waiting for a tasty snack to emerge?
By the time she was thirteen, it was taking all of her self-control not to drown anyone who taunted her. She imagined lifting her bullies on a skyscraper-high jet of water, only to let them come crashing down, shattering every bone in their body. She wasn't sure how much more she could take. She began to dream of escaping camp while no one was looking – sneaking out to discover the world on her own.
These dreams started to make more and more sense. Eventually, Aria started planning for the day that she would leave Camp Jupiter. She told no one of these plans, not even Nico. She knew that someone would try to stop her, or even worse, tell the praetors and get her punished. On the day of her departure, a cold November morning, she stopped in her father's temple to pray for guidance and possibly a little fatherly love.
That's where Nico found her.
"Hey," he said, letting the heavy door shut behind him. "I was looking for you…" he trailed off, noticing her bulging backpack and travel clothes. He raised an eyebrow. "Going somewhere?"
"Yeah," Aria said, lifting her chin in defiance. "I'm leaving this place. I've had enough."
Instead of trying to convince her to stay, or telling her to stop like she expected, Nico smiled. "It seems like my timing is perfect, then. I was actually trying to find you because I wanted to tell you – I'm taking you to New York."
"What?" Aria was sure she'd heard him wrong. "New York?"
"Manhattan, to be specific," he said. "There's someone I think you should meet. You in?"
What did she have to lose? She was planning on leaving anyway. Nico had just provided her with the perfect opportunity. "Yeah," she nodded. "I'm in."
Aria thought that her friend was pulling some sort of twisted practical joke when he told her that he was taking her to see her mother and brother.
"That's impossible," she shook her head. "My dad told me that my mom died giving birth to me, and that I didn't have any other family."
"I'm about ninety-eight percent sure your dad lied to you," Nico said, pulling her through the underground tunnels of the subway system.
"What? Nico, can you please explain what's going on?" Aria stopped short, tugging him around to face her.
"Just wait," he said, his eyes taking on a dangerous glint. "I'll answer all your questions once we get there."
There turned out to be a small but cozy apartment in the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Nico knocked on the door embossed with the gold number seven, waiting impatiently.
"Nico, are you sure this is a good idea?" Aria asked, shifting nervously, trying to wrench her hand out of his iron grip. "Maybe we should—"
Before she could suggest running away and pretending this never happened, the door swung open.
In the doorway stood a very pretty middle-aged woman, with wavy brown hair and kind eyes.
Aria inhaled sharply. She knew this woman. She wanted to cry.
"Nico?" the woman said, smiling bemusedly. "What are you doing here?"
"Is Percy home?" Nico asked, trying to peer over the woman's shoulder into the apartment. Aria, on the other hand, was trying her best to disappear in into the carpet. She could feel the woman's gaze shift to her in question – who was this strange girl standing in her doorway? – and all Aria could do was look down and pray that the ground would swallow her whole.
"Yeah, he just got home from school," she said. "Why don't you two come on inside?"
Aria might have chosen that moment to try and bolt, but Nico's unrelenting grasp on her hand made her follow him inside the apartment. The inside was cozy and welcoming, everything Aria imagined that a home always would be. The walls were decorated with pictures of the woman, a man with glasses, and a black-haired boy that seemed all too familiar.
Aria stopped looking at the pictures.
"Do you want anything to eat?" the woman slid a tray of blue cookies across the kitchen table, taking a seat in front of the two demigods. "They're fresh out of the oven."
Nico dug in right away. Aria couldn't bring herself to look the woman in the eye.
"I'm going to go get Percy," she said, not commenting on the fact that the strange girl was refusing to eat her strangely-colored cookies. "Be right back."
"Nico," Aria hissed, as soon as the woman was out of earshot. "What the fuck were you thinking? You can't just drag me to some random person's house, I'm not related to these people—"
"Nico?" a new voice asked. "What are you doing here? And who's this?"
Aria looked up, and her heart stopped. Staring back at her was a fifteen-year-old boy with messy jet-black hair and bright green eyes…her jet-black hair and her bright green eyes. The similarities didn't end there. The boy wore an expression that she saw all too often in the mirror – confusion and a slight wariness, as if danger was just around the corner. She was looking at an older, male version of herself.
Nico swallowed his cookie whole. "Percy, this Aria. I'm pretty sure she's your sister."
Sally Jackson was everything Aria would've wanted in a mother. Except this woman was her mother, she reminded herself.
Her mother's eyes were filling with tears, and Aria didn't know whether she wanted to run out the door or just sob.
"Poseidon told me you were dead," Sally said, her voice thick with emotion. "He told me that it wasn't safe for you in the mortal world, and that he'd raise you in his palace. And then one day, he came and told me that you had died in a freak accident."
"I did spend some time living in his palace," Aria admitted, uncomfortable with the way the woman – her mother – was looking at her. Her expression was filled with sadness and love, and Aria could tell that the woman was stopping herself from hugging her long-lost daughter and never letting go. It was, after all, exactly what Aria wanted.
"Tell them where you grew up," Nico prompted. He was acting like a moderator on a reality TV show, happily consuming blue cookies.
Aria glanced at her brother. Percy hadn't spoken a word since Nico's declaration, only looking at her like he could read her life story if he stared hard enough.
"I think I lived with Poseidon until I was five or so," Aria said, fidgeting uncomfortably. "Then, well…I don't know the details around it, but I went to live with a mortal family. But then the monsters kept attacking, and it wasn't safe for me or the family I was living with—"
"Monsters?" Sally interrupted, looking around as if hellhounds had followed her daughter to New York.
"They tend to attack children of the Big Three, Mrs. Jackson," Nico said, chomping down on another cookie. Aria wanted to tell him not to talk with his mouth full.
"The Big Three?" Aria said, turning to look at Nico. "You said that was a Greek thing."
"Oh, yeah," Nico said nonchalantly. "You're a demigod daughter of Poseidon, not Neptune."
"What?" Percy exclaimed, finally breaking his staring contest with Aria to look at Nico. "There are children of Neptune running around?"
"Not children of Neptune in particular," Nico gulped, looking a little frightened at Percy's expression. "But the gods have both Greek and Roman aspects. I think it has something to do with the fact that the founder of Rome was a son of Aphrodite, but the Romans' religious customs have always closely mirrored the Greeks. So the gods have two forms, Greek and Roman." Nico looked around the table at his captive audience. "But this information can't go beyond these four walls. I'm not even supposed to know about the two camps, let alone be telling other people."
"Two camps?" Percy pressed, his voice rising slightly in pitch.
"Yeah. Camp Half-Blood, here in New York, for Greek demigods, and Camp Jupiter in Northern California for Roman demigods."
"Roman demigods…" Percy breathed out. "I had no idea they even existed."
"Yeah, the gods try and keep it that way. Apparently, the Greeks and the Roman camps always fought, and eventually the fighting and bloodshed got so bad that the gods decided to just weave the Mist so tightly that the each side would forget that the other existed."
"So…" Aria started, raising her head to look at her family. "I'm not Roman, but Greek?"
Nico nodded. "I'm pretty sure your father tried to hide you because it was getting dangerous for children of the Big Three."
"Yeah, the whole World War II thing," Percy said. Aria guessed that her brother knew all too well about the stigma of being a child of Neptune, Poseidon, whoever. "So my father decided that taking her away and raising her himself was safer?"
"He didn't raise me," Aria said. When her brother's piercing gaze turned to her, she faltered. "I mean, I lived in his palace, but I almost never saw him. I haven't seen him since I was five, when he sent me to the mortal world. I don't know why he thought I'd be safe there…he could've just left me here."
She would've liked growing up here, Aria decided. Having a mother and brother sounded like heaven.
"He told me that you died in an accident," Sally said through her tears. "I think he used some sort of immortal persuasion to make me forget about you. I didn't even remember that I had a daughter until a couple years ago when something reminded me of you—" she broke off on a sob.
Aria wanted to get up and put her arms around her mother, but she didn't know this woman well enough to do so. And the way Percy was looking at her, she expected him to draw a weapon on her at any second.
"Poseidon probably knew that Zeus and Hades wouldn't tolerate another child that broke their oath," Percy said. "Besides, there's the matter of the prophecy. This could change everything."
"Ah, the prophecy," Nico said, looking a little uncomfortable. "Percy, since she also meets the description, you can't tell anyone that you know she exists."
"What? Why?"
"I think Poseidon's entire goal in hiding her was to make sure that she wouldn't be the child of the prophecy. I mean, you're kind of already set up to fulfill it. You know Kronos personally—"
Aria choked. "What? You know a Titan—?"
"It's a long story," Percy said.
"I have nothing but time," Aria countered. "I don't plan on going back to Camp Jupiter."
Her brother frowned at her. "Why?"
"They're not exactly…welcoming…to children of the sea god."
"Stay with us," Sally said suddenly. "Percy's in school right now, so he won't be going to camp. Stay with us, please…I want to get to know my daughter."
Aria's heart shattered.
"You already have everything packed," Nico said, nodding at the backpack by her feet. "Stay here for a bit, and we can figure out what to do next."
Aria looked down at her feet. In the span of about twenty minutes, her entire life had changed. If Nico, who was basically the only person she could trust, thought she should stay with these people, then she would. After all, she had so many questions about her life. Maybe she could finally get some answers.
"Okay," Aria said, looking from her mother to her brother. "Okay, I'll stay."
It turned out that Aria and Percy had a lot in common. Specifically, their tempers. During the couple months that they lived together under the same roof, Sally Jackson's water bill skyrocketed.
Sally and Percy had cleared out the small study in their apartment, giving Aria a haphazardly put-together bedroom and the only place she thought she'd ever call home. Sally seemed to be making up for the twelve years she lost with her daughter – every day was spent either taking her around New York, cooking her favorite foods, or just chatting until the sun came up. When January of the new year rolled around, the older woman insisted on registering her in the local middle school in seventh grade, for the sake of continuing her education. Unfortunately, this cut short their mother-daughter bonding time.
"It'll be fun," her mother insisted, handing her a blue lunchbox. "Think about all the new friends you'll make!"
Aria raised an eyebrow. "I'd probably enjoy fighting a monster more, mom."
Sally's smile widened, and her eyes began filling with tears, just as they had every time Aria called her 'mom.'
"My baby's first day of school," she laughed, wiping a stray tear from her eyes. "This is the first time I get to see my daughter off on her first day of school."
Aria ducked her head, embarrassed by the tears forming in her own eyes. She let her mother pull her into a hug, relishing in the feeling her mom's warm arms and the comforting scent of warm cookies.
"Alright," Percy interrupted from across the kitchen, standing ready with his backpack. "We're going to be late for school if you don't hurry up this tear-fest."
"Shut up," Aria muttered, grinning. "Let's go."
Luckily, her middle school and Percy's high school were on the same campus. He gave her a brief tour of the school before rushing off to his first class, promising that he'd find her at lunch.
Her classes were unremarkable. She was used to being in school on a daily basis, but in New Rome, she studied the history of the gods, other religions, complicated mathematics and physics, and much more. Here, in New York's standardized education system, her seventh grade class focused on how quickly the class bullies could make her teacher cry.
Lunch wasn't much better. Percy found her, as he promised, but he was closely followed by a mean-looking kid in a varsity football jacket.
"So," the kid said, plopping down at the same table Aria had chosen, a nasty smirk stretched across his face. "Weirdo's got a little sister."
Aria sighed. She'd been dealing with bullies much more dangerous than a jock with an ego complex since she was five. She knew his type – loud, arrogant, and probably some daddy issues to boot.
"Leave us alone, Brett," Percy scowled, throwing an arm around her shoulders. "It's her first day."
Aria appreciated her brother's protective nature, but she wondered what he would do if he knew what she was truly capable of.
Brett laughed, the sound grating on Aria's nerves. "But what better way to introduce her to our fine school? Someone needs to teach her who's in charge here."
Aria watched silently as Brett appraised her. The entire cafeteria was watching their table – this was probably some sort of hazing, she thought. She waited, bristling with anticipation.
Brett reached forward to snatch her blue lunch bag off the table – identical to the one Percy was gripping tightly. "Awww, does Mommy pack you a lunch too? Are both of you just widdle babies?"
Aria grinned, a feral smile that gave Percy goose bumps. "Try harder," she said. She could feel the power itching just beneath her skin, like an animal waiting to burst out.
Brett scowled. "What do you mean, try harder? Want me to show you what I can really do?"
Aria smiled calmly. "If you even try to touch me, I'll make you piss your pants."
That was probably the wrong thing to say, but she was itching for a good fight. It had been ages since she'd sparred with anyone, and she was dying to use her powers again. Her anger towards her father, everyone at Camp Jupiter, and her whole situation was reaching a boiling point, and if Brett wasn't careful, he'd end up being her target.
Brett reached into her blue lunch bag, taking out the sandwich that Sally had packed for her this morning. He crushed it in his meaty fist. "Was that the lunch that your mommy packed for you this morning? I'm so sorr—"
Aria snapped. This bully had the nerve to take something her mother had made specifically for her. She focused intently on the blood rushing through her bully's body – if she thought hard enough, she could feel the blood rushing through everyone in the cafeteria – and she stopped it. It took a monumental effort, but just like she'd practiced, Brett froze. With a little smile on her face, Aria redirected the blood in his hand to pool at his wrist.
Brett's hand went limp, and he dropped her sandwich. The entire cafeteria held its breath.
Percy frowned, looking between his sister and her bully. "Aria, what's happening—"
"If Brett isn't careful, his death is going to happen," Aria said, a bit breathless from her efforts. "But can you feel that, Brett? Can you feel the blood rushing from your hand back into your arm? It doesn't feel good, does it?"
Brett's eyes were beginning to bulge out of his head. His wrist was an ugly shade of puce, and it was starting to swell uncontrollably. His hand was a deathly shade of white, and it was so limp it looked boneless. His mouth was opening and closing like a fish, but nothing was coming out.
Aria smiled, crossing her hands in front of her calmly. "If I try hard enough, I'm pretty sure I can stop the blood flow to your brain. Would you like to find out?"
Brett shook his head back and forth frantically.
Aria relaxed, focusing on letting his blood flow normally again. "I wouldn't recommend messing with either of us, Brett." She reached across the table to take back her lunch bag. "Don't test me."
Once he recovered, Brett the bully left their table so fast he knocked the entire bench over. Aria watched coolly as he skittered back to a table littered with varsity-jacket clad jocks. She looked around, realizing that the entire cafeteria was still staring at her, including some of the teachers on supervision duty.
She sighed, turning to Percy. "Maybe we should leave."
"Yeah, maybe we should," her brother frowned, his expression unreadable. "You need to explain what you just did. Let's go."
Aria could tell that Percy was shocked by her ability to control blood. The possibility had never occurred to him, even though he was well aware of his ability to control water.
"Let me get this straight." Her pacing brother swiveled to face her, a scowl firmly in place on his face. "You can feel the blood moving through people's bodies."
She nodded.
"You can stop it if you feel like."
Another nod.
"How?"
She paused, looking down at her feet. Aria wasn't quite sure how to answer the question. She had just always been able to. One day she was controlling water, and the next day she learned in science class that the human body was seventy percent water, and then she was controlling blood too.
"Aria?" her brother questioned, crouching down in front of where she was sitting on the bench, placing himself slightly below her. "You gotta tell me what's going on, sweetie. Not a lot of people know about you, and even fewer are concerned with your safety. I'd rather be able to protect you than be kept in the dark."
A gentle hand was under her chin, bringing her eyes up to his. Percy's expression had softened into one of worry, and suddenly her brother seemed much older than his fifteen years. So Aria told him about her secret practicing back at camp, and how blood felt so similar to water that there was virtually no difference. She told him about the campers that bullied her, how they would suddenly be afflicted with unstoppable nosebleeds or cuts that just wouldn't go away. She wasn't a monster, she told him softly. She had to do what she could to protect herself.
"Demigods should protect their own," Percy said unhappily. "Whoever these kids are, they better hope they don't meet me."
That was when Aria realized that other than Nico, who only appeared in her life occasionally, she had one true ally – someone who would protect her. That was when Percy earned her unwavering loyalty, and it would someday save his life.
Not that either of them knew it then, of course.