A few hours passed before Annabeth came back up to the steering cabin. She walked in looking like death; her hair was down and messy, her eyes were red, and she was walking like a zombie. She immediately walked to the nearest chair and collapsed with her head in her hands. I kept my eyes forward. It was better to let her start the conversation if she wanted to talk. A few minutes of silence passed and then:

"Are the guys still in the theater?" I cut the engine of the boat. "What are you doing? We don't have time to stop!"

"You're coming with me." I walked over and grabbed her arm leading her all the way back to a room I had found on the second floor. I never wanted to go back into it but I felt this was an emergency. I opened the door and Annabeth immediately ripped her arm out of my grasp.

"Oh hell no!" She started to walk away and I completely understood why. I had figured out that most of the rooms on this boat where decorated to represent (at least partially) one of the 12 main gods. And this room was dedicated to none other than the creator of our most recent problem…Aphrodite. The room was huge with a giant heart shaped bed in the middle. Of course the entire room was covered with shades of pink, white, and red. Everything was either silk or satin and there were enough lights in the room to see a person clearly from every angle. In other words….it was our worst nightmare.

"Annabeth! Get your blond butt back here right now!" I pulled her back to me with a gust of wind and caught her before she stumbled backwards. "Just trust me, this will help you feel better." She still seemed incredibly reluctant but she let me lead her back to the room. I had her take a seat on the plushy pink stool in front of the vanity. I knew before I even opened the drawers that everything I needed would be inside. I pulled out a brush and proceeded to get all of the snarls out of her hair then sprayed it with a spray bottle of water and combed it out. It seemed that with each pass I made with the comb Annabeth's shoulders seemed to relax a little more and she looked less and less on edge. I pulled her hair back and put it up into a messy bun. When she opened her eyes she looked more like the Annabeth I usually see: strong, beautiful, and confident. Her eyes were no longer red and she finally smiled. She ran her hand over her hair. She seemed shocked to find out how smooth it was.

"Thank you." She stood up and hugged me. "I'll do your hair now if you want?" We both laughed. We were acting like normal teenage girls…it was weird.

"No, that's alright, we don't really have time to play dress up. But I figured you really needed it." I smiled at her and she hugged me again.

"Thanks…again." We laughed and headed back up to the cabin. "Wait, maybe we should let the boys out? The movie has probably been over for a while now…"

"Well I guess we could start a new one for them or something." We made our way to the theater and opened the door. We both immediately slapped our foreheads. "We are idiots." The huge room was completely empty. The screen was blinking from white to black signaling there was no more film on the projector. How could we be so stupid.

"Ugh! I can't believe we forgot Nico can shadow travel! DAMNIT! Where could they have gone?" Annabeth said, she looked nervous again, looking over her shoulder and fidgeting. Obviously having butch fawn over her was really freaking her out. And really making her miss Percy.

"Tell you what, you go up to the cabin, turn the boat back on, and keep going. I'll try to find them."

"What if they aren't even on the boat anymore?"

"Please, their under a spell that makes them fall in love with us…their on the boat. Trust me." And with that we went our separate ways.

O0O

An hour passed and I finally barged back into the steering cabin. Annabeth turned and the look on her face told me she knew she had been right.

"They aren't on the boat anymore. You were right. Or they are really, really good at hiding." I sighed and walked over to the huge window in front of Annabeth. The boat was so insanely made that from the steering cabin if you looked straight down you could see straight down to the very bottom deck. If this weren't a god's boat it would definitely capsize. The thing was like a mini skyscraper on water. It was full of places for the boys to hide. But I had a feeling they weren't even here anymore.

"I have been thinking and, unfortunately, I think there is only one course of action." She trailed off at the end of her sentence like she didn't want to tell me what the course of action was. But after the look I gave her she took a deep breath and continued. "We need to contact Aphrodite. Obviously she is the one who did this and we need her to take the spell off of them. We can't continue on with the boys constantly causing trouble for us." I nodded. She was completely right. I didn't like to talk to Aphrodite. I had already had a few run ins with her over the years. Like when Percy, Thalia, Zoë, Grover, Bianca and I had been on a quest to find Artemis and Annabeth. This was a few years ago and Aphrodite and her boy toy, Ares, appeared to talk to me and Percy about how our love stories are so much fun for her and she likes to make all kinds of trouble for us. Basically I hate her. She is the reason Luke and I had such a difficult time and why neither of us could forget about the other when he changed sides. Fricken love goddess. Anyway, neither of us really wanted anything to do with her but Annabeth was right. We have to talk to Aphrodite or this will never get cleared up and we are going to get ourselves killed.

"You're right. I think I saw a fountain on the deck; I have a drachma in my room. Cut the engine and I'll meet you down there." We both sighed and headed off in our separate directions.

I took my time getting to my room; I had to be cautious about Nico and Butch. For all I knew they could pop out of nowhere and do another hostage act like before. I was not in the mood to have any of that nonsense so I kept my right hand poised and ready to touch my charm bracelet and release my sword if I needed to. But, as luck would have it, they didn't attack and therefore they were still missing. I made it all the way back to the deck without a hitch to find Annabeth pacing in front of the well.

"What if we try to contact Percy again? Maybe since we are in the Sea of Monsters it will work?" She shook her head and proceeded to answer her own question. "No, never mind that makes no sense. Do you have the drachma?" I tossed it to her.

"Go ahead; it's all yours Wise Girl." She sneered at me and turned to the fountain. "I hate this." And with a flick of her finger the coin disappeared into the rainbow created by the streaming water and the shining sunlight. "Oh Iris, goddess of the rainbow, accept my offering. Show me Aphrodite, goddess of love." There were a few seconds where nothing happened and then the oddest thing happened. We saw the backs of our heads. "Um…I'm no expert on this…but I don't think that is supposed to happen." We both spun around and saw….

Nothing. A big fat nothing.

"She is playing with us. Ugh! Why can't the gods just not be so obnoxious for 5 minutes?" I shouted. Immediately I regretted it. Somehow I must have known she was there but not 2 seconds later the shimmering form of Aphrodite appeared before us like a cloud of glitter that exploded onto the deck. Just like the first time I had met her with Percy her face kept shifting from one person to another; all women I thought were beautiful and whom I sometimes envied. Only now I noticed that her body shifted along with the faces. I must not have noticed before because she was sitting down in a dimly lit limousine. This time I could clearly see her arms and legs growing longer, shorter, thicker, and thinner along with her waist and chest. Everything was constantly changing to the point where if you really stopped and thought about it…Aphrodite was a freaky monster. But while looking at her all you could think was how absolutely stunning she was. I couldn't believe this was Piper's mom. Piper was so…tom boyish? And here was her mother acting as if she was the queen of the world.

"Excuse me, but who did you say is obnoxious?" She said. Her voice was smooth, melodious, and wonderful to listen to; literal music to the ears.

"Terra didn't mean it like that. We thought the connection had been turned down." Annabeth quickly tried to cover for me.

"An Iris message doesn't work if you're trying to send it to someone right next to you. That is common knowledge my dears." She swept her hand through her long, short, blond, red, brunette hair and took a seat on the nearest lounge chair that lined the deck. "Ah, Elpis always has the nicest things. And isn't it just crazy how this thing stays afloat?" She said as she tilted her head back making every movement look stunning. I had just about had enough of it.

"Alright we should probably get to the point of why we wanted to Iris you in the first place." She looked at me with a raised eyebrow and waved her hand for me to continue. 'Yeah, yeah, pain in the ass…' I thought to myself before continuing. "We need you to take the curse off of the boys."

"What curse?"

"You put a love curse on them. You're the only one who really could put this powerful of a love spell onto someone. You have to take it off because we are on a quest to find Percy and we can't do that if Butch and Nico are constantly attacking us." Annabeth said, practically all in one breath.

"Alright, alright. No need to be hasty. I would be glad to help but I didn't put a curse on them. I have no idea what you ladies are talking about." She waved her hand and an ornate glass of fresh pink lemonade appeared in her hand. "I would offer you some but I like mine dirty…if you know what I mean." She winked and it made me want to vomit.

"Well then maybe this will ring a bell. A sudden rouge wave hit our boat and landed us on a desert island in the middle of nowhere. Annabeth and I split up to search part of the island and Butch and Nico took the other side. Because, for whatever reason, we thought there was a purpose to the wave. Like maybe Poseidon was trying to help us locate his son. But we were obviously wrong because next thing we know Nico and Butch are throwing themselves on us and trying to do dirty things!" I was screaming by the time I finished. Annabeth looked taken aback but Aphrodite seemed calmer than ever.

"In that case I know exactly what happened." She smiled at me. Suddenly my knees went weak. 'What the hell! This isn't supposed to happen with another girl!' I scolded myself. But I knew it was just the powerful love magic that emanated from her. She walked over to me and placed a hand on my cheek. "Take a deep breath. I don't want my favorite love story's heroine to die from a frustrated heart attack." She smiled again and I felt butterflies in my stomach. Fricken goddess of love.

"Can you tell us what really happened then if you didn't put the spell on them?" Annabeth asked. She could see how uncomfortable I was getting and was trying her best to help.

"Yes I can. That island is an experiment of mine. I had almost forgotten about it though. I created it a long time ago. A plush island full of fresh water and food would obviously attract any passing ship in need of resupplying. And so as soon as the men step foot on the island they feel the magic of love sweep over them. But alas, I created it back in the days when women were considered a curse if they were on a ship. So the men had no woman to use their love on. They would become consumed with love, lust, desire and have no means to relieve themselves. Soon love would be all they could think of until it either drove them to madness, murder, or suicide. Or till the point of starvation or shipwreck since they do nothing but long for love. Ahhh, those were the good days when I could be entertained by them for weeks at a time. Sometimes I would create illusions of women for them, just to change things up." She sighed as if remembering a very beautiful memory. Annabeth and I exchanged looks of disgust.

"That's terrible. Playing with people's lives like that!" Annabeth shouted.

"I know you think me horrible, Annabeth, but trust me when I say that those men would never have made it out of the Sea of Monsters alive anyway. I made their last days more…enjoyable."

"Think of it however you want." I said to her. "But the men we are with need to be able to function in order for our quest to continue. So will you help us or not because we are wasting time." Aphrodite looked at me like I had been a fly in her delicious lemonade.

"You are lucky, Terra Grace daughter of Zeus, for if you had been any other Halfling I would smite you where you stand."

"Then why not smite me now?"

"I have told you before, haven't I? You are my favorite tragic love story since-"

"Since Paris and Helen and the Trojan War. I know." I cut her off. I could see Annabeth moving her hand towards her blade. Obviously she thought Aphrodite was about to go berserk on me. Instead she laughed. A soft, feminine laugh but a laugh all the same.

"You remind me of myself Miss Grace. I will help you. Here," She waved her hands and two vials appeared on a small table next to us. "Make each of the boys drink one and they will be back to normal shortly after."

"Thank you." Annabeth and I said at the same time.

"I have something else for you Terra." She reached up to her hair and seamed to weave something out of it as she pulled her hand out of her hair. "This is for you. You will know when the time comes to use it." With that she began to glow. "Good luck, I am rooting for the two of you to find your men." Annabeth and I quickly turned our heads and then she was gone leaving us with two vials and a necklace woven of pure gold. There was a charm in the center of the necklace.

"What did she give you?"

"A necklace…" I handed it to Annabeth and she looked concerned.

"What would you have to use this for?" I shook my head. I had no idea. What would anyone use a necklace for? But maybe it was the charm that was important. It had to be. Otherwise it wouldn't have been just for me.

A golden lightning bolt…