Cpov

It was ironic, it really was. After all the time I'd spent screwing up and doing stupid stuff, it was when I'd finally gotten a handle on my life that it started spinning out of control.

I avoided Will everywhere I went all day that day, and when I went to sleep, again I had nightmares. But for once, the nightmares weren't what woke me up.

"Where's Cali?"

"Someone get her!"

"Wake up Celeste!"

I opened my eyes feeling confused. There seemed to be a commotion in the living room. It sounded like several people were running.

"What's going on?" I asked sleepily, wincing as the light in my room turned on and several of the others in the bunks that lined the walls rose as well. I glanced at a clock on the nearest nightstand and saw it was only three thirty in the morning.

"Cali, wake up!"

I sat up to see one of my youngest brothers, Ambrose Dennings, looking at me anxiously. He had curly brown hair and deep blue eyes that were looking at me with worry.

"Why is everyone up so early?" I asked through a yawn.

"There's a problem." He said. "You need to come to the living room."

"Celeste is the head councilor, go bother her." I groaned rolling back over and hiding under my blanket.

"No it has to be you!" Ambrose said pushing me.

"Why?" I asked annoyed. Couldn't they shut the light off?

"Because the message is for you!"

"What are you talking about?" I asked sitting up again and I realized just how panicked he looked and all the voices sounded from the hall.

"Come on!" he said and with out further explanation he grabbed my hand and dragged me out into the hall.

I walked into the living room to see that everyone, even the newest campers who hadn't been around for my early camp days, was looking at me in awe.

"What's going on?" I asked hesitantly.

This behavior wasn't entirely out of the ordinary, it had happened a few times in my old camp days, like when they realized I had the ability to use charmspeak, but I'd made a point not to draw attention to myself while I was here. This hadn't happened for a while.

I saw a movement in the corner of my eye and turned to see Amorette. She too looked a little uneasy, but when she saw me, she smiled. But it wasn't a good smile, in fact, it was almost cruel. Her expression was the kind a person wore when they knew whatever was happening was going to cause you a lot of misery, and they were going to enjoy it.

"What's going on?" I asked hesitantly. "Why are you all staring at me?"

"This was in her hand." Celeste said stepping out of the crowd and gesturing towards the statue of our mother.

I looked down to see Celeste was holding out a small scroll.

It was held together by a ribbon of pink silk and a seal in the shape of a swan. Across the top, I saw my name had been written in elegant letters of gold.

My entire body went cold.

"What?" I asked weakly, feeling my heart rate increase. The only other time she'd sent me anything was when she sent me my daggers, but even then it had been on my birthday. Not just randomly out of the blue.

"What does this mean?" I heard someone whisper to Malcolm, but he shook his head, keeping his eyes fixed intently on me.

"Open it." He said quietly.

I didn't want to. I didn't want to see what she had written, or what she wanted me to do, because that was the only time my mother ever sent messages like this. With trembling fingers, I opened the scroll to see a short message in that same beautiful golden writing.

My dearest daughter

I have been more than patient

It is time you accepted your role

You know what you are

The time has come for you to choose

Will you love him?

Or will you break his heart?

You have 3 days to decide

Or the right of passage will be restored

I stared at the letter in horror, feeling my entire body shaking.

"What does it say?" someone called.

"Cali, read it out loud!"

But I couldn't. I felt the scroll slip between my fingers as my brain clouded in a distant sort of horror. As if my brain couldn't quite process the amount of fear that was coursing through me, but it was catching up quick.

I heard the scroll hit the floor, but it echoed as if it were very far away.

"Cali…?" Celeste said tentatively. "Are you ok?"

But I couldn't speak. I tried, but my body wouldn't work. I couldn't move, it had gone completely numb.

Malcolm picked up the scroll and his eyes went wide.

"No." he said quietly his voice a little desperate. "No that's not fair. She can't do this!"

"Do what?" several people chorused, but he too seemed too horrified to answer.

I knew why he was so upset.

The right of passage was an ancient, infamous tradition not just in our cabin, but for all children of Aphrodite, and it stated that all of the children who wished to gain favor with our mother, must make a person fall in love with them, then break their heart. It was one of the few traditions that existed before, and had survived through Camp Half Blood, but it had very recently died out after several heads of our Cabins refused to do it and banned the tradition.

After they felt safe enough that the right of passage was really gone, many of my siblings had entered long term committed relationships with people they genuinely cared about. Malcolm had been dating his girlfriend for almost three years, and now, if I didn't fall in love, or break Will's heart, he'd be forced to choose.

"Well." Amorette said scanning the letter after she'd snatched it out of Malcolm's hand and giving me a vicious smile. "Looks as if you're not exactly mommy's little angel any more are you Parker?" she asked.

"What does it say?" Celeste asked. We all could tell by Amorette's expression that she was loving the whole situation. I wouldn't have been surprised if she wanted the right of a passage to come back.

"She either has to fall in love with Will, or break his heart." She said her eyes gleaming cruelly. "And I think we all know what that means." She said with a twisted smile and a wicked laugh. "And if she's too much of a coward to face him, you're all screwed."

Wpov

Despite what most people thought, I wasn't oblivious to the fact that a fair amount of the girls at camp had crushes on me. I knew Cali thought I didn't understand girls due to how I handled everything that happened with Sadie, but I found that this assumption on her part was to my advantage. She thought I didn't know how to flirt, which meant unlike with any other boy who might try, if I flirted with Cali, she wouldn't get angry. She'd just assume I didn't know what I was doing. It was actually kind of adorable to see her reaction, I don't think I'd ever seen her so confused.

Over the next few days, I took my duties as an older camp member rather less seriously than in normally would have. I spent most of my time monopolizing Cali's, finding anyway I could to divert her attention to me and it was working. Instead of tutoring the younger campers in Greek, I'd convinced Cali to start teaching me French, when I was supposed to be checking inventory in the armory, I was actually helping her improve her skills with a sword, and while I usually ran training exercises in the arena, I'd let Ted take over for now. He was almost as experienced as I was and more than capable of conducting the training while I had other things on my mind.

"You're too open." I said walking up behind Cali and putting my hands on her shoulders then sliding them down to just above her elbow, forcing her arms closer together. "You keep forgetting you only have one weapon now. You don't have another blade to block an attack from the other side."

We were in the arena with several other camp members for weapons training, and while Cali was supposed to be training the younger campers with daggers and I was supposed to be training them with swords, again we'd let Ted take over. He, and pretty much everyone in camp besides Cali, had figured out why I was trying to spend so much time with her and though it meant more work for him he let me do it.

"Alright." She said allowing me to readjust her positioning and to continue my lesson.

"And your stance is too wide." I added putting my hands on her hips. "You're off balance."

"My stance is fine." She said pushing me hands away sounding flustered, her cheeks flushed.

"Really?" I said grinning, then I easily nudged the back of her knee with my foot. It gave way and she fell. Right before she hit the ground I caught her and easily picked her up.

"How's that working out for you?" I asked smirking down at her.

"Put me down." She said crossing her arms over her chest and glaring up at me.

"I can't think of a reason why I should." I said innocently.

"How about basic human decency?" she asked annoyed.

"Nah I don't think so. You're going to have to do something for me."

"I'm not doing anything." She said stubbornly.

"Then I'm not putting you down." I said shrugging.

"Fine. What do you want?"

"Teach how to say something else in French."

"Alright, what do you want to say?"

"I love you."

There was a silence. I hadn't planned to say it, it had just sort of come out, but I had to admit I was glad to finally out loud even if she didn't know I meant it.

"Why do you want to know that?" she asked looking away from me.

"Do I need a reason?"

"Je te aime." She said glancing up at me. Her eyes met mine and I felt my heart skip a beat. I felt the world around me dissolve in the way that only Cali could make it. My brain seemed to slow down, anything that didn't involve her just fell out of existence, it wasn't important. How was it possible for her to have this much of an effect on me without even trying? She didn't even know.

I set her down but I didn't let her go. My heart was pounding faster than it ever had in battle, things seemed to be moving simultaneously in slow motion and on fast forward at the same time. Nothing made sense, all I knew was that I felt as if a force stronger than gravity was pulling me towards her. I brushed her hair behind her ear and lifted her chin completely lost in her eyes. They were a color I'd never seen before, a warm, perfect blue-green.

At this point I'd abandoned rationality. Instinct had taken over and right as I'd made the decision to do what I realized I'd wanted from the moment I first saw her, I was brought back to earth by a loud clearing of the throat.

Cali and I both jumped and looked up. While most of the camp had seemed on board with the plan of giving me some space with Cali, there was only one problem.

"I'm sorry to interrupt." Amorette said lividly and I felt Cali step out of my hold. It felt as if a part of me had been separated from the rest of my body. "But aren't the two of you supposed to be helping us?"

Amorette was one of the worst fighters in camp. I knew she only went to training to flirt with boys, and while I'd always found it a little irritating, I'd never been felt as angry towards her as I did now.

"She's right." Cali said quietly, she wouldn't look at me.

"Cali-" I started but she shook her head and followed her sister towards the rest of the campers. All the time Amorette speaking to her in rapid French. I couldn't understand a word of it but I could tell from Amorette's tone that whatever she was saying was vicious. Cali didn't say anything in response. Her expression was blank, not a good sign.

The small number of Aphrodite siblings that come to the arena today had run to them and they were all arguing, still in French. Some were yelling at Amorette, others were trying to engage Cali who seemed to want to stay out of it.

They were attracting attention now, as the shouts escalated people forgot what they were doing to turn and look at the bickering siblings. Several of them were pointing at Cali now, others looking to her for what seemed like answers. Just as things were getting heated and weapons were being drawn, she snapped.

"Enough!" she shouted and even I could feel the power in her voice. Her voice rang through the arena which shook as if thunder had crashed right above it. Everyone froze.

"I don't give a damn about what she thinks!" She said so angrily that many of the younger campers, who'd never seen Cali's power before backed away in fear. "It's my choice to make. Alone."

She turned and stormed out of the arena leaving a stunned silence behind her.

Everyone turned towards the Aphrodite siblings but none of them made an effort to explain what had just happened. Not even Amorette seemed to want to talk about it.

"Cali!" I made to run after her, but she lost her temper.

"Leave me alone!" she shouted and I found myself rooted to the spot confused and unable to do anything but stare at her in a trance like state until she vanished from view and I was brought back to my senses.

It took me a second to figure out what had happened, but there was only one explanation. In her anger, her charmspeak had temporarily affected me for the first time.

I swore. That shouldn't have been possible. She must have been really angry if thing were getting this out of control.

I started to run after her, but felt someone hold me back.

"Don't."

I turned to see Malcolm, one of the older sons of Aphrodite, had put his hand on my shoulder. He looked worried, but he was one of the few of his lot that didn't look down right terrified.

"You'll just make it worse." He continued

"I know she's upset, but I can deal with it." I said trying to step out of his reach, but he didn't let go.

"Will." He started.

"Seriously, I can handle it." I said starting to get annoyed.

"No, you can't." he said darkly and I felt a flash of anger go through me. Did he really think I didn't know how to deal with Cali when she was upset?

"Look I know you think you know what she's capable of, and you probably know her better than most people in camp, and some of us even," he said gesturing towards his cabin mates. "But trust me. You've never seen her out of control. You might have seen her angry," he said quickly when he noticed me about to interrupt. "But you've never seen her like this and you won't like what you find."

"I don't care." I said stubbornly pulling away from him and walking towards the exit. Did he really think seeing her lose her temper would change how I felt about her? I'd seen it before plenty of times.

"Will." He started again chasing after me but I waved him off.

"Just listen to me!" he shouted finally catching me just partly outside the arena. Celeste had come too.

"Look we know what you're thinking." Celeste said quietly but Malcolm took the more direct approach.

"We know you're in love with her." He said and I stopped. "But the girl who left the stadium. That's not Cali."

"What are you talking about?" I asked confused and turning to look at them.

They looked at each other for a second, as if they weren't exactly sure that they should be telling me what they were about to say, but eventually Celeste continued.

"There's a legend in our Cabin." She started. "About a certain children of Aphrodite, some of our siblings, whose beauty and power go beyond the rest. Its rumored they pop up ever few centuries or so and no one's really sure why, some think it's because they're born to a jilted lover, or because the father cheated on our mother, but the actual legend say that these children are born when Aphrodite is unhappy with the state of love in the world. So if people stop believing in it or start abusing it or forgetting about it's power that sort of thing. This child or children over time have sort of gained a sense of infamy in our family. Again the stories vary but apparently they're supposed to use their power to spread true love and revive people's faith in it. All the stories agree however on one thing."

"What is that?" I asked wondering where she was going with this.

"There's one specific power that marks them in each generation. It's given exclusive to them and sometimes isn't seen for decades, even centuries sometimes." Celeste continued gravely. "That's why no one believed in the legend until recently. We've never seen it in the modern world. No one's had it or even been rumored to have it for centuries until Cali came to camp."

"What's the power?"

"It's said that their purpose in this world is to revive faith in love," she continued. "But that's not all they're meant to do. They're supposed to punish those who abuse it as well, or insult our mother. To do that, they need a power that can really get people's attention."

"You're still not telling me." I said in frustration

Celeste opened her mouth, but was apparently too horrified to speak. Tears filled her eyes and Malcolm took over.

"When she's angry enough, Cali has the power to permanently take away a person's ability to love."

There was a full minute of silence between us.

"What?" I asked blankly.

"You know what you heard." Malcolm said quietly, his expression dark as if he'd uttered something shameful, indecent. "I'm not repeating it."

"No." I said shaking my head.

There was no way this was possible. They had to be making this up, why I wasn't sure, but I knew this had to be some sort of horrible joke they were playing on me. There was no way Cali had the power to take away someone's ability to love. It just wasn't right. No demigod, not even Cali, could be that powerful. You couldn't just take an emotion.

"I know you guys can manipulate feelings and cause infatuation or crushes but," I hesitated. "But none of you can actually fabricate or destroy love, everyone knows that. Otherwise, well, what's separating you from the actual goddess Aphrodite? There's no way this person can exist. You're being stupid."

But even as I assured myself of this, I looked around at the faces of her siblings, and icy fear seemed to flood through my body as the realization hit me. Celeste wasn't lying. She was telling the truth.

"Cali, can." Malcolm said bitterly as tears sparkled in Celeste's eyes. "It's why we all do what she says, none of our siblings have ever had that power, not one that we've met anyways. Mom wouldn't have given it to her without a purpose."

"Think about it Will." Celeste said quietly. "Why do you think the people who Cali set up are still going out, even though it was so many years ago? Think how much more powerful she is than any of us. And just look at her. Do you really think it's possible for a regular mortal, demigod or not, too look like she does?"

"But she can't be-"

"She is." Malcolm said flatly. "And the sooner you accept it, the sooner you can get back to helping her. If you still want to."

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked angrily.

"Being close to Cali is dangerous." He said matter of factly. "Especially now that you know what she is."

"She's Cali." I said my temper rising.

"Not when she's like this." He said his tone firm. "When she's angry like this, she's more like an instrument of our mother's wrath. Trust me, you don't want to get in the way of that."

I remembered how horrible it felt when Aphrodite had been just a little angry with me after I disrespected her and privately agreed with Malcolm. I didn't want to be facing her fury if I could avoid it.

"What set the Goddess off?" I asked wondering what on earth could have happened in the few days since I'd last seen her that could have gone so wrong.

"Actually it was Cali herself I think." Malcolm said. "Our mother wanted her to finally face up to what she was."

Celeste looked at him and I had a feeling they weren't telling me something, but I more pressing matters to worry about.

"How long have you known this?" I asked feeling as if I'd been punched in the head by a Cyclopes and was still reeling from the blow.

"We found out not long after her charmspeak developed." Celeste said the tears finally spilling down her cheeks. "None of us knew why she was so good at making couples, or why they lasted so long when she was so young, but this was back when she still believed in love. So we just thought she had a talent for it, even by our standards, but then one summer, a boy from the Ares cabin had been dating several girls at once, and was using them all saying that he loved them just to prove he could break anyone's heart. He went around talking about how Aphrodite was the weakest of all the gods, and her power was essentially useless. She was so angry anyone could be so disrespectful to our mother and the idea of love, she said he didn't deserve to feel it, ever. And she said she was going to take it away from him." Her voice trembled. "No one took her seriously, we thought she was just getting carried away with the legend we'd all heard and we were just as angry as she was. And when she went to go confront him, we thought she was just going to make him do something humiliating by using her charmspeak but-" she broke off apparently unable to continue and Malcolm took over.

"They found him that night running in the woods trying to get himself killed by one of the monsters in there. Most everyone in camp thought it was just a prank, but what Cali had done to him had driven him insane. A few days later he was sent on a mission and never came back. His team mates said when they were attacked by monsters, he didn't even put up a fight."

"And she blames herself." I said quietly.

They nodded and something in the back of my mind stirred. Someone who'd been driven insane by the removal of love.

"Her father." I said looking at them feeling my eyes go wide. "She didn't…"

Malcolm grimaced and Celeste nodded.

"We didn't know much about that incident." She said her voice shaking a little. "All we know was that it was an accident and he's still alive. She said something about getting into an argument, and it just sort of happened. She must have tried to put a stop to it however when she realized what was going on, because the effects weren't nearly as drastic. But that's how we know it was permanent. She couldn't fix him but at least he can function. After Cali was through with Justin however..."

"That's why she never left him." I said more to myself than the others. "And that's why you didn't want me following her. You're afraid she's going to lose control again and do it to me?"

They nodded.

"So what, you're just going to leave her?" I asked them in disgust.

"What are we supposed to do?" Malcolm asked defiantly. "It's not like we can do anything until she calms down, and even then if we bring it up she's just going to get angry again."

"She's your sister. You can't just let her deal with something like this on her own!" I said incredulously. I finally understood what Cali meant when she said she was alone because she was right. The second something major came her way, they all abandoned her and forced her to fend for herself.

"You've heard what she did to Justin." Malcolm said obviously trying to stay calm. "You've seen what she's done to her father. What do you think is going to happen to you if you go barging in there when she's out of control huh? You think just because you care about her you'll be protected?" he laughed bitterly. "If so then you're an idiot Will. No one is safe when she gets like this. Not even her family."

"It doesn't matter if it's safe or not." I said furiously. "You're her brother and sister, you're supposed to care about her."

"We do." Celeste said looking mortified.

"Then why have you let things with her get this bad?" I asked. "Why have none of you chosen to help?"

"She told us she didn't want it."

"Yeah well, Cali lies." I said still so angry I was shaking. "But you should have helped her anyways. That's what you're supposed to do and you're cowards if you don't."

"Where are you going?" Malcolm asked as I turned and walked towards the Cabins.

"To talk to Cali." I said stiffly.

"Are you really that stupid?" he shouted after me.

"Let him go." Celeste said.

"You can't be serious." Malcolm said indignantly. "He's going to get himself killed!"

"Maybe." She said. Her voice was almost out of ear shot now, but the last thing I heard her say ways. "But he's right."