Leaneira had summer school.

It was embarrassing as it was infuriating, and it was so damn relieving because Lea was not about to repeat a grade. And sure, she was a little worried about Percy since the trip to the museum that she had not been allowed to go on since she had in-school suspension. It was like only he and her remembered Mrs. Dodd who looked at them as if they were dead walking the earth.

She wasn't comfortable with the idea of sending him off alone even if it were just to their Mom's apartment. They were not crazy. At all. But still; sending him off while they were being gaslighted by the entire faculty—see, Mr. Burt, Lea does pay attention in class—to spend the summer with Gabe?

He just had to say the word and she would find a way to get him stuck there with her for the summer.

Percy waved away her concern though. If anything, he was trying to get her to ditch it. It wasn't like she was going to be back the next year since her name had been printed right alongside his on that pretty cream-colored expulsion letter.

She was not the one to call the teacher an old sod. She had only said that she understood what people meant when they said God doesn't like ugly.

But they were being kind to let her make up her work from when she was placed in protective care within her dorm room after Mr. Brunner had testified to seeing someone stalk her on school grounds. He didn't mention her not-soulmate, but some creepy old hag that put a nest of poisonous snakes in her backpack.

Lea was sure she had screamed loud enough to crack glass when she opened her bag to see the reptiles.

They caught her quickly enough, learned that she wasn't working alone while Lea was trying to figure out what the hell she did to piss off the demonic grandmothers. Did she not help them across the street? Refused one of their oatmeal cookies?

They lived in New York, clearly, they saw worse things than a preteen girl just trying to survive middle school.

And when the day ended, she hugged Trent and Medea goodbye as they were going across the country to visit their summer home like the little nepo babies they were. She promised to write and try to call Percy as much as she could before summer school ended and she could go home.

Then she was left by herself at the school, no friends with the other little delinquents and troublemakers that had gotten saddled with extra courses.

Woo-hoo!

The days passed by quickly. She was a little frustrated with the makeup work, but she was also relieved that she had unlimited access to the teachers' attention so that way she wasn't struggling in silence. Things were a lot easier when the letters weren't doing the tango across the page.

And one of her more favored teachers, Ms. Renae, showed her a few tips to utilize for her adhd and some dyslexia friendly worksheets. Lea could have cried.

And then—

And then June Ninth as she was coming out of the library, her breast lit with a flame as she caught sight of those bright eyes once. He moved towards her, and like the girls in the old greek stories, she took off down the halls.

She swore she heard the shadows laughing as the sound of her pounding feet echoed from the walls.

"Run. Run as fast you can."

It was when she caught sight of the police cars outside of the building did, she slow to a stop. Her heart beated furiously in her chest and yet—the fear she felt had not abated. In fact, it seemingly grew in strength, dread clinging to her like chains when she saw Gabe approach the doors.

She stood frozen in place because she only thought of why—why would Gabe appear? He—Her mother didn't—where was her Mom—where was her brother—what was going on? Even the cold burning of her soulmark couldn't pull her out of the daze that she fell in when she was led into the office.

Her mother and brother were missing.

Leaneira was led out of the school in a daze. Gabe had a comforting hand on her shoulder that she knew was only for the cameras that were posted outside of the school. The police boxed them in, doing their best to keep her face covered since she was still just a minor.

And when she got home, she locked herself in her and Percy's "room" that still stunk of Gabe's cigarettes and crusty socks and Lea cried.


Those eyes were waiting for her in that strange dark land. She really wasn't interested in doing this, long having grown tired of dodging him in and outside of her mind so—

"Can we please just give it a rest today," Lea all but begged. "Please." She wanted dreams of her Mother and brother, happy dreams as few as they are, but happy, nonetheless. He stepped closer to her, and she took note of the way his green eyes seemingly glowed in the darkness.

"You seem tense," he mused. "Sleep should be relaxing… it should be heart-delighting and glorious."

"Funny," Lea raised a brow, confidence she hadn't felt since he first started watching her washing over her. "I haven't had that since you started stalking me."

"Stalking," he mused, a mocking smile on his lips. "I believe it's better known as known as making an observation."

"Oh?" She snorted. "What's your hypothesis?"

"I haven't tested it yet," he told her before turning his head as light gathered around them. Her brows furrowed as the light morphed into the image of Mr. Brunner if he was in one of his battle reenactments. The light spread around them, casting a glow until she was staring at a bunch of kneeling black-winged things in bedsheets. Their eyes were focused above her head, and she chanced a glance above to see the image of a three-pronged fishing spear—a trident—or a pitchfork, probably a pitchfork, gleaming a pretty blue-greenish color.

"It has been determined," the boy muttered.

"What has be—" Words dying in her throat, Lea turned back to him to see that he had changed into bed sheets too. Well, it was more like a cloak draped over his left shoulder, showing off enough skin that her cheeks immediately went aflame.

"Eathshaker—"

He was way too pretty—like there was no way he could be human. That's how pretty he was. She could almost—almost — believe that the gods walked the earth because he was definitely a god amongst men. There were pieces of gold that shone through his dark hair like wings on a headband.

"Stormbreaker—"

And he was—

"Father of Horses."

What.

He was—

He was carrying a staff, a brilliant gold, with two snakes weaving around it. Shepherd's pipes hung around his neck.

"Hail Leaneíras Halosydnê Jackson"

Her mark burned.

Lea stumbled back. That name— it was almost her middle name. Her Mom had said she was going to give her and Percy second names but decided against it. How did he—

A glow started to radiate from his own chest.

"Daughter of the Sea God."

"What?" He moved the cloak to the side, the same foreign symbols that decorated her chest kissed his own skin. She was able to tell that they were different from the ones that she pretended was a pretty, rebellious tattoo.

"Λεανείρας Ἁλοσυδνη," he muttered, and Lea did not like the feeling that rushed through her at the foreign language of what she instinctively knew to be her name. And yet that second part—it didn't feel like "Jackson", but it still felt right.

"A part of me wished it to be different, psichí mou," he said. "And yet, it's understandable. For I am a child of the heavens and a God of the netherworld."

"God?" Lea laughed nervously. "I don't even believe in God."

She was no theist or deist and any other -ist that wasn't atheist. She wasn't even agnostic. She didn't even believe in science—that crap changed too much to be believed as fact!

"You will," he told her as he stepped closer. She tried to move away but found herself stuck in place. Cradling her face with his hand, he leaned closer into her space. "And I am your God."


Leaneira had the worst luck.

She had a stalker for a soulmate.

A missing Mother.

A twin brother that was backpacking across the United States with some blonde girl and Grover of all people. (She knew something was wrong with that boy. He was always so shifty, but she never said anything because she thought it had something to do with his disability. Lea didn't have much of a filter, but she drew the line at making fun of disabled people.)

She had a stalker with delusions of grandeur for a soulmate.

Her stepfather was a creep, and slipped her $20 every time she cried on demand for national television. (She was definitely saving that for emancipation as soon as she was able to if she was forced to stay with him.)

Her whole life was a lie, but well, that was life.

She had a stalker that was currently perched outside of her bedroom window.

There was no ledge outside for him to be there.

No… she was not dealing with this. Not while her family was tearing itself apart. Walking over to her bed, she flopped down and stared at the ceiling. She had already stolen some of Gabe's coffee. She was not taking any chances.

Humans can go 11 consecutive days without sleep with day three or four bringing forth hallucinations. According to the megalomaniac whose name was printed on her skin, she apparently wasn't even fully human so she could probably push that even further.

And then he started doing things—

Gabe's stench was washed away out of the room leaving nothing but the smell of fresh strawberries. There were pretty purple flowers that lined her windowsills that a quick google search named as krocus flowers.

There were new clothes lining her closet that mixed in with her own clothes that all looked as if they had been sent to the dry cleaners. All of them were folded carefully in her drawers with a nice woodsy scent like the scent of fresh rain in the forest.

There were books in that foreign language that graced her skin alongside a translator key and suddenly, the dyslexia that she had faced for most of her life had eased into something bearable. The letters still moved funny especially once she realized that some letters were shapes, but it was easy, and Lea hadn't taken any medicine for her migraines and the first time she read a complete sentence without having to force the letters in place she cried and—and— and suddenly she could believe the people on the online forums that said dyslexia got easier with time and more patience than she actually had. She felt hope. And she no longer felt like a freak and that something was wrong with her.

Lea never realized that she suffered from so much internalized ableism and self-doubt, but she felt better than she had in years.

And sure, it was thanks to her soulmate but again, he was also her stalker trying to trick her into some sort of stockholm syndrome situation. Jokes on him, Lea was not falling for it.

A familiar bag plopped itself down on her desk, and Lea pursed her lips.

A quick peek showed the familiar waffle fries and chicken club sandwich—her order whenever they had money to spare.

Lea shouldn't eat it.

She wouldn't.

It was probably drugged.

And wasn't the CEO homophobic? Lea knew she liked boys and girls were pretty; she got a little confused whenever someone claimed to identify as another gender, but it wasn't any of her business and she did her best to use their preferred names and pronouns. She tried to be an ally? — she thinks that's the word. Yeah, she tried to be that, so she shouldn't support the food from the haters.

She'd just fix something quick—like chicken noodle soup! Lea may be hopeless in the kitchen, but she could fix soup.

"Hey kid," she heard Gabe call through the door. "We're out of food until I go to the store. Don't die."

"There isn't any soup?" she yelled back.

"Nope," her stepfather said. "Ate the last one this morning."

And then she was the only one at home since Gabe was scheduled for another interview and "was going to go into work" — an excuse to draw more sympathy from the people.

Lea huffed, turning back to the books that were on her bedside table. She skipped past the books on greek mythology and a learn-about-the-gods for dummies, but something stayed her hand.

The name on one of those books looked intimately familiar. So familiar that she had been finding herself tracing the lettering the past few days, taking note of the rise and fall of the lines and how it blended so natural with her skin.

While Gabe knew that she had her mark, the media did not know, so she never had to worry about any questions dealing with her soulmark. As far as the media was concerned, she was nonbinary? — and she would not receive her mark until she was eighteen — an excuse that she liked to play up even if her Mother had paled and been quick to get her some numbing cream and slap a bandage over it.

(And if her soulmate was to be believed, which he was not! — there was a good chance her Mother already knew about the gods which made her need to convert Lea into hellenism a lot more understandable.)

None of that was important though. What mattered—truly— were the letters in greek that spelled a name that was nothing short of impossible.

It had to be—

Lea did not believe in soulmates, and she didn't believe in gods.

And yet—

"Do you believe me now," that voice so familiar—so ethereal—so there—whispered into the shell of her ear. The book slipped from her hands while a scream caught in her throat. He gently placed the book back on the table, sweeping hair from her head. "You should eat, latria mu."

His eyes were too green to be human.

But he wasn't— human that is.

Oh.

Oh, wow.

Gods were real?

His arm wrapped around her waist just as her knees buckled. He looked too calm for someone that had just ripped the fabric of reality as she knew it.

It was not possible.

There had to be an explanation—science? — Lea didn't believe in that either, but surely, there was a possible explanation.

Aliens? It was probably aliens.

Lea could do aliens. An infinite number of galaxies in the cosmos — humans weren't that important to be the only ones in the universe. Heck, they weren't even the only ones on their own planet — evident in the way that the gods were apparently still walking the earth.

(If this was another life and her worldview wasn't being completely ripped to shreds, recycled, upcycled, and ripped to shreds again—she would have smug to know that she was mated to a god. Lea had always known that she was the best thing to walk the earth since the gods had walked the earth — except they still do so clearly, she needed to work on her similes. … That was a simile, right? No wonder she wasn't passing language arts.)

"Leaneíras?"

The strap of her shirt slipped down her arm, and those letters glared at her. She should have kept the bandage over it but— the letters were exactly like the ones that were printed in that book.

Her eyes—green as the sea— "Daughter of the Sea God" — looked into his own.

"Leaneíras?"

He was dragging her through the room, pulling her to the front door—something buzzed over her skin when he opened it, and she was pulled down the back staircase.

"Hermês, what do you—who is this?" Another voice questioned.

"She is half my soul," the god—gods were real! — said.

"Father is going to kill you," that voice replied, almost musical in nature. "The barrier won't keep her out since she is one especially since she is yours and his." It was soft and light like a lullaby and Lea struggled against it as the world

T

I

L

T

E

D

L

E

F

T.

There was a weird camp and an overwhelming scent of strawberries and pine and a huge christmas tree.

Lea only had enough strength to see Mr. Brunner's face and two more impossibly pretty people around her as her soulmate held her in his arms.

"Don't go to sleep, Leaneíras."

Their marks, twins in creation, burned across their skins. Lea found herself falling quickly into the darkened world of sleep and somehow— she still managed to say, "Ermis."

And then she collapsed.