There was nothing exciting about it but Nico looked forward to going to the strawberry fields with Bronte every day, even when she was the only one there. Especially so.

The warmth of the sun, the breeze coming off the nearby Sound, the smell of fresh berries and freshly tilled soil; Nico couldn't describe exactly what he was feeling but he didn't want it to go away.

Nero had tattooed his name along the inside of her arm. Nico felt disgusted. He might not have lived in the tower but he knew what it meant. It was stylized, intricate, and sickening; exactly the sort of thing Nero was rumored to have done. So Nico pushed back.

"There will always be demigods like us," he explained to her. "Always. The only thing we can do is find each other. You're more than what they say you are."

He left the fields feeling completely tapped out and nearly collapsed into his bunk in the Apollo cabin. "Dude, what are you doing," Jerry said, staring at Nico, dumbfounded. He was standing by his bunk, unpacking a suitcase.

Nico had gotten so comfortable sleeping in the Apollo cabin that he forgot that the older campers might not feel the same. Jerry had been a child of Apollo all his life and wouldn't understand how it felt to become one. "Chiron says it's a trust building exercise," Nico said. Jerry clearly wanted more information but Nico didn't care.

And why shouldn't you? You're a healer too, Kronos whispered. It wouldn't serve any purpose going back to the Hades cabin now. It always felt hollow regardless of the decor.

What if I am the son of Hades and Apollo both? He didn't feel like it could be; it just was. It was deeper than his relationship with Will, stretching all the way back to the first Great Prophecy and the destruction that followed.

So he wasn't surprised when it happened a few seconds later. The glow didn't come from within, like it was for Will, everything around Nico lit up with a soft golden light. It rippled like water off his environment and flowed into him.

"I guess I can't argue with that," Jerry said. Nico couldn't read the look he was getting; it just wasn't suspicion.

Everything changed at dinner. Jerry told everyone that Apollo claimed me. But I wasn't angry with Jerry. It felt weird. It felt like home. They were all talking about me and it wasn't because I had done something wrong.

I felt closer to Will than ever but now I had siblings again. I didn't understand it but the idea of Kronos as a friend to demigods was taking hold and I was feeling it happen. It didn't feel like an idea anymore.

I had no fear; I was a son of Apollo. I became one by defeating Olympus. I didn't have to be Luke to get here.

I met Will on the beach that night. "I met your dad just now," he said to me. I read his expression; he didn't seem too shaken up. "He said he approved." I knew my dad. That was the best we could have hoped for.

I didn't see Cupid but my heart was pierced anew.

We were both the result of 90 years of misery and chaos. Despite it all, we found each other and came together.

But I couldn't forget the dark. "Nero branded the girl who I've been working with. I've seen some things Will but that is just-" I was so angry all of a sudden. "He took his time doing it too. He wanted her to always know where she belonged and who she belonged to!"

"She has you," he promised me.