PERCY'S POV

During the remainder of the campfire all I could think about is how I just hugged a demi-god that was basically Ares's granddaughter. (Eros is the son of Ares and Aphrodite btw)

Meaning I just made physical contact with the first Eros kid at camp. For some reason I liked that hug, I wasn't sure if it was because I could feel her uncomfortableness or because she used her love god powers on me. Scarlet was the first girl that I hugged in I don't even know how long, Probably since before Annabeth and I had broken up six months ago. Annabeth and I had a mutual break up, I think she was dating Piper from the Aphrodite cabin now but I wasn't sure.

The look on Scarlet's face when she realized she'd just been claimed by Eros kinda made me feel bad for her. I mean yeah she was annoying but did seem like an Eros kid, I definitely wouldn't try to be friends with her now, She was probably gonna curse me with whatever powers she had, if Aphrodite's kids had charmspeak I did even want to know what Scarlet could do, and her godly parent's dad hates me. It would be worse than Annabeth and I's situation, you know with our parents not liking each other. But this was way worse because the literal God of love, Scarlet's father, I'm pretty sure hated me because I fought his dad and I never had the best luck in the love department.

That night I hardly got any sleep. I kept thinking about the things Eros would do to me under the influence of Ares because I hugged his daughter. I had one dream where I had to relive the fight with Ares except I lost, never got Hades Helm and my mom died at the hands of Hades. After that I went out to the beach. I always felt safer there, more calm and collected. I had decided to stay there year-round this year especially because the war ended just over a year ago. I had somehow got trapped in the lotus casino again while celebrating just after the war at 16. I thought I was only there a few hours but it ended up being a whole year, so I'm still technically 16, I will be 17 in about 5 months.

Despite my best efforts my brain kept wandering back to scarlet, maybe Eros did like me and was trying me to get with his daughter or he just was clouding my head because he wanted to torcher me even more. The ocean was supposed to help me clear my thoughts, but my head was clear. The only thoughts were of her, where they were nice or not it was only her.

I tried to sleep. This time I had no nightmares which is even more scary than having them. Being a demi-god I always had dreams, visions, or nightmares. The fact I didn't have any was nothing probably wasn't a good thing.

The next day was pretty normal except I saw Nico Di Angelo and Scarlet Fucking Sinclair walking together. Not only was she friends with one of my friends but it had to be nico. I had spent years trying to get that kid to talk to me and she did it in one day. Could she get any more annoying? I think they noticed me staring at them because they started to walk over.

"Hey, percy" scarlet said "did you want to come hang out with us or something?'

"What? With you, no." I relayed harshly

"Dude chill i just a question" nico said lowly

"Yea chill," she looked at me. "I was trying to be nice but whatever."

As they walked away I couldn't help but wonder what they were doing. For some reason I had this strange urge to run after them but didn't. I couldn't get caught with a child even kinda related to Ares, Clarisse and her dad would beat me up so fast and to be honest I don't think I would win. Even if gods technetly don't have DNA he would still probably use it as an excuse to strike me down.

I went to sword training and you could have ever guessed I saw there… Scarlet Sinclair and was that… annabeth? Also didn't Scarlet do archery? They were sword fighting and Annabeth seemed to be winning but Scarlet was doing really well for a first timer. Annabeth eventually disarmed her and she surrendered once the dagger was to her throat.

Scarlet put her hand in the air "You got me chase, you win" she said slowly with a dagger to her throat. They shook hands and did some stretches. I guessed I was still watching because when it snapped out of the trance I was in, the scarlet was standing in front of me and saying something I couldn't understand.

"What do you want Sinclair?" I finally spit out.

"What do I want? You were the one staring at me for the second time today, Jackson" she replied

"Yeah whatever, what were you saying?" I was trying to change the subject

"I asked if you wanted to try me since you were staring" she said trying to hide the smirk on her face.

"Yeah I would actually" I sounded kinda cocky, but I was the best sword fighter at camp so I had good reason.

"Perfect" She walked to an empty spot in the field. I pulled out the riptide and followed.

Our sword cashed for a few minutes, usually I would have disarmed my opponent by now but Scarlet was still holding up. For a demi-god whose godly parent used a bow and arrow she did really well with a sword. If I didn't already know her I would have guessed she was training for at least a year but no it was her first day. I took a step back and tried to disarm her once more this time it actually worked. It felt a little easy though but I didn't question it for too long. I thought she was probably just giving up, how wrong I was. The small crowd of demi-gods that had gathered around us let out a collective gasp. I pointed riptide at her neck as she knelt down to grab her sword.

"Surrender?" I asked while smiling. Scarlet just laughed. I stood there frozen for a moment, did she just laugh at me while I had a sword to her throat? It took me to recover from the shock,

although when she laughed at me it made me feel all fuzzy inside. Was she using her love powers on me? She took that time to grab her sword and disarm me, which shocked, impressed, and angered me all at the same. The smile that was previously on my face quickly faded as she pressed her sword right against my chin so I couldn't kneel down and grab the riptide. The demi-gods around us were completely silent now.

"No, but do you?" she said with the same smile I had on my face. I felt so embarrassed this was the first time in a long time I lost at sword practice, yet I found myself surrendering to her.

"Good." she move her sword from my chin keeping her eyes on my while I put riptide back into pen form "Good game, Jackson"

"Yeah whatever" I said , avoiding her gaze.