"Now it's your turn," He says.

When she doesn't move, he bends down to her level and gives her a gentle smile.

"There's no need to be scared. It'll go quickly. Like a lightning strike. And, once it's over, you'll feel stronger than ever."

Julie is nervous. He seems to find it endearing. Blonde hair swaying in the ocean breeze, scar gleaming pink in the sun, he takes her by the shoulders and steers her in front of him.

"You can do it, Juliette. I believe in you."

Big, innocent eyes watch them as he guides her to approach. There's a hand on her back, another on her upper arm, and breath tickling the shell of her ear as he coos encouragements over her shoulder.

"You're so strong. I know you can do it. Don't you want to make me proud?"

She nods, and his scar brushes against her cheek when he smiles in satisfaction.

"Good. Then, just one clean swipe, and you'll have earned your place here. With me."

He steps away from her, and all Juliette can smell is salt. The knife is heavy in her tiny hands. Her thin arms shake as she fights to keep it extended.

She hears him shuffle impatiently behind her. It makes a flash of fear jolt through her chest.

Please, don't give up on me.

She forgets to close her eyes when she slashes the knife down. The blood of the hippocampus is green on her pale fingers.

Green becomes her least favorite color after that.

Juliette wakes up in a cold sweat more often than not these days. So does most of the crew. Like the true band of besties they are, they've gotten pretty good at recognizing each other's rougher mornings.

Which is why no one gives Juliette too much grief when she lumbers into the dining hall half an hour late and still in her Powerpuff Girl pajama shorts. Announcing her presence with an obnoxiously loud yawn, she shoots the already fully assembled group a half-assed little wave and pads over to their usual meeting table, aiming for the empty seat kept strategically between Nico and a very uncomfortable looking Jason.

"G'morning," Julie mumbles.

"Nice of you to join us," snorts Leo. "Nice shirt."

She glances down at her pink and white 'will harm men for chocolate 3' crop top. It stirs conflicting feelings in her chest. She sighs.

"Thanks. Percy has a matching one." She bends down to drop a kiss on Jason's cheek before settling into her seat. "What'd I miss?"

"Nothing yet," answers Jason. "We figured we ought to wait for you."

"Oh, you guys," Julie says wistfully, bringing her hands to her cheeks. "You waited? For me? To talk about all the boring planning? You really know how to make a girl feel special."

"Hey, if we've gotta suffer, so do you. You ain't special," Leo replies, pointing his fork at her for emphasis.

Juliette huffs and turns her attention to Nico, who's staring straight ahead at the projection of Zeus' Fist and pretending the rest of them don't exist. She nudges his arm with her elbow. He doesn't look at her, but his hand does slide over to pass her a full cup of coffee, already made up the way Julie likes it.

She beams at him and starts chugging.

"So," Jason begins, back straight and fingers laced on the table. "Now, that we're all here, some new information has come to light concerning our expedition to the House of Hades," He looks to Julie's other side expectantly and clears his throat. "Nico?"

The son of Hades sits forward with a solemn frown. "I communed with the dead last night. I was able to learn more about what we'll face."

He goes on to explain the history of the place - the rituals Greek pilgrims would do there and the poisons they'd have to drink. Julie vaguely registers Hazel and Leo talking about some big bad shadowy guy they'll probably end up having to fight. Honestly, she gets a little distracted chowing down on jam and toast and trying to goad her overly professional boyfriend into playing footsie with her under the table. Jason eventually ends up planting both of his feet onto hers to prevent her from continuing, but she does manage to get his scar to twitch into the beginnings of a barely restrained smile.

Mission accomplished. She can tune back into...whatever it is they're discussing now.

Or, she can make an excuse to escape back to the infirmary for a while. Julie still has a boat load of shelves to put back together after one of the mountain gods they passed played target practice with some boulders and the starboard side of the Argo II.

Did she remember to put the ambrosia back in the refrigerator? It was pretty late...Yeah, she probably did. But, did she? Maybe she really should go chec- Oh, shoot, someone just said her name. Gotta act like she was paying attention, oh shoot ohshootohshoot-

"I agree with Piper," She states, face neutral.

Hazel, who was the one addressing her, purses her lips. "Piper isn't here, Julie. She's on watch."

Oh.

She looks to Nico for help. He's still staring at the wall, but she can see the corner of his mouth twitching in amusement. Friggen traitor.

Maybe Jason will help her. Yeah, she'll look at him with puppy dog eyes, and he'll- nope, he looks annoyed. Well, crap. Better just own up to it.

"I wasn't listening," She admits, cringing. "What did you ask me?"

Hazel pinches the bridge of her nose as Leo and Frank snicker on either side of her. She sighs, collects herself, and looks back up at Julie's gleaming, innocent smile. "I asked if it's true that Heartbreaks are immune to poisons."

Julie blinks. "Oh...Uh...Y'know, I've never actually-"

"Just sit still, squirt. Haven't you ever gotten a shot before? Just one little prick, okay?"

The memory hits her so hard she gets nauseous. Her piece of toast drops from her fingers back onto the plate.

A hand brushes against Julie's thigh, squeezing her knee comfortingly, and the sensation pulls her gently back into herself. With a deep breath, she flashes Jason a shaken, but grateful smile and turns back to Hazel.

"Yeah. I think it's true."

Hazel nods with a frown. "Alright. I don't suppose you'd want to test it?"

"You're doing so well. Pain is power, Julie. Your fever is breaking already. The immunity must be taking hold."

"I very much would not like to test it," Julie says quickly. She squeezes her eyes shut.

There's a moment of awkward silence. Jason's hand leaves her knee to lace his fingers with hers, and she reluctantly peeks a lid open to look at him. He looks concerned. There's a pang of guilt in her chest from his expression, so she forces on a smile and rolls her shoulders back into the appearance of relaxation.

"Is there a reason you're itching to poison me, Levesque?" Julie teases. "Don't think you can take me womano a womano?"

"Yeah, that's just not actual Spanish," deadpans Leo. "You can't just add '-o' to the end of an English word and pretend it's Spanish."

"I'm gonna be honest with you, I didn't even know that phrase was in another language."

"What did you think it was?"

"I dunno? Made up words?"

"Well, technically all words are made up-"

"Alright, you two cannot be kept in the same room as each other," Jason interrupts with a sigh. "One of you leave so we can be productive."

Julie shoots out of her seat. "Dibbs!"

Leo whines loudly. "But, you just got here!"

"And, now I'm leaving!"

"That's not fair at all."

"Call dibbs next time, then," Julie smirks. She turns to give Jason another peck on the cheek. "I need to go get dressed, anyway. See you guys!"

They all mumble a chorus of farewells as Juliette heads for the door. She cannot handle these early morning meetings. She really did not think about what she was signing up for in falling in love with a soldier, did she?

Yawning and stretching the whole way back to her room, Julie's mind wanders to her dream from this morning. She shudders at a flash of the disembodied, far too white smile her brain conjures up.

Gods, it's been so long since she's even thought about everything that happened back then. Honestly, she'd finally managed to forget most of it. Why is she remembering it all?

Why now?

She huffs a breath when she reaches the door to her quarters. Raking her eyes across the roses and aster blossoms painted across the border, Julie decides to push away those thoughts for now. They've all got more important things to worry about. They've all got childhood trauma. Julie's is hardly special, and it's certainly not the worst.

With a newfound determination to make this morning a positive one, Julie pushes open the door to her room.

She and the tiny, crooked toothed creature with its hands buried in her jewelry box both freeze and stare at one another in surprise.

"Well, how was I supposed to know it was one of the dwarves we were looking for?"

"Well, you would've if you were paying attention at the meeting," Jason sighs.

Juliette cringes. "Okay, well..." She tilts her head, surveying the ice-sculpture dwarf frozen mid-leap off of her bed. "In my defense, it came after me first."

"It's the size of a chihuahua."

"But, have you seen those teeth? I wasn't about to let it breathe on me."

Jason rolls his eyes and rubs at them in exasperation, but Julie thinks she can see some well hidden amusement in that frown of his. He strides forward and picks up her new piece of modern art off of the bed and hoists it over his shoulder. "Leo and I are going to go try to get our guidance system back. I'll get him to thaw the dwarf out, and hopefully that'll make them not try and murder us on site."

Julie rocks on her heels, giving him an innocent, 'how could you be mad at this face?' smile. "Maybe you can use it as a hostage? Really make sure you get our stuff back?"

Jason looks at her tiredly. "Somehow, I don't think that's going to be effective, seeing as a hostage typically needs to be in healthy condition."

"Have I told you how incredibly handsome you are lately?"

"Flattery isn't getting you out of stable duty, Aster. The vote was unanimous."

Julie pouts, and he finally chuckles and shakes his head fondly. He leans down for a quick kiss and turns for the door. "Maybe go check on Piper. Leo found her duct taped to the helm, and I think she's pretty embarrassed."

Julie's jaw drops, excitement sparking in her eyes.

"She got duct taped? Oh, if she isn't already embarrassed, she's about to be."

"We're going to Venice next. That's your hometown, right?" Julie asks, hanging upside down from one of the lower levels of rigging.

Nico glances at her and then goes back to staring out at the afternoon sky. "Technically."

Julie hums in thought. Leo and Jason should be back soon, hopefully with their guidance system so that they can get the heck out of here and head towards Epirus. The thought makes her face sour. Even when they get to Epirus, they have no idea how to get through the House of Hades.

Grumbling, she swings back and forth where she's hanging. "Do you know what Hazel was talking about? The whole 'immune to poisons' thing?"

Nico raises an eyebrow at her. "Do you not?"

"Obviously not."

"Why did you tell her yes, then?"

"Are you going to answer every question I ask with another question?" Julie snips.

The corner of Nico's mouth twitches into a smirk, and he turns back to stare over the railing.

Julie huffs at his silence and kicks her legs over her head, dismounting the rigging in a graceful backflip, just to immediately trip on some loose rope when she takes a step forward. She catches herself on the railing and shakes the ropes off of her foot before trotting to Nico's side. "Well? Do you know?"

He shrugs. "It's just a thing. Probably because of your blood."

Julie sighs. "That makes no sense."

He shrugs again. "The Romans used it for antidotes a lot. Put it in potions."

She chokes on her own spit, whirling around. Her face contorts in horror. "They drank our blood?!"

Nico rolls his eyes. "Not directly. It would kill them if they tried that. They had to dilute it first."

"Oh, whew, that's fine then," Julie says sarcastically, eyes wider than wagon wheels.

He smirks again and looks at her finally, shoving his hands into the pockets of his aviator jacket. "Have you never looked into your own history?"

Julie puffs up her cheeks and turns to the railing with crossed arms. "Hey, I can't exactly just stroll up to the New York Library and ask to see their section on evil, cursed demigod children of the Roman Empire."

She'll probably never visit the New York Library again, to be honest.

Her friend sighs, and she sees him shake his head out of the corner of her eye. People tend to do that a lot when they talk to her. Julie would like to know why that is.

"I don't know all that much. Hazel would be a better person to ask. Or your boyfriend."

"Don't smirk at me like that, he is my boyfriend."

"Mhm."

"Hey, just because your love life is in shambles-" She winces, glancing at him. Nico's face has gone dark. His anxiety pokes at her arms sharply. "Too soon. I'm sorry."

He shakes his head. "It doesn't matter."

"I mean...It kind of does-"

"It doesn't," Nico snaps. He glares over at the sound of Julie's mouth snapping shut. "I'm going to deliver you all to Epirus, and then I'm out."

Her heart drops. "You mean-"

"I'm done. You all won't need to put up with me any longer."

Julie shakes her head, reaching out to snag his sleeve before he can storm away. "Wait! Nico, we aren't 'putting up with' you. I like having you here-"

"I don't need your pity, Juliette," He snarls.

She reels back again, but this time in anger. "Pity? Since when have I ever pitied you?"

Nico tears his arm out of her hold and curls his lip. "I get demigod dreams too, you know."

Julie freezes, her mind rewinding frantically through all of the conversations she's had in the last month Nico was missing. She comes up blank for what he could be talking about.

"Okay?" She says uncertainly.

He takes an angry step forward, and, even though he's an entire head shorter than her, Julie takes a fearful step back. "I saw what you all talked about. Grace was right. My capture was a trap, and you just walked right into it."

His aura is overwhelming right now. The darkness of it is clouding her mind like a head cold. She trips over the ropes again and ends up stumbling into a box, barely catching herself to keep from falling to the deck.

"You've always been impulsive, but I didn't know you were stupid."

Okay, well, that's kind of uncalled for. Julie had just wanted him safe.

Nico stops moving and levels a sneer at her. "I don't need you to fight my battles for me. Do us both a favor and stick your nose in someone else's business for once."

With that, he turns on his heel and storms off of the deck, ducking down into the hallway she's pretty sure leads to the boiler room. Julie stands, frozen in place, and watches him go.

Two solid thumps shake the ship a bit.

"Hey, princesa, look what we've got ba- Uh, you okay?"

Swallowing, Julie quickly dries off her wet cheeks and turns to Jason and Leo with a painfully wide smile. "Yeah! Of course. Did you guys get the sphere back?"

Leo's mouth opens and closes. He glances nervously between Julie and Jason, who is frowning at her in concern. Then, the son of Hephaestus laughs nervously and pats at his toolbelt. "Yes, ma'am. Archimedes sphere secured."

She nods. "Good! And, did you manage to, uh..." Julie cringes.

"Thaw out your victim?"

"...Yeah."

"Yeah, he's all good. In fact," With a wicked grin, Leo rummages around in one of the back pockets of his belt.

Julie purses her lips and exchanges a look with Jason. He seems vaguely amused by his best friend's antics, but still shoots her a meaningful 'we'll talk about this later' eyebrow raise. With a huff, Julie internally vows that will not be happening.

"AHA!" Leo exclaims triumphantly, holding something gold and sparkly in his right hand. He quickly hides it behind his back. "Now, close your eyes," He demands.

Julie crosses her arms, but complies. She hears him approach and grins at the sensation of something being pushed gently onto her head from above. She opens her eyes, and Leo is beaming like a little kid.

"It's a tiara!" He cheers. "For our princess!"

"You stole me a tiara?"

"Correction - I negotiated you a tiara."

Julie raises her hand up to the crown atop her head and laughs. Leo puffs up his chest, apparently extremely proud of himself, and Julie leaps forward to give him a hug, popping her leg up like a damsel. "Why, thank you, sir knight. It's beautiful."

He takes her hand delicately and drops to one knee. "But of course, my lady. Only the best for the fairest in the lands."

Jason elbows Leo, a good natured frown on his face. "Hey, that's my girlfriend. Lay off on the game, McShizzle."

Leo sighs dramatically. "Fine, but only because you're my main man, Jason. I wouldn't want to steal this lovely lady away from you forever."

"How thoughtful," grins Jason. He looks to Julie and tucks a lock of her hair more securely behind her new tiara. "It suits you."

Juliette feels herself turn entirely red. She looks down at her shoes, scuffing them together, and Leo makes a disgusted sound in the back of his throat.

"Yuck. I'm gonna go find a place to hang out that isn't full of happy couples. At least Festus still loves me most."

"I heard you got turned into corn?"

Julie's smile flickers as he keeps his back to her. She clears her throat and shifts in discomfort.

"That probably sucked. I'm sorry. I'm glad you're safe, though."

No response. Not even a twitch of Nico's shoulders to suggest that he heard her. Julie sighs.

"Look, I'm really sorry for bringing up Percy. I didn't mean to upset you. Is there anything I can do to make it up-"

With a shake of his head, Nico turns around and pushes past her, hoisting himself up the rigging of the mast and disappearing into the crow's nest.

The cold wind burns at Julie's face as they pull out of Venice, and she sighs bitterly at the typicality of her rotten luck.

"Is it bad that I don't like killing things?" Julie asks quietly. "Am I weak?"

Chris looks over at her from the doorway, key already in place to lock her into her quarters behind him. He and Luke tell her that it has to stay bolted shut to keep her safe from the monsters they have on board. Julie thinks that's weird, though. They've never given her a key to carry herself, so how is she supposed to come here to be safe?

Chris glances at the hallway, almost like he's checking to see if anyone is listening. Then, he pulls the key from the lock and tiptoes across the room to sit down on the bed beside her. "It's not bad," He whispers. "But, try not to say that in front of Luke."

Julie frowns. "Why not?"

She watches him purse his lips, again glancing behind himself. "He might not like it. It's safest for you - for both of us - if you do what he asks you to. Okay?"

She slumps, eyes drifting down to the too big set of sweats she was given to sleep in. "Okay."

Chris seems to hesitate for a second, mouth open like he's thinking about saying something more. Then, he shakes his head and gets up quickly. Before Julie can even tell him goodnight, the 15 year old is out of the room and behind a shut and locked door.

Staring across her room after him, Julie curls up onto her side and tries to will away the homesickness in her belly enough to fall asleep.

Julie never thought her pedicure skills would help save the world, but here they are. See, Piper? She knew her nail polish collection would come in handy on this mission!

"Wow, I just-" Sciron gapes, admiring his feet like they're made of gold. "No one has ever done this so well! I almost feel bad for planning on murdering you."

Julie beams and gives him a shrug. "Well, I can fly, anyway, so...Kicking me off the cliff probably wouldn't have worked out."

The thief doesn't seem to hear her, tilting his feet so he can examine his perfectly shaped, dotted with little cartoon flower toenails in different angles of sunlight. "Incredible. Fantastic work. I don't even know what to say."

"Well, you could go ahead and let us pass. That would be helpful."

Sciron nods. "Yes, yes, of course! Do you have a business card?"

Jason and Hazel shake their heads in bewilderment, and Juliette gives them a smile. "I don't. How about you just Iris me to get in touch instead?"

"Absolutely! What is your name, young lady?"

Julie grins at the man mischievously. "Call me Drew. Drew Tanaka."

"She's going to kill you for that."

"How would she ever know it was me?"

"You're the only person it would be," Piper points out with an amused smirk.

Julie shrugs and snickers. "What's she gonna do to me? I'm a war hero, Pipes! She can't touch m-"

A flickering, interference ridden rainbow image of their older sister appears suddenly beside her and screeches. "WHAT DID YOU DO?"

Julie screams and ducks under the table as Piper bursts out laughing over her bowl of chocolate ice cream.

"You've gotten better, Percy," Luke chuckles, stepping towards the boy on the ground with Backbiter raised in preparation to strike. "You could have been valuable in my army."

The boy scoffs, spitting out a mouthful of blood at Luke's feet and sneering up at him. "Yeah, y'know, I've never really been good with authority, so..."

The comment seems to amuse Julie's guardian. He lowers his sword, apparently confident that the boy's wounds are too extensive for him to be much of a danger, and steps back.

"I admire that about you, Percy. But, unfortunately, orders sometimes need to be followed."

Juliette's heart freezes mid-beat as Luke's ice blue eyes turn to her, and he beckons out a hand.

"Come here, squirt."

She forgets how to move, fear muddling her thoughts so much they feel like they're coated in tar. The empousa behind her hisses, and Julie is shoved forward in Luke's direction. He places a hand on her shoulder and turns her to look down at the bloodied kid at his feet.

"Percy Jackson, meet Juliette Aster. She's just a daughter of Aphrodite, but her powers are impressive. Would you like to see?"

The boy glares up at her, jaw clenched stubbornly. He shakes his head and scoffs. "Really, Castellan? How old is this kid?"

Luke's grip tightens painfully on her shoulders. She flinches.

"Older than I was," He hisses. He takes a deep breath, and his hands leave Juliette's shoulders as he steps away. "Now, Juliette, finish him off for me, will you?"

What? He wants her to...? But, Julie can't do that.

She looks back at him in panic. His face turns stern.

"This is what I've been training you for, remember? I took you in. I kept you safe. It's about time you paid me back for that kindness."

Heart pounding, Julie looks back down at the boy where he's hunched by the pool. The girl and satyr he came here with are bound and gagged a few yards away. The cyclops is nowhere to be seen, and...Percy, was it? He looks way too hurt to stop her.

If she were to...It would be so easy. One little snap of her fangs, just like the hippocampi.

The angry green eyes staring up at her narrow, something like sympathy flickering behind them. A vein pulses in his forehead as he turns to glower over at Luke instead. "Just kill me yourself. What is it with you and delegation? Too important to lift a sword now that you're Kronos' favorite toy?"

"Juliette," Luke snaps. She startles. "Now."

At his command, her fear spikes so sharply that her transformation happens against her will. Julie cries out in pain as her limbs start to pop and snap, bones shifting under her skin until her flesh turns to scales, and her arms become wide, clawed wings. Percy's mouth drops open in horror as he watches it happen, and it's the first time she's seen true fear in him. It makes Juliette feel physically ill.

Maybe that's what makes her decision for her. Watching this boy, who has been so unshakingly brave throughout this entire fight suddenly cower in fear - at the sight of Juliette, of all people.

Maybe it's the way the blonde girl starts fighting harder against the monsters holding her, screaming and choking on the thick tears spilling from her eyes into her gag.

Maybe it's the satisfied smirk on Luke's face or the defeated slump of Chris' shoulders as they watch her tower over what's to be her first kill of her own kind.

In the end, it doesn't matter what her motivation is. The surprised laugh that erupts from Percy Jackson when Juliette turns around and sinks her fangs into Luke's torso is enough to let her know she made the right decision.

"I'm fine, Rosa, I swear."

"You're dumb, is what you are!" Julie argues, shoving Jason down to sit against the nearest sail post. "What were you thinking?!"

"Yeah, Superman, skydiving doesn't seem like the prettiest cause of death," Leo jokes.

Julie shoots him a withering glare as the rest of the group gathers around them in a concerned semi-circle. "This isn't funny, Leo."

He shrugs. "I mean, it's kind of funny."

Jason takes Julie's hand and gives her an exasperated smile. "Juliette, I'm fine. I'm not hurt. Piper woke me up in time."

He nods at Juliette's sister, who shoots him a thumbs up. Julie flicks him between the eyes as punishment. "Do you have any idea what water feels like after a 500 foot drop?"

"Again, I didn't pass out in the sky on purpose-"

"Concrete, Jason! Concrete."

"I am sorry," He repeats tiredly, squeezing her hand. "I promise that I'll be more careful in the future."

Grumbling, Julie backs down and crosses her arms. After smiling fondly at her, Jason turns to the rest of the group. "I had a vision."

"Without your glasses?" Leo jokes. "Well, what do you even need 'em for, then?"

Piper elbows him in the ribs. "Would you stop talking for, like, five minutes?"

"Why would I do that?"

"Maybe so the rest of us don't go insane?" She snips. With raised eyebrows, Piper turns back to Jason. "You were saying?"

Jason straightens up a bit and glances around at all of them. His eyes hold the longest on Juliette before he starts to speak again.

"I saw Reyna and Octavian meeting with Rachel from camp. Apparently, at last night's campfire, they received a message."

Everyone watches him intently, poised to receive bad news. For once, that isn't what they get.

"It was a note from Annabeth. She and Percy landed in Tartarus. They're alive."

A/N

This chapter was a little short, I know - I decided to sort of just brush on a few of the events at the beginning of HoH since I didn't have a whole lot planned for them and the writers block was going CRAAAZZYYY. I'm super excited to get to the rest of what this book has to offer, though. Plz forgive me for making Nico and Julie sad again. It's necessary, I swear, and writing them hurts me terribly so I feel your pain.

Stay tuned.