𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐔𝐒──𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘤𝘺 𝘫𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘴𝘰𝘯

[ I. cruise ships and explosives ]

It felt too good to be true.

Wind in her hair, sun on her face, and a day with no monsters. Zehra didn't think her day could get any better. She had found a small lake just outside the borders of camp and announced to Chiron that she was taking a "Me Day."

The ribbed fabric of Zehra's favorite green bikini hugged her body tightly as she popped her sunglasses on and sprawled out over her beach blanket. When Zehra inhaled, she could've sworn the scent of sea salt infiltrated all her senses. Sure, the lake wasn't anywhere as glamorous as the beaches of New York, but this was as far away from camp as she could go without running into any of Kronos' army. Nevertheless, her favorite sword lay on the blanket only an arm's reach away—you could never be too safe in these times.

Zehra's sword, Chaos, was a twin to the legendary Anaklusmos, or Riptide as it was more commonly known. The exact details of the swords were mirrored down to the very tip of the celestial bronze design. However, whereas Anaklusmos disguises itself as a black pen, Chaos stays hidden in the shape of a brilliantly gold pen. Zehra didn't mind much—she preferred gold to black any day. Gold was the color of love, wisdom, and magic. As a daughter of Aphrodite, Zehra stood tall at these ideals; she would never trade her light for shadows. Black was the color of darkness, war, and death—everything Percy Jackson seemed to constantly be surrounded by.

Hot steam filled Zehra's head at the thought of Riptide's owner. Percy Jackson. He was quite literally the bane of Zehra's existence. Every corner she turned, there he was, flashing his infuriating smirk at her; it was as if his sole purpose on Earth was to raise Zehra's blood pressure.

Percy hadn't always been so horrible. There was a time when the daughter of Aphrodite had tolerated the son of Poseidon, but he had screwed that up two winters ago. Zehra's blood boiled just thinking about the incident. It was the first winter in years that Thalia was back home, and Zehra had made sure to stick to her side the whole time. She was like her sister, and gods be damned if she was going to let the lightning girl slip past her fingers again.

Thalia had just been chosen to go on the quest to save Annabeth but she had been fiercely adamant on the fact that Zehra should stay at camp. Zehra was a small child when Thalia had been immortalized into a tree, so Thalia still saw her as a little girl she had to protect from the outside world. Zehra, on the other hand, had spent years mastering the boundaries of swordplay and strengthening her magic to the best of its abilities. She was ready to plunge into battle. Thalia never agreed with her.

The moment Thalia had tried to leave camp to embark on the quest, Zehra had stopped her near the lake and picked a fight. In retrospect, maybe it was stupid to anger a girl with lightning in her veins. 

At the moment, Zehra really did not give a shit.

Their argument escalated quickly, ending in Thalia accidentally electrocuting Zehra so hard that her curls had defied gravity and poofed up for a whole week afterward. Regardless, Zehra made to run after Thalia but was stopped by an enormous vortex of water that had sprung from the lake and surrounded her whole body. She had thrashed violently against the water, but Percy Jackson had woven it like a web around her body. It was as if she was stuck in the middle of a hurricane until the son of Poseidon had deemed it safe enough to let the water go crashing back into the lake. When Zehra had finally escaped his clutches, though, it was too late. Thalia had already left for the quest, and Zehra had never forgiven Percy for stopping her from chasing after Thalia.

She didn't know what it was that made Percy think he was better than her, or why he made it a point to deliberately stop her from ever fighting her own battles. No matter the circumstance, he was always at Zehra's side, making sure to take the brunt of every blow directed at her. It was simply maddening. She could never figure out why Percy believed her to be such an incompetent fighter. Perhaps it was because she was a girl or perhaps it was because she was a child of Aphrodite. Her siblings in the Aphrodite cabin weren't necessarily the smartest or the strongest demi-gods at camp, but the sheer amount of hours Zehra had spent in the training arena with her sword was enough to convince anyone of her grit and talent. Well, apparently anyone but Percy Jackson. The son of Poseidon was constantly stealing Zehra's glory and she was so incredibly sick of it.