[nomen est omen]

The car pulled up at the base of a forested hill, and Tessa wiped away the condensation on her window to peer outside. Rain still plagued the countryside, and it didn't help that night had fallen as well, obscuring Tessa's view. The tall pines and trees stretched up into the sky like spires of a haunted castle, with only the stars above as light to guide her way.

Tessa gulped, turning to face her mother in the driver's side. "You want me to just walk through the forest until I find this place?"

Sera Brennan smiled weakly, reaching a hand from the steering wheel to pat Tessa's dark hair. "Camp is just beyond that hill," She said calmly, but Tessa could hear the strain in her words. "You'll be safe there."

Tessa watched her mother skeptically, listening to the patter of rain on the hood of the car. She turned to look out the window again, biting her lip. "Are you sure about this? Why can't I just stay at home? There hasn't been a monster attack since..." Her voice trailed off at the stern look that her mother gave her.

"Tessa, sweetie, I wish you could," Sera said, her eyes sad. "But you're too powerful, too young. You need training and here, you'll be safe from the monsters. If you were to stay home, you'd never be safe there as a demigod."

Demigod. There was that word again, the one that her mother had first dubbed her after the freak experience in the gym. It was like Tessa had been pretending to be entirely human her whole life, and turns out she was something else entirely. Not only was she a demigod, but she was a particularly powerful demigod, apparently. And hence, she needed to be carted away.

But when her mother called her powerful, Tessa wondered if she really meant dangerous. She looked back at the trees piercing the night sky, like swords and pikes and spears.

"I don't know if I can do it, Mom," Tessa confessed, looking down in her lap. The debris of her nail polish rested on her jeans, evidence of her nerves on the long drive to Long Island.

Her mother reached out, taking Tessa's hand and turning Tessa's focus to her. "My beautiful girl, do you remember all of the stories I told you when you were little? And in these past few weeks?"

Tessa nodded. "But how will they—"

"They'll help you learn, and survive. In this camp, you'll find others like you. Children of the gods, children of mythology. There are nymphs, and satyrs, and centaurs. And just like in those stories, every one of them has a hero, Tessa. And I know that you'll be a great hero someday." Sera Brennan smiled warmly. "One day, they'll be telling stories about you."

Tessa's eyes watered, and she blinked away the tears. She couldn't find words, feeling like her throat was constricting. "Okay."

Her mother pressed her lips into a thin line, and unlocked the car door. "Go to camp, and find someone to take you to Chiron. He's the activities director of Camp Half-Blood. He'll help you; he knows me."

Tessa knit her eyebrows. "How does he know—" But before she could finish, the car door unlocked, snagging her attention.

"I love you, Tessa," Sera Brennan said from inside the car. "I'll see you soon."

Tessa put on a brave face, the face that she would be expected to don inside that camp, and grabbed her heavy backpack from the backseat. "I love you too, Mom."

And with the rain falling down above her, Tessa turned and faced the hill. Maybe it was just her imagination, but she could hear what sounded like small explosions in the distance. She turned and wondered if she could see all the way back to New York City, at the Fourth of July celebrations they'd passed on the way in. That life of fireworks and summer vacations, school supplies and big cities, was behind her now.

Tessa turned back to face the hill, and with all the courage she could muster, she marched up it. No turning back now.

~~

"Are you listening to one word I'm saying?"

Tessa glanced over her shoulder, torn from her reverie, to face Amelie. The dark-haired girl smiled sympathetically at Tessa, slugging her in the shoulder playfully. "What's up with you?"

"Sorry, I was just spacing out," Tessa muttered, casting a look around Camp Half-Blood. Most of the campers were still asleep, recovering from last night's celebration, but there was something melancholy about it all. After today, things would never be the same.

"It's fine," Amelie conceded. "But what's the strategy?"

Tessa inhaled, shaking her head. "There is none. It's just my mom, not a war criminal. We go in, we talk, we come home."

Amelie arched an eyebrow. "According to a lot of people, your mom supposedly has, like, confidential information on all this. Are you sure that's something she'll just confess to openly?"

Tessa met Amelie's gaze wildly, but the temper in her died at Amelie's inquisitive look. It was a genuine question, and if Tessa inherited one thing from her mother, it was her stubbornness. Besides, Sera had lied to Tessa about Jared Knight before. Maybe she'd do it again.

Tessa immediately rebuked herself for thinking such a thing. This was her mother, not a stranger. Everything that Sera did in her lifetime was to protect Tessa. That wasn't something to be taken lightly.

"Ready to go?" Kaden asked, snagging Tessa's attention. A hand on the strap of his backpack, Kaden looked as resplendent as he always did, like he'd walked out of a fashion magazine. His chestnut hair was tousled, his emerald eyes gleaming in the morning sunlight.

Tessa's heart panged, and she looked away, remembering their almost-kiss on the rocks. "Let's go." And she trudged over to the small clearing near the Big House.

Amelie and Kaden followed, with the former stepping forward with a focused look in her kaleidoscopic eyes. She lifted her hands the way a conductor would to prep an orchestra, and as if she were indeed leading the music, magic began to cast before her. Sparks and streams of cosmic energy appeared before her in a glowing orb, and then with one final sweep, Amelie lobbed the magic forward, creating the shifting portal they were to use.

Seeing as Masks were everywhere, looking for Tessa and the others, they needed a quick way to travel to Chicago. Also, for the same reason, all of Tessa's attempts to visit her mother alone were shot down. Amelie volunteered to serve as their transportation if things got dicey, and Kaden stepped forward to serve as a sort of bodyguard. Although the thought of Tessa ever needing a bodyguard was amusing, the group was settled to go.

Tessa peered into the portal, seeing the glimpse of her mother's house in the suburbs. She hadn't been in years, but the last time she had, she'd discovered a secret part of her mother's past: Jared Knight. What would she uncover this time?

And without further ado, Tessa took a deep breath and stepped through the portal.

~~

The first thing that Tessa noticed when she stepped onto the sidewalk before her old house was that it was storming, and given the time of year, it was highly unusual. Thick drops of water fell from the slate gray sky, but Tessa paid no mind to it. Lightning arced in the sky above, casting shadows over the house.

"Mind if we get out of the rain?" Amelie asked.

Tessa nodded, feeling oddly like she was in a dream, or a memory. She shook her head to herself, and flanked by Amelie and Kaden, she approached the front door. Something felt heavy in Tessa's heart, like she was about to betray everything she knew.

Tessa rang the doorbell, and moments later, the white door swung open. Sera Brennan lit up at seeing Tessa, and smiled at Amelie in Kaden. "Come in!" Sera said happily, stepping aside.

"Hey, Mom," Tessa greeted, a deflated twinge to her voice. "Hope we aren't bothering you."

Her mother gave her a silly look. "Your visits never bother me, Tessa. I'm glad to see you. All of you, really."

"It's nice to see you again, Ms. Brennan," Kaden smiled brightly, and Tessa felt another pang. Kaden and her mother got along very well; but then again, who didn't get along with Kaden?

"You as well, Kaden. You too, Amelie," Ms. Brennan nodded, an amicable expression on her face. Slight wrinkles had begun to set in on Sera's face, but she still looked radiant. "Come and sit down, I'll get you guys something to drink."

"Actually, mom, we're here on business," Tessa interrupted her mother as she started for the kitchen. "I need to talk to you."

The former Hunter's edge shimmered in Sera's eyes, but she nodded. "I understand," She said softly.

Kaden and Amelie peeled off to watch for any unwelcome visitors, and Tessa suddenly wished that they'd never come. She had a bad feeling in the bit of her stomach, like everything leading up to this point would unravel. She felt like she was thirteen again, scared to step out of the car and face the future. Her future. And if Tessa didn't act right now, that future might be taken from her.

Tessa and her mother walked to the living room, and took a seat on the sofa. As if no time had passed, Tessa adjusted herself to the large leather armchair she'd claim as her reading chair, while her mother sat opposite her on the matching sofa. They watched each other for a moment, the way two allies would when war got intense; like the other would turn on them at the slightest wrong move.

"Is everything all right?" Sera asked, drawing her eyebrows together in concern. "I thought you'd separated yourself from camp for the time being."

Tessa shrugged. "It was time I come back, actually. Things started to come up, and they needed my attention."

"What sort of things?" Sera leant against the couch, casting an arm over the back.

And so Tessa filled her mother in on all that had happened in the past few weeks: Matthew's attack, the disappearances, the Curses, the siege of Aether's mansion, Dale, Adhara, and the mental bond. Her mother, ever the warrior, managed to keep her emotions out of the explanation when Tessa told her about her coma. Finally, Tessa wrapped up, and gauged her mother's reaction.

Sera pursed her lips. "That...sounds intense. I'm sorry you all have to go through with it all. Do you have any leads so far?"

Now or never.

"Actually," Tessa began, avoiding her mom's gaze. "The other day, I had a vision of some battle inside of a cavern. There was a girl fighting a bloody man—you. When you were a Huntress."

Sera stiffened, and her expression shifted. "Why would Aether show you that?"

"That's what I thought," Tessa agreed. "Until I saw the rest of the vision. There was someone else there, too. A boy, trying to save a wounded Huntress. Jared Knight."

Sera's face was unreadable. She didn't speak.

"You told me he was just a mortal," Tessa tried to spur her mother's attention. "You said he was unimportant."

"He is," Sera asserted, a flicker in her eyes. "I don't know why he would show you that."

"Really? Because as far as the intelligence we've gathered, Jared Knight plays more of a role in this than we know. The Masks destroyed his mind, and they took his son away from him. According to Jared Knight, I will be the one to return his son to him." Tessa started, and something within her mother snapped.

"That's nonsense," Sera exclaimed. "Anything he says is slander. If his mind is destroyed, why would you believe anything that he says?"

"Mom!" Tessa interrupted, fury beginning to develop. "What do you know about him? I need you to tell me."

Sera pressed her lips into a thin line. "I can't." Her voice cracked.

"Yes, you can. And you will," Tessa said icily, her heart breaking at the intensity of the situation. "Now. What do you know?"

Sera shut her eyes, exhaling slowly. "Jared was my best friend when I was a teenager. We told each other everything, we counted on one another. After my parents died in the fire, I wasn't sure where to turn to. Then I remembered the Hunters. They found me and I joined them, but I hadn't told Jared a thing."

"Why not?" Tessa asked, her heart pounding.

Sera's expression flickered. "It's complicated. Anyways, about a year later, I and a few other Hunters were sent to Camp Half-Blood to help with some problem they were having. I couldn't sleep that first night there, so I snuck out. And I saw a shroud."

Tessa felt her heart skip. "A shroud?"

Sera nodded. "Phobos, the god of Fear, appeared to me. He told me about the role I'd play in the future, helping a new hero, and that it began with finding his sphere of power for him. Of course, I accepted and before I knew it, I was on a quest. Daphne and I came across Jared, and we traveled together.

"The battle that you saw was where our companion, Daphne, died. Menoetious, the Titan in the vision, killed her and planned to kill me too. But I won the battle, and instead, he cursed me. He said that my line would bring nothing but sorrow, and then he disappeared." Sera explained, her eyes closed.

The name tickled at Tessa's mind. "Menoetious...that's the same Titan that killed Madi's family."

Sera's eyes opened at that. "What?"

Tessa shook her head. "I'll tell you later, but what did he want with you?"

Sera exhaled, drumming her fingers on the couch. "He was planning to raise Typhon, to stop the future. We stopped them both, but I passed out and when I woke up, Artemis told me that I'd broken my vow and thus, lost my immortality."

Tessa knit her eyebrows together. "Mom, what does this have to do with—"

"Because," Sera's voice was as sharp as a razor blade. "I was in love with Jared Knight, and having him on the quest only brought back those old feelings. I left the Hunters, and went to find him."

Tessa blinked, unsure of what to make this. She kept silent, her heart pounding.

Sera sighed like the weight of the world was on her shoulders. "Tessa, sweetie, I can't...I can't tell you this. I don't want you to think differently of me."

Tessa caught her mother's gaze. "Mom, whatever you know can help save thousands of lives. My life. I need to know."

Sera nodded, but she took a ragged breath. "Jared and I rekindled our love and...nine months later, we had a son."

Tessa felt like the world had been ripped from beneath her feet. Her eyes widened, and she tried to form words, but nothing came out."

"But he was cursed. Menoetious' curse would have come true, giving him terrible powers when he was older, despite being entirely mortal. One day, Artemis came to me and...she told me that she'd put a counter-curse on him, that would keep his powers in check. But she needed to take him away from us. She needed to take Jared away from me." Sera's voice broke, tears beginning to spill down her cheeks. "So, with water from the River Lethe, I wiped Jared's memory of me. And I never saw them again."

Tessa exhaled raggedly. "I have a half-brother?" She whispered.

Sera nodded, fighting a sob. "I'm so sorry I never told you, Tessa. It was too painful for me, and seeing as I never saw either of them again, I...I eventually met Poseidon and then you were born and I knew that the pieces had come together. I was destined to be your mother and help you become the hero of the prophecy."

Tessa got to her feet, dragging a hand through her hair. "Artemis took Jared Knight's son from him, and I would return him." She shut her eyes. "What was the curse?"

"Which one?" Sera managed.

"Artemis' counter-curse," Tessa clarified. She prayed she was wrong, that maybe there was someone else and this half-brother of hers wasn't who she thought it was.

"Menotious cursed him with madness, that would develop by the time he turned five," Sera explained slowly. "So Artemis placed a curse on him that would deplete his power and madness, returning him to the state he was in before."

"Did this curse have any particular side effects?" Tessa demanded, whirling around to face her mother.

Sera searched Tessa's eyes, apologies written with her tears. "His eyes would turn silver."

Tessa pressed her lips in a thin line. It was a coincidence, a horrible coincidence—"What was his name?"

Sera shut her eyes, and years passed in the minute she took to speak. "Luke."

But the man you seek is named Luke. Tessa felt like she'd been hit in the gut. Air flew out of her lungs, and she felt like she was about to faint. She stumbled, catching the couch to support her.

"I'm so sorry, Tessa," Sera got to her feet. "I had no idea this would happen."

Tessa gave her mother a sharp look, shaking her head. "Don't. Just don't."

"Don't what?" Sera asked softly.

"Don't lie to me again," Tessa said, her voice deathly soft. "Because thanks to your lies, my half-brother," She spat the word. "Is behind all this."

Sera took a step towards Tessa, just as thunder shook the house. In the time it took Sera to look at the windows in alarm, Kaden and Amelie came through the back door. But as soon as they opened it, Tessa made a run for it.

"Tessa!" Three voices called out for her, but they faded into the wind and the rain and the thunder above as Tessa sprinted into the tempest, as far away from her house as she could get.

Because that house was filled with lies. That house no longer stood for safety, for comfort, for a life she longed to relive. It now became secrets and lies and shadows, waiting to pull her in. She couldn't escape this hell of her life, and now, because of these lies, she had the information she was looking for.

She knew why Aether wanted her. She knew why Jared Knight babbled about her. She knew why Grace and Artemis kept her from asking about this. Because Aether was not a monster, not a god. Aether was her half-brother.

~~

Tessa ran past the crest of the hill, into the odd valley beyond. She didn't stop to admire the scenery as she passed: the big blue house, the strawberry patches, the omega of Greek architecture, the canoe lake with a Greek trireme. She only ran down the trails, wondering how the storm was kept out and where everyone in this ghost town was.

Eventually, she heard them. The whistling of fireworks caught her attention, and she looked up at the oddly cleared sky, seeing glimpses of light in the distance. Hope welled in her heart, and she ran past the trails, her backpack thudding against her.

Mulch turned to sand as she approached a beach, and suddenly, dozens of faces were looking back at her in confusion. She must have looked quite peculiar: wet from head to toe, confused and out of breath, but she only took a breath and spoke.

"I'm a demigod," Tessa said meekly. "I need to speak to Chiron."

Tessa looked around at the faces of young teenagers like her. Some kids looked older, some looked younger, and some looked timeless, with colorful skin and hair and eyes. Some kids were part goat, but all were watching her.

A centaur came through the crowd—the cherry on the cake of weird, in Tessa's opinion—and gave Tessa a careful smile. "What's your name?"

"Tessa," Tessa said, wiping the rain from her eyes as it fell from her hair.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood, Tessa—" Chiron's gaze averted from Tessa's face to above her head, and his face filled with something Tessa felt as pity. "Oh, dear."

Whispers rushed through camp like another wind, the fireworks no longer the point of interest. Tessa looked up and saw a sea-green glow above her head.

Then everyone started to kneel. One by one, until everyone on the beach was kneeling.

"Hail, Tessa Brennan, daughter of Poseidon; god of the sea, father of horses, earthshaker."

~~

Tessa ran faster than she'd ever ran before, eventually collapsing at the very end of the block, at the foot of a large retention pond. The storm had turned the serene pond into a maelstrom, with waves splashing up and over, reaching towards the streets. Lightning struck above, rain and hail and wind pelting Tessa like bullets and arrows and knives but she didn't care.

Tears streamed down Tessa's face as she mourned everything she'd lost. It felt like she'd just lost everything, every sense of reality, but then again, she'd been warned. And because of that, she cursed her name, she cursed her mother, she cursed her father, she cursed everyone and everything. And she waited for the lightning, the sign of the Gods wrath to strike her down and end her misery once and for all.

"Tessa!" A voice shouted over the wind, and Tessa didn't have to turn to know it was Kaden.

"My mother knew this whole time!" Tessa shouted, feeling like her throat was being ripped raw. She faced Kaden, watching her with concerned green eyes. "Luke is Aether, we knew that, but he's my mother's son!"

Kaden's eyes widened. "That doesn't make any sense!"

"Jared Knight!" Tessa responded as lightning struck nearby. "That's his importance. He made my mother leave the Hunters, and they had a son. He was cursed, so Artemis took him away, and he became Aether." She wiped at her eyes, feeling like she wanted to break down all over again.

"My brother is a monster," Tessa whispered. "Am I a monster too?"

Kaden hurried towards her, kneeling before her and gripping her shoulders. "Hey, do not say that! You're not a monster. Aether is."

"Maybe that madness runs in the family, Kaden!" Tessa laughed sadistically. "My literal alternate self was a monster, the darkness that I still have."

"Tessa!" Kaden asserted, his green eyes electric. "Focus. We have answers, we need to get back to camp before the Masks—"

"Before they what?" Tessa demanded. "Come and find their master's family? That's why they have so many pictures of us, of me, of my mother and Jared!"

It felt like all of Tessa's memories of happiness, security, confidence were shattering before her. Her mother had lied to her for her whole life, about everything—

"Tessa, we'll figure this out," Kaden said. "We'll figure it out together."

"No, we won't!" Tessa got to her feet, shouting over the thunder and the rising gales. "You know we won't! We haven't been able to figure anything out together in a year and a half!"

Lightning struck nearby, cleaving the world in two, illuminating Kaden's intense eyes. "What do we have to do with any of this?"

"Everything!" Tessa whirled around, venom and hurt in her voice. "Kaden, we just can't do this anymore! This game, this avoiding each other, all of it. I can't do it anymore!"

Kaden was silent, thunder echoing in his voice's absence. "Tessa, you're just upset. We can't talk about this right now."

"Why not?" Tessa looked up at the sky. "Got any other surprises for me? Maybe I'm not even a demigod?" She looked back at Kaden. "I don't care about the risks, I don't care about anything anymore. You want to know why? Because everything I've ever believed in my life has been a lie!"

"Tessa, please, you need to focus!" Kaden beseeched, his voice sharper, louder like the thunder around them.

"I can't!" Tessa laughed hysterically. "I can't focus on anything anymore because my entire life has just been pulled out from underneath me! My mother's gone, my father's gone, my friends are gone, and you..."

"And me?" Kaden demanded. "Tessa, do not try and blame me for leaving."

"We both left!" Tessa countered, feeling like she was at the center of the storm. The skies were blackening, pumping adrenaline through her veins. "We left each other and I don't know what to make of anything anymore! Why?"

"Tessa, we needed a break!" Kaden shouted. "We were too broken to heal on our own. Why do you keep dwelling on this—"

"Because I love you!" Tessa bellowed, tears streaming down her face. "I love you and I left you. I love my mother, and she lied to me. I love my friends, and they keep ripping out each others throats. It looks like I am cursed after all!"

Kaden was stunned into silence, searching for peace in the eye of the storm.

"You don't think I regret my absence? Breaking up with you? I regret everything. Everyone needed me, and for my own selfish reasons, I just left," Tessa felt like she was Atlas, holding up the weight of the world. "I can't do it anymore, Kaden. I can't keep doing this."

Tessa fell to the wet grass down below again, weeping. But when she looked back up, Kaden was there before her.

"I just need something," Tessa whispered as the storm raged on around them. "I need some fragment of reassurance that I can hold onto right now."

Kaden pressed his lips together, and then just as lightning arced across the sky, his mouth met Tessa's. It felt like Tessa had been electrified, and the familiarity of it hit her heart. She entangled her fingers into Kaden's hair, his hands cupping her face and wiping away her tears. Their kisses were heated, passionate, after years of isolation.

But just as quickly as it started, Kaden pulled away, that distant look returning to his eyes. "Tessa, I...I'm sorry. I can't do this."

Something splintered inside of Tessa. "Do what?"

"You're hurt, and I feel for you, but I'm not ready for this again," Kaden said softly. "We can't do this to ourselves. I'm sorry."

Tessa shut her eyes, imagining all of her enemies watching this moment. They'd be glad to see her downfall, her isolation, her chaos.

"Please, don't," Tessa whispered, tears streaming down her cheeks.

Kaden shook his head. "Maybe someday, but as for right now, we have more on our shoulders than we anticipated. Tessa, you don't need my kisses to repair all of this. You need this war to end. And until that happens..." He cut himself off, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, Tessa."

Tessa pressed her lips into a thin line, watching as he awkwardly got to his feet and headed back the way he'd come. She watched as he disappeared out of sight, and then the dam inside of her shattered.

She was chaos incarnate, the storms that ravaged coastlines. In her wrath, in her heartbreak, in her misery, Tessa released a scream to the skies above and behind her, the retention pond exploded with her sudden impulse of power. Waves washed over her, but she was isolated where she knelt, isolated in every sense of the word.

And while she was power, she was chaos. And her heart of destruction had just destroyed the one shred of hope she'd been clinging to. Her friends, lost by actions; her family, torn by lies and secrets; her love, destroyed by her own hand. Her life, controlled by the Fates, destined for heartbreak.

Because while stormswere beautiful and powerful, once they were over, they only left devastation intheir wake. And so, as Tessa Brennan wept, the sky wept with her, until there wereno more tears left to unleash for the sorrow of the sea beneath.