He gave her a sideways glance as his stomach rumbled.
  Aella-Mae smirked. "Hungry, my boy?"
  Percy shook his head adamantly. "Not even a little bit?" She waved a chip in front of his face, before popping it in her mouth. Repeat the proce—
  He leant forward and ate it, right out of her hands. She stared at her hands, then at him, then at her hands again. It took Aella-Mae a minute to realize she was supposed to be grossed out. "Ew, who knows where your mouth has been?"
  "You'd like to know, wouldn't you?"
  Aella-Mae socked him in the gut. (Probably not the best choice, considering they were driving.)
  (Oh well, they're demigods. They can handle it.)
  "Will you guys stop flirting, and focus on the road so we don't fly off the highway?" Frank grumbled from the backseat. Both Percy and Aella-Mae snapped around in their seats to look at him, before Frank groaned, "the road! Not me!"
  Hazel sighed groggily. "It's too early for this."
  "Here, have a chip," Aella-Mae chirped.
  Eyeing her in the mirror, Percy raised an eyebrow. "Hazel and not me? I thought we had something special."
  "Chicks before dicks, loser."
  Hazel grinned.

✸

  They pulled up at Percy's apartment, as he had requested, so he could check in on his family. Frank and Hazel, who'd already met Percy's parents a couple of times now, stood at ease. Aella-Mae, on the other hand, tried to shrink into a corner.
  "Oh, Rachel! Your hair has gotten darker since I last saw you," Sally Jackson said to the back of Aella-Mae's head, before the girl turned around. Seeing it wasn't actually Rachel Elizabeth Dare, the older woman gave her a sheepish smile. "Sorry, I don't think I've introduced myself yet."
  Aella-Mae shook her head. "No, it's okay. Sally Jackson, right? Percy's mom."
  "Right, and you are?" Before she could reply, Sally gestured towards the couch. "Come, sit, I'm sure you're tired from the drive. Percy's driving skills are . . ."
  "Not the best," Aella-Mae finished the sentence for her.
  "I heard that!"
  Aella-Mae smiled to herself, taking a blue cookie and biting into it. Soft, chocolatey goodness oozed into her mouth unexpectedly. Swallowing the first bite, she muttered to herself, "when they said her cooking was good, I didn't think they meant that good."
  "Thank you, sweetheart," Sally laughed.
  Setting down the cookie, Aella-Mae looked for a way to start. Thankfully, Percy did it for her, as he sat onto the couch and snatched the rest of her cookie. She glared at him. He didn't seem to notice. "Mom, this is Aella-Mae. She's my friend from college."
  "Oh, so you grew up in New Rome?" Sally's eyes widened with interest. Paul seated himself next to his wife, equally as invested.
  The girl scratched the back of her neck. "Kind of?"
  "Are you also a demigod? Or a legacy?
  "Paul, she's a guest, not someone you're interviewing," Sally chided.
  "She's a daughter of Zeus. Was praetor, actually, before me."
  "Oh, well, you must've been young. Fifteen, sixteen?"
  Aella-Mae gave Percy a sideways look that he caught. He tilted his head, asking her a silent question. She nodded it so quickly no one else would have caught it.
  Percy gestured with his hands. "Well, she was actually seventeen."
  Quizzically, Paul asked, "wouldn't that make her—"
  "I'm eighteen," Aella-Mae said quietly. "I was eighteen when I died." A respectful pause for Aella-Mae's death ensued. "I was dead for, well, three? Three years. They found me a couple months ago and here I am."
  Sally was relatively unfazed by this discovery. "So, like Thalia? Except you weren't brought back to life by a fleece.
  "Sort of," Percy agreed.
  And that was the end of it. Aella-Mae breathed a sigh of relief as they pulled away, full of those wonderful cookies.
  "Come back soon!" Sally waved. Aella-Mae smiled back.
  As they reared out of the driveway, the car swerved erratically in the other direction. Percy's eyebrows furrowed, jerking the wheel towards where they were supposed to go. For a moment, the car did spin around, but it quickly returned to its original state. "The fuck? I thought you said you were good at driving—"
  Aella-Mae screamed as something clamped its hands over her mouth. Percy stared at her in horror as she felt darkness consume her. No. That wasn't quite right.
  She saw the darkness pry her mouth open, right before she swallowed it whole. 
  Percy reached into his pocket for Riptide, pulling out the pen. When he uncapped it, however, nothing happened. He dropped it on the floor, trying to sense the nearest source of water.
  Nothing seemed to change, except for the fear in her eyes slowly shifting to . . . malice?
  The corners of Aella-Mae's mouth curved up in a haunting smile that seemed to have been carved into her face. Then, it vanished.
  She blinked. Once, twice, as if nothing had happened. Aella-Mae noticed Percy's expression.
  "What?"

  










a/n: gasp?? i updated?? INSANE 🤯 i know i missed aella-mae i might make this not as much as a slow burn tho . . . yalls things r about to get demonic n SPICYYYY love youu <33