Chapter Text
The morning after hit me like a brick to the face.
Or, more accurately, like a spark to the fingertips. I kept accidentally lighting up the edges of my blanket, and at one point I made my toothbrush rattle so hard it flew into the sink. Twice.
I stared at the faint scorch marks on my blanket and pressed my palms into my knees, trying to will the magic down. Useless. My fingers still fizzed like they were plugged into an outlet.
I needed help, real help, not just pacing around my cabin pretending I wasn’t about to accidentally electrocute my furniture again. So, yeah. I needed an expert.
Which is how I ended up speed-walking toward Cabin Ten, heart thudding too loud and fingers threatening to spark against the morning dew.
The door flew open before I even reached the steps.
“Jax.” Noce stood there framed in perfect golden light like the universe itself was providing special effects. Tousled blond hair, green eyes, shirt somehow unwrinkled despite being a teenage boy at camp. “The sparks. The eyes. The panic-walk. Ohhhh, you’re in trouble.”
I groaned. “You’re already insufferable.”
“And you need my wisdom… ASAP.” he said, grabbing my wrist and dragging me inside. “Come on. Emergency consultation time.”
The inside of the Aphrodite cabin smelled like citrus and expensive perfume. Satin pillows covered every flat surface. Noce shoved a cluster of them aside on his bed and made me sit.
“Okay.” He plopped in front of me, cross-legged. “Tell Uncle Noce everything.”
I glared. “You’re sixteen.”
“Emotionally? A thousand,” he said with a dramatic hair flip. “Spill.”
I opened my mouth. Closed it. Opened it again.
Noce raised an eyebrow. “Girl. If this is how you act telling me, what on Olympus happened?”
I inhaled like I was about to dive underwater. “Evander. Likes me.”
Noce didn’t blink. Instead, he calmly reached behind him, grabbed a pink satin pillow, and screamed into it.
His grin faltered when he finally looked at my face, really looked. The humor softened, like someone dimmed a spotlight.
“Okay,” he said, voice shifting into something gentler. “Start from the beginning.”
Heat flooded my face. “He told me he likes me. Like… actually said it. And then he kissed my cheek and ran off like a startled deer." Saying it out loud made my heart do a weird, traitorous flip. My palms tingled, and a single spark popped against my thumb before I balled my hands into fists.
Noce squealed again, quietly, this time.
“And I… I told him I liked him too.” I rubbed my hands along my legs, trying to keep the building electricity stifled. “Kind of. More like word-vomited it at him. And I don’t know what’s wrong with me, Noce. My chest feels weird, and I can’t stop thinking about it, and I sparked in my sleep and—”
Noce held up a hand. “Jax. Sweetheart. Breathe.”
I tried.
He scooted closer and bumped his shoulder against mine. “Nothing’s wrong with you.”
“But I’ve never-... I mean, feelings aren’t- I didn’t have room for…” I gestured vaguely, as though the air might rearrange my thoughts for me. “This.”
Noce’s face softened, all jokes aside.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I know.”
And just like that, everything in me stilled.
We had been running together for years. Through storms. Alleys. Attacks. Through losing Rose. Through losing his family too. We’d slept in the same abandoned buildings, shared the same stolen food, fought the same monsters with nothing but grit and scrap metal.
Noce knew what it meant to not have room for anything extra.
He nudged my knee. “You didn’t get to be a kid, Jax. Neither did I. But you’re allowed to… feel things now. Safe things. Good things.”
Something warm prickled behind my eyes.
“And Evander?” Noce said, his lips quirking. “He makes you smile. Even if you try to hide it. He looks at you like you hung the moon. And he respects you. That’s rare here.”
I looked at my hands. Tiny sparks jittered between my fingers like restless thoughts.
“So it’s normal,” I murmured. “To feel like… this?”
“Completely normal,” he said, reaching over and squishing my cheeks with both hands. “Gross, adorable, terrifying, wonderful normal.”
I swatted his hands. “Ugh, stop.”
“Never. I'm your designated love-life consultant now. I take tips in chocolate or magically ignited flower arrangements.”
I snorted, burying my face in one of the pillows to hide the stupid smile I couldn’t stop.
Noce leaned back on his hands. “So. What’s the plan?”
“Plan?”
“For you and Nike Boy,” he sing-songed.
I groaned. “There’s no plan.”
“Please. I’ve known you since you were thirteen and threatening raccoons with a stick. You always have a plan.”
I huffed. “Fine. Step one: not spontaneously combusting the next time he talks to me.”
“Beautiful. Step two?”
“…I’ll figure it out?”
He grinned. “Oh, honey. You’re already gone.”
I punched him with a pillow. He yelped and fell off the bed dramatically.
When he popped back up, hair mussed, eyes bright, he hooked his pinky with mine.
“Whatever happens,” he said, voice steady and real in a way only Noce could manage, “I’m here. Always.”
I squeezed his pinky back. “Same.”
For a long moment, we just sat there. Two kids who had survived too much, leaning into something that felt like finally breathing again. For a while, the quiet between us was easy, comfortable in the way only Noce and I could manage. But beneath it, something darker tugged at me, nudging at the edges of my mind.
“Hey… Noce?”
He shifted, plopping himself beside me on the bed. His whole expression changed, the lighter edges tucked away, like he picked up on my mood shift. “Yeah? What’s up? You’ve got that look again. Like you’ve got something on your mind.”
“I..” I chewed the inside of my cheek. “Can I tell you something, and it… stays between us?”
Noce didn’t even blink. “Of course. You always can, you know that.”
“Not even Jace.”
He studied my face for a moment before nodding. “Not even Jace. I promise.”
I swallowed, but my throat felt tight in a way that had nothing to do with Evander. This was a different kind of heaviness. I hadn’t wanted to talk about this to anyone for a fear of being called crazy or that I was making it up. But I had been on enough endeavors with Noce to know he wouldn’t do that sort of thing.
“Something… weird things have been happening over the last couple of days.” I began quietly.
His brows knit, but he didn’t interrupt.
“There’s this… voice. Not like a hallucination, just a whisper. A feeling. It’s been in the back of my mind every now and then.” I paused, watching his face.
He nodded encouragingly, no sign of judgement. “Keep going.”
“It keeps saying these, like, cryptic stuff. Sometimes it feels like it's inside my skull.” My fingers sparked faintly before I shoved them under a pillow.
“What has it been saying?” He prompted gently.
I took a deep breath. “I… I don’t remember it well. It’s more like fragments than sentences. The first part… I think it said something like ‘Born of shadow… born of… flame?’ I’m not even sure.”
Noce nodded slowly, the gears already turning.
I chewed my lip. ““Then… something about daughters? Or shame? ‘Two daughters bound by gods’ own… shame?’ I… I can’t remember exactly. It all blurs.”
My stomach knotted. “And then… something about bending… the world, maybe? Or eyes? I don’t know. Every time I try to think of it, it slips.” Despite being under a pillow, my fingers sparked erratically, and I smelled something burning. Turning the pillow over, my sparks had singed the silk from underneath. “Oh gods, I’m so sorry Noce!”
He didn't even acknowledge the damage. He looked lost in thought. “That sounds like a prophecy, Jax…” He said quietly.
I stiffened. “But-... I’m not an oracle, so how could this possibly be a prophecy?”
He shrugged, looking up at me. “I’m not sure… but I think you need to bring this up to CJ, Chiron, or… someone important.” He gestured vaguely around the room. “Maybe they could help you sort it out.”
I sat on my hands to keep them from igniting once more. “I don’t know… I’m afraid they’ll think it’s just my magic misfiring again. Or that I’m imagining it.”
Noce placed a comforting hand on my knee. “Maybe not right this minute, but it's definitely something you should consider.”
I stared at the floor.
“Jax,” he said softly. “You’re not crazy.”
My shoulders loosened the tiniest bit. “I knew you wouldn’t laugh at me.”
“Laugh at you?” He scoffed. “I watched you rescue us in a back alley from a hellhound using a broom handle and sheer refusal to die. Why would I laugh at you now?”
A tiny, shaky smile tugged at my mouth.
He reached across the space between us and pulled my hand out to hold it, not dramatic, not performative. Simple. Steady.
“Thank you for telling me,” he said. “Really. I know that must’ve been difficult for you.”
The sparks in my hands quieted, dimmed to a warm hum. Like they knew he was safe.
“Whatever this whisper is,” he said, “we’ll figure it out. Together. I won’t let it swallow you.”
Something in my chest unknotted, slow as thaw. For the first time in days, the sparks in my hands vanished instead of fighting to get out.
“Okay,” I whispered.
He squeezed my fingers once and let go, but the steadiness he left behind stayed.
Then the door slammed open.
Geo poked his head in. “Hey, Jax. Evander’s looking for you.”
I turned bright purple.
Noce’s grin went feral.
“Ohhh, we are never letting you live this down,” he whispered.
And that’s the moment I knew: I should’ve consulted literally anyone except the child of Aphrodite.