The breeze of the sea caressed Jennie’s scratched cheeks. They had won but so many things happened, some good, some bad, some surprising. She was confused about her feelings, the way her blood still sings for Aphrodite.

The skinny girl walked the shore, looking for a place to sit down and get lost in her thoughts. She needs peace. She wants to be relaxed, there’s too much anger in her soul, too much pain, too much confusion.

The night was lonely. The stars shone bright and there weren’t as many clouds to hide them. Her eyes were set firmly on the waves crashing, the smell of the water was soothing, and she remembered the time were she didn’t care about the freezing cold water and swam through the waves, with the moon as her only company. She wanted to forget about the curse running through her veins. But as Ares said to her, is impossible to run away from it.

“Damn” Jennie hugged her knees to her chest, and for once in her life, she let herself feel like a little girl, and tears rolled down her cheeks “I am such a failure, damn”

She hit the sand with her fists, the oppression inside her chest getting greater and it was making difficult to breathe. The few tears became sobs, and the sobs turned into pleas. So much pain.

Jennie tried to get up, and fell to her knees, her shoulders moving up and down, her chin against her chest.

“Damn” She muttered. “Dad was right. I am weak”

The feeling of the weight of the world on your shoulders every time you take a breath, when you sleep, when you laugh, when you cry. That’s how Jennie feels.  She tried to live with it, to not burden others, but is getting harder and harder each day that passes by. The curse, her father, the darkness that surrounds the demigods, and her own feelings.

When she goes back to her life at the city and interacts with her human friends and her human mother, she notices how different they are from each other. Her friends have normal problems and normal relationships. They fall in love, they got partners and break up with them. They fight with their parents and reconcile the next day. They can live a long life, without worrying about monsters in the horizon. They can laugh, cry, get angry freely, without having the anger of an Ares kid boiling just beneath the surface. They can stare into the eyes of their love, without thinking if it’s true.

The moon shone brightly and Jennie was mesmerized by it. How she wished to be Artemis and ride it all the nights. She extended a hand towards it, and let it fall next to her side.

“I don’t think you are weak” A soft voice break through the pain, of the loneliness of the night. It was beautiful, and Jennie was tempted to search for it “You won that capture the flag battle royale, even with Joy’s tricks”

Jennie looked at the sea again. Her heart beat thumped like drums, and her lungs weren’t working that good. Why is happening again?

“That wasn’t strength” She said, bitterly, her mind reeling back to when Yeri smiled at her with a wink “It wasn’t me anyways. It was Yeri. Besides, the strength is not only physical”

Irene sighed, and closed her eyes, thinking about her mother and her wisdom. She did wrong to so many people, including Joy, and wishes to be different, a good person. Someone to be proud of.

Jennie was still kneeling, enjoying the caresses of the wind through her hair. She doesn’t know how, but the presence of Irene was like a medicine for the pain.

Irene walked, soundlessly. She was dressed in a white summer dress, and never looked more beautiful. So much like Aphrodite.

“If you think that you are weak, then, you don’t know true weakness” Irene said, and her voice was different from usual, more older, more deep, and sadness covered it like a sheet of satin. Jennie closed her eyes, enjoying it caressing her ears.

Irene stopped in front of the kneeling Jennie, and cracked a small smile at her. The Ares daughter stared at her in awe, so absolutely and impossibly overwhelmed by her desire that she almost extended a hand to touch the girl in front of her.

“Do you know weakness, daughter of Aphrodite?” Jennie asked without thinking, and reproached herself for being so inconsiderate.

Irene smiled and let her hand caress Jennie’s left cheek, her fingers danced around soft skin, avoiding the scratches and tracing a path. Her companion sighed in pleasure, it was too overwhelming, just being near Irene like this. Her blood was hot, and her chest hurts.

“I do” Her smile turned sad “I am weak and people have paid for my weakness”

Jennie wondered if Joy was involved in it. If the girl made Irene suffer with her own anger.

“How can someone a