Saltwater Secrets

The New York skyline was doing that orange-and-pink thing again, bleeding into twilight, but Diva Chopra couldn't care less. She was out on Sally Jackson's balcony, knuckles white on the railing, staring at nothing. Somewhere out there, Aryan's plane was touching down at JFK. In a few hours, he'd be here. He'd see her real world—the one she'd never figured out how to explain—and she had no idea what to say.

"Hey." Annabeth's voice cut through, soft. "You've been out here an hour. Percy's starting to think you're gonna jump."

Diva let out a shaky laugh and turned. Annabeth leaned in the doorway, blonde hair in a messy ponytail, that quiet smile on her face. She had a way of looking at you like she got it, even without the words.

"I just—" Diva started, but the words got stuck. "He doesn't know. About any of this. Monsters, gods, the fact that I can command water like most people breathe. He thinks I'm some normal girl from a normal family."

Annabeth pushed off the doorframe and came to stand beside her. "Is that so bad? We all tried to hide it at first. Some of us still do."

"But he's coming here. To New York. To Camp Half-Blood." Diva's voice cracked. "What do I say? 'Hey, by the way, my dad's a minor sea god, that's why I can make the ocean do tricks'?"

Annabeth's smile widened. "Percy told me his first conversation with his mom about being a demigod started with him asking if she believed in Greek myths. She laughed at him. Then she cried. Then she hugged him so hard he almost turned blue."

"That's not reassuring."

"The point is," Annabeth said, her tone shifting serious, "you don't have to tell him everything in one night. Let him meet you. Let him see your family. He'll either accept it or he won't, but you can't fake this. Trust me, I tried with my mortal dad. Took years."

Diva looked down at her hands—calloused from sword practice, a faint burn scar from a hellhound attack last summer. She'd hidden it with the bracelet Aryan gave her. The irony wasn't lost.

From inside, Percy's voice boomed. "Diva! Pizza's here! And by that I mean I'm here, and I'm pizza-shaped. Come eat!"

Annabeth rolled her eyes. "He's been working on his comedic timing all week. It's not working."

Diva laughed despite herself. That was this family—impossible, chaotic, full of monsters and prophecies, but full of people who'd die for each other without blinking. She walked back inside, where Percy was already pulling slices from the box, wearing a Camp Half-Blood t-shirt that read "I Survived the Labyrinth. You Should See the Labyrinth."

Sally came in from the kitchen, drying her hands on a dish towel. That warm smile of hers made Diva feel like she belonged. "Nervous, honey?"

"Terrified," Diva admitted.

"That means you care. That's a good thing." Sally squeezed her shoulder. "When I met Percy's father, it was on a beach during a storm. I didn't know he was Poseidon. I just knew he was the most beautiful man I'd ever seen, and that the sea calmed down when he held my hand. The truth came later, but the love came first."

Diva blinked back tears. "Thank you."

The doorbell rang.

Her heart slammed against her ribs. Percy stood up straighter. Annabeth's hand drifted to her sword out of habit. Diva walked to the door like she was approaching a minotaur blindfolded.

She opened it.

Aryan stood there, duffel bag slung over his shoulder, dark hair mussed from the flight, that crooked grin that had made her fall for him in the first place. Simple henley and jeans, nothing special, but he looked like he'd stepped out of a dream.

"Hey, beautiful," he said.

Her voice failed. She stepped forward and hugged him, breathing in his familiar scent—sandalwood and salt. He held her tight, and for a second, everything was normal.

Then Percy appeared in the doorway. "So. You're Aryan. I'm Percy. Heard a lot about you. Mostly good. Some of it was about how you text twenty times a day, which is either sweet or a little obsessive. Haven't decided yet."

Aryan blinked, but recovered fast. "Percy. Diva's told me everything about you. The giant slayer, right?"

"Giant slayers, plural. But yeah." Percy grinned. "Come on in. We're having pizza. And by 'we' I mean everyone."

The next few hours blurred. Aryan met Annabeth, who gave him a sharp, appraising look that softened when he complimented her architecture sketches on the fridge. Sally made him a plate of her famous blue cookies, and he ate three without asking why they were blue—Percy took that as a sign of good character.

Then Nico and Will showed up, Nico looking like a grumpy shadow and Will radiating sunshine to compensate. Will immediately started grilling Aryan about his travel itinerary, while Nico sat in the corner, pretending to read a book Diva was pretty sure he'd already read three times.

"So," Nico said, not looking up, "Diva's told you about her family yet?"

"Nico," Will hissed.

"What? It's a fair question."

Aryan glanced at Diva, confusion flickering in his warm brown eyes. "She told me she's from a big, weird family. I've met weird. My cousin collects garden gnomes. How bad can it be?"

Percy snorted. Annabeth kicked him under the table.

Diva took a deep breath. "Aryan, I—can we talk later? Tonight? There's something I need to tell you."

He looked at her, his expression soft. "Of course. Whenever you're ready."

Later, after the dishes were done and the group had scattered to various corners of the apartment, Aryan and Diva walked down to the beach near Camp Half-Blood. The moon was a silver crescent, waves lapping gently at the shore. Beautiful, peaceful—totally fragile, like glass waiting to shatter.

They walked in comfortable silence, hands intertwined, until they reached a rocky outcropping. Diva stopped, staring at the water.

"I'm not who you think I am," she said quietly.

Aryan turned to face her. "You're Diva. That's all I know, and that's all I need."

"But it's not true. There's more." Her voice trembled. "Remember last summer, when I told you I was going to a 'special camp'? It wasn't a camp. It's a place for demigods. Half-mortal, half-god. And I'm one of them."

He said nothing. His expression was unreadable.

She steeled herself. "My father is a sea god. I can control water." She raised her hand, and a wave rose from the ocean, curving toward them like a question mark. It hovered in the air, glittering in the moonlight.

Aryan stared at it. Then at her. Then back at the water.

"You can… do that?" His voice was barely a whisper.

"Yes." She let the wave fall. "I'm sorry I didn't tell you sooner. I was scared."

The air between them was thick. She waited for him to step back, to say it was too much, to walk away.

Instead, he laughed.

It was a dry, almost nervous laugh, and he ran a hand through his hair. "Okay. Okay. That's—wow. That explains a lot, actually."

"It does?"

"Yeah. Like why you always smell like salt. And why you never get sunburned. And why you won that swim race against the lifeguard without even breathing hard." He stepped closer, took her hands. "Diva. I have a secret too."

She blinked. "What?"

He took a breath. "My mother, before she died—she told me my father was a god. Not a sea god. Aphrodite. Love. Beauty. Romance. That's why I've always been able to… I don't know. Read people. Make them feel at ease. Argue with people until they see my side, and then not remember what they were upset about."

Diva's mouth fell open. "You're a demigod too?"

"I didn't know for sure until the day I met you." His smile was crooked, genuine. "I felt something the second I saw you. Like the world tilted. That's not normal, is it?"

"No," she said, her heart soaring. "That's love."

He pulled her close. "I don't care about the monsters, or the gods, or any of it. I just want you. All of you. Water powers included."

She laughed, tears streaming down her face, and kissed him. The waves seemed to rise around them, glowing faintly, and for a moment, the world was perfect.

The next day, Percy and Annabeth took Aryan down to the training arena. He was clumsy at first—trying to charm a straw dummy didn't go well—but with practice, he learned to project calming emotions, to sense when someone was lying, to make a friendship bracelet that literally never broke.

"You're a natural," Annabeth said, watching him disarm Nico with a smile and a well-placed compliment. Nico didn't even roll his eyes.

"Thanks," Aryan said, a little dazed. "This is… weird. But good weird."

Percy clapped him on the back. "Welcome to the family, man. We have blue cookies, a three-headed guard dog, and the best girlfriend this side of Olympus."

Diva smiled from the sidelines as Aryan turned to her, eyes bright. He crossed the arena and took her hand.

"I know this is only the beginning," he said softly. "But I've never been more sure of anything. I love you, Diva. Demigod and all."

She squeezed his hand. "I love you too."

That evening, they sat together on the beach at Camp Half-Blood, watching the sun sink into the horizon. Percy and Annabeth were a few yards away, arguing good-naturedly about something. Nico and Will were skipping stones—Nico's sank instantly, Will's bounced seven times.

Aryan tucked a strand of hair behind Diva's ear. "So what happens now?"

"Now," she said, leaning into him, "we live. We train. We fight monsters. We eat blue cookies. And we do it together."

He kissed her forehead. "Perfect."

The waves rolled in, silver and endless, and Diva felt something she hadn't felt in a long time: peace. Not the peace of secrecy, but the peace of being fully known—and fully loved.

She looked at the water, at the boy beside her, at the family scattered along the shore, and smiled.

This was her world now. And she wouldn't trade it for anything.