Blessings from Khaos

|Love is Kind|

Not everything was smooth sailing as the year continued to roll by.

There had been one day where she caught sight of Ethan watching them from a distance. Drew had seen or rather, she had sensed him too. She snatched the pendant that he gifted her for her birthday from the year before, threw it onto the ground, and dug her heel into it as she walked away. He had hurriedly to step in front of her though he backed off when her crossbow appeared in her hands.

Lea watched the proceedings a bit bemused as she looked between the two soulmates.

"What you want, Ethan Nakamura," Drew said, but Lea didn't miss the way she forced herself to say Ethan's name. She regrets all the times she made of their relationship and all the seeds of jealousy she felt for the easy comradery the two of them had because if this is love, this brokenness and despair she sees so clearly on Drew's face, she doesn't want it.

Drew had been drifting around like a ghost, and before Lea even knew it, something with her cracked painfully. It was as if the world turned upside down but Lea understood with a certain clarity that this? These marks on their skin that bound their souls to other people were not blessings. no, these were curses.

"You're not going to shoot me, Aeri." He murmured, looking at her pleadingly. "Please. Just he—achhh." Drew shot a quarrel right into his arm before walking away with her head held high. Lea knew that it was a mask though. And Lea ached every moment she heard Drew cry silently at night, curled into a ball on her bed. The blankness in her face as a child of love slowly became loveless and it was terrifying. She wished she knew what to say, but all she could offer was her companionship. All she could do was lie beside her, watching as life passed them by until the earth covered them and they were gone from this world.

Lea picked the necklace up, rubbing her thumb across it. "Personal loss should not be mine, restore this necklace and make it fine." It shimmered green before righting itself and she threw at Ethan with a dark smile curling her lips. "You can really have this back to be honest. She has enough diamonds."

And then she flounced off to follow behind her best friend.

She said nothing when later on that night after checking in on Annabeth and Percy searching for the last of their blessings ("I have a spreadsheet," Annabeth had said typing away on Daedalus' laptop. "It has spreadsheets."); she walked in to see Drew completing a cord cutting mantra using careful instructions from Lea's notebook. "I release you with a full heart with love for the place you once held in my life. May you be happy in the life you have chosen. I now take back all the energy that has been taken from me or that I have given away and I return the energy that I still hold from you. May I be free from the ties that bind us. may all cords be cut, transmuted and dissolved. May all energy return to its original send with power, peace, and forgiveness. I ask that this complete and sealed now. So it is."

Lea didn't want to tell her that Lady Eurybiê's notes stated that it doesn't work on soulmates; otherwise, Lea would have done it for herself, but at the same time, Drew's mother was one of the goddess that held domain over them so who knows what she would allow.

She sat down with her Mother and Percy to the explain the truth of them to Paul once he gathered the nerve to propose to their Mother. He needed to know what he was getting himself into though he hadn't really believe them until Percy turned the sinks and showers on with just his mind and Lea summoned the transmission out of his car using her mageia. It still didn't stop the man and soon, Drew, Silena, and Eliza (who was still dutifully ignoring Annabeth and Percy's kicked puppy looks) were planning out a beautiful winter wedding for the two and somehow Lea was in charge of the snow when the wedding was happening in winter in New York City.