| cowboy like me |
—Piper dreamed she was on the Wilderness School dorm roof.
The desert night was cold, but she'd brought blankets, and with Jason next to her (hopefully), she wouldn't need any more warmth.
The air smelled of sage and burning mesquite. On the horizon, the Spring Mountains loomed like jagged black teeth, the dim glow of Las Vegas behind them.
The stars were so bright, Piper had been afraid they wouldn't be able to see the meteor shower. She didn't want Jason to think she'd dragged him up here on false pretenses. (Even though her pretenses had been totally false.) But the meteors did not disappoint. One streaked across the sky almost every minute—a line of white, yellow, or blue fire. Piper was sure her Grandpa Tom would have some Cherokee myth to explain them, but at the moment she was busy creating her own story.
Ten minutes passed. Then twenty. Thirty minutes came and went.
No sign of Jason.
With every passing second, the ball in Piper's stomach wound tighter and tighter. Annoyance flared and she didn't know whom she was angrier at. Jason? or herself? By the end of the hour, she felt like she was going to either throw up or jump off the roof.
She even looked over the side to see if the fall would kill her.
"You're really dramatic, has anyone ever told you that?"
In a whole hour, there had been no sounds other than the wind and Piper's own breathing. She had expected Jason to join her, but the voice she heard was her dormmate's.
"Romani?" Piper raised an inquisitive eyebrow. "What are you doing here?"
The other girl walked out onto the roof and into Piper's view. She was wearing fuzzy purple pjs with some embarrassing cartoon design on them. Piper wanted to giggle, but she didn't have the energy to be happy about something when she'd just been stood up.
"You sneaked out of our room and let's just say you're really loud" Camilla strode over. She was always bold, Piper knew that, but they weren't exactly friends, so it was surprising to have Camilla sit next to her willingly.
Piper didn't want to seem rude, so she offered her a blanket.
"No Jason, huh?"
Piper didn't know what it was about Camilla that irked her back then. Maybe she was blinded by jealousy— jealousy that was planted in her head by someone. The Camilla she knew now was so much fun to be around. Piper wondered if they would have been good friends in the Wilderness school too if the fake memories of Jason weren't there to interfere.
"He stood you up" At this point, Camilla may as well have been trying to talk to a wall.
Piper didn't respond. Maybe because she was still salty over the whole thing. She was about one minute from snapping at the girl. Why would Camilla invite herself here? But then Piper realized she'd been worried.
After an hour and Piper still hadn't returned to their dorm so Camilla was worried.
Oh.
And even though they weren't friends, at least Camilla cared enough to fill the whole Jason left.
Oh.
"That sucks" Apparently Camilla took her silence as an answer. "Don't let it get you down though. I saw how excited you were to see the meteor shower"
Oh.
Piper wasn't sure why 'oh' kept repeating in her mind. It was just a dream, just a memory.
"Did you see any shooting stars?" Camilla asked, not giving up even though Piper wasn't in a mood to talk, "What did you wish on them?"
"The meteor shower was over half an hour ago" Piper's tone wasn't cold exactly... but it wasn't warm either.
"Oh, that sucks. I was hoping to catch them, I've never seen any in real life"
Camilla was patient, Piper had to give it to her. Piper was acting like a spoiled brat, throwing a tantrum because a guy she liked didn't want to come up to the roof for a romantic night. Surely, Jason couldn't be that thick, right? He had to know Piper liked him (Current Piper thought a big mental f-you to Hera for making her like Jason)
"How were they?" Camilla asked, apparently refusing to shut up and take a hint, "The shooting stars, I mean."
"They were beautiful, but..."
"You wanted the company more than the view" Camilla completed. Piper felt like the words had been ripped off her tongue.
Oh.
"Boys are dumb most of the time, or rather, I think Jason's intimidated by you"
"Why would he be intimidated by me?" Piper balked.
"Because you're a good looking girl he feels is way out of his league"
"But I like him" (lie)
"Tell him that, I don't know why you're saying that to me" There was no other light than the moon and the stars. It turned Camilla's skin beautiful and shiny like she was made of precious metal or white marble— A Greek statue. Her eyes were full of stars in the night and she wasn't even looking at Piper, instead she stared at the open sky, like she was still searching for shooting stars.
"Camilla—" Piper said, but the other girl pointed to the sky and suddenly burst out grinning.
"Did you see that?" Camilla scoffed in disbelief, "I think that was a shooting star!"
Piper shushed her for raising her voice, but followed her gaze and sure enough, two more followed.
"Make a wish, McLean" Camilla leaned in. Her breath was warm against Piper's nose and her warm hazel eyes were beautiful in the moonlight. Her mischievous smile looked even better now that Piper was the only one to see it. One of her canines was slightly crooked and Piper wanted to run her tongue over it.
Her lips looked a little chapped but soft nonetheless. Her dark hair was loose and Piper wondered how it didn't get knotted up. Everything about Camilla looked soft, and Piper wanted to just sink into her touch, just drown in her.
Oh.
Oh.
"What did you wish for?" Piper said instead. That's what had happened that night, so that's what she said. She was basically repeating a memory.
"I wished," Camilla grinned, "That you would dance with me"
"With no music? At night? On a rooftop?"
"You were gonna do with Jason anyway" Camilla shrugged, "He's an idiot, he doesn't know what he's missing out on. Dance with me"
"Dancing is a dangerous game, you know"
Oh, Piper thought, even before Camilla got to her feet, it's gonna be one of those things.
"Dance with me" Camilla repeated, "Piper, come on"
Piper's name hung off her lips and Piper wanted to taste how it felt. She gave in, let herself get dragged to her feet.
They slow danced a few steps, but it quickly turned into both of them giggling and trying to hold their laughter in. Camilla's hand was on Piper's waist, Piper's on hers. Piper wanted to see if her hair was as soft as it looked, so she let her fingers play with a few strands. It was.
Camilla laughed and they swayed.
They went from hands on each other's waists to completely tangled up in each other. Piper didn't know where she ended and where Camilla began. All she knew was that Camilla's skin was soft and that spot at the base of her neck looked really divine.
She buried her face in the crook of Camilla's neck. She smelled like strawberry shampoo and some stupidly overpowerful perfume.
Piper hummed a tune under her breath and let herself forget about the boy that stood her up.
"forever is the sweetest con" She mumbled into that spot on Camilla's neck, "I've had some tricks up my sleeve, takes one to know one... You're a cowboy like me"
—Then her dream changed—or maybe she was dead in the Underworld—because she found herself back in Medea's department store.
"Please let this be a dream," she murmured. Just when her first dream was getting good, she was transported to this hell. "and not my eternal punishment."
"No, dear," said a woman's honey-sweet voice. "No punishment."
Piper turned, afraid she'd see Medea, but a different woman stood next to her, browsing through the fifty-percent-off rack.
The woman was gorgeous—shoulder-length hair, a graceful neck, perfect features, and an amazing figure tucked into jeans and a snowy white top.
Piper had seen her share of actresses—most of her dad's dates were knockout beautiful—but this lady was different. She was elegant without trying, fashionable without effort, stunning without makeup. After seeing Aeolus with his silly face-lifts and cosmetics, Piper thought this woman looked even more astonishing.
Yet as Piper watched, the woman's appearance changed. Piper couldn't decide the color of her eyes, or the exact color of her hair. The woman became more and more beautiful, as if her image were aligning itself to Piper's thoughts—getting as close as possible to Piper's ideal of beauty.
It was kind of gross to think of this woman like that, but Piper thought her hair turned darker the more she looked, her eyes came to the exact shade of hazel Piper could recognize anywhere, she even donned a leather jacket and her nose was downturned with a bump in the middle.
Oh fuck.
"Aphrodite," Piper said. "Mom?"
The goddess smiled. "You're only dreaming, my sweet. If anyone wonders, I wasn't here. Okay?"
"I—" Piper wanted to ask a thousand questions, but they all crowded together in her head.
Aphrodite held up a turquoise dress. Piper thought it looked okay, but the goddess made a face. "This isn't my color, is it? Pity, it's cute. Medea really does have some lovely things here."
"This—this building exploded," Piper stammered. "I saw it."
"Yes," Aphrodite agreed. "I suppose that's why everything's on sale. Just a memory, now. And I'm sorry to pull you out of your other dream. Much more pleasant, I know."
Piper's face burned. She didn't know whether she was more angry or embarrassed, but mostly she felt hollow. "I like her, don't I?"
Aphrodite just hummed and gave Piper a knowing look.
"Mom, I don't know what this is" Piper's cheeks felt like they were on fire, "I'm sorry, I just—"
"Sweetie, we're Greek" Aphrodite blinked at her. "If you thought I'd be disappointed, you've got another thing coming. Actually, I'm proud of you. Took you long enough to realize it, but I'm glad you finally did. Men are beautiful sometimes, but don't think I've never watched your eyes wander"
Piper was going to kill herself, she decided. She was going to ask Leo to bury her where no one would find her.
"If Hera wanted me to like Jason— to believe we were in love with each other, why would she let us have that night on the rooftop?" She asked instead.
"You're giving Hera far too much credit, dear" Aphrodite tutted.
"You" Piper choked on her tongue, "Oh gods, mom, you brought Camilla to the roof that night?"
"Mmmh? No. The girl was already headed your way, I just didn't let Hera intervene" Aphrodite gave her an exaggerated wink.
"Why?"
Aphrodite smiled. "Because you are my daughter, Piper. That night was only the beginning. You see possibilities much more vividly than others. You see what could be. And it still might be—don't give up. Unfortunately—" The goddess gestured around the department store. "You have other trials to face, first. Medea will be back, along with many other enemies. The Doors of Death have opened."
"What do you mean?"
Aphrodite winked at her. "You're a smart one, Piper. You know."
A cold feeling settled over her. "The sleeping woman, the one Medea and Midas called their patron. She's managed to open a new entrance from the Underworld. She's letting the dead escape back into the world."
"Mmm. And not just any dead. The worst, the most powerful, the ones most likely to hate the gods."
"The monsters are coming back from Tartarus the same way," Piper guessed. "That's why they don't stay disintegrated."
"Yes. Their patron, as you call her, has a special relationship with Tartarus, the spirit of the pit." Aphrodite held up a gold sequined top. "No... this would make me look ridiculous."
Piper laughed uneasily. "You? You can't look anything but perfect."
"You're sweet," Aphrodite said. "But beauty is about finding the right fit, the most natural fit. To be perfect, you have to feel perfect about yourself—avoid trying to be something you're not. For a goddess, that's especially hard. We can change so easily."
"My dad thought you were perfect." Piper's voice quavered. "He never got over you."
Aphrodite's gaze became distant. "Yes... Tristan. Oh, he was amazing. So gentle and kind, funny and handsome. Yet he had so much sadness inside."
"Could we please not talk about him in the past tense?"
"I'm sorry, dear. I didn't want to leave your father, of course. It's always so hard, but it was for the best. If he had realized who I actually was—"
"Wait—he didn't know you were a goddess?"
"Of course not." Aphrodite sounded offended. "I wouldn't do that to him. For most mortals, that's simply too hard to accept. It can ruin their lives! Ask your friend Jason—lovely boy, by the way, the whole Hera fake memory thing aside. His poor mother was destroyed when she found out she'd fallen in love with Zeus. No, it was much better Tristan believed that I was a mortal woman who left him without explanation. Better a bittersweet memory than an immortal, unattainable goddess. Which brings me to an important matter..."
She opened her hand and showed Piper a glowing glass vial of pink liquid. "This is one of Medea's kinder mixtures. It erases only recent memories. When you save your father and your girl's father, if you can save them, you should give them this."
Piper couldn't believe what she was hearing. (She was totally not focusing on the fact that Aphrodite called Camilla her girl) "You want me to dope Camilla's dad? You want me to make them both forget what they've been through?"
Aphrodite held up the vial. The liquid cast a pink glow over her face. "Your father acts confident, Piper, but he walks a fine line between two worlds. He's worked his whole life to deny the old stories about gods and spirits, yet he fears those stories might be real. He fears that he's shut off an important part of himself, and someday it will destroy him. Now he's been captured by a giant. Your father and Camilla's are living a nightmare. Even if they survive... if they have to spend the rest of their life with those memories, knowing that gods and spirits walk the earth, it will shatter them. That's what our enemy hopes for. She will break them, and thus break your spirit."
Piper wanted to shout that Aphrodite was wrong. Her dad was the strongest person she knew. Piper would never take his memories the way Hera had taken Jason's.
But somehow she couldn't stay angry with Aphrodite. She remembered what her dad had said months ago, at the beach at Big Sur: If I really believed in Ghost Country, or animal spirits, or Greek gods... I don't think I could sleep at night. I'd always be looking for somebody to blame.
Now Piper wanted someone to blame, too.
"Of course, you have plenty of time to decide what you want to do, darling" Aphrodite went on, "Talk with her— Camilla. Come to a decision. It's for the both of you, so you must listen to her as well"
"Who is she?" Piper demanded. "The one controlling the giants?"
Aphrodite pursed her lips. She moved to the next rack, which held battered armor and ripped togas, but Aphrodite looked through them as if they were designer outfits.
"You have a strong will," she mused. "I'm never given much credit among the gods. My children are laughed at. They're dismissed as conceited and shallow."
"Some of them are."
Aphrodite laughed. "Granted. Perhaps I'm conceited and shallow, too, sometimes. A girl has to indulge. Oh, this is nice." She picked up a burned and stained bronze breastplate and held it up for Piper to see. "No?"
"No," Piper said. "Are you going to answer my question?"
"Patience, my sweet," the goddess said. "My point is that love is the most powerful motivator in the world. It spurs mortals to greatness. Their noblest, bravest acts are done for love."
Piper pulled out her dagger and studied its reflective blade. "Like Helen starting the Trojan War?"
"Ah, Katoptris." Aphrodite smiled. "I'm glad you found it. I get so much flack for that war, but honestly, Paris and Helen were a cute couple, you'll have to thank Eris for that. And the heroes of that war are immortal now—at least in the memories of men. Love is powerful, Piper. It can bring even the gods to their knees. I told this to my son Aeneas when he escaped from Troy. He thought he had failed. He thought he was a loser! But he traveled to Italy—"
"And became the forebear of Rome."
"Exactly. You see, Piper, my children can be quite powerful. You can be quite powerful, because my lineage is unique. I am closer to the beginning of creation than any other Olympian."
Piper struggled to remember about Aphrodite's birth. "Didn't you... rise from the sea? Standing on a seashell?"
The goddess laughed. "That painter Botticelli had quite an imagination. I never stood on a seashell, thank you very much. But yes, I rose from the sea. The first beings to rise from Chaos were the Earth and Sky—Gaea and Ouranos. When their son the Titan Kronos killed Ouranos—"
"By chopping him to pieces with a scythe," Piper remembered.
Aphrodite wrinkled her nose. "Yes. The pieces of Ouranos fell into the sea. His immortal essence created sea foam. And from that foam—"
"You were born. I remember now. So you're—"
"The last child of Ouranos, who was greater than the gods or the Titans. So, in a strange way, I'm the eldest Olympian god. As I said, love is a powerful force. And you, my daughter, are much more than a pretty face. Which is why you already know who is waking the giants, and who has the power to open doors into the deepest parts of the earth."
Aphrodite waited, as if she could sense Piper slowly putting together the pieces of a puzzle, which made a dreadful picture.
"Gaea," Piper said. "The earth itself. That's our enemy."
She hoped Aphrodite would say no, but the goddess kept her eyes on the rack of tattered armor. "She has slumbered for eons, but she is slowly waking. Even asleep, she is powerful, but once she wakes... we will be doomed. You must defeat the giants before that happens, and lull Gaea back into her slumber. Otherwise the rebellion has only begun. The dead will continue to rise. Monsters will regenerate with even greater speed. The giants will lay waste to the birthplace of the gods. And if they do that, all civilization will burn."
"But Gaea? Mother Earth?"
"Do not underestimate her," Aphrodite warned. "She is a cruel deity. She orchestrated Ouranos's death. She gave Kronos the scythe and urged him to kill his own father. While the Titans ruled the world, she slumbered in peace. But when the gods overthrew them, Gaea woke again in all her anger and gave birth to a new race—the giants—to destroy Olympus once and for all."
"And it's happening again," Piper said. "The rise of the giants."
Aphrodite nodded. "Now you know. What will you do?"
"Me?" Piper clenched her fists. "What am I supposed to do? Put on a pretty dress and sweet-talk Gaea into going back to sleep?"
"I wish that would work," Aphrodite said. "But no, you will have to find your own strengths, and fight for what you love— for whom you love. Like my favored ones, Helen and Paris. Like my son Aeneas."
"Helen and Paris died," Piper said.
"And Aeneas became a hero," the goddess countered. "The first great hero of Rome. The result will depend on you, Piper, but I will tell you this: The eight greatest demigods must be gathered to defeat the giants, and that effort will not succeed without you. When the two sides meet ... you will be the mediator. You will determine whether there is friendship or bloodshed."
"What two sides?"
Piper's vision began to dim.
"You must wake soon, my child," said the goddess. "I do not always agree with Hera, but she's taken a bold risk, and I agree it must be done. Zeus has kept the two sides apart for too long. Only together will you have the power to save Olympus. Now, wake, and I hope you like the clothes I picked out."
"What clothes?" Piper demanded, but the dream faded to black.
I made so many references to the song in the first part of the dream lmaooo
Cowboy like me is one of my friend's favourite song and the entire evermore album is so underrated plus it fits Camilla and Piper a little too much.
Aphrodite when Piper thought she was gonna be homophobic: