I waited for Jake to do something, anything; perhaps stand up and get away from me as fast as he could. Instead, he reached out and wiped the tear from my cheek. I looked at him.

“Why are you still here?” I asked, my voice bitter. “I’m the granddaughter of Death. A total freak.” My voice broke on the last part.
“I’ve learned over my past few years here that it doesn’t matter who your godly ancestor is,” said Jake. “I’d hate to sound cheesy, but don’t let who your parents or grandparents are define you; you get to choose your own path. Take Cressida for example; her mom is Hemera, the goddess of day. You’d expect her to be all nice and stuff, but she can be quite scary if she wants to be. Honestly, I don’t know why Ben wasn’t letting her play capture the flag yesterday; I’d be scared for my life.”

“Well that’s an overstatement,” said Cress as she walked up to us and sat on my other side. “I’m not gonna kill anybody for not letting me play capture the flag, but thanks for the idea.”

I looked at her, worried that she had overheard about me being the granddaughter of Thanatos; but that worry was dissolved by her next words.

“So why were you guys talking about me?” she asked me and Jake. I shot him a warning glance; I didn’t want Cress to know about my… secret just yet.

“Oh, Evie asked me about you to get to know you better,” said Jake, giving me a subtle nod to say that he understood.

“Well, Jake made it sound like I’m some sort of… I don’t know. Somebody mean,” said Cress with a grin. “I’m a reasonable person; I’ll only get mad if it makes sense.”

“Well that’s good to know,” I said quietly. “I wouldn’t want to make you mad.”

“Anyways, I’ll see you around!” she said, and ran off, probably to train, leaving me and Jake alone on the shore of the lake.