Maggie Steifvater, The Raven King / Giovanni Gasparro, The Most Chaste Heart of St. Joseph / Florence + The Machine, Girls Against God / Lorde, The Love Club / Louise Bourgeois, 10 am is When You Come to Me / Euripides, Medea / Margaret Atwood, We are hard / Lana Del Rey, Cinnamon Girl / Fleabag (2016) / Taylor Swift, Cruel Summer

━━━━━━━━━━━

Love is a monstrous thing.

Even in a world where all the stories are true—where gods walk among mortals and monsters roam the earth—there is nothing quite so terrifying as the notion that someone might love you. (Especially in a world where all the stories are true.) In this world of the divine and the damned, love is not patient, it is not kind. It is nothing so sweet or sentimental as the way the poets make it seem. Instead, it is something else. Something worse. A declaration of violence; a promise of grief. Blood on your hands or blood in the water.

It is not how love is supposed to be.

(It's how it is, anyways.)

James Fahey was born his mother's son. It's the reason he curses love. The reason he has been running from it for so long.

But no matter how far or how fast he runs, James cannot outrun himself. Love is the lifeblood that courses in his veins; the godly ichor that pumps through his heart. His mother's divine favor rests more heavily upon his shoulders than the rest of her children's and her love is a noose around his neck, choking him, shaping him into something lovely and lethal. He is her golden boy, her trophy son, a polished prize that she has won. It is the greatest of the curses that James carries—his mother's blessing. The one that has made him so terribly easy to love, when loving him is a death sentence.

There is already too much blood on his hands. So much that James knows they will never truly be clean again. The best he can hope for is to keep the stain from spreading. Making himself unlovable is the most loving thing he can do. Breaking hearts is the only way he knows how to save them.

James can make himself into a leaver, an abandoner, heartbreak incarnate—so long as it means never watching the life leave someone's eyes again, knowing that he is the one to blame. He can accept the burden of his penance, if the only blood that stains his hands is from the heart he ripped from his own chest. He can do all of these things, be all of these things, till he finds his way into the inevitable early grave that awaits all demigods.

James Fahey never accounted for himself falling in love.

He never considered that someday he would fight to keep it.

JACK CHAMPION / JAMES ISIDORE FAHEY

Hand on my heart. Hand on my stupid heart.

🫀

CHANDLER KINNEY / ANNABETH CHASE

You can leave and I'll survive. I always do.

♔

ÁINE CROSS

ALTAN DAVENPORT

NELL FAHEY †

ISIDORE FAHEY

MELORA FAHEY

WHAT IS LINEAGE, IF NOT A GOLD
THREAD OF PRIDE AND GUILT?

🫀

PERCY JACKSON / SON of POSEIDON

AOIFE CROSS / DAUGHTER of ARES

DEVYN CROSS / DAUGHTER of ARES

KITAY TSAI / CHILD of HERMES

NICO DI ANGELO / SON of HADES

&

APHRODITE / GODDESS of LOVE

EOS / GODDESS of DAWN

HEIDI / GODDESS of THUNDER

ARES / GOD of WAR

HADES / GOD of the UNDERWORLD

OTHERS / AS DESCRIBED

DISCLAIMER / TRIGGER WARNINGS

this is a work of fanfiction made purely for entertainment purposes. all rights belong to the original creators. that being said: please do not plagiarize any original ideas or repost to other sites!

though the pjato series is primarily geared towards kids and teens, this story will contain some heavy topics and mature themes. your mental health should always be your number one priority while reading. please do not read this book if you are uncomfortable with topics including but not limited to:

graphic depictions of violence / gore, character death(s), adult language, mature themes, complicated family dynamics / relationships, discussions / portrayals of complex mental health issues, self-sabotaging behaviors, etc.

any additional warnings will be added if needed.

author's note: well well well here i am again, as if i needed to publish another pjo verse fic... 😒😖🤭😆 but welcome to HEART IN HAND! i never really saw myself writing an annabeth fic but i had an idea for a specific oc and things sort of fell into place with everyone's #1 girl annabeth chase. my oc james is very much a richard gansey/will herondale/henry strauss-esque hybrid and was heavily inspired by those characters. he is a son of aphrodite & has a very complex relationship with his mother (and love in general) for backstory reasons™️ that will eventually be revealed.

this fic takes place in the same universe as my nico fic LAUREL HELL (meaning it draws heavy inspiration from the hades video game) and also crosses over with a percy fic called ASYSTOLE by PALOMA / wulfhall. big big thank you to paloma for helping me to fine-tune the details of this story / summary, for making the gorjus cover of this book, for allowing me to take inspiration from their layout, and for letting me feature the darling cross sisters (AÍNE, AOIFE, & DEVYN) in this story.

this book is set in a slight au-ish universe where the monsters of PJO are even more... well, monstrous and demigods take a more active role in actually pursuing/eradicating them as a threat to demigods. please please check out ASYSTOLE if you are interested in learning more about this concept!! there are also parabatai elements in this fic inspired by the shadowhunter series written by You Know Who. for those who haven't engaged with that series: parabatai are essentially warriors who share a special bond and are sworn to fight at each other's side. the term itself originated from the ancient greek phrase heniochoi kai parabatai meaning charioteers and side-men.

i can't wait to share this story with you guys. i will be done with the current semester of school in about a month and look forward to being able to really dive into my fics then and get some real writing done. i hope that you have enjoyed this summary. please let me know your thoughts & thank you for reading!! 🫶🫶

PUBLISHED: 11.13.22
FINISHED: —/—/—