Poseidon's Academy Box Set

by Sarah A Vogler

  ‘Father said if his wife found out about me, she would cut my head off like Perseus cut off my mother’s. So he created a prison. A spell blocks me from entering any secret passageways, and at the end of this hall is a maze. Father created it just for me so that I could never escape. Oh, but I tried many times.’ Stetho swung her tail towards them, careful not to hit any of the statues. Scars ran down the sides of her tail, and Hailey remembered the razor-sharp oysters that had shot at her ankles when she’d been in the maze. She’d thought the shells had been designed to shoot at people’s ankles to slow them down, but looking at the scars on Stetho’s tail, Hailey realised the oyster booby-traps were to stop Stetho from slithering free of the maze.

  ‘When Father died, I thought the nereids would release me,’ she said, weaving between the statues again. ‘But they didn’t. They never even visited me—except for Amathia. She was the only one brave enough to come here and bring me food. I liked her… Nemertes came here recently though. She told me she’d give me a travelling necklace with the power to leave my prison and materialise around the palace, if I promised to turn as many humans into stone as I could. I’ve wanted my own collection my entire life. And is it not lovely?’ She threw her arms out and grinned.

  ‘Those are people,’ Demi said with disgust. ‘You can’t just turn people into statues. They’re alive.’

  ‘The gods created your kind to worship them. You are playthings, nothing more.’

  ‘No, Demi.’ Hailey grabbed her friend when she tried to lunge forward, obviously forgetting that she’d slam into Aaron’s force field.

  ‘I don’t understand about the necklace,’ Alec said, his voice as meek as a rabbit cornered by a minotaur. ‘The travelling necklaces are designed to take us home and to the island. They shouldn’t be able to transport a person around the palace.’

  Stetho touched the winged pendant around her neck. ‘This one is special. The nereids had a Hecate and Hephaestus change the enchantment on it so it could transport me past the spells trapping me, and take me around the palace.’

  ‘Where did the Hecate and Hephaestus come from?’ Tahlia asked.

  Stetho shrugged. ‘I never met them.’ She stopped a yard in front of Hailey and her friends, her back facing the passageway. ‘This conversation is boring me. It’s time for you to become pretty statues.’

  ‘Not gonna happen.’ Aaron’s palms were still up. ‘Your powers don’t work through my force field.’

  Stetho giggled. ‘You think your magical shield has kept my gaze from turning you to stone?’ She giggled again, the eerie sound echoing around the room. ‘Humans are so foolish. I am only part gorgon. I have the power to choose whom I turn to stone.’ Stetho’s eyes glowed bright red, like fluorescent rubies.

  Hailey’s gaze shot to the ground. Please let Aaron’s force field have rebounded her powers. Hailey glanced at Aaron. Her breath hitched. His palms were still up, but he was a statue. And behind him, Alec was stone as well.

  30

  The Storm

  ‘RUN!’ Pandora yelled, charging at Stetho with her sword.

  Hailey, Demi, and Tahlia sprinted around them, none of them daring to look towards Stetho as she ducked and weaved away from Pandora’s blows.

  They were almost to the passageway when Pandora cried out. Thud. Her screams cut off; at the same time, Stetho’s tail whacked into Hailey and her friends’ legs like a whip, sending them tripping forward.

  ‘Demi!’

  Hailey’s head snapped towards Tahlia’s voice. Demi lay unconscious, blood trickling from a gash on her head. Hailey crawled towards her. ‘Thank the Tyches,’ she sighed when she saw her best friend’s chest rise and fall. She was alive.

  Chills crept down Hailey’s spine like a hundred tarantulas scurrying over her skin with their furry legs. Stetho was nearby—she could feel it. Watching. Waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Her neck twitched for her to turn around and see where the monster was—Stetho could be right behind her. But if she did that, she’d turn to stone. Just focus on Demi. Don’t look anywhere else.

  ‘What do we do?’ Tahlia’s eyes stayed on Demi as well, like her life depended on it.

  ‘Can you use your powers on her?’

  ‘I don’t know if I’m powerful enough.’

  ‘LOOK AT ME!’

  ‘Please, Tyches, let this work,’ Tahlia muttered before gasping in a breath and swinging her head around. Not a single fleck of sleep dust escaped her mouth. She hardened to stone instantly.

  ‘Tahlia!’ Hailey touched Tahlia’s knee, the shimmering white stone warm beneath her fingers.

  ‘Your turn,’ Stetho crooned in her child-like voice. ‘Look at me and this will all be over.’

  Just stare at Demi.

  ‘Come on. Don’t you wish to join your friends?’

  The tingling in Hailey’s fingertips intensified, and her body screamed at her to fight the lurking enemy.

  ‘I promise it won’t hurt.’

  Stare at Demi. Stare at Demi. Don’t turn around.

  ‘Just one quick look.’ Stetho’s hot breath tickled Hailey’s ear.

  She squeezed her eyes shut, resisting her body’s pleas to keep them open so she could keep track of the monster. How in Tartarus am I going to get out of this?

  Stetho roared, the rage and fury in her voice quacking Hailey’s bones.

  ‘RUN, HAILEY!’

  ‘Pandora?’

  ‘I’LL SMASH YOU TO DUST!’ Stetho bellowed, hissing and screeching.

  It sounds like Pandora is back to fighting the monster. ‘Demi, wake up.’ She peeked her eyes open and shook her best friend

  ‘Leave her. RUN!’

  Hailey hesitated. If she left Demi, then she might wake up and come face to face with Stetho. But Hailey couldn’t wait around for her to return to the land of the conscious. Sooner or later, Pandora would lose the fight against the gorgon, and then Stetho would come for her. Demi’s eyes are closed for now. She’s safe. ‘I’m sorry.’

  Hailey leapt up and bolted for the passageway, exhaling the second she was in its comforting darkness. She scrambled back into the hallway, where she stumbled to a stop. Nemertes and the other nereids stood before her, malicious smiles curving their lips.

  Nemertes’s smile faltered, and she gritted her teeth. ‘You’re supposed to be dead. I drowned you.’

  Hailey swallowed down her fear. ‘I’m hard to kill.’

  Nemertes glowered. ‘That will change soon.’

  A roar made Hailey spin around. Pandora bolted from the passageway, her sword dripping with blue blood. ‘We need to go!’

  ‘You’re not going anywhere,’ Nemertes hissed.

  ‘Find the teachers,’ Pandora told Hailey before she swung her sword at the nymphs. Nemertes didn’t react fast enough, and Pandora’s sword sliced across her stomach. Silver blood splattered Nemertes’s torn dress, but she didn’t seem the least bit fazed by it. Her and the other nereids closed in on Pandora, circling around her like a pride of Nemean lions circling a wounded golden hind.

  Hailey moved to help her, but a voice in her head stopped her: she’s immortal. She’ll be fine. Run! Hailey sprinted down the hallway, trying to block out the nereids’ and Pandora’s shrieks. She needed to get out of there. There wasn’t time to go through the stupid maze, though, especially when she was alone and without her powers down here. She’d have to take the other secret passageway and hope that one didn’t have a crystal wall blocking it like the other one had.

  Hailey slowed to a walk when she curved around the corner at the end of the hallway and came to a stop. A coral wall that stretched all the way to the ceiling loomed before her, the archway in its centre revealing two pathways and more coral walls. Hailey shuddered, remembering the seaweed that had tightened around her throat, and the floor that had dropped her into the sea. It’s okay, you’re not going in there.

  Hailey swallowed down her fear and faced the painting on her right. Her jaw dropped. She hadn’t noticed it the fir
st time she’d come here, mainly because it had exploded from the wall the second she’d arrived. The woman in this painting had flawless skin, tendrils of dark hair, and green eyes. It was Nemertes. Of course she has her own secret passageway.

  ‘You can run but you can’t hide,’ Stetho’s voice mocked in the distance.

  Hailey threw the painting off the wall, scrambling into the passageway and shuffling down the dimly-lit tunnel. ‘What the…?’ she mumbled, frowning when she reached the end and found a wall blocking her path. This one looked exactly like the walls in the palace, with jewels and shells embedded in the frosted blue crystal. Hailey pushed it, expecting the wall to fly open. Nothing happened.

  Come on. I don’t have time for this. She slammed it with her fist, a sting of pain pricking her skin as a shell cut her. Buttons! Poseidon uses jewels as buttons. Hailey dragged her hands down the bumpy wall, grinning when a jewel pushed in.

  The wall groaned, sliding upwards like the secret passageway in the weapons room at Alec’s house had. Hailey scooted through it, finding herself faced with three hallways to choose from. Oh, I’m near the nereids’ room, she realised, quickly darting down the hallways that led to the entryway. She kept her eyes focused on the ground, just in case Stetho made an appearance. Hailey didn’t know what she’d do when she got to the entryway. She didn’t think there was time to run upstairs looking for Sir Bliss and the other teachers. What if Stetho appears and turns everyone to stone?

  Her best chance of stopping the monster was to get outside. She couldn’t kill Stetho, but she could send her far away on a tornado. That would give the remaining teachers time to figure out how to turn everyone who was a statue back into humans. They’d have the travelling necklaces back as well, which meant they could send for help—and maybe a monster slayer.

  ‘Going somewhere?’

  Hailey stumbled to a stop when she ran into the entryway. Her eyes were still on the floor, but she could see the bottom of Stetho’s tail lying near the doors to the grounds. ‘I’m not going to look at you.’

  ‘Oh, they always look. Curiosity is a powerful thing.’

  Hailey squeezed her eyes shut, just in case the gorgon ducked down to meet Hailey’s gaze. How am I supposed to fight an enemy I can’t see?

  ‘One look, that’s all it will take, and then it’ll all be over.’ Stetho’s voice was right by her ear. ‘You can’t kill me anyway. It would be wiser to accept defeat. Join my collection.’

  Hailey kicked her leg to the left, where Stetho’s voice had come from. Her foot connected with something fleshy and was followed by a hiss. Hailey took her chance. She glanced up for a second, just long enough for her to bolt forward and tear open the entryway doors. A blast of air as cold as a Chione’s powers smashed into her, sending tiny needles of ice burrowing into her skin and stabbing right down to her bones. She shoved away the pain—freezing to death was the least of her worries right now—and flew into the grounds.

  Coral and sea-anemones glowed fluorescent pink, blue, green, and purple, casting enough light over the grounds for Hailey to see the snow covering the tops of the trees.

  Hailey raised her hands to the night sky, snowflakes kissing her cheeks. Part of her was tempted to make the snow stop and banish the night by bringing out the warm glowing sun to melt away the cold. But she was about to make it a whole lot worse.

  Warmth flooded from her fingertips towards the sky. The clouds hiding the stars grew darker, and lightning flashed across the sky as wind whipped up the snow, sending it into a flurry.

  ‘You cannot kill me with a storm.’ Stetho giggled behind her. ‘I’m immortal.’

  A tornado whirled to life outside the grounds. The sea raged around it, spinning into a whirlpool as trees bent towards the tornado, stray jewels and pearls flying into the swirling wind.

  ‘Ah!’

  Hailey smiled when she heard Stetho’s cry. The warmth flowing from her fingers grew hotter, almost burning her as it flowed towards the tornado, doubling it in size and ferocity. Not even Stetho would be strong enough to avoid being pulled into it, and the second she was, Hailey would send it and her to the other side of the world.

  ‘END THIS!’

  Hailey glanced down, just enough that she caught a glimpse of Stetho in her periphery. Her tail was wrapped around a jade tree. But the tree was bending towards the wind. Tiny cracks started to snake across the diamond ground around it. It wouldn’t take long for it to uproot.

  ‘COME ON!’ Hailey yelled, her hands shaking as pain throbbed in her head. ‘Ah!’ she cried, stumbling to the side as something slammed into her cheek. She stretched one hand out to keep her balance, and her other flew to her stinging cheek, where something warm—blood, she was guessing—trickled down her face.

  ‘Good thing I had my travelling necklace handy to throw at you.’ Stetho’s tail whacked into Hailey before she even had a chance to realise the tornado was gone.

  Hailey squeezed her eyes shut as she tripped forward, and then launched back to her feet. Pain burst in her side and something cracked, and then she was flying. Air exploded from her lungs like a popped balloon as she slammed onto the ground. One of her hands dipped into icy water, her fingers cramping as she gasped in breaths of cold air.

  She lurched up, the pain in her side screaming in protest. She waited to be hit again. To fly into the sea this time. But instead she heard a scream of frustration.

  Hailey dared to peek one eye open. About twenty feet away, Stetho was trapped behind a coral wall that glowed pink, blue, green, and purple, and stretched across half the grounds. What the…?

  Demi sprinted around the coral, and Hailey had to keep herself from collapsing to her knees in relief. ‘You’re okay,’ Hailey said when Demi stopped in front of her, puffing white air.

  She nodded and handed Hailey a shard of broken mirror big enough to cover her face. ‘If you can get Stetho – to look at this when she uses her powers, then maybe – she’ll turn to stone.’

  ‘Good idea.’ Hailey gripped the mirror shard, careful not to cut her hand on the sharp edges.

  A shriek tore Hailey’s gaze towards Stetho. The monster’s tail slashed through the fluorescent wall, blue blood spraying everywhere as she cleared a narrow path through the coral.

  ‘I’ll distract her.’ Demi whirled towards Stetho as the gorgon slithered free.

  Her bleeding tail whipped out. The end of it wrapped around Demi’s ankles like rope and yanked her towards the monster.

  Demi didn’t even get a chance to scream. She landed on the coral wall, its broken ends impaling her.

  31

  The Healing Wing

  ‘NO!’ Hailey screamed, and threw her arms out. Warmth gushed into her hands, burning like steam as it shot from her fingertips. A gust of wind as strong as a hurricane ripped across the grounds, ploughing into Stetho a moment before she slithered into Hailey’s vision.

  ‘AHHHHHH!’ the gorgon screeched as the wind slammed her into what was left of the coral wall. Glowing shards of pink, purple, blue, and green coral stabbed into the gorgon’s tail and back as the wall shattered and Stetho hit the diamond ground. ‘I’LL SMASH YOUR STATUE INTO SMITHEREENS!’ Stetho roared as she surged up.

  Hailey didn’t hesitate. She held up the broken mirror Demi had given her, praying to the Tyches Stetho had used her powers. When no tail lashed at her legs, and no more threats were yelled, Hailey dared to lower the mirror, just enough for her to gaze over the top and see Stetho’s hideous form frozen into a statue. Hailey dropped the shard, barely hearing the crack as it shattered, and sprinted to where Demi was impaled on the wall.

  A jagged piece of coral jutted from her stomach, and blood trickled from her mouth. ‘Demi?’ Hailey grabbed her best friend’s ice cold hand. ‘Demi?’ Her eyes were open and staring at the sky, unblinking as snowflakes landed on her face and hair. ‘Demi, please, no.’ Tears gushed from Hailey’s eyes. ‘HELP!’ she screamed. ‘SOMEBODY HELP!’

  It’s already too late. Asclepi
uses can’t save people with mortal injuries, let alone bring back the dead. Demi’s gone.

  A heavy weight pressed against Hailey’s chest, suffocating her like a knoxen trying to crush her to death. ‘I’m so sorry,’ she said through tears, squeezing her best friend’s limp hand. ‘It should have been me. I should have died to save everyone, not you. Demi, please don’t leave me. Please. You’re my best friend.’

  The tears became heavier, raining down on Demi’s face like a monsoon and freezing on her cheeks. Hailey didn’t think they would ever stop. And the weight pressed so tightly on her chest that she had to gasp in tiny bursts of air. How could this have happened? How could her best friend be dead? It was her fault. If she’d been a stronger Zeus, she would have destroyed Stetho or blown her away before Demi had even come into the grounds. She was such a failure. Her dad had died because she’d been a weak Zeus, and then Kora and Brennan had been taken because of her. She was always letting people down. Always failing.

  Hailey wasn’t sure how long she was out there before someone said, ‘Eikaatva utz.’

  Hailey didn’t even notice the wind and snow stopping, or the quickly warming temperature.

  ‘Hailey, you need to go to Madam Mendem. You have hypothermia.’

  Hailey glanced up at Amathia through wet eyes, not even caring about the fact that the nereid was no longer a statue. ‘I’m n-not l-l-leaving, D-Demi,’ she said through chattering teeth.

  ‘All is not lost yet.’

  ‘What d-do you m-mean?’

  ‘Stetho is a gorgon. Do you remember what power a gorgon’s blood holds?’

  Hailey thought about it for a second, and then pure bright shining hope blasted away the heavy weight on her chest like a laser destroying an asteroid. ‘It can b-bring back-k the d-dead.’