The tingling in her fingertips refocused her mind. I have powers! She aimed her hands at the rising trees, and a gust of wind rushed up to catch her and her friends, holding them above the forest.
‘Nice one, Hails!’ Demi said, her hair whipping about as her polo shirt billowed in the breeze.
Hailey held her hands towards the trees, a mere few feet below her, the wind blasting up at her, making her feel like she was indoor skydiving. Her hands trembled as she maintained the breeze, slowly coercing it to lower them. The trees around them swayed and creaked as leaves rustled and drifted to the ground two-hundred feet below.
Pain bloomed in her head as her arms shook. Just a little more, she told herself, praying to the Tyches she could maintain control of the wind long enough for them to land safely.
But the Tyches weren’t listening.
The warmth flowing from Hailey’s fingertips cut off like a switch being flicked, and the wind vanished.
Everyone screamed, dropping through the air.
Hailey gasped, hitting something solid. But it wasn’t the ground.
‘That was close.’ Jayden’s voice shook. ‘Thanks, Aaron.’
Aaron was on his feet, holding his hands down. He lowered his force field to the forest floor, which Demi actually kissed. ‘Sweet ground, I’ll never leave you again.’
Jayden touched Hailey’s shoulder. ‘Are you okay?’
She nodded and staggered to her feet, fighting against the fatigue settling over her. ‘Yep, just tired. Sorry I dropped us—good thing you were here, Aaron.’
‘You fought a cyclops and then stopped the tress from skewering us—I can forgive you for dropping us,’ Demi said, somehow still keeping her sense of humour despite almost dying. ‘So what now?’ she asked. ‘Do we head back?’
‘And where exactly is back?’ Jayden replied.
Demi shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Alec’s the navigator.’
A little of the colour had returned to Alec’s cheeks. He stared around, his eyes combing through the trees surrounding them, which seemed to go on and on in every direction, and kicked at the dying leaves covering the dirt. He shook his head. ‘I’m sorry. I can’t track the way back. We were thrown through the air, so there’s not exactly a trail for me to follow. The book Artemis’s Guide to Surviving the Forest says if you get lost to stay put, so I think the best plan is to wait for the Academy to send a search party.’
‘Wait?’ Aaron said, reacting as if Alec had just told them they should sleep in a Nemean lion’s den. ‘We can’t wait here. We’re deep in the forest—aka Monster Central.’
A chill crept down Hailey’s spine, and she glanced around to make sure nothing peered out from the trees.
‘Um, I think we just got thrown from Monster Central,’ Demi contradicted. ‘Metal birds and a cyclops attacked us.’ Her face fell suddenly. ‘Do you think the others are okay? Do you think they got away?’
‘I’m sure the cyclops chasing us gave Brennan enough time to get everyone else out,’ Hailey said. At least that’s what she wanted to believe. And then she remembered Madam Grayson and Master Anderson soaring above the trees. Her chest tightened, and she tried not to think about the possibility that they’d fallen to their deaths.
‘We need to worry about ourselves for now,’ Aaron said. ‘It’s not safe here.’
‘But—’
‘I know we can’t wander around aimlessly.’ Aaron cut off Alec’s protest. ‘But we can’t stand out here like bait, and we have no idea how long it’ll take the Academy to organise a search party. Then they have to find us.’
Hailey’s legs swayed beneath her at the prospect of spending another night in a forest. It was wishful thinking to believe they’d get rescued in a couple of hours. It would take time for the students to get back to the Academy, and then Amathia would need to organise the teachers. And it’s not like they had much to go on, since Hailey and her friends had been flung through the air. The teachers would probably assume the fall had killed them, so would they even rush the search along if they thought they were only coming out to find bodies?
‘So what do you suggest?’ Jayden asked.
‘We find shelter.’
‘I can at least help with that.’ Alec crouched down, running a hand over the dirt. ‘There are tracks here from small animals. If we follow them, we’ll find shelter, or water.’
Alec took the lead, and they walked in silence for a while before Demi said, ‘Why’d you do it?’
‘What?’ Hailey asked.
‘She’s talking to me,’ Aaron said, ducking to avoid a low-hanging branch. ‘I know you’d prefer to have anyone else standing here than me.’
‘You saved our lives,’ Demi reminded him. ‘I can’t exactly be mad at you right now. But I want to know why—because your dad telling you to do it isn’t a good enough reason.’
Aaron swallowed, not slowing his pace as they continued through the forest. ‘I wanted to be a soldier like my dad and retrieve ancient objects. He gave me my first mission last year—infiltrating Poseidon’s Academy. I thought it would be easy to betray everyone, figuring all the students would be snobs and look down on me for being an Other. But it wasn’t like that—unless you count Venus and the twins,’ he said as they trekked around moss-covered boulders strewn between the trees.
‘I refused to give my dad the information he needed, but he said if I didn’t, he’d take over the palace anyway and people would get hurt. I didn’t want to risk it, so I let an Athena take the knowledge from me. I wanted to tell you so badly so we could stop the takeover. But Dad threatened to expel everyone if I did. He said if I cooperated, he’d allow the students to stay. I’m so sorry. I wish I could have changed it. I wish I’d been brave enough to stand up to him.’
Silence settled again, the only sound the crunch of dead leaves beneath their shoes.
Hailey felt a twinge of guilt and sympathy. She couldn’t imagine what it was like to have a parent you wanted to please so badly that you’d do anything for them. She supposed she understood why Aaron had done it. If she’d been born a Unique and had nothing but scorn thrown at her from those with god powers, she probably would have jumped at the chance to betray a few of them.
‘I forgive you,’ Demi said after a long pause. ‘We’ll find a way to clean up your mess.’
‘Yeah, we’ll work out how to fix things when we get through this,’ Jayden agreed.
‘And on the plus side, it’s meant the nereids haven’t had time to get up to anything,’ Hailey said, agreeing with Demi that they couldn’t be mad at Aaron after he’d saved their lives.
‘Hang on. I need to check something.’ Alec bent down, examining a tiny pile of pellets beside a fallen tree trunk. ‘These are deer droppings.’ He traced his finger over a hoof print. ‘We need to keep travelling north—straight,’ he added when Demi arched an eyebrow at him.
‘Alec, is there something you want to say to Aaron?’ Jayden prompted.
Alec straightened and turned his back on them. ‘No.’
‘Please,’ Aaron begged, placing a hand on Alec’s shoulder as he moved to walk away. ‘I know I hurt you the worst. I’m really sorry.’
Alec shrugged off his hand. ‘Whatever.’
They wandered around for twenty minutes before they came to a small stream with bright green ferns surrounding it and overhanging trees.
‘You did it!’ Demi cheered, rushing towards the water.
‘Demi, wait,’ Jayden warned her.
She turned back. ‘Why? I’m thirsty?’
‘We have to ask permission, remember?’
‘Oh yeah.’ She stared at her reflection in the water. ‘Um, excuse me, naiads. Can we please drink from your stream?’
Hailey waited, expecting women with blue hair to emerge, but nothing happened.
Demi shrugged. ‘Guess there’s no one home.’
‘Demi, don’t,’ Jayden cried, just as Demi plunged her hands into the stream.
Hailey tensed, think
ing the naiads would appear and yell at them, but the water remained empty. ‘Maybe this stream doesn’t have naiads guarding it,’ Hailey said, cupping her hands in the icy water. She brought the liquid to her lips and swallowed, feeling some of her strength return.
‘Talk about déjà vu,’ Jayden remarked, joining them with Alec and Aaron.
‘Pity we don’t have dryads to protect us this time though.’ Hailey glanced around again to check for lurking monsters. ‘That would make things a lot easier.’
‘We’ll be fine,’ Jayden reassured her, rubbing his neck with the water. ‘We’ll find somewhere safe to go and get through this.’
I hope so, Hailey thought before gasping and shuffling back from the stream.
Six young women with blue hair emerged from the stream, not a single drop of water clinging to them or their lily-pad dresses, which seemed to flow over their bodies like a waterfall.
A naiad with ice blue eyes scowled at them. ‘This is the forest’s water. What right have you to take it without permission?’
‘We’re sorry,’ Alec squeaked.
‘I did ask,’ Demi argued, crossing her arms, ‘but you didn’t answer, and we were thirsty.’
‘Patience is a quality lost on humans.’
‘We didn’t mean to offend you,’ Jayden said. ‘We’re really sorry.’
The naiad’s scowl softened. ‘We accept your apology. What brings you to this stream?’
‘We’re lost,’ Hailey explained, hoping the naiads would offer them protection—they’d have a much better chance of surviving the forest with nymphs watching their backs. ‘A cyclops attacked us and threw us over here. Do you know a safe place to hide until we get rescued?’
The naiad exchanged a look with the others before focusing back on Hailey. ‘Hmm, that is unfortunate. There is a cave not far from here that can offer you shelter through the night.’
‘Where?’ Aaron asked.
‘If you follow this stream east, it will lead you there.’
‘And no monsters live inside?’ Demi pressed. ‘Because the last time we went into a cave, we found a three-headed one.’
‘I promise you will not discover a three-headed monster in this one,’ the naiad said with a hint of a smile. ‘You should set out for it before the sun retires.’
I guess that means they won’t be protecting us. We’re on our own.
‘Thank you.’ Jayden bowed his head. ‘Is it okay for us to drink from the stream while we’re in the forest?’
The naiad considered him for a moment, her lips pursing ever so slightly in distaste, as though the very thought of a human touching the water disgusted her. ‘I suppose so,’ she eventually said, sinking back into the stream with her sisters and vanishing.
Hailey’s aching body sagged with relief when the five of them found the cave ten minutes later. Although her relief quickly turned to dread when she saw the mess of spider webs weaved across the entrance, which was only about six-feet wide. Please, Tyches, don’t let the cave be filled with spiders.
‘Food!’ Demi hurtled to the cave’s entrance where bushels of berries flourished.
‘Shhh,’ Aaron hissed, his eyes darting around. ‘There could be monsters nearby.’
Demi didn’t appear to hear him, too busy picking berries. She was about to pop one into her mouth when Alec cried out, ‘Stop! They could be poisonous.’
Demi rolled her eyes. ‘I’m a Demeter. Plants can’t kill me—I think.’
Alec snatched the berries from her and held them to his nose, sniffing. ‘They’re just blueberries. They’re safe.’ He handed them back to Demi, and she shoved them into her mouth, blue juice dripping from the corners of her mouth.
‘We should get inside.’ Jayden stepped towards the cave.
‘Wait.’ Aaron stopped him. ‘I’ll go in first to make sure it’s clear.’ He swatted away the spider webs, which Hailey was grateful to see didn’t have any actual spiders in them, and disappeared inside.
Hailey rubbed her heart pendant, half expecting Aaron to shout out for help—dark scary caves made pretty good hiding spots for monsters, after all.
‘Okay, it’s safe,’ Aaron called out a few seconds later.
Thank the Tyches, Hailey thought and shuffled into the cave, being careful not to let any of the web strands dangling from the entrance touch her—just in case a spider was hiding somewhere. The cave was cool, and had a musty smell, like no one had been in here for a while.
Hunks of rock lay scattered around, which Hailey assumed had fallen from the ceiling, since it had a giant hole in it. She shuddered when she saw the spider webs weaved across the hole and curtained over the ceiling. There weren’t any spiders in these ones either, so Hailey hoped that meant they’d moved out. But what was more disturbing than the webs were the small bones littering the dirt.
Crunch.
‘Ugh, what was that?’ Demi said, leaping back and staring at the bones she’d just stepped on. ‘Please tell me this isn’t where a monster likes eating dinner.’
Alec picked up what looked like a leg bone, and squinted at it in the light coming from outside. ‘They’re small—maybe a rabbit’s. He ran a finger over it. ‘This one is old.’ He glanced at the other bones scattered throughout the cave. ‘None of them look fresh. Whatever ate these animals hasn’t been here in a while. But I’ll pile up some of these rocks to block the entrance, so at least we’ll be safe for the night.’
‘And what about the hole in the ceiling?’ Jayden pointed up.
‘A giant or a cyclops would be the only thing tall enough to reach through it, and we’d hear them coming.’
By nightfall Hailey was feeling slightly less anxious about their sleepover, as Alec had completely blocked the entrance with big rocks—nothing was getting inside. She lay on her back, cushioning her head against the hard ground with her hands, gazing up at the hole in the ceiling and smiling at the twinkling night sky, feeling as though it were watching over her.
She wondered what the school was doing. Search parties wouldn’t enter the forest at night; they’d wait until morning to come looking for them. Are there others lost in the forest too? she wondered. Maybe the cyclops threw a few more students through the air… No, Brennan would have gotten everyone out when the cyclops was chasing us. But Madam Grayson, Master Anderson, and PET weren’t so lucky—they disappeared above the trees and never came back down. Had they survived the fall? She supposed Master Anderson could have used his powers to catch them on a gale of wind like Hailey had with her friends. But then why didn’t they come back to help them?
‘You need to sleep, Hailey.’ Jayden was leaning against the boulders blocking the entrance. Everyone else was already asleep. ‘I said I’ll keep watch, so you don’t have to worry about anything sneaking up on us.’
‘Okay,’ Hailey mumbled, the very word “sleep” reminding her body of how tired it was. Her eyes drooped, and her aching muscles felt like jelly. The cold seeped into her bones from the dirt, but her body was too tired to care about how uncomfortable the ground was.
She dreamed about the cyclops finding them. It scooped the five of them out of the cave, but before it could crush them in its gigantic hand, it transformed into a knoxen: a beast with glowing red eyes.
She bolted from the monster and the dream broke apart, swirling into mist and drifting away, leaving her floating between sleep and wakefulness. Half-awake, she felt her fingertips tingle. They’d been tingling non-stop since the cyclops attack, so she didn’t pay much attention to the feeling. She already knew she was in danger—she didn’t need her powers warning her.
Hailey’s wrists started itching a heartbeat later. Great, she thought, mosquitoes. She kept her eyes closed as she tried to swat them away, but her hands weren’t moving. Must be too tired, she thought. Oh well, let them drink me dry if it means I can go back to sleep.
A scream ripped Hailey’s eyes open. The moon shone bright above her, casting the cave in a dull glow and revealing something that… t
hat… that just couldn’t be real. She blinked, waiting for the image to vanish, thinking that the light was playing tricks on her eyes.
Above her dangled a woman with black hair streaked with red. Spider web draped down her chest and arms like a top, and eight thick hairy black legs protruded from her lower half. The woman was a gigantic spider! And she was hanging from a strand of web attached to the hole in the ceiling. Hailey opened her mouth to scream, but something was covering her lips. She reached up to pull it away, finding her hands cocooned in web, and her ankles too.
Hailey shot into a sitting position, icy terror surging through her body. Demi lay beside her, squirming, trying to scream past the web coating her mouth.
‘Get away from her!’ Aaron sprang up from where he’d been lying a yard from Hailey and raised his hands.
At the same time, the spider extended her black clawed fingers at him, shooting out a stream of web, like silly string, that wrapped around Aaron’s wrists before he had a chance to activate his force field. Web blasted towards his legs next, cocooning them and making him stumble backwards and crash to the ground.
‘Ooh, I do like food with a little fight,’ the spider cooed. ‘They taste so much sweeter.’
The spider didn’t bother spraying web over Aaron’s mouth; Hailey guessed there was no point since it had trapped all of them—Jayden and Alec were struggling with their bindings a few feet from Hailey, their eyes wide.
‘Let us go!’ Aaron ordered, wriggling into a sitting position.
The spider dropped to the ground, leaving a trail of glittering web dangling from the ceiling. ‘I prefer not to hunt my food.’
Aaron’s face showed no fear as he asked, ‘Are you an arachne—a descendant of the woman Athena transformed into a monstrous spider?’
‘Yes, I am. My name is Aradia.’ She eyed the five of them, a voracious smile creeping across her face. ‘When you triggered my web trap entering this cave, I expected to find a golden hind, if I were fortunate. You cannot imagine my delight at finding five humans. I have never seen a human, let alone tasted one. But I have heard you are exquisite. You will last me until the next full moon. Though, I am feeling a little gluttonous, so I think I might eat one of you now.’
Poseidon's Academy and the Deadly Disease Page 15
