Madam Grayson shook her head. ‘Hailey, I don’t want you or your friends getting involved in this. These soldiers are dangerous. If you interfere with their plans who knows what they’ll do.’
‘It’s the only way. I don’t care about the risk. This palace is my home. I won’t let them destroy it. Now, please, can I have the necklaces?’
‘Even if I did agree to your plan, I couldn’t help you. Colonel Wynton confiscated the travelling necklaces after the takeover. He didn’t want to risk us sneaking away to get help.’
Medusa! Jake was one step ahead of them. How would she and her friends get the necklaces from him?
Madam Grayson placed her hands on Hailey’s shoulders, her eyes serious. ‘Promise me you won’t do anything stupid, Hailey. Promise me you’ll stay out of it.’
‘I’d be lying if I did.’
20
The Plan
A letter materialised on Hailey’s desk, dragging her out of bed. She dropped into her clamshell chair and tore the envelope open, expecting to see her mum’s handwriting.
Hailey and Demi,
Alec filled me in on what’s happening. This was the only way I could think to come up with a plan without PET catching us. My dad let me keep my stamps, since my mum knows what’s happening. I’ve put one into this envelope so you can send me a response.
This is what I’m thinking…
Hailey read through Aaron’s plan. A lot could go wrong, but she didn’t exactly have a better idea, and they were running out of time to do something. She prayed the Tyches of the world would be on their side today and wrote Aaron a letter back saying her and Demi would meet him in an hour with his requested supplies.
‘What’s going on?’ Demi yawned as Hailey pressed a stamp onto her letter; it vanished in an instant.
‘A lot. Feeling better?’
‘A little, I guess.’ Demi sniffed. ‘So what’s happening?’
Hailey explained everything.
‘Wow, you miss a lot when you’re sick.’ Demi yawned again and swung her legs over the edge of her bed.
‘Are you sure you’re up to this?’
‘You are so not leaving me out.’
‘Okay, you get dressed and then find Kallie. I’ll get the other stuff.’
Hailey grabbed a white sock from her chest of drawers before knocking on the joining door.
‘Come in.’
Hailey pushed into Kora and Tahlia’s room. Both of them were lounging on their beds, painting their nails.
‘Want a manicure?’ Kora held up the hot pink nail polish she’d painted her nails with.
‘Maybe later. I’m actually here because I need your help, Tahlia.’
Tahlia placed her violet nail polish on her clamshell nightstand. ‘With what?’
Hailey held up the sock. ‘Any chance you can fill this with sleep dust?’
Hailey reconvened with Demi, Jayden, Alec, and Aaron on the second-floor staircase—the only staircase that didn’t have a soldier guarding it.
‘Did you get it?’ Aaron asked Hailey.
She pulled the sock out of her pocket, tiny specks of gold sparkling like glitter all over it. ‘Yep.’
‘And Kallie?’ Aaron asked Demi.
Demi shook her head. ‘Elora said she went into a parallel world an hour ago. I told her to let Kallie know what she needs to do.’
‘What happens if she’s not back in time?’ Alec glanced up the stairs, looking as if he was considering abandoning the entire plan and running back to the common room to hide under his bed.
‘We’ll battle that minotaur when we cross it,’ Aaron said. ‘Let’s get through phase one of the plan first.’ Aaron started up the stairs.
Jayden stayed close behind him. ‘Where are we going exactly?’
‘The sixth floor.’ Aaron took two steps at a time. ‘It’s where the teachers who aren’t overseers stay. When my dad came in with his team, he kicked the teachers out and made it PET’s base camp—he even put a spell around it so no one can materialise in.’
‘So where are the teachers?’ Hailey asked as they passed the fourth floor.
‘A few of them are in spare rooms, but I think some of them are sleeping in their classrooms.’
‘That’s – awful,’ Demi puffed. ‘Your dad really – sucks.’
‘Shh,’ Aaron hissed, coming to a stop as they passed the fifth floor. ‘They’ll be soldiers on the landing.’ He turned to Hailey, ‘Can I have some dust?’
Hailey tipped gold dust into Aaron’s hand, being careful not to let any flecks fly out. The mission would be a giant failure if they accidentally inhaled sleep dust and passed out.
Aaron closed his hand over the dust, and they continued up the staircase, this time slower. Hailey tensed when she spotted Scar blocking the off-shoot staircase to the sixth floor.
‘Whoa, you’re not allowed up here.’ Scar held out a hand to keep them from coming any closer, while his other one hovered beside the gun strapped over his shoulder. ‘Not even you, Aaron.’
‘Well, that doesn’t work for me.’ Aaron chucked the dust at Scar, hitting him directly in the face.
Scar’s hand whipped to his gun. But he never got a chance to raise it. His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he stumbled backwards, tripping on the step behind him and crashing down, his gun clattering helplessly beside him.
‘Tahlia said the dust loses potency when it’s not fresh,’ Hailey warned Aaron.
‘Then we’ll have to move quickly.’ Aaron held out his palm and Hailey refilled it. ‘Alec, can you grab the body. We don’t want anyone coming up here and seeing it.’
‘Um, okay.’
They edged up the stairs again. Hailey chewed her lip; she couldn’t help thinking about what would happen if something went wrong. Like a soldier attacked them before they had a chance to throw the dust. If that happened, then everything would be lost. They wouldn’t get a second chance, and they’d get shipped back home, never to return to Poseidon’s Academy.
‘Okay, be ready,’ Aaron instructed, his voice barely audible.
Hailey grabbed some dust from the sock, and together she and Aaron crept onto the landing, where two soldiers stood on either side of the stairs. The soldiers’ eyes flared with surprise, giving Hailey enough time to throw dust at the one closest to her. She reached for his arm as he fell backwards, but it slipped from her grip and his head slammed against the ground.
‘Sorry,’ Hailey told his unconscious body, not envying the headache he’d have when he woke up.
‘Nice work,’ Demi remarked, coming up with Jayden and Alec as Aaron lowered Hart—the second soldier—to the ground.
Hailey repressed a chuckle when she saw Alec holding Scar—who was ten times Alec’s size—over his shoulder.
‘Well, this is cosy.’ Demi’s eyes flicked around the common room, which was half the size of their own. Sofas and armchairs were spread around a fireplace, and a coral bookcase rested against the back wall. ‘Let’s see what’s behind door number one.’ She bounded towards the door on the right.
‘Demi, wait,’ Aaron yelled in a whisper.
Demi pushed the door open. ‘Uh oh.’ She stumbled backwards.
A soldier stomped into the common room, glowering at Demi before his eyes shot to Hailey and her friends and then settled on the unconscious soldiers. A fireball ignited in his hand. ‘Place your hands behind your heads,’ he ordered in a Scottish accent. ‘Now.’
‘I don’t think so.’ Demi dropped to the floor and kicked her leg out.
The soldier tripped backwards. The fireball flew from his hand, singeing the pearl floor before puffing into smoke.
‘Ahh!’ Demi cried when the soldier grabbed her leg. She tried to kick him away. ‘Let me go.’
The soldier sat up, his grip tightening on Demi’s squirming leg. Another fireball materialised in his other hand. ‘Hands behind your heads, or I give her a scorched haircut.’
‘Not my hair!’
‘Okay,
we surrender.’ Jayden placed his hands behind his head; Alec followed his example.
Aaron’s eyes flicked to Hailey, and then shifted, for the briefest second, to the sock in her hand. ‘Yeah, we surrender.’ He interlocked his fingers on top of his head.
Hailey’s heart hammered in her chest as she reached her hands up and prayed to the Tyches that what she was about to do would work—and that Demi’s hair would be saved too.
‘Smart.’ The soldier crushed the fireball, a tiny wisp of smoke escaping from between his fingers. He kept his grip on Demi’s ankle and lifted his wrist towards his mouth, preparing to speak into his watch.
Hailey lunged. The soldier’s eyes widened for a split second before his face hardened and he drew his hand back. Hailey emptied the sock over him before he had a chance to conjure another fireball. He swiped at the stream of gold dust swarming him before smacking back on the floor.
‘Phew, that was close.’ Demi pulled her leg free from the soldier’s lax hand and climbed to her feet.
‘And that’s why you don’t go barging through doors.’ Aaron aimed a censorious glance at Demi, who shrugged.
Hailey tossed the empty sock aside, it landing right beside Hart. ‘I hope that’s the last of the soldiers, because we’re out of dust.’
‘I’m sure Alec can take out any extra soldiers.’ Jayden nudged him.
Alec paled, sweat forming on his brow. ‘Me? I don’t know how to fight specially-trained operatives that probably know how to tear out someone’s throat with a plastic fork.’
‘Just kick them in the shins and you’ll be fine.’ Jayden smirked, patting him on the shoulder.
‘Don’t worry, there shouldn’t be any more,’ Aaron said, and slunk into the deserted hallway. He turned to the first door on the left, twisting the door handle. It was locked. He exchanged a tacit glance with Alec, who walked up to the door and then through it.
Hailey tensed, waiting to hear Alec cry out on the other side. Instead, the door clicked and opened inwards. ‘Your dad likes knives,’ Alec squeaked, looking slightly shaken, as if imagining what tortures Jake would inflict on him if he caught Alec in his dorm.
‘He’s an Ares,’ Aaron said simply, moving into the room.
Hailey slipped in after him, a prickle of fear stroking her spine. Hunting knives lay scattered over Jake’s polished-coral desk, and a sword leaned against the wall beside his bed. She dreaded to think what would happen to someone that got on the wrong side of him.
‘This is where they’ll be… I think.’ Aaron hauled a trunk out from under the bed. It had a giant padlock on it.
Demi interlocked her fingers and stretched them forward, her knuckles cracking. ‘I think I can pick a lock.’
‘No.’ Aaron held a hand out to stop her. ‘Alec can break it.’
Demi pouted. ‘Fine. But I feel like I haven’t done anything fun.’
‘You tripped that guard,’ Hailey reminded her.
‘Oh yeah.’
Alec wrapped his fingers around the lock and yanked. It groaned before snapping free. He tossed it onto Jake’s bed and opened the chest. ‘Yep, this is it.’
Hailey peered over his shoulder. The chest contained five smaller wooden chests, which she recognised as the ones the school kept the travelling necklaces in. Scattered around them were neutralising bracelets. Blue skies.
‘Here.’ Aaron thrust a chest at each of them and grabbed a neutralising bracelet. ‘Let’s go before someone wakes up.’
They piled back into the common room, where the four soldiers remained unconscious. Aaron strode towards Hart, slipping the neutralising bracelet over her wrist, where it tightened against her skin.
‘I don’t get it.’ Demi frowned. ‘Won’t she be able to pull the bracelet off since only a teacher can set the release timer?’
‘All setting a timer does is make the neutralising bracelet impossible to take off until the timer ends,’ Alec explained. ‘Without a timer, the bracelet will still neutralise someone’s powers, but a teacher can tell the bracelet to release at any time.’
‘And who’s to say a teacher won’t?’ Demi set her chest of travelling necklaces on the ground.
‘We have to hope none do.’ Aaron straightened. ‘I doubt they’ll do anything to help PET.’
‘Kallie’s still not here.’ Hailey pointed out the obvious and shot an apprehensive glance to the soldiers, who were starting to twitch.
A conch shell bellowed.
‘What’s that?’ Demi grabbed her chest of travelling necklaces. ‘Is that an alarm? Do they know what we’ve done?’
‘I’m going to jail.’ Alec started pacing. ‘I can’t go to jail.’
‘It’s okay,’ Jayden said. ‘I bet this is Jake’s way of summoning the whole school together so he can send everyone home.’
‘They’ll notice if these soldiers don’t show up.’ Aaron nudged Hart with his shoe. ‘We need a Plan B.’
‘I’m here. I’m here.’
Everyone breathed a sigh of relief when Kallie came up the stairs with Elora. ‘Wow, you actually did it.’
‘We don’t have a lot of time,’ Aaron said.
‘Okay.’ Kallie drew her hands apart, a sphere of light glowing between her palms. She threw it forward, the sphere exploding into a vortex of swirling colours.
‘Here.’ Aaron snatched Jayden and Alec’s chests, balancing them on his own before handing them to Kallie, while Hailey handed her and Demi’s chests to Elora.
‘Don’t worry, they’ll never think to look in a parallel world for them,’ Kallie said, and stepped into the vortex of swirling lights with Elora, the portal blinking from existence a heartbeat later.
‘Hey, what are you doing?’ Scar staggered to his feet, swaying a little. ‘Stay right there.’ He lifted his watch to his mouth.
Alec sprang forward and kicked him in the shin. Scar howled and hit the ground.
‘Alec, what did you do?’ Jayden exclaimed.
‘You said to kick any soldiers that appeared in the shins.’
‘I was kidding.’
Aaron plucked a vial off the howling soldier’s utility belt, ripping the cork lid from it and throwing the gold liquid inside into Scar’s face. He dropped like a boulder, crashing beside a sofa. ‘It’s a sedative potion.’ Aaron tossed the vial aside, it rolling under an armchair. ‘Every soldier has to carry one in case they have to knock someone out.’
Demi clucked her tongue. ‘I think you broke his shin.’
Hailey was pretty sure Alec had, too, judging by the purple shade of Scar’s skin.
Alec looked ready to faint. ‘I’m sorry. I thought that’s what I was meant to do.’
‘It’s okay,’ Jayden said. ‘Madam Mendem can heal him. Come on, let’s get to the main hall.’
21
Poseidon’s Dungeon
The main hall was packed. Thankfully, Hailey and her friends managed to find seats with Hope, Kora, Tahlia, Lexa, and Tanzy about ten rows from the front of the hall.
‘So what do you think this is about?’ Tanzy adjusted the purple ribbon in her hair. ‘Do you think they’re finally leaving?’
‘More like they’re going to try and make us leave,’ Hailey said, assuming Jake had decided to go through with his blow-up-the-palace threat. She smirked, imagining his face when he discovered the necklaces were gone.
‘What?’ Kora, Tahlia, Lexa, and Tanzy exclaimed in unison.
‘Don’t worry, we made sure they can’t kick us out.’ Demi winked.
‘Silence,’ Jake’s voice boomed over the chatter, which cut off in an instant as the students’ heads snapped to the front of the hall. ‘I have summoned you here to inform you that you need to pack your belongings and prepare for departure back home tomorrow. Poseidon’s Academy is being shut down indefinitely.’
The reaction was mixed. Half the students’ jaws dropped, and the other half looked murderous as they yelled out protests: ‘You can’t do that!’, ‘We’re not leaving!’
‘This is terrible.’ Kora looked ready to cry. ‘I don’t want to leave.’
‘Me neither,’ Tahlia agreed.
Hope hugged her arms. ‘This wasn’t meant to happen.’
‘It’s okay, you won’t get tossed into the street,’ Hailey assured her. ‘You’ll get to stay here.’
‘Yeah, I told you, we took care of it.’ Demi leaned lazily back in her chair.
Lexa raised an eyebrow. ‘What do you mean?’
‘SILENCE!’ Jake boomed out again, and reluctantly the students stopped talking. ‘If anyone attempts to disobey me, they will spend the night in the dungeon.’
‘Dungeon?’ Demi frowned. ‘I didn’t know we had a dungeon. How cool is that? I wonder where it is?’
‘Uh oh.’ Alec slumped down in his chair, attempting to hide under the table.
Two soldiers stormed towards Jake. Hailey’s stomach clenched. One was Hart, and the other was the soldier Hailey had knocked out. She wondered what would happen to her and her friends. Dorm arrest?
The soldiers spoke quietly to Jake; his jaw tightened and his hands balled into fists at his sides. Hart held up her arm, showing Jake the neutralising bracelet. His face turned red, and he whipped around to the teachers’ table, his eyes narrowing in on Amathia. ‘Where are the necklaces?’
Amathia’s face remained impassive. ‘Necklaces?’
‘The travelling necklaces,’ he repeated through clenched teeth.
‘I believe you confiscated them when you first arrived.’
Jake slammed his fist on the table, the plates and cutlery jumping. ‘They’ve been stolen. WHERE ARE THEY?’
‘I honestly don’t know what you’re speaking of.’
‘Fine,’ he growled. ‘Amathia, I am placing you under arrest until you reveal the necklaces’ location.’
The hall gasped in unison.
Aaron leapt up. ‘She didn’t do anything. I took the necklaces.’
Jake glowered at him. ‘I’m aware of your and your friends’ involvement. But I’m sure Amathia ordered you to do it.’
Poseidon's Academy and the Deadly Disease Page 21
