‘I have to do something,’ Hailey snapped back. ‘I don’t care if I get hurt. I need to save Demi.’
‘Amathia will save Demi,’ Jayden said. ‘Her plan is the best thing right now.’
‘Demi has a week to live. What if the nereids don’t give up the information before then?’
‘How about this,’ Aaron said, still gripping Hailey’s wrist, ‘we give Amathia’s plan four days to work, and if the nereids haven’t said anything by then, we pay them a visit and make sure they talk?’
Hailey wanted to say no. She wanted to march down those steps and attack the nereids right now. But she’d only get one chance to interrogate Nemertes, and she didn’t want to mess that up by letting her anger control her. ‘Fine.’ She gave in. ‘We’ll do it your way. Four days.’
‘Four days,’ Aaron agreed, releasing her wrist.
‘But how will we make them talk?’ Alec asked.
‘Hopefully Amathia’s plan will work and we won’t have to get involved,’ Jayden said. ‘Come on, back to quarantine.’
‘What do you think they’ll do to us?’ Alec rubbed the backs of his hands as they started down the stairs. ‘We did set a fire and break out.’
‘Who cares.’ Hailey pushed past him, stepping onto the second floor. ‘It was worth it.’
They marched all the way down to the gym, where Slater stood on guard in front of the closed doors. His mouth shifted into a smile when he spotted them. ‘Well, well, look who we have here.’
‘Oh no.’ Alec froze.
‘Let us in,’ Hailey growled.
‘I don’t think so. You’re all alone out here. There’s no one to protect you or stop me from getting answers out of you.’
Aaron took a step towards Slater. ‘You’re not hurting anyone this time.’ Slater threw his arm out, tossing Aaron aside like he weighed nothing. ‘Kick him!’ Aaron shouted to Alec as he hit the pearl floor.
‘Me first.’ Hailey forced all of her anger into her leg and rammed her foot into Slater’s knee, ignoring the pain that shot up her ankle.
‘AHHH!’ Slater howled, collapsing to the ground.
‘You should have left us alone.’ Hailey leapt over him and threw open the gym doors, coming face to face with Madam Grayson.
‘What’s going on?’ Madam Grayson demanded, the students in the gym behind her staring towards the commotion. ‘What’s all that shouting? And what are you doing out here? When did you leave?’
‘Slater had a little accident,’ Aaron said, standing up. ‘As for when we left, we might have snuck out during the fire.’
Madam Grayson’s eyes clouded with disapproval. ‘Come inside.’
‘Ah,’ Alec cried. Slater had him by the ankle.
‘Tell me where the necklaces are or I’ll break your leg,’ he snarled.
‘Unhand him!’ Madam Grayson ordered. ‘Now!’
‘Not until they tell me where the necklaces are.’ Alec whimpered as Slater clenched tighter, digging his nails into Alec’s skin.
Hailey was about to stomp on his hand when Slater suddenly coughed.
‘Oh no, don’t infect me!’ Alec scrambled away as Slater pressed his hands against his mouth.
‘No.’ Slater shook his head. ‘I can’t have it.’ He coughed again.
‘You’re infected, Captain Slater,’ Madam Grayson said. ‘Go to the fourth floor before you spread Poseidon’s Plague to everyone else.’ She ushered the five of them inside and closed the doors on Slater, who wore a mask of absolute horror.
Madam Grayson put her hands on her hips. ‘What did you do?’
Alec blurted about them using the fire as a distraction to escape so they could see Madam Norwood and find out what was happening. He also mentioned Hailey’s visit to Demi but, to her relief, he didn’t say anything about what Amathia had told them. If Madam Grayson knew about the nereids being involved, she’d probably put Hailey and her friends under lock and key, not trusting them to stay out of it.
‘Well, that was all very stupid,’ Madam Grayson said when Alec apologised for the fiftieth time. ‘This disease is highly contagious and you waltzed right into Plague Central.’
‘I know,’ Hailey said. ‘But no one was telling us anything. Did you know half the school is infected?’
Madam Grayson’s eyes widened for a split second, but she quickly composed her features into an unreadable mask. ‘No. But I do know Amathia and PET have everything under control.’
‘Demi’s got a week to live,’ Hailey protested. ‘I hardly call that control.’ She stalked off.
27
Nightmares
The tunnels in Tartarus loomed in front of Hailey, amethyst, topaz, and malachite glittering in the pit’s rock walls. No. I don’t want to be here. Not again. Hailey spun around and clawed at the wall behind her, trying to climb to the tunnel forty feet above her. It was the only way out of Tartarus.
‘You’re not going anywhere,’ a voice said from above, right before a figure leapt from the tunnel, their iridescent blue dress billowing out around them like a silk sheet.
Hailey whipped around as the figure hit the ground. She expected it to be an Erinys, but it was Nemertes, who had a wicked smile planted on her face.
‘Please, let me go,’ Hailey begged.
‘You would leave your friend behind?’ Nemertes clucked her tongue. ‘You’re not as heroic as you claim to be after all.’
‘Friend?’
Nemertes clicked her fingers. A second later, Demi staggered from the tunnel directly across from Hailey, blood oozing from her eyes.
‘Demi!’ Hailey sprinted to her, catching her best friend as she stumbled to her knees beside a cart brimming with sparkling jewels. Hailey glared back at Nemertes, her wicked smile still in place. ‘Save her. Please.’
Nemertes shook her head. ‘I would never save a human. Your kind’s suffering brings me great pleasure.’
‘Save her. Now! Or I’ll kill you.’
‘Do not fear, you will be joining her in the afterlife.’
Hailey lunged for Nemertes. A streak of lightning struck the ground in front of her, and she stumbled back as Zeus materialised.
‘Not so brave are we now, human.’ Zeus sneered.
A hand latched around Hailey’s ankle and she looked down at Demi, her best friend’s eyes desperate. ‘Hailey – you have – to save – everyone. Please. I – don’t – want – to die,’ she wheezed out.
Zeus’s mocking laugh echoed around the pit, bouncing off the jewel-encrusted walls. ‘She is too weak to save anyone. You are not worthy of my powers.’
Hailey stared back at Zeus, her heart hammering. ‘I’m braver than you think.’ She stepped towards him; the air around the god hummed with electricity.
An amused smile tweaked his lips. ‘All right then. Strike me with a lightning bolt if you are so brave.’
Please let this work. Hailey aimed her trembling hands at Zeus, who merely crossed his arms, bored, assuming she’d fail. I am brave. I am strong. I am not afraid.
Nothing happened.
No lightning.
Not even a spark.
Zeus shook his head. ‘You are pathetic.’ He reached a hand towards her; at the same time, someone shook her shoulder.
Hailey’s eyes flew open as a scream built in her throat. She strangled it when she recognised Aaron’s face in the gym’s dim light.
‘Are you okay? You were tossing and turning.’
Hailey blinked a few times, clearing away the clinging threads of sleep before wriggling into a sitting position. ‘I had a bad dream.’ It’d been so long since she’d had one of her nightmares, or even thought about the Underworld. She supposed being chased by a cyclops, being attacked by a sea-monster, and watching her best friend dying trumped her fears about being back in Tartarus.
Hailey glanced around the dimly-lit gym. Everyone was asleep—even Madam Grayson was snoozing in front of the doors, having abandoned her chair for a quick nap.
Aaron shifted on the
ground to cross his legs, being careful not to wake Jayden, Alec, Tahlia, or Hope. ‘We never really talked about what you said to me in the stable that day— about the potion Madam Norwood gave us after the Underworld not working on you.’
Hailey tensed. ‘Forget I said anything about that.’ She’d been okay with talking to Aaron about it when she’d thought he’d been going through the same thing as her, but she didn’t want him pitying her and making her feel even weaker than she already did. She wished she’d never told him. He probably thought she was a coward.
‘It’s okay to be scared you know.’
‘I’m not scared,’ Hailey snapped loud enough to stir Hope. ‘I’m not,’ she repeated quietly once Hope fell still again.
‘Okay.’ Aaron ran a hand through his ruffled hair. ‘But, you should know I wasn’t lying when I said I was scared. Sure, I don’t feel terrified when I think about what happened to us in the Underworld. But I do when I think about the fact that the gods are still alive. That there’s a chance the nereids will find a way to bring them back. I guess that’s one of the reasons I didn’t fight my dad as hard as I could have over him coming here. I wanted the duty of watching the nereids to go to someone else. I thought that once he was in the palace, the nereids wouldn’t be able to do anything.’ He took a breath. ‘I guess I was wrong.’
‘We both were.’
Hailey had assumed the exact same thing: that everything would be fine as long as PET was watching the nereids. But somehow they’d worked out a way to put another one of their evil plans in action.
Hailey fiddled with her heart pendant. ‘Aaron, what happens if they win this time? If we or your dad don’t stop them?’
‘We will.’ His voice was indubitable. ‘We won’t let them win. The gods are never coming back. My dad will get the cure out of them, and when he does, he’ll have them shipped off to some deep underground prison where they’ll never scheme again.’
‘I hope you’re right.’
‘What do you mean there’s no extra credit?’ Alec mumbled, rolling over.
Trust Alec’s nightmares to be about less school work.
‘So are you sure you don’t want to talk about anything?’ Aaron asked. ‘About the Underworld?’
Hailey pulled her blanket over her legs. ‘No. I’d rather forget the Underworld. And if you’re right about your dad locking up the nereids and throwing away the key, then my fears about facing the gods will never come true.’ Please Tyches, let that be the case. Let the threat of the gods returning be gone.
‘Okay.’ Aaron shuffled back to lie down. ‘And, Hailey. The potion not working on you doesn’t make you weak. If anything, it makes you stronger. Because you still remember every terrifying thing about what we went through, yet you’re not curled into a ball hiding in a dark room. You’re still fighting the nereids—not to mention monsters. And that’s what makes you ten times braver than all of us.’
***
Hailey stood in the back of the grounds with the hundred and something other students from quarantine. Madam Grayson had somehow convinced Jake to let them outside for Powers practice.
‘Okay, everyone pair up,’ Madam Grayson instructed, ‘and keep working on your powers from wherever you were with Madam Norwood.’
Hailey sighed. Demi was usually her partner.
‘I can pair with you,’ Jayden offered. ‘Alec and Aaron are joining together.’
Hailey was about to accept when she saw Hope standing behind him, hugging her arms and staring at the ground, where fish darted in and out of coral reefs beneath the diamond floor. ‘Actually, why don’t you find Tahlia. I’ll go with Hope.’
‘Good idea.’
‘Want to be a pair?’ Hailey asked Hope.
Hope’s face brightened with relief. ‘Yes. Although you should probably just practise your powers—unless you want to choke me or something?’
‘Not really,’ Hailey said. ‘But you might get a chance to use your powers. I’ve been trying to use wind to lift people up, and I have a tendency to drop them. At least if you break your neck, you’ll come back.’
Hope smiled, but there was a sadness to it. ‘Yeah, I will. Where do you want me?’
‘Let’s go over here.’ Hailey led her about ten yards away from the other pairs, not wanting to risk catching someone else in the wind. ‘Stay still.’ Hailey aimed her hands at Hope, warmth flowing into her fingertips.
The pearls on the tree beside Hope clinked together, and a few scattered to the diamond floor, as a gale swept into the grounds and lifted Hope into the sky. Hailey’s arms dropped a couple of inches, feeling like they had ten-pound weights attached to them. Why is this so hard? She could easily create a tornado to sweep someone away, but for some reason controlling the wind to hold someone was a thousand times more difficult.
Hailey’s hands trembled. ‘It’s too much.’ She gritted her teeth. ‘I can’t hold it.’
‘Yes, you can,’ Hope called back, the wind carrying her voice around the grounds.
Hailey’s arms dropped a little more. ‘No. I’m not strong enough.’ She clenched her teeth tighter, fighting the heaviness in her arms.
‘That night when I first came here, you told me the sky calmed you. Why? Why does it make you feel calm?’
‘Because I’m a Zeus.’
‘No. It’s more than that. Think.’
Think? How was she supposed to think when she was concentrating on not letting Hope plummet to the ground?
‘Hailey, think,’ Hope repeated.
Pain bloomed in Hailey’s head and she bit down harder. Why does the sky make me feel calm? The answer came instantly. ‘Because it’s mine. The sky is like another world, and I’m the only one who can control it. No one else has the power to touch it but me.’
‘Yes,’ Hope said. ‘You control it. It’s yours. Now think about that. You control the sky, not the other way around. This wind is yours to command.’
I have the power, Hailey thought, feeling like a bit of an idiot. But it helped. The trembling in her hands eased as the wind stopped fighting against her. I am in control. I am queen of the sky, and you’ll listen to me, wind. The warmth intensified in Hailey’s fingertips, and the strain of containing the gale ebbed, along with her headache, as her body flowed with power. She raised Hope higher.
‘Yes!’ Hope cheered. ‘You did it.’
‘Well done, Hailey.’
Hailey whirled around; she’d been so absorbed in her powers she’d forgotten she wasn’t alone in the grounds. Madam Grayson’s eyes widened behind her, and Hailey whipped back as Hope shrieked. She threw her hands up, summoning the gust of wind back to catch Hope, a mere foot from the ground.
‘I’m so sorry,’ Hailey said, dropping her arms, killing the wind.
‘I’m fine,’ Hope assured her. Cough.
Bile rose in Hailey’s throat. No, not Hope too.
‘Are you feeling all right?’ Madam Grayson reached to touch Hope’s forehead.
Hope leapt away. ‘Stay back. I’ve got the plague.’ She coughed again, and then raised a hand to her temple. ‘My head is throbbing.’
‘Are you sure it’s not an ordinary headache and a dry throat?’ Hailey didn’t want to lose another friend to Poseidon’s Plague.
Hope nodded slowly. ‘It’s the disease. I’ll go to the fourth floor.’ She gave Hailey a sad smile before drifting towards the palace.
Hailey watched her go, her throat burning as she imagined Hope looking as sick as Demi, with blood pouring from her eyes.
Madam Grayson shifted beside her. ‘Amathia and Madam Norwood will find a cure.’
I’ll make sure of it, Hailey thought, promising herself that she’d force the nereids to reveal everything, no matter how dangerous confronting them was.
28
Snow Party
Hailey pressed her wet palms gently against the spinning lump of clay on her pottery wheel, trying to concentrate on turning it into a vase, and not on everything else in her life. But it
was near impossible. A day had passed since Hope had left for the fourth floor. A day of uncontrollable unease and anxiety, where another five students had developed Poseidon’s Plague and been marched from quarantine.
There was still no word from Amathia or PET, and the waiting was killing her. Hailey needed to hear that the nereids had spilled their guts and Amathia had found a cure. But there was nothing. And time was running out.
Clay oozed between Hailey’s fingers, and she threw her hands in the air, giving up on the stupid vase that had turned into a giant lump of slimy goo. This is stupid. How can Madam Grayson expect us to sit in the gym day after day continuing our classes as if nothing is wrong when people are dying?
‘You okay?’ Jayden was sitting at the pottery wheel beside her, his clay fanning out into a bowl.
Hailey rubbed her dirty hands on her paint-stained apron. ‘No. I want to go after the nereids.’ She kept her voice low so no other students would hear.
‘It’s only been two days.’ Jayden continued moulding his clay. ‘We agreed on four.’
‘What if Demi doesn’t last that long?’
‘She’s tough,’ Aaron said from behind her. He was painting at an easel beside Alec. Alec’s painting looked exactly like Poseidon’s palace, complete with a sea sky of iridescent fish, whereas Aaron’s looked as if he’d thrown a bunch of paint on a canvas and smooshed it together.
‘I hope you’re right,’ she told him.
‘Come on, we need to keep working on Creative Arts.’ Alec tapped his paintbrush against the palette of paint colours in his hand.
‘I can’t sit here pretending everything is okay,’ Hailey retorted, and it appeared she wasn’t alone. A glance around the gym showed her the lack of enthusiasm among the other hundred-plus quarantined students. Half of them were meant to be studying. But most of their textbooks lay abandoned in their laps, while the students stared at the ceiling or drummed their fingers against the soft ground, looking ready to die of boredom—or burst into tears.
Madam Grayson seemed to sense everyone’s dying spirit because she popped up from her chair by the doors and said, ‘I think it’s time for some fun. Amber, Cody, Lachlan, and Jess, can you please come over here.’
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