Poseidon's Academy Box Set

by Sarah A Vogler

  Legs ran past her. She reached for them. ‘Help me!’

  The legs turned towards her, and Hailey looked up at Venus. Instead of the usual hate and anger that bubbled in Hailey when she saw her, she felt relief. ‘Please, help me.’ She reached a hand up.

  ‘I’m not risking my life for yours.’ Venus dashed into the crowd of fleeing students, not a single one of them stopping to help Hailey, all of them too focused on saving themselves.

  ‘VENUS!’ Hailey screamed as the monster yanked her backwards. ‘No!’ She pressed her hands onto the ground, her nails screeching against the diamond.

  A hand grabbed hers. ‘Hang on, Hailey,’ Jayden said.

  She gritted her teeth as the octopus-monster’s barbs dug in deeper. Jayden pulled her, but the monster yanked harder, dragging him forward a few inches. More sets of hands grabbed at her. It was Demi and Aaron.

  The monster tugged again; this time Hailey screamed, feeling as if her ankle were about to tear off.

  Demi, Jayden, and Aaron heaved her back, almost ripping Hailey’s arm out of its socket.

  Three more of the monster’s tentacles shot out, wrapping around her friends’ legs like snakes. The monster yanked as Hailey’s friends cried out in surprise and pain, their hands slipping from hers as they tripped over. Please, Tyches, don’t let it end like this! Hailey begged, waiting for the octopus to drag her into the water.

  ‘Get away from them!’ A wooden box slammed into the monster’s head, the wood splintering and showering down, along with the aquamarines that had been inside it. Alec threw another box at the monster.

  The octopus shrieked, one of its tentacles slapping at its face, trying to clear away the splinters in its skin. Its other tentacles loosened, just enough for Hailey, Demi, Jayden, and Aaron to scramble free. Hailey blocked out the pain pulsing in her shredded ankle and raced towards the palace’s doors with her friends, where students peered out from the entryway with wide eyes.

  The sea-serpent crashed in front of their path, knocking into a pearl tree. Its coral trunk snapped, pearls scattering everywhere. Hailey had forgotten all about this monster. It lunged at them, its needle teeth snapping towards Hailey. Splat. It smashed against Aaron’s force field. The monster reeled back as its head swayed from side to side, like it was about to collapse.

  ‘I don’t suppose you know how to create two force fields?’ Jayden asked, glancing back at the octopus. Trees barred its path towards them. Its tentacles wrapped around them, ripping them up from their roots and tossing them aside like a cyclops tearing up a forest.

  The sea-serpent rammed its head into the force field, sending ripples streaking across it. ‘You’ll have to take care of that one.’ Aaron’s voice was strained, his hands shaking slightly as the sea-serpent’s head rammed into his force field again and again.

  ‘I’ve got this.’ Demi turned to the octopus, only a dozen yards from them now, and raised her hands. The coral garden in front of the monster shot up, creating a kaleidoscopic wall as tall as the palace’s second floor.

  A barbed tentacle latched to the top of the coral. The monster hauled itself over the wall and scrambled down it like a spider.

  ‘Um, maybe I don’t have this,’ Demi said.

  We’re all about to die at the tentacles of a gigantic octopus, would have been a more accurate thing to say in Hailey’s opinion.

  ‘Okaeat.’

  Vibrations shot through the diamond floor, everything jerking as the palace and grounds surrounding it began pushing through the sky of water like an elevator rising from the bottom of the sea.

  Hailey could have collapsed in relief when she saw Amathia. She would save them—everything would be over in a minute.

  The sea-serpent twisted its head around to face the nereid standing in front of the palace’s doors.

  Amathia’s face was a mask of anger. She hissed at the serpent, speaking in its language, Hailey supposed, since being able to talk to sea-creatures and sea-monsters was a gift all nereids possessed.

  The sea-serpent glanced back at Hailey and her friends. Its slit eyes glared at them, the monster looking as if it wanted to tear them apart. Aaron kept his palms up, ready for it to attack again. But it merely slithered away, sinking back into the sea as the palace broke through the water and blue sky smiled down at Hailey.

  ‘Eikaatva adaur.’

  Aaron dropped his hands, and Amathia glided towards the other sea-monster, which was frozen in front of the coral wall, waiting for its turn to be scolded. Amathia spoke to it in Goldarin. ‘You know you are forbidden from entering these grounds. Why have you defied the laws of the sea?’ The monster growled something back. Whatever it said infuriated Amathia even more. ‘Leave now, and inform—’

  The monster’s tentacle whipped out, whacking Amathia to the side as if she were an annoying fly.

  Hailey barely had a chance to comprehend what had happened before the monster fixed its orange eyes on them. Aaron’s hands shot up.

  ‘Hailey, use your powers!’ Amathia shouted. She was back on her feet by the edge of the grounds, clutching her side. ‘Create a tornado.’

  ‘But you’ll get blown away,’ Hailey called back.

  ‘Do it!’

  The sea-monster’s tentacles lunged towards them, its suckers pressing against Aaron’s force field as it began climbing, looking as if it were hauling itself up an invisible wall. They’d all be dead in less than twenty seconds if she didn’t do something. She reached her hands towards the sky. Don’t think about the killer octopus-monster from your nightmares who is about to eat you. Or that Amathia is in the danger zone. Just focus. If you don’t do this. You’re dead. Your friends are dead. And a lot of other students will probably be dead too.

  Warmth flowed down her arms and streamed from her fingertips like hot air. The jewels on the trees clinked against one another, and waves sloshed onto the diamond ground as wind whipped about, stirring up the sea. Black clouds smothered the sky, casting everything in darkness—Hailey didn’t need a mirror to know that her eyes had darkened to match the sky. Come on, tornado. I need you. Come on!

  The sea-monster had reached the top of Aaron’s force field, which he’d extended to be double the height of Demi’s coral wall, and widened enough that Hailey and her friends were protected from the ferocious wind battering the rest of the grounds.

  Concentrate. Please, Tyches, let this work.

  A tornado as thin as a rope swirled to life just on the grounds’ outskirts. The warmth flowing through Hailey’s hands grew hotter, burning like steam, as the tornado expanded, quadrupling in size. Amathia lasted two seconds before it sucked her into its vortex. Please don’t let me have killed Amathia. More warmth flowed through her fingers as the tornado grew, expanding wider and wider. The trees in the grounds leaned towards it, jewels and pearls flying into the swirling wind.

  Hailey’s head ached, but she pushed the pain away. She had to keep this tornado going. She glanced at the monster. Its tentacles gripped the top of Aaron’s force field, holding on for dear life. Come on, you stupid octopus. Let go!

  She poured more power into the tornado, expanding it inch by inch, her hands shaking as something warm—blood, she was guessing—trickled from her nose. Cracks splintered across the ground as the trees leaned further towards the tornado, trying to break free of the diamond encasing them.

  The sea-monster roared, its suckers ripping away from Aaron’s force field as the wind tore its grip loose. Aaron’s hands drooped a little as he shrunk the force field, keeping it only tall enough to protect them from the tornado’s force.

  ‘No, keep it—’ Alec’s words cut off as one of the octopus’s tentacles hooked onto Aaron’s force field again, while another tentacle stretched over it, latching around Alec’s arm. Jayden tried to grab him, a mere second too slow.

  Alec flew over the force field with the sea-monster, heading straight for the tornado. His free hand grabbed the branch of a malachite tree, and the raging wind wrenched the monster
’s tentacle from his arm, the octopus disappearing into the swirling vortex of wind.

  Thank the Tyches, Hailey thought, just as the tree Alec was gripping tore from the ground with a shattering groan and flew into the tornado.

  9

  Aftermath

  ‘NO!’ Hailey shrieked, dropping her hands.

  The tornado vanished in an instant, the grounds falling still as sunlight blasted through the evaporating black clouds. But Alec was nowhere.

  Hailey collapsed to her knees, exhaustion sapping the energy from her limbs, making her feel as if a lamia had just drained her of blood.

  ‘What’s happening out here?’ Madam Grayson’s frantic voice asked. ‘Medusa! Hailey, are you all right?’ Madam Grayson’s hand touched her shoulder. But she couldn’t move. She couldn’t even respond. She was tired. So tired. And she had potentially killed one of her best friends—not to mention Amathia. So no, she really wasn’t all right.

  ‘Jayden? Aaron? What are you doing?’ The voice belonged to Master Anderson.

  Jayden and Aaron sprinted towards the grounds’ edge and leapt into the sea, shouting Alec’s name.

  Silence greeted their calls.

  ‘Hailey, are you okay?’ Demi’s hand touched her other shoulder.

  ‘Alec. Amathia,’ was all she could say.

  ‘What’s she talking about?’ Madam Grayson asked.

  ‘They flew into the tornado.’ Demi’s voice was hollow. ‘They’ll be fine. They landed in the water. Jayden and Aaron will find them,’ she said, sounding as if she were trying to convince herself.

  ‘Come on, we need to get you to the healing wing.’ Madam Grayson tugged Hailey’s shoulder. ‘I don’t like how much blood you’re losing.’

  Blood? Madam Grayson and Demi hauled Hailey to her feet. Her eyes drifted down. Deep gashes ringed her ankle, streaming blood onto the diamond floor. It didn’t even hurt. Just throbbed a little.

  Hailey didn’t have the energy to fight as Madam Grayson and Demi each wrapped one of her arms around their shoulders and steered her away. She didn’t want to go. She wanted to stay. To wait for Alec. But her legs and arms were as floppy as a jellyfish’s tentacles as Demi and her overseer guided Hailey towards the palace. Teachers stood in front of the doors, blocking the students in the entryway from entering the grounds.

  ‘ALEC!’ Hailey heard Aaron yell. Only this time it was with relief.

  Hailey’s head whipped around. Amathia was swimming towards the palace, her legs kicking through the water like a dolphin tail. Alec’s unconscious body floated beside her, one of Amathia’s arms wrapped around him as she dragged him towards the palace. Jayden and Aaron scooped their arms under him the moment Amathia was near them, hauling him into the grounds.

  Hailey forget all about her exhaustion. She bolted towards them and collapsed beside Alec’s unmoving body, water soaking into her midnight blue skirt. Is he even breathing?

  ‘He’s all right,’ Amathia said, standing over them, her shimmering dress and hair completely dry. ‘He has only fainted. I daresay the fear of being dragged into a tornado was too much for his brain to bear.’

  ‘Everyone needs to go to the healing wing. Now,’ Madam Grayson instructed from where she stood behind Hailey with Demi.

  ‘I agree with your overseer,’ Amathia said. ‘Jayden and Aaron, would you please take Alec.’

  ‘I can help.’ Brennan, a third year who was tall enough to be a fourth year, had materialised beside Madam Grayson. He touched Alec’s shoulder and extended his other hand to Hailey. His cheeks flushed when her fingers gripped his, and then the world was spinning, tingles dancing through Hailey’s body. The minty smell of eucalyptus whirled around her as she materialised in the healing wing.

  ‘Oh my,’ Madam Mendem said, popping up from her desk at the end of the room and scurrying over.

  ‘Here, let me help you up,’ Brennan said to Hailey as Madam Mendem knelt beside Alec, pressing a hand to the ring of cuts on his arm.

  Hailey groaned as she took Brennan’s arm, letting him pull her up. Her ankle shrieked with pain and her head spun, little dots dancing at the edge of her vision. She glanced down to make sure her foot was still attached. Blood dripped from her shredded ankle.

  ‘Well, Alec doesn’t have a head injury, so he should wake up soon,’ Madam Mendem said, lurching to her feet. The ring of cuts she’d absorbed from Alec knitted together, as if an invisible thread were pulling her skin back together. ‘Let’s take a look at that nasty ankle of yours,’ she said as Brennan helped Hailey sit on the edge of a bed.

  ‘I’ll get the others,’ Brennan said, blinking out of existence so quickly it was as if he hadn’t been standing there.

  ‘What in Tartarus happened?’

  Hailey sucked in a breath when Madam Mendem touched her ankle, the pain blinding her vision, and then glorious warmth washed it all away. ‘Two sea-monsters came into the grounds.’

  ‘Sea-monsters!’

  Hailey scrambled off the bed as Madam Mendem dropped onto it. She could barely believe it herself. Sea-monsters have never attacked the palace before. So why did they suddenly decide to? And why didn’t that one monster listen to Amathia when she told it to leave? None of it makes sense.

  Brennan blinked back into the room, gripping hands with Demi, Jayden, and Aaron. Blood dripped from their ankles, staining the white pearls for a few heartbeats before the floor’s self-cleaning magic kicked in.

  ‘Where am I?’

  ‘Alec, you’re awake.’ Hailey darted over to him, while Madam Mendem healed her friends.

  ‘What happened?’ Alec rubbed his head and staggered to his feet, water dripping from his uniform. ‘Why was I on the floor? And why am I all wet?’

  ‘You got blown into my tornado,’ Hailey admitted. ‘I’m sorry. Amathia saved you though. How did she find you?’

  Alec cocked an eyebrow. ‘Amathia found me?’ He rubbed his head again, as if trying to clear away the fog clouding his mind. ‘I don’t remember anything after that tree breaking.’

  ‘That’s because you fainted,’ Aaron said, wandering over with Demi and Jayden.

  Alec scrunched up his face. ‘I didn’t. I blacked out.’

  ‘Same diff’,’ Demi teased.

  Madam Mendem was lying down now, both her ankles oozing blood onto the crisp white sheets.

  ‘Can I get you something?’ Hailey asked, feeling bad that the nurse had to endure their injuries.

  ‘No thanks, dearie. Just need five minutes to rest and I’ll be fine.’ She closed her eyes.

  Hailey turned to say thank you to Brennan for bringing them here, but he was already gone.

  ‘Is everyone all right?’ Amathia asked, gliding into the healing wing. She glanced towards Madam Mendem, who was snoring softly.

  ‘Yes,’ they said in unison.

  Alec’s eyes dropped to the floor, acting as if Amathia were a gorgon who would turn him to stone if he made eye contact. ‘Thanks for saving me.’

  ‘It is my responsibility to protect my students. It was fortunate the tornado dropped you close to where it had thrown me. I was able to use my nereid speed to swim us back to the palace.’

  Well, that explained how Alec had survived, but there was still one giant question Hailey needed answered. ‘Why did the monsters attack?’

  The same rage Hailey had glimpsed on Amathia’s face in the grounds flickered across her features. ‘My sisters.’

  Hailey stiffened. ‘They’re back?’

  Amathia shook her head. ‘No. They convinced those two monsters to attack. I believe it is accurate to assume they are not happy with their banishment.’

  Aaron clenched his fists, looking as if he wanted to jump on a sea-horse and start searching the sea for the nereids. ‘We need to work on a plan to defend the school if they come back.’

  ‘Come back?’ Alec squeaked, eyes darting around, as though expecting them to step out of the shadows, or crawl out from under the beds.

  ‘They will not
return. Not after that tornado of yours,’ Amathia said to Hailey. ‘You saved the school.’

  ‘You still need a plan of defence,’ Aaron argued. ‘I’d be happy to help you devise one. The main thing to focus on is the force field. Can we make it monster proof?’

  ‘I already have Hecates working on that,’ Amathia assured him. ‘The grounds will be protected in due course. I promise. But for now, I need to assess the damage done.’

  ‘Wait,’ Hailey said before Amathia could leave. ‘How can you be sure they won’t try something else?’ She imagined the nereids already coming up with a second plan of attack—maybe next time they’ll ride into the grounds on fire-breathing sea-dragons.

  ‘Because I will be paying them a little visit.’ A darkness flickered behind Amathia’s turquoise eyes. ‘I promise you have nothing to fear.’

  Hailey watched her go. What can she do to stop her sisters? There are more of them than her. But Amathia seems to be the one in charge—the one who gives orders. How does that work? Why does Nemertes listen to her? Well, whatever Amathia does, or threatens to do, I hope it’s enough.

  ***

  ‘Medusa,’ Demi gasped.

  Hailey couldn’t form words. She was staring out of the entryway’s double doors. The grounds looked like a bombsite. Trees had been uprooted, leaving gaping holes in the diamond floor, which was covered in snaking cracks. Most of the coral gardens were nothing but shards, and there were jewels, pearls, and shells scattered everywhere. Among the chaos wandered Amathia, Madam Norwood, a group of fifth years, and adults who definitely weren’t teachers. Hailey assumed Amathia had brought in some outside help to repair the damage.

  She watched as one of the adults touched the coral roots of an uplifted sapphire tree. The roots snaked out, slithering towards the hole they’d been ripped from. The sapphires on the tree tinkled as the roots slowly pulled the tree upright.

  ‘Cool,’ Demi said. ‘I bet he’s a Demeter and a Poseidon.’

  ‘Everyone away from the doors,’ a deep voice ordered.

  Hailey, her friends, and the dozens of other students peering outside turned to Master Anderson.