‘I see, there were three of you breaking curfew.’
‘That’s not important. What we saw in the parallel world is.’ When Amathia didn’t argue, Hailey continued. ‘The nereids stopped the palace in the Arctic Sea and lowered the force field. They changed the Goldarin commands so that the Amathia there couldn’t raise the force field and get the palace moving again. Everyone was freezing to death.’
Amathia leaned back in her chair. ‘In this parallel world had I banished my sisters?’
Hailey hesitated before answering. ‘No, it didn’t sound like it.’
‘Then how do you know what transpired there will transpire here?’
‘I don’t. But isn’t it better to be prepared in case it does happen? You can change the Goldarin commands yourself, just to be safe. That way if the nereids are planning anything like what I saw, their plan won’t work—assuming they need to know the current commands to change them.’
‘It is wise, but as far as I am aware, it’s not possible to change the Goldarin commands on the force field and palace. Hephaestus wove the commands into the palace when he created it. Perhaps the same is not true for this parallel Poseidon’s Academy.’
‘Maybe. But you know your sisters. They’re evil, and if they can find a way to do it, they will.’
Amathia straightened in her chair. ‘Yes, they are cunning,’ she agreed. ‘I will investigate if it’s possible to do what you are saying. In the meantime, I am still tracking my sisters—and have been ever since the sea-monster attack. I promise they won’t get within a mile of this palace without my knowing.’
‘Thank you,’ Hailey said, relieved Amathia was at least going to look into the Goldarin thing instead of telling her not to worry. She moved to leave.
‘Wait.’
Hailey turned back.
‘You did break curfew, Hailey.’ Amathia rose from her desk. ‘You, Demi, and Kallie will have detention tomorrow morning at ten with Madam Norwood.’
Seriously? She might have just saved everyone in the school from freezing to death and she was being punished for that? Demi was going to kill her.
14
Detention… Again
‘I can’t believe you threw us into the minotaur cave,’ Demi whined as her, Hailey, and Kallie trudged down the stairs to the second floor. ‘And it’s a Sunday, Hailey—I should still be in bed.’
‘I’m sorry,’ Hailey said for the hundredth time. ‘It just slipped out—and, well, Kallie, there really wasn’t any way I couldn’t get you in trouble. I really am sorry. You were doing me a favour and now you have detention.’
Kallie shrugged as they headed down the hallway to the Powers classroom. ‘It’s okay. Amathia did tell me not to take people to parallel worlds—I’m technically not even allowed to go unless it’s for Powers class. And it probably was a good idea to tell Amathia, in case something like that happens here. But I doubt it will, since the nereids aren’t around anymore. Who would have thought they were so evil.’
‘Yeah, real surprise,’ Demi mumbled.
They walked into the Powers classroom, where one half of the room resembled an ordinary classroom, with polished-coral desks and scallop-shell chairs scattered around. The other half was empty space, with thirty or so archways carved into the walls. Each archway led into a room specifically designed for a certain power. Hailey’s favourite was the Demeter room, where a forest, complete with chirping birds, grew. She could almost smell the forest’s wet moss scent from here.
‘Good, you’re here,’ Madam Norwood said, striding in behind them. ‘Follow me.’ She led them towards the archways.
Please let our punishment be trying out Hecate potions. She wouldn’t mind drinking a potion that allowed her to fly.
‘I want all the equipment in here polished.’
Hailey snapped back to reality and looked at the archway they’d stopped outside of. It was the Ares room. A sea-sponge floor covered the ground, just like the gym, and bordering the walls was every weapon imaginable: swords, daggers, axes, staffs, bows and arrows, throwing stars, and dozens more.
‘Polished with what?’ Demi asked. ‘Our spit?’
‘Watch your tone or I’ll make you clean the other rooms too,’ Madam Norwood snapped before pointing at a mother-of-pearl cupboard the size of a medicine cabinet on the left wall. ‘There is polish and rags over there. I need to do some research in the library. You may leave when you’ve finished your task, but I expect everything in here to gleam. If it doesn’t, you’ll be spending detention here again tomorrow. Understood?’
‘Yes, Madam Norwood,’ Kallie squeaked.
‘Polishing is so boring,’ Demi huffed when Madam Norwood left.
‘I’m sorry,’ Hailey said for the hundredth and one time.
‘Come on, let’s get this done.’ Kallie moved to the cupboard, pulling the pearl doors open.
Five potion bottles lined the top shelf, each one labelled polish, and a stack of neatly folded rags that looked brand new rested on the shelf below them.
‘Where do we even start?’ Kallie’s eyes scanned the countless weapons.
‘I think we should test them out first.’ Demi yanked a sword off the back wall and swished it through the air.
‘Demi, you’re not an Ares,’ Hailey reminded her.
‘So? You don’t have to be an Ares to use a sword. Come on, who wants to fight me?’ Demi flicked her wrist, attempting to twirl the sword. It thumped to the sea-sponge floor. ‘Oops.’ She snatched it up.
‘We’re supposed to be cleaning the weapons, not using them.’ Kallie glanced nervously at the archway. ‘Madam Norwood could come back.’
‘Relax, she went to the library. Ooh, maybe I’d be better at throwing stars.’ Demi dropped the sword and swiped two throwing stars from the wall.
‘Demi, you have no idea what you’re doing.’ Hailey backed into a corner, a set of nunchucks right beside her head. She didn’t want to be anywhere near Demi when she was holding a deadly weapon.
‘I might be a natural,’ Demi countered, positioning herself in front of a poster of a hydra that stretched between the floor and ceiling. She flicked a star towards its nine heads.
Chink. The star hit the crystal ceiling and ricocheted.
‘Watch out!’ Hailey shouted to Kallie, who hadn’t moved from the cupboard.
The star spiralled straight at Kallie. She darted to the right, a second too slow; one of the star’s points sliced across her shoulder.
Demi dropped the other star and bolted to Kallie’s side. ‘Medusa! I’m so sorry.’
Hailey was a second behind her. ‘Are you okay?’
Kallie was clutching her shoulder and had gone completely white. She slowly lifted her hand.
Hailey’s stomach tightened, ready to see a gash oozing blood. But there wasn’t one. There wasn’t even a scratch.
‘Oh, I didn’t hit you.’ Demi blew out a breath. ‘I really thought I had.’
Kallie glanced at her shoulder and frowned. ‘You did. I felt it. It didn’t hurt, though, but it definitely hit me. And now my shoulder feels all numb.’ Kallie shrugged her shoulders, but only the right one moved. ‘See, I’ve got paralysis or something.’
Hailey grabbed the star from the floor, her reflection staring back at her as she squinted at the weapon. ‘It looks real.’ She touched one of the points. ‘It’s sharp. It should have cut you, Kallie.’
‘Let me see.’ Demi snatched the star from Hailey’s grip, one of the points slicing across Hailey’s hand. She gasped, clutching her injured hand to her chest. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to.’
‘It’s okay.’ Hailey’s hand didn’t hurt at all; it actually felt tingly, like it had fallen asleep. She unpeeled it from her chest and gazed at her unmarked flesh. ‘It didn’t cut me.’ She tried to close her hand but only managed to wiggle her fingers. ‘I think the weapons are spelled so that if one cuts you, it just numbs that area. It doesn’t actually hurt you.’
‘Cool.’ Demi pricked he
r finger on the throwing star, not a single drop of blood oozing out. ‘Wow, that’s a weird feeling.’
‘So I’m not paralysed?’
Hailey shook her head. ‘No. Hopefully, that will wear off soon.’
‘Thank the Tyches,’ Kallie said. ‘Come on, let’s start cleaning.’
An hour later, they were sitting on the ground, still polishing the stupid weapons.
‘This is taking forever,’ Demi huffed, dripping polish potion over the blade of an axe.
‘We’re almost done.’ Kallie dragged her rag over a dagger. ‘Only another five weapons to go.’
‘That’s the last of the arrows.’ Hailey popped a freshly polished arrow into the quiver beside her, the citrusy scent of lemon heavy in the air from all the polish she and the others had used.
Kallie’s head jerked up. ‘Did anyone else hear that?’
Demi cocked an eyebrow. ‘What?’
‘It sounded like footsteps. I hope it’s not Madam Norwood. She’ll be angry we haven’t finished yet.’
‘I’ll check.’ Hailey walked towards the archway and poked her head outside. The classroom was empty. ‘Nobody’s here.’ She heard the creak of a door. ‘What was that?’
‘I thought you said no one was here.’ Demi appeared at her side, gazing out.
‘There isn’t,’ Hailey argued.
‘Maybe they’re in one of the rooms,’ Kallie offered, coming to Hailey’s other side. ‘Should we find Madam Norwood?’
‘Nope. Hailey and I have got this—we have lots of experience sneaking up on people.’ Demi crept from the Ares room. Her eyes combed over the other archways, searching for an intruder. ‘Can’t see anyone,’ she whispered.
Maybe they’d imagined it. But then Hailey heard the chink of glass, as if someone was knocking vials against each other. ‘They’re in the Hecate room.’
‘They can’t be,’ Kallie said, voice low. ‘They would’ve walked past the Ares room. We would have seen them.’
Chink. Chink.
‘It is coming from the Hecate room.’ Demi slunk towards the end of the classroom, moving as quietly as a sphinx stalking its next meal.
Hailey and Kallie crept after her, the three of them stopping just before the last archway on the right wall. The woodsy scent of rosemary and sandalwood mixed with the sweet aroma of lavender drifted from the room. Inside, vials chinked against one another.
‘I don’t like this,’ Kallie whispered so low Hailey had to strain to hear. ‘We should get Madam Norwood. What if the person inside attacks us?’
‘That’s what this is for.’ Demi held up a throwing star and leapt forward. ‘Busted!’ she yelled into the Hecate room. ‘Huh?’
Hailey moved to her side. What the…? The Hecate room was empty. No one stood near the cauldrons on the two tables that ran along the room; or beside the shelves on the back wall, where various things like thyme and ground unicorn horn were stuffed into labelled jars. Hailey assumed whoever had been in here had had the power to dematerialise, but then she saw the space in front of the potions cabinet shimmer ever so slightly, as if the air was moving. Someone is inside.
‘Who’s there?’ Hailey called, keeping her eyes planted on the silhouette she could now just make out.
‘It’s me.’ The shimmering silhouette transformed into Cady as she dropped her camouflage.
Kallie gasped. ‘You’re like a chameleon.’
Cady’s cheeks flushed pink. ‘I thought you wouldn’t be able to see me.’
‘We almost didn’t,’ Hailey admitted. ‘You basically turn invisible when you use your powers.’
Demi crossed her arms, the throwing star still in her hand. ‘What are you doing in here?’
Cady’s blush deepened. ‘I… I needed some potions. I saw Madam Norwood was in the library, so I thought I could sneak in and get some.’
‘What potions?’ Hailey tried to glimpse the labelled vials in Cady’s hands.
Cady shoved them back onto the shelves. ‘They were potions to use on Venus and the twins for when they come after me again.’ She lowered her eyes to the ground, letting her hair fall in her face. ‘It was dumb. Please don’t tell Madam Norwood.’
Hailey could barely believe this nervous girl was bursting with confidence in another world. ‘We won’t.’
‘Is there something in there to give her warts?’ Demi asked, traipsing over to the cabinet and peering at the labels on the vials.
‘Please don’t take anything, Demi. I don’t want to get into any more trouble,’ Kallie said, chewing her lip and glancing towards the archway, as if scared Madam Norwood might appear.
‘Fine. No warts.’
‘It was a stupid idea,’ Cady admitted, keeping her eyes on the floor. ‘I’ll see you later,’ she said, and scurried off before they could ask any more questions.
‘Are you sure we can’t take one potion?’ Demi tapped a finger against the cabinet. ‘Madam Norwood won’t notice one wart potion missing.’
‘I doubt the Hecates make potions for warts,’ Hailey said. But they might make a potion for premonition. ‘Maybe there is one potion we can take.’ Hailey moved to Demi’s side.
‘Hailey, Madam Norwood will know if we take something,’ Kallie pleaded, nervously glancing behind her.
‘Don’t worry, you won’t get in trouble, just me.’ Hailey scanned the potion labels: warming potion, sweet dreams, clean scent… Nothing for premonition. She sighed. ‘What I want isn’t here anyway.’
‘What were you looking for?’ Demi asked.
‘Something to give premonitions. I want to see if the nereids are planning something like what happened in the parallel world.’
Demi laughed. ‘You don’t need a potion for that. You need an Apollo with foresight.’
‘But Alec said most Apollos can only see a week in advance. I need to see a whole year ahead of time.’
‘Let’s just ask Sir Bliss,’ Demi said. ‘A week’s notice of impending doom is plenty of time for us to stop it.’
Well, it was better than Hailey sitting around wishing she knew if something was about to happen or not. ‘You’re right. Let’s hurry up and finish polishing so we can talk to him.’
‘I’ll put everything back. You go and see Sir Bliss,’ Kallie said fifteen minutes later.
‘Thanks, Kallie,’ Hailey said, leaving the now sparkling clean Ares room with Demi.
‘Do you really think this will work?’ Demi asked Hailey. ‘I mean, if it were as simple as asking Sir Bliss to have a premonition to see what the nereids are up to, then I’m sure Amathia would have asked him.’
‘We can at least try.’ Hailey strode into the hallway and headed towards the second-floor staircases. Life would be so much easier if she could find out if the nereids were up to something from Sir Bliss. If she had to, she’d go to him every week for the next year and ask him to have a vision about any impending trouble.
Demi paused by the staircase that led up to the above floors—it was in between the two staircases that led down to the entryway. ‘Should we go to his dorm?’
‘Medusa, we should have tried his classroom first,’ Hailey said. ‘Let’s go back there before we climb up a bunch of stairs,’ she said, turning around to head back down the hallway of classrooms. She managed three steps before she heard a voice that made her grit her teeth.
‘Trying to suck up to teachers and do extra credit?’ Venus’s voice mocked.
She was sashaying up the left staircase from the entryway, Nerissa and Cleo at her side. Two boys trailed behind them, their eyes as empty as a corpse’s.
‘We don’t have time for you.’ Demi moved to take another step towards the hallway of classrooms.
‘Not so fast.’ Venus darted in front of Hailey and Demi with her posse, blocking their path. ‘I thought we could have a little chat.’
‘Leave us alone, Venus,’ Hailey warned.
‘Or what? There’s no sky here—or plants,’ she added to Demi. ‘You’re both powerless.’
‘GET HER!’ Venus roared, thumping onto the pearl floor.
The boys lunged for Demi, throwing their hands out and shoving her towards the crystal guardrail that ran between the entryway’s two staircases.
‘Wait! Stop!’ Venus shouted.
But it was too late.
Demi toppled over the guardrail, a scream ripping from her throat.
15
The Saviour
‘Demi!’ Hailey lunged forward, arms stretching out to grab her best friend.
But she was too slow.
‘DEMI!’ Hailey screamed again, staring over the guardrail to her friend’s terrified face as she fell towards the entryway’s hard pearl floor.
A boy suddenly appeared below Demi. He spun his index finger clockwise, like he was tracing the hand of a ticking clock, and then held out his arms. Demi’s screams cut off as he caught her, saving her bones from shattering on the ground.
Hailey bolted down the stairs. Demi was standing beside the boy who’d caught her, his arm wrapped around her waist for support. Demi’s face was as white as the pearl floor, but she was okay, as far as Hailey could see—no broken bones or bleeding gashes.
‘Demi, you’re okay.’ Hailey squeezed her best friend into a hug.
‘Let us go!’
Hailey stared back up to the second floor, where she spotted Riley and Charlie gripping the two boys who’d pushed Demi over the guardrail. A blonde girl with extra-long legs was up there, too, and she reached her hands towards Nerissa and Cleo. The twins’ mouths opened in silent screams as ice hardened over their skin like a shell, freezing them in place.
‘Please, don’t.’ Venus threw her hands in front of her face.
The Chione—Amber, if Hailey remembered correctly—touched a finger to Venus’s arm, turning her into an ice sculpture, too, before using her powers on the two struggling boys Riley and Charlie were holding.
Good. Venus can’t run away now. Hailey focused her attention on the boy beside Demi. He was gorgeous, with a charming smile that would rival Adonis’s. ‘Where did you come from?’
Poseidon's Academy Box Set Page 75