“My theory is she’s using Helmina as bait,” Max said, and took another swig of wine.
Her dad froze, then raced over to Max and glared down at him. He was tall in his new human body, but Poseidon was taller. “Bait for what, exactly?”
Max frowned. “To lure Sam in so she can kill her.”
Her dad whipped around, pinned her with an expression of rage, and gasped. “If this is true, you’re never going back up there. Do you hear me? Never!”
Max raised his brows. Sam wasn’t one to take to ultimatums. Would this turn ugly between them?
Sam put her hands on her hips. She stared up at him in defiance. “I’m a monster-hunter. That’s what I do. If Rosencratz is holding her to get to me, then come with us and help us find her. But I’m not staying here.”
“You will not defy me, Samantha.” His tone sounded non-negotiable, but she didn’t back down.
“If that’s what it takes to get Mom back, then yes, I will defy you. Hell, she’s probably scared to death right now. I have to get back up there and see what Shade has dug up on Rosencratz’s whereabouts. With, or without your help.”
“I never said I wouldn’t help.” Poseidon’s expression softened.
She pointed her finger in his face. “This is all your fault, you know.”
“My fault?”
“Yeah. You’re to blame. Coming to Earth like that two decades ago, luring my mother into a tryst, and getting the girls in her world all hot and bothered.”
“It was more than a tryst, Sam. You were born of our love.” He cupped her face with his hand. Max’s respect for him grew tremensdously.
“When I found out that despicable woman put a spell on me to lure me to her side so she could become a goddess, I was enraged. But when I discovered your mother broke her spell because she felt compassion for me, and wanted to save me from Rosencratz, I couldn’t help myself. I fell in love with your mother,” Poseidon said.
“You are partly responsible, sir,” Max added in. “We saw the photos of you at her senior prom. This Rosencratz witch couldn’t take her eyes off of you. Jealousy does weird things to humans.”
Poseidon wheeled on Max with fury in his eyes. “And what exactly do you know about women? You dare speak to me about jealousy?”
Max put his chalice of wine down. “I know enough to realize that Rosencratz has it in for Helmina. Bad. And you’re responsible in some way. What exactly did you do to Rosencratz to make her hate Helmina like she does?”
Her father waved his questions away, and stalked back toward his throne. Max studied his face. His expression turned stormy.
“What did you do, Dad? Did you screw around with Rosencratz?”
“By Hades and Zeus, no! She bewitched me. Some women find me irresistible,” he said, and glanced back up at Sam with a sheepish grin. “But once I found your mother, and fell in love, I haven’t looked at another human since.”
Sam raised her brows. “If that’s true, why haven’t you been there for me? For us?”
Max wondered about her question. Why hadn’t he been a part of her life? Why did Cyn hate him so much?
“We should go get her back together. Sam has ties with a covert group of monster-hunters who are tracking Helmina, and my mother, as we speak,” Max said.
“Wait. Your mother?” Sam asked.
“She wasn’t on the property. Some of the other animals on the farm said the monks took her when they abducted Helmina. That’s why I ran after you, to tell you she’s missing, too. Look, we have to get back up top and find them.”
Sam turned and searched her father’s eyes. “Mom spelled Miss Daisy’s litters with her magic, and some of the kittens turned out like Max—sort of. Some of them shift, but all of them are valuable to the witches and wizards on earth. Rosencratz abducted them, Dad. She’s holding the familiars for ransom.”
Poseidon ran his hand across a worried face. “I told your mother to watch out for black magic, but she never listened to me. I asked her to bring you down here to come live with me. I asked her to marry me, but she insisted her way was best.”
His words drew a look of confusion to Sam’s face. “She refused? But why?”
Poseidon heaved in a defeated sigh, and collapsed back on his throne. “My brothers interfered.”
Sam
I HONED IN ON my father’s words, and grimaced. Max strolled to my side, slipped his arm around me, and tugged me close. His touch made my skin tingle. “Your brothers? Zeus? And Hades?”
My father tightened his hands into fists. I wondered where this was going. A troubled look crossed his face, and he was silent, searching for a way to explain.
“Dad? What happened?” I asked. I had to hear his side of this. Had I been wrong about him all this time? Mom had never told me about his marriage proposal. I just assumed he never wanted us to cramp his style, and that she wanted to live alone.
“We’re a jaded lot, my brothers and I. Sure, the human mythology details some of our notorious deeds, but as you know, when we interfere with humanity, things don’t always go well.”
“Like the Greek mythology you read to me,” Max said, looking down into my eyes. “Some of those stories are quite impressive, sir, but how does this apply to Sam and Helmina?”
My father pegged him with a stare, then glanced over at me. “When Zeus and Hades first found out about my love for your mother, they laughed. They teased me mercilessly about getting involved with a human woman, but I didn’t care. I wanted to be with her, and she wanted to be with me.”
“Did they forbid you to see her?” I asked.
He nodded. Now I was beginning to understand why my father had never been around. “Why would they do that?”
“Just before you were born, I built your trident, Atlantis. No daughter of mine was going to be up there wandering around without my protection. Zeus and Hades heard me forging the trident, and they came to me with conditions.”
Max rubbed circles on my back. I leaned into the comfort of his touch while my dad went on with his tale. “Because of our history, we agreed it was forbidden for any of us to interfere with humans, but my lust, and love for your mother got the better of me.” He looked up at me as if we were in confessional. I gotta say, the details were making me kind of squeamish, but curiosity got the better of me.
“So what happened, Dad?”
“Then we conceived you. I didn’t give a damn about the pact I’d made with my brothers. For the span of Helmina’s lifetime, and yours, I agreed to never use my powers on Earth in trade for Zeus and Hades sanctifying your trident with their powers.”
That’s why my trident freaked me out with all its hidden talents. Totally explained the lightning bolts. I grinned. “But wait. So you were never supposed to be together? I . . . was never supposed to be born . . .?” My voice sounded shaky when I said the words. Max pulled me closer, but I jerked away. I needed to hear this from Poseidon.
“No. You’ve got it backward,” he said. Dad rose, and came to me, taking my hands in his. “Don’t you see, Samantha, we were supposed to be. You were so important to us, I challenged my brothers, and their sanctimonious old ways.”
I stared up into his ocean-blue eyes, speechless. Guilt rode me, hard. I’d been wrong in my thinking about my dad all this time. It was a difficult notion to get used to.
“Is that why sometimes Atlantis fires bolts of lightning?” Max asked.
Dad ran his fingers along the seven-inch scar on my left arm. “They agreed to my plan to give you the trident. With it, you can access all our powers to protect yourself while you’re away from us.”
“That is so freaking cool,” Max said. “Even the power of Hades? How does that work?”
My Dad nodded. “The souls of everyone who meet their end by Atlantis wait in a special holding pen down in my
brother’s kingdom.”
“Kinda like Dante’s nine layers of hell?” I asked.
My dad raised his brows, then nodded. “It’s a good analogy.”
“Sam,” Max said, glancing down at my face, “that means Shade can still question the monsters you’ve killed, if you choose to tell him.”
I pushed my dad away, holding up a hand. “Wait. You gave up your powers while we’re still alive?” It was confusing. What had he been thinking? “I don’t understand. Why would you do that?”
“Greek gods don’t give up their powers,” he said. “I swore not to use them on the surface as penance. When I go up there, when I leave the ocean, I’m essentially mortal.”
“So you did come around when she was a little girl,” Max said.
A flush of hot tears watered my eyes, and Max touched my arm. “That’s why there are pictures of all of you playing on the beach. Like a normal human family. See, he didn’t abandon you, Sam.”
My rather complicated family issues were even more complicated than I realized. And while all this new information was causing a headache, it was my information, my history. I hoped getting at the truth about my parent’s relationship didn’t cause me to stroke out.
“I have flashes of memories of you from when I was a child, from those times. You seemed so tender . . . yet, so big and strong. I could never understand why you weren’t there like other fathers.”
“I can only visit during the forty-eight hours before and after a full moon. That’s when your mother’s magic is the strongest, when she protects us, when she calls me home,” Dad said.
“Then you can come back with us?” Cyn had told me he came around a lot on the full moon. Still, I narrowed my brows. “Did you hear Mom calling you last night? I did. In a vision, during a dream, on the plane from Key West.”
“Yes,” he said, and a shadow of hurt crossed his eyes. He dipped his brows. “I heard her calling. I searched for her everywhere across the seven seas. You can’t imagine how your call startled me earlier.”
“Did she tell you where she was?”
He shook his head. “Something is blocking me from finding her.”
“Rosencratz’s black magic.” I dragged my hand through my hair. If the witch was strong enough to hide Mom from my dad, what hope did I have of finding her?
“Time’s wasting,” Max said. “Would you please reconsider and come back with us, sir?”
Something changed in my father’s demeanor. He shook his head. “I’ll go to Mount Olympus first and tell my brothers what’s happened. They won’t like it, but I never agreed to stand by if something like this threatened Helmina. Or you.”
“And tomorrow, you’re free to come up to the surface with or without their agreement?” Max asked.
“Astute, Maximillion.”
Max took my hand. “So he can come meet us then.”
“You think I trust you to protect Samantha?”
Max shrugged. “You should. It looks like I’m all you’ve got.”
“Consider yourself warned, young man.” Dad raised his finger to Max. “If you fail in any way—if my daughter comes to harm because of your actions, those nine lives of yours will be cut short.”
Max stood up ramrod straight. “Trust me. I won’t let anyone else touch her. She’s mine to protect, Poseidon, if you’ll grant me your blessing.”
Dad grumbled something under his breath about unreliable shifters, then stomped off and started yelling at his guards to assemble his seahorses for our ride back up to the surface.
“Well. That went good, right?” Max asked.
I hesitated, and looked up into his eyes. “I can’t believe they kept him from me all this time.”
“Zeus and Hades have that sort of meddling reputation, as I recall.”
“Yeah, well, when we’re done with this, when we find our mothers, I’m gonna have a little chat with both of them. I’ve got abandonment issues because of those two meddlesome characters.”
“Great. I’ll see if I can brush up on how to protect you from your uncles.”
I reached up on my tiptoes and kissed him hard on the mouth. I didn’t give a damn if my dad saw us kissing or not. When Max pulled me into his arms and deepened the kiss, he didn’t care either.
We broke away a moment later. I took his hand, and turned toward the outer room where the seahorses brayed. I walked to my father and pulled him into a tight hug. “Will I see you tomorrow?”
He nodded. “Just tap your trident three times. I’ll be there when you need me the most.”
I didn’t know what sort of help he’d be to us up there, but right now, we needed all the assistance we could find to stop Rosencratz.
Dad sighed, kissed me on the cheek, and spread his hands, forming an iridescent bubble for Max and me to ride in back up to the surface. The seahorses whinnied, and bounced the bubble onto the surface of the water, and we were off, leaving the kingdom of my father behind.
Chapter 17
Max
MAX WRAPPED HIS arms around Sam inside the protective iridescent bubble for the trip back to the surface. Poseidon’s seahorse was pushing the air bubble they traveled in so vigorously, Max worried he’d burst it. While Sam could breathe at these depths, he couldn’t.
Up, up, up they ascended until they popped their heads above the waves. The seahorses nosed the bubble out of the water and onto the sand. Once it ruptured, their clothes didn’t even get wet. Max took Sam’s hand, and they walked across the beach. Terra firma. Finally. Would it be weird to kiss the sand?
A lone figure appeared at the head of the dunes. Sam’s sister, Cyn, sporting her black hair in its short, spiky bob. She shielded her eyes against the afternoon sun, but turned away before they got there.
“Your sister doesn’t look happy to see us,” Max said.
“She’s never really happy at all,” Sam said. “Living with horrible secrets can do that to a person.”
What could he do to help unite them? Sam would be happier if she and her sister could find some common ground, especially if some harm came to their mother. He wiped those thoughts from his mind, and focused on the future.
Once they cleared the dunes, green grass and shade trees popped up everywhere, shading them from the beach’s sun.
The old weathervane, a giant marlin, swung at the top of the roof, telling the ways of the wind and the sea. Max stared at the property stretching out around them. Free-range chickens scattered, and pecked at the grass as they rounded the old stone path laid from the beach to the lawn. Two hammocks beckoned, hung side-by-side underneath an ancient sugar maple. “Mom still taps that tree in the springtime for maple syrup,” Sam said.
“You miss her.” Max tightened his hold on her hand.
Sam nodded.
“I miss my mother, too.”
White birches and balsam firs outlined the farm, granting seclusion from curious neighbors. What was that Frost poem? Yes, there were classic New England rock fences all about, demarcating the property. Good fences grew good neighbors, after all.
“Your mother always loved this place,” Max said, a hint of nostalgia in his voice. Colorful whirligigs turned their paddles in the sea breezes, adding a quirkiness to the property. “Mine did too,” he said, the sweep of memories from the farm reminding him how his mother would bat at the yard decorations. He waved at the whirligigs. “She used to make it a game for my brothers and sisters, pulling them down from the trees, teaching us how to hunt.”
“They should be here, with us,” Sam said, her tone urgent.
“They will be, if I have anything to do with it.” He strode away from her, toward the farmhouse to deal with this disaster. “Come on. Let’s go find them.”
Sam
I FOLLOWED MAX into the house.
Shade glance
d up at us, then frowned. “So, I take it it’s a no-go with your dad, huh?”
Weird. He was always asking about Poseidon. “Umm, well, it’s complicated.”
“Figures,” Cyn remarked. “He’s never around when Mom needs him most.”
I ignored her tone.
Max jumped in. “I met him. He’s got some godly stuff to deal with, but he’ll be available tomorrow. Why are you always asking about him, anyway, Fang Man?”
“None of your damn business, Kitty Boy,” Shade snarled.
“Everything about Sam is my business now. I have his blessing to look after her. That’s more than you have.” Max plopped down on Mom’s red couch with an expression of a cat who’d just swallowed the proverbial canary. “You know what I think. I think you want to meet Poseidon so he’ll show the HWB some favor. It’s the perfect political move for you. Gives you an edge of power with the commanders.”
I ping-ponged my gaze from Max to Shade and back to Max again. What the hell was he talking about? Max had an uncanny way of helping me see through things, though. My secret eyes and ears. Was Shade using me to get to my father?
I wouldn’t put it past him. If Dad could use his powers on Earth, and Shade earned his respect, the HWB could ask him for favors.
Shade pointed to Mom’s computer. “While you were gone, we learned some things.”
The next half-hour was spent poring over data regarding complaints from witches against Francesca Rosencratz. Mom had tried to help them, and documented each witch’s kidnapped familiar.
“The witches are on the way here now,” Shade explained. “We intend to conduct interviews with each of them regarding their missing familiars, and the ransom due for each one. The entire community of covens is incensed that Rosencratz would resort to this despicable behavior. As far as they’re concerned, this is black magic at work. Most witches don’t take to using their power for harm.”
I focused in on Shade’s intel. “So, Rosencratz used the coven’s pets to draw Mom out?”
“Yes,” Shade confirmed. “From what we’ve learned so far, Helmina went to New York City to confront Rosencratz about the complaints lodged against her.”
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