Olympus Academy: The Complete Series

by Raine, Eliza

  We leapt from the walkway, out over the ocean, and Icarus zoomed towards us, looping around the pegasus as he beat his giant wings. I leaned out, looking down towards the school.

  ‘There it is!’ I pointed. I could see the writhing, bright blue body of something almost as big as the academy itself under the surface. Not only could I see it - I could feel it. It felt wrong, like it didn’t belong in the water, like the ocean itself wanted to eject it.

  ‘Let’s try and draw it away, somewhere safer,’ Icarus called, and swooped towards the waves. Peto followed, and as we got close Icarus held out his palms. Whirlwinds of air sprang up and he shot them towards the sea. Like darts they thundered through the ocean. I concentrated, using the water to guide them towards where I knew the demon was. There was a thunderous bellow, then suddenly it leapt from the sea, snapping and snarling at us. It was the first time I’d seen anything but it’s tail clearly and for a moment I froze, unable to even think for fear. It was like every nightmare I’d ever had about the ocean. It was roughly snake shaped, except that it had the head and body of an almighty crocodile, with massive horned spikes jutting out behind its head like a mane. Bright blue bolts flashed all across its body, like veins filled with electricity, and teeth as big as Dad’s house gnashed at us as it arced out of the waves. Only Peto’s lightning fast reactions stopped them clamping down on me and I gasped as we rolled through the air, the pegasus whinnying loudly.

  ‘Lure it this way,’ yelled Icarus, and I saw him dart off. Peto followed him without me needing to tell him to. I concentrated, willing the waves to carry the creature along with us, leaving the school behind as we raced through the skies. I didn’t need to look to know that it was keeping pace in the waves below. Its presence in the water was unmistakable to me. Icarus slowed in front of me, then ducked. Fire was streaming from his hands now, and he sent great pulses of it at the demon. As soon as it hit the water though, it snuffed out harmlessly. The demon leapt again, and my breath caught as Icarus swooped out of it’s reach. How could we kill something this massive and strong? I wracked my brains desperately. It was clearly a sea demon. And surely sea demons needed water to survive. So what if we kept it out of the water?

  ‘Icarus, make the biggest whirlwind you can! Let’s try and dry it out,’ I shouted.

  ‘Got it!’ he yelled back, soaring over my head. I closed my eyes, trusting Peto to keep me out of the things way, and opened my mind to the ocean, the way I’d been trying to in elemental class. The feeling that overcame me was close to bliss. I was the water. I was massive, powerful, immortal and free. I couldn’t be tamed. And this thing didn’t belong. I closed in around it as it cleaved frantically through the water, pinning it in place. It began to thrash, its sharp tail flicking and beating against me, but I was the ocean itself, and it couldn’t harm me. Then a blast of wind, tight and swirling and lethal hit me. I merged with it, absorbing its power, spinning and churning, and then I let go, coming back to my body on Peto’s back with a cry. The wind and the water had combined to create an epic whirlpool that stretched from the surface of the sea right down to the ocean floor. And in the middle of it, thrashing and writhing, was the demon. I swooped down next to Icarus, his face strained as he hovered over it, palms out and wings beating. I added my strength to the whirlpool, and the water span faster. Icarus’s face relaxed a little, then the demon began to glow, the pale blue of its luminous veins taking over its body. Then with a roar it disintegrated into shimmering light. Icarus dropped his hands, and I reluctantly followed suit, letting go of the water with my mind. The waves crashed back down, splashing so hard spray splattered across us both. Peto neighed loudly and sprang up through the air, shaking his head, and I laughed, loud and long as elation and relief rushed through me. We’d done it. We’d defeated the demon.

  26

  My whole body was shaking as I climbed off Peto’s back when we were safely back on the tower. Icarus stepped up to the box, and held his hand out for me to grab as I stumbled slightly.

  ‘Thanks,’ I said, looking up at him. ‘For drinking the vial before me. Why did you do that?’ He stared back into my eyes.

  ‘You had more to lose than me. And… You’re a better person than I am. You make other people happy.’

  My heart swelled in my chest, adrenaline and excitement amplifying my emotions. I gripped his hand, leaned forward and kissed him. He made a startled sound and tensed, then brought his other hand up to my face, kissing me back. Happiness tingled through my whole body and I heard his wings rustling.

  Eventually I broke off the kiss and moved my head far enough back to look at him.

  ‘Icarus, you can make people happy. You make me happy.’ A tinge of color leapt to his cheeks.

  ‘I… I’ve thought you were amazing since I met you,’ he said quietly. My stomach flipped and I gripped his hand harder. ‘You’re so honest and ambitious. But the people who shine the brightest have often turned out to be the worst to me. So I decided to try to avoid you. Push you away. Plus, you had trouble written all over you.’ He gave me a half grin.

  ‘Guess you were right there,’ I said, tilting my head and returning the smile. ‘We make a great team, Icarus.’

  ‘What, you making terrible decisions and me helping you get out of them?’ he said teasingly.

  ‘Well, yeah,’ I laughed.

  ‘Seriously though, we can’t tell anyone you opened that box. We’d be thrown out in a heartbeat.’ Panic skittered through me.

  ‘Where is the box?’

  ‘Gods, we left it by the pool.’ He looked worried. ‘I have the poem though.’

  ‘OK. We tell nobody what happened then. Except Dasko.

  ‘Agreed.’

  I let out a long sigh.

  ‘I can’t believe we did that,’ I said, stepping down off the box.

  ‘Nor can I,’ thundered a voice. I looked up to see Chiron at the stable door, Dasko and Miss Alma hurrying up behind him, both wide-eyed. Dasko shook his head silently at us, panic on his face. ‘Explain yourselves!’ the centaur roared.

  ‘We stopped the demon,’ I said, quietly.

  ‘Would you care to explain where the demon came from in the first place?’ Chiron said through gritted teeth. Icarus and I looked at each other and shrugged.

  ‘No idea,’ he said, slipping back into his moody demeanor.

  ‘So you expect me to believe that this box,’ he held up the mother-of-pearl box, ‘your wings,’ he gestured at Icarus impressive black wings, ‘and your new-found ability to control the ocean have nothing to do with that demon?’

  ‘We found the box laying open by the pool,’ I said quickly. ‘When we picked it up to see what it was Icarus’s wings grew and my water power changed. That’s all we know.’

  Chiron narrowed his eyes at me, saying nothing for an excruciatingly long minute.

  ‘Professor Fantasma’s fire dish showed us what you two did out there. It was extremely brave and exceptionally accomplished.’ Pride bubbled through my fear. ‘I will be passing on my admiration to Zeus when he visits. You saved the school.’

  ‘Does that mean we won’t be kicked out?’ I asked quickly.

  ‘After a feat like that? Not a chance,’ Chiron said. ‘BUT!’ he thundered as I turned in delight to Icarus. ‘If I find out you had anything at all to do with that demon being here in the first place you’ll not only be asked to leave the academy, you’ll face a trial with the Olympians.’ His eyes were fierce and his voice low and menacing as he continued. ‘Endangering my school like that will not go unpunished. Do you understand?’

  We both nodded, dread coiling around my stomach. A trial with the Olympians? I already knew what they did with badly behaved Titans.

  ‘Very well. Both of you, to bed, now. I will be keeping my eye on you both, mark my words.’

  ‘I need to tend to Peto,’ I said, but Miss Alma stepped forwards.

  ‘I’ll do that. You must be exhausted,’ she said, and I swore I could see pride in her eyes.
r />   ‘Thank you,’ I told her, and turned to the pegasus. ‘You did great, boy. Better than great. You helped save the school,’ I whispered to him, taking his long face in both my hands. He gave me little humpf and I kissed him on the end of the nose.

  By the time we got back down onto the ground a mix of fear and happiness was making my head start to pound.

  ‘Hey,’ a voice hissed as we reached the other side of the training ground, still hand in hand. We both turned to see Dasko, jogging up to us. ‘You opened the box?’ he hissed. He looked cross, but not furious. Part of me sagged in relief a little. I had been worried he wouldn’t forgive me.

  ‘I’m sorry,’ I said, looking down at my feet.

  ‘You’ve done it now, there’s no point me getting angry about it. And besides, look what it did for your powers!’ He looked pointedly at Icarus’s wings. ‘Can you shift so that they disappear?’ he asked him. Icarus closed his eyes, but nothing happened.

  ‘No. Not yet,’ he said.

  ‘You’re not going to tell Chiron are you? He’s going to make sure we can stay at the academy,’ I said.

  ‘No, of course I’m not. But listen, was there anything else in the box?’

  A wave of realization hit me so strong that I almost stumbled.

  ‘Oh gods,’ I said turning to Icarus. In the rush of everything that had happened, we had forgotten something incredibly important. ‘What did the poem say?’

  He pulled it out of his shorts pocket, and read quickly.

  In order to change a world so unfair

  The gods will need more than just a prayer

  You have released these demons three

  Whom some might argue should never be free

  For every drop of blood they spill

  They will become much harder to kill

  But for the hero who can handle the gore

  Is finally a chance to end this bloody war

  Drink the vial to unlock your power

  You’re going to need it in this darkest hour

  There were another two demons.

  27

  One week later…

  My heart hammered against my ribs as I stood in line with the other students, waiting to show Zeus what I could do with the water wall. I knew Chiron had said he would make sure we wouldn’t be thrown out, but this was Zeus. Chiron wasn’t a god. He couldn’t make Zeus do what he wanted. The lord of the gods radiated so much power it was hard to look at him. Plus he was so good looking that my brain stopped working properly every time I tried to study his face. I’d got as far as seeing that he had dark hair, with shots of grey over his ears, stormy grey eyes and full, soft lips. I wasn’t usually into older guys, but I guessed that was the god effect. I watched as Zali stepped up the waterfall and held her hands out. The stream of water under her left palm slowly froze, while the water under her right began to steam. Zeus nodded and Dasko said,

  ‘Well done, Zali. Next.’ My palms were sweating and I flexed them nervously. Dasko had told me to show off a little with the water when it was my turn, but not too much. Being around this much water was making my power build though, pumping energy into my body. It was making me restless and fueling my anxiety.

  We had no idea where the other two demons had gone. Dasko said he thought the academy dome had expelled them, and that’s how the sea demon had ended up outside the dome. It had lots of magic on it to keep enemies out. Based on that, it seemed likely the other two were out in Olympus somewhere. But a little part of me was terrified that they were still in the school. Nightmares filled with that crimson face I’d seen in the smoke awoke me constantly.

  The next student, Kiko, stepped up to the waterfall. She waved her hands, pulling long, thin tendrils of water from the wall and they danced about in front of her.

  ‘Excellent. Next,’ said Dasko.

  All that mattered now was staying at the school. I could worry about hunting down the demons and fixing what I’d done after I knew I’d be able to stay and learn how to use my powers. After all, if I didn’t graduate, I couldn’t live in Olympus. The words of the poem swam through my mind as Tak stepped up to the waterfall.

  For every drop of blood they spill

  They will become much harder to kill

  I squeezed my eyes shut. How could I live with myself if they had spilled somebody’s blood? I needed to fix what I had done. Icarus and Nix had both said that the next line of the poem was more important.

  But for the hero who can handle the gore

  Is finally a chance to end this bloody war

  Nix said that Icarus and I might be what Olympus had been waiting for, that we could unite the Titans and the Olympians. I glanced sideways at Zeus’s impassive, glowing face. He had kept the Titans in a pit of eternal torture for centuries. I didn’t see for a moment how there could be peace if they were ever released. They would want their vengeance.

  Tak stared at the water wall for a full minute before Dasko told him to move on. He shot me a grin as he strode passed me. He couldn’t control water, but he was excellent at Telepathy now, and one of the best in our year at spears. He knew he had nothing to worry about.

  I had already passed history and language. Geography had been a little tricky, but Zali had spent hours helping me revise, and my little map was now imprinted in my mind, covered in notes about each realm. I desperately wanted to visit Athena’s industrial sounding sky realm. It sounded like something out of a movie. To be honest, the whole of Olympus sounded like something out of a movie.

  Astra stepped up to the water wall and held both hands out. A small whirlpool began spinning in the water. She pulled her hands up and it leapt from the cascade, zooming about on the ground in front of her. All the eyes in the room snapped to Zeus as he clapped his hands slowly. He smiled at the silver haired girl and she beamed back.

  ‘Well done, Astra,’ said Dasko, and she dropped her hands, the whirlpool splashing to ground and draining down the hole in the middle of the room.

  Icarus stepped up next. My heart hammered even harder in my chest, so loud I was sure Zeus must have been aware of it. His wings were folded against his back, but they still made him seem so much bigger. He had started sitting with us at dinner now, and in the library in the evenings. He pushed his hair back from his eyes more often, and even smiled at people on occasion. The day before Zeus arrived a hulking Ares descendant had walked past us in the library and said,

  ‘Nice wings, man.’ Icarus had looked so stunned I’d wanted to kiss him there and then. But we were keeping our kisses confined to the top of the pegasus tower, when nobody else was around. Neither of us wanted to add any strings to Arketa’s bow, give her anything else to use against us. But gods, they were great kisses.

  I watched as he pulled tendrils of water from the wall, spinning them like little lassos.

  ‘Good. Next,’ said Dasko. Three more students took their turn, then I was up. My hands were shaking as reached the wall and held them up. Immediately, the whole wall of water burst forward like a tidal wave. I cried out as it crashed over me, drenching me from head to foot, then drained noisily away down the hole. All of the students in the room snickered and took a long breath in. That hadn’t been me. Someone else had done that. I looked up and down the row of people remaining, my eyes settling on Vronti’s icy smile. He was good enough with water to have done it. But why?

  ‘That’ll do,’ said Dasko and I looked at him. ‘Next.’

  Really? That was my big moment? I opened my mouth and he gave me a pointed look. Scowling, I closed my mouth again and stomped from the elemental building. Fine. I didn’t have to show them what I could do. I just had to stay at the academy.

  The end of semester ceremony was the next day. I sat on a bench in the main temple with Zali, Tak, Gida and Icarus. Zali gripped my hand and I squeezed hers back as Zeus walked onto the stage in front of us. I was so tense my body was aching. I hadn’t slept the night before and I felt physically sick now. Please, please, please, let me stay. I have
to stay. Not just for my family now. But for my friends, and for Icarus. Please let me stay.

  ‘Good day, Olympus Academy,’ Zeus boomed. ‘I will be brief. Firstly,’ he shot an obvious glare at Chiron, ‘nobody will be leaving the academy this semester.’ At first his words didn’t process, then the relief hit me like a ton of bricks. I sagged in my seat, my hand going limp in Zali’s, and I had to use every ounce of energy I had to stop myself letting out a sob of happiness.

  ‘See,’ whispered Zali, beaming at me. ‘I told you.’ I grinned back at her, my heart filling with love for her. I looked sideways at Icarus and could see my relief echoed on his face. His eyes met mine and for a brief moment it was like we were the only two people in the room. He didn’t need to say anything, his feelings were clear by the look in his eyes.

  ‘Secondly, Vronti and Astra will be joint head of year.’ Zeus’s voice brought my attention back into the room and everybody clapped and whooped and cheered as the twins stood up and smiled around at everybody.

  ‘No surprises there,’ muttered Gida.

  ‘Lastly, we have a new teacher joining the school. Everybody, please welcome Professor Neos.’ A young, muscular man in jeans and a white shirt, open at the neck appeared in a puff of shimmering light on the stage. He grinned round at everyone and girlish titters rippled across the room.

  ‘Wow. Wow, he is hot,’ muttered Zali. He was too. He had messy, sandy colored hair curling around his ears, and a tanned, square face that beamed as he waved at everyone. Then his eyes met mine and the whole world stilled as I stared into them. They were crimson red. The gigantic face of the red demon flashed abruptly into my mind and Professor Neos gave me a vicious grin. Then suddenly his eyes were warm brown again, and he was nodding around at the crowd amiably. I looked at Icarus, my heart hammering, and the panic on his face confirmed it. The red demon had made it into the academy.