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  ‘Yeah, Aaron, that doesn’t sound like a good idea,’ Jayden agreed.

  ‘So what… we do nothing?’ Aaron asked in disbelief, refusing to let Hailey pull him back down.

  ‘Everyone needs to chill out,’ Jayden said. ‘Aaron, sit down.’ Grudgingly, he did. ‘Okay, so Hailey has learned something pretty big here. Yes, a nereid threatening to kill everyone is something to freak out about, but I think it’s a bluff. This school has been open for five years, and the nereids have never touched a student—at least I don’t think they have—so why would they start now? I’m guessing it’s a threat that gets made at the beginning of every year, which is why Amathia isn’t worried.’

  ‘Yay, that means Amathia won’t close the Academy,’ Demi cheered.

  Aaron, however, remained incredulous. ‘So, we’re going to pretend like nothing happened?’

  ‘We can’t,’ Hailey said, mirroring his expression. Jayden’s theory about it being a bluff sounded believable when you thought about it, but he hadn’t seen Nemertes—she didn’t strike Hailey as the bluff type, not with that venomous glare she’d shot Hailey.

  ‘And we won’t,’ Jayden went on. ‘We can keep a watch out for them to make sure they’re not up to anything.’

  Aaron drummed his fingers against the mattress, considering Jayden’s plan. ‘But we never see them. It’s hard to spy on someone you never run into.’

  Jayden shrugged. ‘I think that’s the best thing we can do for now. And I bet my powers Amathia keeps a close eye on them. I really don’t think we have anything to worry about.’

  Aaron, looking unconvinced, turned to Hailey. ‘You’re the one who was there. What do you think?’

  It seemed unrealistic to believe the nereids would walk into the open and do or say something that let Hailey and her friends know what they were up to, but what else could they do? Going after the nereids by themselves would be too dangerous—they were immortal after all.

  Hailey barely knew Amathia, but from what she’d overheard of the conversation, she trusted she wouldn’t let her sisters hurt anyone. ‘I agree with Jayden.’

  Aaron looked disappointed but didn’t argue.

  Demi hopped up. ‘It’s agreed then, we’ve got nothing to worry about. Breakfast anyone?’

  ‘Sure, but I need to get dressed first,’ Jayden said. ‘I’m not shy, so if you’re still here in two seconds, I’ll start stripping.’ He grinned.

  It was enough to get Hailey off the bed. If she saw Jayden in his underwear, she’d never be able to look at him with a straight face again. Demi, on the other hand, looked intrigued. Hailey grabbed her arm and dragged her into Alec and Aaron’s dorm.

  ‘I hope you’re right about this,’ Aaron said to Hailey.

  ‘Me too,’ she said, walking into the hallway. The conch shell would sound soon, which would increase the chances of someone catching her and Demi.

  ‘Hailey, wait.’ Alec came out after her.

  ‘I’ll catch up with you in a sec,’ she told Demi, waving her off to the common room. No point in them both risking a detention. ‘Are you okay, Alec? Why were you so quiet in there?’

  ‘Because I was working out who Nemertes was referring to when she told Amathia they shouldn’t be staying here because of their powers.’

  ‘And did you work it out?’

  He hesitated. ‘Yes.’

  ‘And…’ she prompted when he didn’t say who.

  ‘It’s you.’

  8

  Weekend

  ‘What do you mean it’s me?’

  Alec glanced down the hallway. ‘You might want to keep it down.’

  ‘Sorry, you took me by surprise,’ she said in a quieter voice. ‘Now tell me why you think Nemertes was talking about me?’

  ‘Well, it sounds as though Nemertes hates humans because our ancestors killed the gods and absorbed their powers. It’s possible they think the gods will return, which means there’d be one human they hate more than anyone else.’

  ‘And you think it’s me?’

  Alec paled. He looked as if he’d rather be anywhere else, which made Hailey think he was about to say something she wouldn’t like, and she had a pretty good idea what it was. ‘Yes, because you’re a Zeus, and the prophecy says—’

  ‘I know what the prophecy says,’ she snapped, making Alec flinch. ‘I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to yell.’

  ‘I wasn’t going to tell you, but I thought you should know in case you run into Nemertes again.’

  Great, now Hailey would have to worry about a nereid sneaking into her dorm during the night to suffocate her with a pillow. And the list of reasons to hate being a Zeus just keeps growing. Why, why, why did Hailey have to be the Zeus? ‘Thanks for telling me, Alec, but I don’t think we should tell the others.’

  ‘I agree. That’s why I didn’t say anything before. I know if Aaron knew—’

  ‘Knew what?’ Aaron asked, coming into the hallway.

  ‘Um… that you… that I…’ Alec fumbled.

  ‘That Alec hates how messy you keep your side of the dorm.’ Hailey didn’t like lying to her friends, but in this instance it was necessary, because it meant protecting them from doing something stupid—like going after Nemertes.

  ‘You’re more than welcome to clean it,’ he told Alec before looking at Hailey. ‘You better get back to your dorm before someone sees you.’

  ‘I was just leaving. See you at breakfast.’

  She slipped back into the common room, where three more students had joined the early study session. They barely raised their eyes from their textbooks as she closed the door behind her, which made her think sneaking into the dormitories wasn’t an unusual occurrence.

  Hailey reclined under a pearl tree, its coral roots stretching into the water beneath the diamond floor, where a couple of clownfish were peeking from an anemone growing on a reef. Around sixty other students sat scattered around the grounds. Everyone else was either sleeping-in or lounging in their common rooms, taking full advantage of it being Saturday.

  Sleeping away the day didn’t appeal to Hailey. She wanted a few hours to herself so she could attempt to relax after an intense second week. She started by penning another letter to her mum—a task that proved stressful rather than relaxing.

  Hailey couldn’t tell her anything she wanted to. Every time she tried to write about the palace her hand spasmed. And if she told her about the nereid threat, Hailey’s mum would pull her out of Poseidon’s Academy quicker than she could say memory ball.

  Despite being on Nemertes’s kill list, Hailey didn’t want to be anywhere else. Psycho nymphs didn’t change how extraordinary the palace was. She’d much rather risk her life here than be safe in a school that taught Ancient History from a textbook, and where PE actually meant physical education.

  She’d also had a couple of nights to calm down from her initial shock of overhearing Amathia and Nemertes’s conversation, and the more she thought about it, the more Jayden’s theory about it being a bluff made sense. If Nemertes was serious, she would have jumped straight to the killing rather than asking Amathia to get rid of everyone first. And Hailey doubted a few nereids could kill 500 power-equipped students and teachers.

  Then there was Nemertes’s dislike of Hailey. She figured Nemertes would have attacked her in the classroom if she wanted her gone that badly—it would have sent a clear message to Amathia she was serious about getting rid of the students and teachers.

  Putting pen to paper, Hailey decided the only interesting thing she could tell her mum was that everyone else found her boring compared to the Uniques.

  Several students had approached her about being a Zeus over the last week and a half. But unlike Venus, they hadn’t asked to be her friend. They’d simply been curious about why she’d come to an underwater school.

  She occasionally heard whispering behind her back, and received a few wide-eyed stares, but it was nothing compared to what some of the Uniques were experiencing. The palace was bursting with
rumours about what they could do. There was even one about a Unique who could travel to parallel worlds. Hailey didn’t believe that one though—it was a big stretch—but it showed how awed everyone was by the Uniques. Only a handful of students continued to voice their hate for them.

  Hailey finished her letter and folded it into an envelope, scrawling her address on the front before pressing a gold stamp imprinted with a pair of wings into the envelope’s corner. The letter vanished and she smiled, imagining her mum lunging for it the second it appeared on the kitchen table.

  Hailey grabbed her leftover stationery and stood up; she knew her mum would write her back straight away—there’d probably be a letter waiting on her desk by the time she got back to her dorm.

  She took half a step and then froze, her eyes locking on to the wall of water a couple of yards away. She shuddered, remembering her nightmare. This is ridiculous, she told herself. It was a stupid dream.

  She dropped her things and marched to the grounds’ edge, smiling smugly when no spiky tentacle grabbed her. Instead, a pink and yellow fish the length of her pinkie finger greeted her. ‘Hello,’ Hailey said to the fish, reaching to rest her hand on the force field.

  Tingles swept through her hand as it plunged into the icy water. She gasped and yanked it back, watching, bewildered, as water droplets dripped from her fingertips. The force field isn’t solid! How in Tartarus does it hold the sea back?

  ‘I wouldn’t stand too close. You might fall in.’

  Hands shoved into Hailey’s back, sending her sprawling through the force field. The cold water hit her like a charging minotaur, cramping her limbs and tightening her chest as thousands of tiny icicles burrowed into her skin.

  Freezing to death was the least of her problems. The fish she’d been watching had changed from pink and yellow to black and red, and grown to the size of a Nemean lion. It opened its mouth, revealing two rows of needle teeth.

  Hailey screamed, salty water flooding her mouth and trickling down to her lungs, turning them to ice.

  The fish launched at her.

  Hailey fought through the cramping pain in her arm and pulled her fist back. Punching carnivorous sea-creatures in the nose always works… doesn’t it?

  A hand wrapped around her arm and yanked. Tingles buzzed on her skin before she landed on solid ground, coughing up water.

  ‘Are you okay?’

  Hailey gulped in air. Aaron knelt in front of her, his wet clothes clinging to his skin. ‘I think so,’ she choked out in a raspy voice. She glanced back at the water, where the deceiving fish had changed back to pink and yellow, and shrunken to its tiny size. ‘Where did you come from?’ she asked, turning back to Aaron.

  ‘I’d finished my floor work, so I thought I’d come down and do some laps around the palace,’ he explained. ‘The first thing I saw when I stepped outside was you about to become lunch.’ His eyes hardened. ‘Now tell me what happened. How’d you get in the water? Was it a nereid?’

  Hailey remembered the voice before she was pushed. ‘No. It was Venus.’

  ‘Venus?’

  Hailey nodded, rage bubbling in her stomach. She could have died, and probably would have if Aaron hadn’t come along.

  Aaron’s eyes burned with pure fury. ‘She’s going to pay.’

  Hailey’s adrenaline rush wore off; her muscles twisted back into painful cramps, and her body shuddered as it realised how cold it was. ‘Aa-r-r-ron,’ she chattered, grabbing his soaking shirt before he could run after Venus. If he left her now, she’d probably freeze to death.

  The anger melted from his face. ‘We better get you defrosted.’

  One boiling hot bath later, and Hailey was back in the grounds with her friends, telling them what Venus had done.

  ‘I’ll kill her!’ Demi clenched her hands into fists.

  ‘You know I’m not big on violence,’ Jayden said, ‘but in this case, I’ll make an exception and help you, Demi.’

  ‘We should tell Madam Grayson,’ Alec suggested.

  Aaron shook his head. ‘No, Venus will deny it. We’ll have to get revenge ourselves.’

  Demi pointed a finger at the palace. ‘Speaking of Hades.’

  Hailey scowled at Venus and the twins, who’d just sauntered into the grounds. If there’d been a sky, she would have blown the three of them away on a tornado.

  ‘I’m going first,’ Jayden announced.

  A wave tore through the force field and crashed over Venus and the twins. They shrieked and tried to run back into the palace, but they slammed against an invisible wall a few feet from the entrance.

  ‘Not so fast.’ Aaron smirked, holding his palms up. ‘Your turn, Dems.’

  Demi grinned deviously. ‘This one’s for you, Hails.’ She extended a hand towards one of the gardens before flicking it at the three girls, who were too busy banging against Aaron’s force field to notice the sea-anemones stretching their tentacles towards them.

  The tentacles wrapped around the evil trio’s arms and legs, injecting them with stinging poison, forcing the girls to shriek in pain.

  Hailey was in hysterics, but she figured they’d had enough. ‘Okay, let them go.’

  ‘I don’t think they’ll be wearing miniskirts and halter tops again anytime soon,’ Demi remarked, coercing the sea-anemones to release Venus and the twins, who now had angry red spots all over their skin.

  The moment the evil trio were free, they kicked the air in front of them, sprinting forward when their feet didn’t meet Aaron’s force field, and disappeared into the palace.

  Hailey and her friends were still laughing five minutes later. They only stopped when Amathia entered the grounds.

  ‘Uh oh,’ Demi said. ‘It looks like Venus doesn’t share our view about not snitching.’

  ‘I told you we should have gone to Madam Grayson.’ Alec’s shoulders slumped. ‘Now we’ll probably get detention and neutralising bracelets.’

  Jayden stretched his legs out, appearing not the least bit concerned. ‘It was worth it.’

  ‘Definitely,’ Aaron agreed.

  ‘I don’t think she’s here for us,’ Hailey said.

  Amathia lingered in front of the entrance, her eyes gazing up at the sea. ‘Okaeat,’ she called out.

  Everything fell deathly quiet for a second.

  And then the ground shook.

  Earthquake!

  9

  Midnight Snack

  The grounds erupted in chaos. Students screamed and bolted towards the palace to find cover. Hailey and her friends leapt to their feet, ready to join the stampede.

  But they didn’t take one step before Amathia called out, ‘Calm down.’ Students froze where they were. ‘There’s no need to be afraid. Look.’

  Hailey stared up, her mouth popping open.

  The palace was rising, pushing through the sky of water like an elevator zooming from the bottom of the sea. Higher and higher it rose, until finally the water rolled off the force field.

  The sky gleamed down at Hailey mockingly as if saying, ‘I win.’ Her fingertips tingled, and she shoved her hands into her pockets. There was no way she was using her powers with so many students around.

  ‘From this day forth, the palace will rise from the sea once a week for three days,’ Amathia announced, her voice somehow ringing out over the entire grounds. ‘I believe we will all benefit from some fresh air and sunlight.’ She briefly glanced at Hailey, who could practically hear Amathia’s voice in her head saying, ‘You cannot escape your destiny.’

  I was doing just fine, Hailey grumbled to herself. But she had to admit, she was a little relieved she’d never experience the pain the prisoners on the documentary had from not using their powers.

  ‘Eikaatva adaur,’ Amathia’s voice rang out.

  The force field deactivated, welcoming in a gentle salty breeze that drifted through the grounds.

  Hailey finally recognised the language Amathia spoke—only because she had a class on it. It was Goldarin: the original langua
ge of the Titans and gods, and the first race of humans.

  Amathia glided back inside as what looked like half the student population poured into the grounds. They stared up in awe, acting as if they’d never seen the sky before.

  ‘I bet you’re desperate to use your powers,’ Demi remarked.

  Hailey shook her head, continuing to ignore the tingling in her fingers. ‘Nope.’

  ‘You shouldn’t be so shy,’ Demi said. ‘Give them a show.’

  Yeah, so that a million students swarm me; what a great idea. ‘I’m heading inside before anyone remembers I’m a Zeus. See you later.’

  Hailey lowered her head and pushed her way through the horde of students, praying to the Tyches of the world that no one would recognise her. Thankfully, everyone was too busy looking up to even notice her.

  She glanced up, too, when she reached the palace’s entrance, the azure blue sky forcing a smile to her lips. ‘Hello again,’ she murmured and passed into the entryway, where students flooded the staircases, all of them eager to get outside. ‘Excuse me,’ Hailey said, squeezing onto the stairs.

  She wriggled her way up all of two steps before someone up ahead called out, ‘Hey, that’s the Zeus.’

  Hailey stiffened.

  ‘You’re the Zeus?’ the boy next to her asked.

  ‘Show us your powers,’ someone else demanded.

  ‘Yeah, come on. I want to see a cyclone. Or a monsoon.’

  ‘I want to see snow,’ another voice said.

  ‘No. I’m not using my powers.’ Hailey attempted to push her way up the stairs again, but the students blocked her.

  ‘Why not? You’re the Zeus, aren’t you?’

  ‘I don’t want to,’ Hailey snapped and reeled around, ramming her way back down to the entryway, where students swarmed her, continuing to bombard her with requests. She needed to get away. ‘Leave me alone!’ she shouted and barged through the students, breaking free and sprinting through the left archway.