Partners in Crime || PJOxHP || Marauders' Era

A Bottle of God

Jessica's hands felt frozen. She knew there was something wrong with her. Her arms were purple like she had lost all blood flow in her arteries. Maybe it was a bad frostbite.

"Welcome to Atlantis."

Jessica jumped and almost screamed, but all that came out was bubbles. She was still in water. She screamed again. More bubbles.

She sat up, and a gossamer sheet floated away. She was on a bed made of silky woven kelp, in a room paneled with abalone shell. Glowing pearls the size of basketballs floated around the ceiling, providing light. 

Now, if she were Percy, Jessica would have been okay with this. 

But she wasn't. 

Jessica almost hyperventilated and cried. A hammer head shark drifted through the bedroom window, regarded her, and then swam calmly out the opposite side of the room. Jessica's breathing got worse. She looked around in panic. A naiad was standing at the room door. She was wearing a kelp dress, her hands crossed over. Her face held a smile, but Jessica wasn't sure whether it was genuine. "Welcome to Poseidon's realm," she said. "I'm Amphitrite."

That was Poseidon's wife- Percy's stepmom. Jessica's head hurt. Her shirt was still speckled with burn marks from the explosion. Her arm and leg wounds had healed. 

"How long—" 

"We found you last night," she said, "sinking through the water." 

"The Birmingham?" 

"Gone," Amphitrite confirmed. "Don't worry, your friends are still alive." Jessica stared out the window into deep blue water. "Lunch will soon be served," she said. "Lord Poseidon has invited you."

"Um..." Jessica stood up. "Do I have to like, do a swim stroke or something to get there?"

Amphitrite narrowed her eyes. "No. Come."

***

"How am I alive?"

"King Poseidon's grace," she said. "After all, you are in Atlantis." 

The palace might have been the most amazing place Jessica had ever seen. They swam to the end of a long hallway and shot upward on a geyser. As they rose over the rooftops Jessica caught her breath—well, if you can catch your breath underwater. 

The palace was as big as the city on Mount Olympus, with wide courtyards, gardens, and columned pavilions. The gardens were sculpted with coral colonies and glowing sea plants. Twenty or thirty buildings were made of abalone, white but gleaming with rainbow colors. Fish and octopi darted in and out of the windows. The paths were lined with glowing pearls like Christmas lights. The main courtyard was filled with warriors—mermen with fish tails from the waist down and human bodies from the waist up, except their skin was blue. Their eyes were bright green, like that stuff they put in glo-sticks, and their teeth were shark teeth. 

They don't show you stuff like that in The Little Mermaid.

"We have mermen too," Jessica mentioned. "In the Black Lake."

"Good for you," Amphitrite said coldly. 

They got off from the geyser and the palace doors opened into a large room, larger than the dining room at Potter Manor. There was a large table for at least thirty people. Poseidon sat at one end. A merman with two tails sat by his left, and Amphitrite floated to his right and sat down.

Jessica stood there in shock. The cutlery was pure silver, and the table was made from abalone. Glowing pearls lit up the room. Mermen floated, serving food to the noble- people, fish, um... everyone. A dolphin was sitting on a seat not far from Amphitrite.