Poseidon's Academy

Chapter 16. Rain's Dash

'That's not possible,' Demi said, leaping to her feet. 'The palace isn't meant to descend until tonight.'

Demi was right about the palace not being scheduled to descend until tonight, but it didn't change the fact that all Hailey could see when she looked at the sea was miles and miles of open water-not a palace in sight.

Hailey fought the urge to collapse. She'd thought once they'd escaped the forest everything would be all right, that they'd get rescued and taken back to the palace. But there was no rescue party-and there definitely wasn't a palace.

'Medusa! The palace is gone!' Demi shrieked. 'We've been marooned!'

'Everyone needs to calm down,' Jayden said. 'We're jumping to conclusions thinking the palace left without us. Aaron and the others would never have allowed it. It's probably moved around the island.'

Hailey's stomach dropped as realisation settled over her. 'Jayden's right, the others wouldn't have abandoned us.' She'd been assuming the entire time that her friends had made it back to the palace. What if they didn't? 'They're still in the forest. We have to go back.'

'Hailey, why would you think tha-' Jayden began.

'You made it,' someone called out.

Hailey's eyes darted down the beach, her body un-tensing when she spotted Alec jogging towards them.

'Alec?' Demi said in surprise. 'Where did you come from?' she asked when he reached them.

'I was lying beside the horses,' he explained, tossing a hand in their direction. 'I'm glad you're all okay. We were starting to think Scylla had tracked you down.'

We? Hailey glanced back at the dozing horses, thinking if she'd missed Alec, she'd probably missed the others too. But the horses were alone.

Alec's eyes glistened with curiosity when he spotted Rain. 'Oh, what's that?'

'Where are Aaron, Kora, and Tahlia?' Jayden asked before Kendra could reply.

'And why aren't you back at the Academy?' Hailey added.

'When we came out of the forest the palace was gone,' he said, answering Hailey's question first.

That meant the palace descended right after they left. But why?

'Aaron wanted to go back into the forest after you,' Alec continued, 'especially when the sun started to set. He wouldn't listen to any of us when we told him it was suicide, so Tahlia had to knock him out with sleep dust to stop him from running off. We made camp on the beach, and as soon as the sun rose, the others went looking for you, while I waited here, just in case you came back.'

'But we didn't see them on our way out,' Hailey said, her stomach twisting into knots. 'If they were following the nail polish, we should have run into them.'

'They might have wandered off course to hide from something,' Jayden said before anyone could freak out.

'We need to go back into the...' Hailey's words fell away as tingles swept into her fingertips.

Rain snorted and squirmed, fighting to get free of Kendra's arms. 'What's wrong, Rain?' Kendra's jaw dropped at whatever the pegacorn's response was.

'What is it?' Alec asked.

A shrill cry pierced the sky, freezing Hailey's blood. Her gaze shot up, her heart stumbling a beat.

A monstrous creature circled the sky. Brown and white feathers coated its top half, ruffling as it soared through the air on powerful wings. Its front two feet were black talons that matched the creature's beak in sharpness. Its lower half was lean and muscular, covered in short brown fur, with a long spiked tail trailing behind two encyclopaedia-sized paws.