Poseidon's Academy

Chapter 20. The Wand

'A spell!' Aaron practically shouted. 'What kind of spell? And where did that voice come from?'

Alec hesitated. 'It sounded like an awakening spell. I'm not sure about the voice.'

'Who was it supposed to awaken?' Demi's eyes darted around the room. 'Please don't tell me it was the gods.'

'The gods are dead,' Jayden said indubitably.

'But the prophecy says they'll return,' Demi countered. 'What if we're the ones who reawaken them?'

Hailey's head spun, and her throat turned dry. No, they couldn't have woken up the gods. They're dead, like Jayden said. But what if they can come back? What if they left behind the spell and wand as a way to resurrect themselves?

Alec set the scroll on the ground, beside the wand. 'I didn't wake up the gods, Demi,' he said in a slow even tone. 'Not even a wand can bring them back from death.'

'Then who was it for?' Hailey demanded, desperate to hear they hadn't just condemned the world to some unthinkable evil that everyone would look to her-the Zeus-to destroy.

Alec considered the question, glancing from the spell to the wand. His whole body relaxed as he realised something. 'The wand must've been put to sleep or something, that's why it was covered in Hecate's symbol. The spell was written to awaken its power, which is why the symbols glowed and disappeared. And the voice was probably pre-programmed into it for when someone read the spell, because the wand must only respond to Goldarin.'

Jayden scratched his head. 'Why would it be pre-programmed into it? Why wouldn't the spell just be written in Goldarin?'

'Because this wand was meant for humans, and back in the ancient times humans couldn't read or speak Goldarin.'

'But if it was meant for humans, wouldn't Hecate have created the wand to respond to English... or Greek- whatever humans spoke then?' Aaron asked.

'That's a good question.' Alec tapped his lip, thoughtful. 'Maybe the spell was also meant to give the reader the ability to speak Goldarin. But since I already know the language, it getting downloaded into my brain isn't noticeable to me. Anyway, the point is, we didn't wake anyone up, we merely awakened the wand's magic.'

Hailey thought about it for a second and relaxed too; it was a perfectly logical explanation. Why else would the wand have glowed and vibrated like it was filling with power?

The gods aren't coming back. They're dead.

'Well, in that case, I can't believe we found a wand!' Demi gushed, clapping her hands together. 'We can have anything we want-like a big screen TV, or a-'

'We're not keeping it,' Alec said before Demi could finish rattling off her list. 'We need to give it to Amathia.'

'No.' Hailey snatched the wand up before anyone could touch it; power shot up her arm like electricity and coursed through her veins. 'We might get into even more trouble for stealing from a griffin's nest,' she explained as four pairs of eyes narrowed at her.

'I'm with, Hails. It would be stupid to give the wand up,' Aaron said. 'We could use it to get back at Venus.'

'That's brilliant. I never even thought of that.' Demi's eyes gleamed with amusement as she got lost in whatever plans she was thinking of for tormenting Venus and the twins.

'I don't agree with revenge.' Jayden shot Demi and Aaron a censorious glance. 'But it could help us prevent Venus from bullying Uniques.'

'I don't know about this,' Alec said, carefully rolling the scroll back up and fastening it with the string. 'I really think we should give it to Amathia. And you all remember what happened the last time you didn't listen to me-we almost died on an island.' He nestled the scroll back in the gold chest.