The Passion of Hades - Eliza Raine Page 0,17

I had to hunt out and put in the trident would be hidden down there. I was quite sure there would be more to it than just finding it though. A treasure hunt wasn't exactly perilous enough for these sadistic bastards.

Didn't Poseidon say something about a steed? As soon as the thought entered my mind, my legs began to feel tired. With a final glance at the gods, I kicked myself down, swimming towards the intact building. There was no point tiring myself out treading water and achieving nothing.

The water was cool but not cold, and it felt good to be swimming. I'd swum in pools all my life, but swimming in the sea was a luxury I could seldom afford while living in Manhattan. I was glad I'd left the leather corset off, my arms pulling me easily through the water.

As I reached the entrance to the building, the hairs on my arms stood up and I slowed. It looked like I would expect an ancient Greek temple to look, with a triangular facade topping cracked columns. It was single story, and half of it seemed to have sunk into the sand, leaving it severely lop-sided. I peered through the columns into the darkness.

Something rushed at me from the gloom, and I shot backwards, drawing Faesforos from the sheath on my thigh instinctively. But as I saw the thing, my knife arm dropped to my side limply, and my jaw dropped.

It was a seahorse. And not the kind of seahorse that I'd seen in aquariums back home, but an actual horse, with a fish’s tail curled underneath him instead of back legs. In place of hair he had a solid covering of tiny iridescent scales that shone and caught the light like mother-of-pearl, and he rocked and whinnied as he bounded in circles around me. Unbridled joy filled me as I watched him, and I felt like a child falling in love with ponies again.

'It's a hippocampus. They’re not the most intelligent creatures, but tame enough,' said Hades voice in my head.

'Are you allowed to talk to me?'

As soon as I projected the thought to him, a hot swell of water lifted me, and Poseidon's voice echoed in my head.

'Enough help!'

I'll take that as a no then, I thought, and reached a hand out hesitantly to the hippocampus. He bumped his large, cold nose against my hand and gave a gleeful little whinny. A smile split my face, and I noticed a simple strap over his back, with a stirrup on either side. I swam up and over him, and he stayed perfectly still in the water as I maneuvered my feet into the stirrups. I couldn't see how the strap was staying fixed to his back, so I guessed magic was involved. The cold scales weren't as comfortable as a saddle would have been, but this would definitely beat swimming. I tried to ignore the creeping worry that I might be down here some time if they expected me to need to ride this fella to keep going.

As soon as I set my sights on the ruined building again, a deep rumbling started beneath me, and the hippocampus kicked in alarm.

'Easy, buddy,' I said, soothing his neck and looking down. The sand in the clearing in the center of the building was vibrating, dust clouds lifting into the water. 'Let's not wait and find out what that is, eh?' I said to the hippocampus, adrenaline beginning to surge though my veins. Something bad was coming, I knew it. The hippocampus made a loud clicking sound in response. 'How do I make you go forward?'

My words were lost to the water around me, only audible as a bubbly mess of noise to me, but it seemed my steed understood them perfectly. He darted forward, and I gripped his neck in surprise at his speed, then squeaked in alarm as I realized he wasn't slowing down. 'Slow down!' He did, immediately, and I let out a long breath, bubbles rising around my face. 'Left a bit?' I asked him tentatively, and the rumbling grew louder. He swerved left. Good. 'And right?' He changed course, heading right. 'Excellent,' I told him. 'Let's go get this gem.'

I couldn't help glancing over my shoulder as we charged towards the gloom of the temple.

I wished I hadn't.

The sand in the clearing was beginning to churn, and I could just make out giant black claws peeking up through the ground, tips sharp and lethal looking.