and his blue eyes found mine immediately.
'Yup,' I mumbled. 'And it looks like he still hates me.'
There was a wave of delicious ocean smell, then in a flash I was in a water bubble, the sea god directly in front of me. Not again, I groaned internally. I was fed up of being yelled at by gods.
'Hello,' I said tightly, bowing my head.
'I only have a moment before Zeus arrives,' Poseidon said, and I raised my eyebrows in surprise. 'I care more for my brother, Hades, than you may believe, and I see now that he is willing to put our world in danger for you. Rather than fight him, I have decided to help you. With combined strength and foresight, we will be strong enough to avoid any more disasters. We must not have a repeat of the endurance Trial. You must not end up in Tartarus again.'
'Hades told me that I must never meet Cronos,' I said. This time Poseidon looked surprised.
'Good. I am glad you are aware of that. Now, listen to me carefully,' he said, and leaned forward and opened his closed hand. A shining pearl lay in the middle of his palm. 'I have bewitched the hippocampus you bonded with so quickly in my realm.'
'What?' He thrust his hand out to me and I tentatively took the pearl from him. It was warm, and fizzed with energy.
'When you need his help, crush the pearl,' said Poseidon quickly. 'He will appear in the form you most require. But he was not designed to be out of the water for long, so you will only have about five minutes before he must return to Aquarius.'
'Buddy is in the pearl?' My mouth was hanging open as I looked between the sea god and the little gem.
'Yes. Use it wisely,' he said, then the bubble of water around us vanished and he turned to my brother. 'You are foolish to come here, human,' he said to Sam, then strode towards the thrones.
'He's awesome,' breathed Sam. Still too confused to respond, I stared at the pearl. Was Poseidon telling the truth? He had been so fearful and angry before, did he really now believe that he and the others could prevent me from causing any damage if they helped me?
What choice did the sea god have? My racing mind played out his options. If I died, Hades would fall to the monster inside him, then Olympus would be overrun by the dead. If I survived I could be used to release the most evil god in history and start a war. Poseidon was stuck between a rock and a hard place.
But I wasn't sure he knew how close Hades was to succumbing to the dark. Hades had lost me once before and the Underworld had continued on. Did Poseidon know how much stronger the beast inside the King of the Dead had become in my absence?
I eyed the pearl, full of suspicion. Hades said that if I tried to take the power of something primordial in strength I would explode. This tiny pearl could be just that kind of weapon.
'You look incredible.' Hades’ voice filtered through my thoughts and I snapped my head up, seeking him out. He was on his throne, his smoky form flickering against the skulls.
'Thanks. You look smoky,' I grinned back at him.
'You know what I like most about that dress?' he asked, his voice a purr.
'No.'
'That I get to take it off later.' Heat washed through me and I felt my cheeks burn. 'Are you blushing?'
'No! You sound like you've had a good day,' I said, changing the subject.
'For the first time in what feels like centuries, I had something to look forward to at the end of it,' he said, the playful tone replaced by something much softer. Pleasure at his words made me take a deep breath, my chest swelling.
'I wish I could kiss you right now,' I told him.
'When you are my Queen, you can kiss me whenever the hell you like.'
'If that's not a good enough incentive to win, I don't know what is.'
'That dress looks like my grandmother made it,' a voice sneered from behind me. I turned, expecting to see Eris, the only person I'd met so far who would be so outright rude, but my eyebrows shot up when I saw Minthe instead. As she had been at the masquerade ball, she was dressed in scarlet red, but the dress would have looked more at home in a