My Merlin Awakening (19 page)

“With the trident?” Vane said.

“I don’t know, but why would he be there?”

Vane barked a line to the driver in Greek. The tires of the taxi squealed as the driver pulled over. Grey paid him while we ran into the park, around which the city had been built. Small, windy pathways led us to the center with the lights. Surrounded by fresh greenery, I could almost imagine myself back in Ancient Greece. Soon we reached the gates that closed off the Acropolis.

“
Anutardati
.” Blake unlocked the gates.

We went past a crumbling building marked by three stories of stone arches. Inside it, I could barely see the outlines of a Greek theatre, steps that led to a low stage. Down the path, an arched gateway, although semi-ruined, marked the end of the lush greenery and gave way to broken stone and dry earth.

The ancient citadel stood before us. A huge walkway led to several flights of block steps behind a mostly destroyed wall. Spotlights welcomed us forward. We went up stone steps that stood long and wide, reminding us of how small we were in comparison. Almost at the top, we reached a small, high building that flanked the entrance of the Acropolis. Persistent grass and vines crept through the ancient stone. I could imagine someday they would wrap around the building’s pillars.

Behind us, the city sat quietly underneath the watchful gaze of the Temple of Athena Nike. Cold wind blew at our backs as we climbed to the top of the Acropolis.

For a moment, I admired the illuminated beauty of the Parthenon. Small steps led up to a row of columns supported by a long, disintegrating triangular top, reminding me of the shoulders of Atlas holding back the night sky. The long row of columns stretched far to the rear, making up the body of the building, and had I been a giant, I could have traced the body’s length. Lost in the glory of the past, only the steel scaffoldings of the Acropolis’s restoration crew brought me back to the present.

A loud pop sounded from somewhere ahead before the lights winked out.

For a moment, we stood still, in total darkness. Vane lit a fireball and we scrambled up the steps of the Parthenon. Vane stretched the fireball until light shone through most of the building. I saw no one.

Gia and Grey wandered further down the building.

“Are you sure he’s here?” Vane said.

I caressed a marble column softly and the dark memories of the club’s back room came back in a rush.
So good before it had all gone so bad
. I took a breath. “Absolutely. This is what I saw.”

Vane came up to me.

I leaned against the cold marble.

He searched my face. His nostrils flared. Almost as if he couldn’t help himself, he traced the line of my jawbone. “I know one way to draw him out.”

Blake cleared his throat. “Maybe he’s in the other building. These columns all look alike to me.”

“The other building?” I straightened away from the soft whispers of the marble.

“The Erechtheum,” Vane said. “The temple dedicated to Poseidon and Athena.”

I frowned. “Didn’t Poseidon carry a trident?”

Vane didn’t answer. He turned and started down the steps.

“I’ll get Gia and Grey,” Blake said. He marched back into the Parthenon building.

The Erechtheum stood not far from the side of the Parthenon. Viewfinders lined the side of the temple where six statues of draped maidens stood supporting part of the temple’s roof with their heads. Ahead of me Vane paused, looking for the closest opening.

I went around back and climbed up a short stack of steps where the building was most accessible. Through the columns, I saw Matt with the trident. He stood in a long chamber with no roof, lit up by floating sconces. He struck the trident against the floor. A huge rumble shook the temple. Shocks came out of the trident, but fizzled quickly. The sconces darkened.

“Are you crazy?” I marched up to him. “Do you want to bring down this
twenty-five-hundred
-
year-old
place?”

Matt lit a small fireball on his palm. He looked at me for a moment as if he couldn’t quite believe I was there. His gaze fell on the amulet shining in the dark against my skin. He said slowly, “You kept it on. I didn’t think you would.”

I shifted my feet uncomfortably. He’d seen too much. Felt too much. The slow burn of heat in the pools of his eyes told me he hadn’t minded. Around us, the sconces flared to light. To my relief, Vane came up behind me. He said, “You’re looking for something. What?”

Matt blinked. “Blood. Twenty-five-hundred-year-old blood, at least.”

“How is that possible?” I said.

Matt raised a brow. “I’m holding a trident.”

“Of the Fisher King.”

“And possibly Poseidon’s before him,” Matt said.

Vane’s gaze fixed on the trident. “Poseidon had sex with Medusa in the Temple of Athena. Athena and Poseidon were at odds over the city. Athena cursed Medusa for the affront. She turned her into a monster—her hair became snakes, and she sprouted bronze metal wings that were too heavy to fly. Her eyes would turn anyone to stone. When Perseus killed her, her blood fell to the earth. Athena kept the blood. She gave it to Erichthonius who was half-serpent, half-human, and grandfather to the king of Athens who built this temple.”

“Why do you think something is here?” I asked. “I know you haven’t had a vision.”

Matt’s lips twisted into a grimace. “While you’ve been out… playing, I talked to Rourke. The creature they keep hidden is also a half-serpent. This may be the answer to his problem. Not just the cup.”

Vane’s eyes narrowed. “But there is more.”

“Yes.” Matt glanced around the temple as if he could somehow divine its secret. “The blood has special properties.”

“Special properties,” Vane said. “Like Lake water?”

“I don’t know.” Matt handed me the trident. “Now that you’re here, you may as well try. You have an affinity for it.”

I took the trident. “I can only blast things. How am I supposed to figure out if there’s something here?”

“Try,” Matt said.

I humored him by closing my eyes. The trident hummed immediately to life. It pulsed aggressively in my hand and I was pretty sure I could have blasted the whole side of the temple if I’d wanted to… except I didn’t. The trident growled in disappointment. It hungered for action. I tamped it down. The trident reluctantly ceded control. For now.

I opened my eyes with a grimace. “This thing is bloodthirsty.”

Matt stared at the pedestal. “Nothing happened.”

“If this involves the trident, maybe we need to add an element.” Vane stepped behind me and put his arms around me so we held the trident together.

“
Jala
.” He slammed the tip of the trident against the floor.

Water spouted from the spot we’d struck. The spout quickly became a gusher. Vane and I stepped back. Even so, my leggings became soaked. Water overflowed from the building onto the grounds outside.

Matt waved a hand to relight the sconces.

The floor started to shift, the stone moving as something awoke. I stumbled back into Vane. He pulled me to the edge of the chamber.  Matt followed us with the trident. We stood between two columns, part of a row across the back of the building. From the center of the floor, a long monolith extended upwards, a pedestal, like a flower rising from the earth.

Vane let go of me so suddenly I had to catch Matt’s shoulder to keep from falling. Vane waded out into the water.

Matt and I went after him. The pedestal was rounded at the top.

I reached out and smoothed a hand over its shiny apex. Something about it seemed familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it.

“Careful or you’ll ruin that pretty dress in the water.” Vane glanced at me when I came up to his side. He cupped some water in his hands. He moved to pour it over the pedestal.

“Wait,” I said. “What if it’s another booby trap?”

“I suggest you tell the nymph ‘no’ this time.” He poured it over my hand.

It trickled over my skin down onto the pedestal.

A whoosh sounded. The top of the stone opened like a small eye. In a total girl moment, I shrieked when a forked tongue appeared. Without even a flinch, Vane grabbed the tongue and pulled the snake out of the eye.

A flash of blue light blazed out of the pedestal right before ice froze it. It started to radiate outwards and everything it touched became frozen. A quiet, yet deadly bomb, it spread quickly.

“Vane!” I yelled. I didn’t want to be entombed.

“
Agni
,” Matt and Vane yelled at the same time.

A flash of blue and red magic stemmed the ice in its tracks. I let out a breath as I whacked Vane on the arm. “I told you there would be a trap.”

He turned the snake over in his hand. “I suppose it is worth something.”

“Ugh,” I commented.

 “It’s not real. It’s some kind of metal.”

The twisted thing looked real enough. The metal was a super-shiny bronze. It’s tongue extended out of its mouth.

Matt waded through the water to peer at the snake. “This metal is unusual. Not like anything I’ve seen.”

“I’ll run the properties through some databases I know,” Vane said. “I love the record-keeping of this time. You can find out anything.”

He took the trident from Matt and struck the stone. The ice-encased pedestal sank back into the floor. Stone shifted underneath me. I fell into the water with a splash. Water seeped into every bit of clothing I wore, all the way down to my undies.

Vane laughed, eyes roving over my soaked dress. “Didn’t I warn you to be careful in the water?”

“Shut it, jinx,” I muttered.

“Don’t tell me we missed all the fun,” Gia’s voice echoed through the temple. She, Grey, and Blake stood at the perimeter, near the columns.

Vane tapped the trident against the floor. The water swirling around us disappeared. He turned the metal snake in his hands. “This is hollow. The blood must be inside. How do we open it?”

“I’m not sure yet.” Matt bent to help me up.

Vane raised a brow. “Glad you’ve thought this through.”

“Do you have any ideas?” Matt snapped.

“Several,” Vane said. “Blast it with the trident. Blast it with a fireball. Blast it with a gun. Need I go on?”

Matt snorted. “You would obliterate it and whatever is inside. No, we’re doing this the right way.”

Vane dropped the snake and shot a fireball at it. A terrible scream filled the sky. Matt waved his hand. The snake flew into his hand.

“Are you mad?” he shouted at Vane.

“Did it work?” said Vane.

“Now that we’re all deaf,” Grey muttered.

Matt turned over the snake. “It’s still closed.”

“You could be right,” Vane conceded. “There must be a certain way.”

Wind swept gleefully through the open building and I shivered under damp clothes. “Ex-exactly why do we need the blood? What are we looking for?”

Matt said, “Did you think we were going to Thera to look at an archeological dig? The trident didn’t say the city of Akrotiri. You assumed it was Akrotiri. We need this for what we find on Thera.”

“What are we looking for?” I demanded.

Vane’s eyes locked on the trident. “It said the Lost City. Not the lost island.”

Grey’s eyes lit up. “You don’t mean—”

“Atlantis?” I made a face. “Please tell me we’re not looking for that myth.”

Matt gave me an amused look. “Isn’t all this myth?”

He marched over to Vane and took the snake from him. “But the answer is… no. We’re not looking for Atlantis. We’re looking for Aegae.”

“The island of Triton’s people,” Vane finished for him. Light flickered over the sharp cheekbones and highlighted the green in his hazel eyes. “We’re hunting mermaids.”

***

Later that night, I lay immersed in a hot bubble bath. My head and shoulders rested on a hotel tub that could have doubled for a small swimming pool and I could have stayed in it for about a year. I sank deeper under the water, allowing it to wash away the ups and downs of the night. My hands retraced the route of Vane’s hands sliding over my bare skin. The lapping water reminiscent of his touch—

“Ryan, where are you?”
Matt knocked inside my head.
“I need to talk to you now.”

I jerked up in the tub.
No, he didn’t.
I thought back,
“Leave me alone!”

The bathroom door opened and Matt slipped inside.

CHAPTER 10 – GHOST CITY