Chapter 1I leaned over the rock counter of the school's bathroom to look at my reflection in

the mirror. Okay. I thought. Could use a little work on the eyelashes but other than that, it'sfine. I flicked my green and yellow mermaid tail. As I ducked my head down to check myblonde hair, a face suddenly popped into the mirror right behind me. My chocolate browneyes widened as I nearly toppled into the rock headfirst. "Kalissa! Don’t ever do that again!"I screamed as a beautiful mermaid with a tail such a dark green it was almost black, swam upto me. Her eyes were almost the same color as her hair. Dark, dark brown. "Fine I won’t,Jessamyn." She said with a flick of her fins, and a mischievous smile.

"What's with all the noise?! I'm trying to be pretty here! You're ruining my aura!"said a haughty voice. I recognized it immediately and rolled my eyes. Another mermaid withan arrogant expression on her face appeared next to us.

"Go away, Lyra! I don't care about your stupid aura crud and all that mumbojumbo." I grumbled. "Yeah, like you need another topic to gossip about.” Agreed Kalissa."Fine I’ll go." She said disdainfully. With a dramatic back tail flip she dove back under thewater to join her little group.

"What was all that about?" asked Sapphire, another one of my beautiful dark-hairedmermaid friends, who had a blue tail. "More gossip that darling Lyra wanted to go tell herdarling group of so-called populars, obviously." Yelled a very loud, mermaid with an orangetail named India who was also my friend, and very attractive.

?Can we look at a topic that's actually worth looking at?" I asked, "How do we lookfor Adonys’s party tonight?". "Well I for one think we look awesome, especially you andKalissa!" Sapphire replied childishly. "Uh, right." Said Kalissa. "We should get going already." India said. "Good point. We’dbetter go." We said in unison, and swam off toward the party.

As soon as we got to the party we all set off to different directions; India went to thedance floor, Sapphire floated off to find her crush (whose identity I do not know), Kalissawent to go find her friend Milana, and I swam to greet Adonys, the merboy that was hostingthe party, who had a sleek tail that was black with gold flecks, gorgeous green eyes and blackhair. Whoa. Right, back to the story. I found him trying to shake off Lyra on the dancefloor.

"Lyra, I really need to go, just leave me alone, please." He said. "Oh, just dance withme for one dance," She asked with some stupid little voice. "Lyra, leave me alone now." Hegrowled. I decided to intervene, because Adonys looked downright murderous, and I didn’twant anyone to get hurt, even Lyra, the haughtiest, most annoying brat in the world

"Hi Adonys!” I chirped. "Hi Jessamyn!" he replied looking thankful to have Lyra offhim. "Yeah, hi Jessamyn." Lyra snarled, looking the complete opposite of Adonys. "Shut up,Lyra." Adonys said not even looking at her. "Yeah Lyra shut-up." I agreed. I draggedAdonys away from Lyra, laughing, while she just swam there looking shocked that someonecould disrespect perfect little Lyra like that.

"How ‘bout a dance with me then?" I asked Adonys. "Anything to get away fromLyra!" he said. After a few dances with Adonys, I noticed it was almost midnight. "I have togo!" I said. "Really, I was having so much fun! And did I mention you look gorgeoustonight?" replied Adonys.

"No, you didn’t mention it, and thank you. I had fun too, but it’s almost midnight!" I triedto pull my wrist out of his firm grip,"Oh, bye then, I guess." He said."Bye, see youtomorrow at Nereid School!"I called back.

I went to go find Sapphire, India, and Kalissa because we were going to Sapphire’shouse. It took Sapphire and I some time to find Kalissa and when we did find her, she wastalking to one of her friends, Milana.

"Hey Sapphire," she said "we should go now." "Yeah it is late. Let’s go." Sapphireanswered, and we walked out of Adonys’s house, and called some dolphins to take us toSapphire’s house.

Chapter 2"Okay Jessamyn how ‘bout you?" asked Kalissa. We were at Sapphire’s house,

sharing our party experiences, and it was finally my turn. "Well I went off to find Adonys-"I started."Because you like him!" Kalissa said. "So what if I do!"I blushed, embarrassed."Anyway do you want to hear my story or not!? I asked. "Of course we do, Jessamyn!" replied Sapphire,

"Okay then," I said and launched into a full account of my experience with Adonys,at the party.By the end of the story India and Kalissa were visibly bursting to talk. "Can we talk now?!?!"Kalissa half screamed. "I can see you’re going to explode if I say no, so go ahead." I laughed."Okay then! WELL IT’S OBVIOUS HE TOTALLY LIKES YOU IF HE CHOOSESTO DANCE WITH YOU AND NOT PERFECT LITTLE LYRA!!! Even though she’sreally not that awesome, and I can’t tell what boys see in her!" she breathed heavily after shehad finished taking, because she had said it all in one breath.

"Oh my god!" screamed India "You should totally get together!!!". "You know hewas only trying to get away from Lyra." I argued. "Oh no, he wasn’t! Someone like Adonys doesn’t just dance with another girl to get awayfrom Lyra!”Kalissa replied. ?Yeah, Jessamyn you know he likes you, just admit it!" Sapphiresaid. "Ya know," I said, "That if you don't shut up right now, I can and I will knock yourteeth out?". Kalissa backed up and said in a flat voice, "She will."So they finally actually fellsilent... for 5 minutes.

Just then Sapphire’s mother came in and said "Girls, I really think you should go tosleep. It’s already two o’clock in the morning." she swished her pale pink tail. "Okay momwe’ll go to sleep." Sapphire sighed. And we went to sleep.

We woke up, in the morning to the smell of fresh coral cakes, with dried and

sweetened seaweed on top. "The coral cakes are awesome!" blurted out India, but her mouthwas full when I said it so it sounded more like "Buff shrole papes lar puffum!", and we alllaughed. Pretty soon it was time for School. After we were ready, we hailed four dolphins togive us a ride.

As soon as we swam off the dolphins we were ambushed by an angry Lyra and hercrew. "You don't deserve to even talk to Adonys!" she growled. "So next time, just go hangwith your loser friends in the back corner!". "Hey, just because you're to stupid to realizethat it's you who should be doing that doesn't mean you have to be dumb about it tosomeone else!" Kalissa yelled. "Yeah!" Sapphire yelled. "Fine, but if you don’t lay offAdonys, I’m gonna bring you down! HARD!" I swam off Lyra’s little crew, who swam afterher, tossing their hair exactly, the same way she did. My other friend Ayla, who was a blondehaired mermaid, with a bright yellow tail, came up. "What was that all about?" Ayla asked."She’s angry because Adonys likes Jessamyn." Answered Sapphire. Her tail twitched the wayit always did when I was annoyed. "And apparently it’s my fault that he likes me!" I said."Oh wow! That’s so stupid!" Ayla said. "Well seeing as she’s completely made of stupid, Iwouldn’t put it past her, honestly." Kalissa said. "True." Ayla laughed. We all laughed alongwith her. Just then the one of the teachers blew a conch shell, and we had to go to our reefs.

India, Ayla, and I were all in the same reef room. We entered the reef and gasped."Woah!" I said. It was decorated beautifully, with silver, and emerald seaweed hanging fromthe coral, the sand was silky under our fins and was glowing bright white, and it had alsobeen filled with many jewels, and on all sides, all the other classes with students wereswimming. In the center all teachers stood facing our classes.

Even the teachers had decorated themselves. Ayla, India, and my teacher, Mrs.Robinson wore a woven seaweed top adorned with emeralds. Her tail was covered withgreen and silver seaweed chains."Oh good, I see that we’re all here." Said Ms. De Young,Sapphire and Kalissa’s teacher. "Now we can explain to you what this fancy little decoratingis all about." “Yes” said Ms. Contraire who was Lyra’s teacher, "As you can see, we haveused magic to transform our Reefs into one decorated reef" she gestured to the silverseaweed. "Now as you may be wondering, we have decorated this reef for two veryimportant reasons. Number one, is, you are going to start testing, and Number two, theSummer Solstice is drawing nearer, and as you know that is a very important time for themer." Finished Mrs. Robinson. "Now the Summer Solstice, is important to us mermaidsbecause, this is the time when the most horrible monsters of ancient Greece reawaken for the2nd time this year, and this is when the graduating mer-children from Nereid school havetheir graduation prom." I looked at my friends barely concealing my excitement. Adonyswinked at me from across the room, which almost made me faint, but Ayla caught me, whileLyra gave me a venomous look. The teachers continued, "We expect you all to come anddress as beautifully as possible for the prom, because your test will be right before the prom,and it will be on sailor entrancing first, then history, then astronomy, magic, and finallymortal life." Ms. Contraire said. The lesson continued like this until the teachers announced

that we should follow Ms. De Young to a separate reef to see a short Light Film for areview for their exams. We all swam after the teacher and when we reached another reef werecognized as the spare reef. Ms. De Young muttered an incantation and the light around usbended to form a screen. She murmured another spell and the light bended again and whenit came into focus, we could see images on the screen. Ayla, India and I swam away to findour friends, so that we could sit with them. Ms. De Young said "Settle down class! The filmis about to start!" We sat down on the rocks and some sea moss that Kalissa and I hadconjured up. As soon as the conch shell was blown again for our dismissal I bolted out ofthe school.

Chapter 3I swam to my room and stared at my closet. What should I wear for the graduation

prom? I thought. I had to look awesome for Adonys since he had asked me. I guess I candecide tomorrow. I figured and went to sleep in my seaweed bed.

That night I had a vivid dream, or at least I thought it was a dream. I was standing ina gorgeous garden. Exotic trees, of every color, but mostly blue and gold, shaded the garden,and glowing sea anemone, and other sea-plants, were scattered here and there in the garden.Golden seaweed swayed in the current, and the water was crystal blue. Off in the distancewas a beautiful palace. The strangest thing was all my friends were there and I knew where Iwas. This was obviously the Palace of Poseidon, God of the Sea, earth shaker, and Father ofHorses. A bright light filled the sea, and I shielded my eyes. When the light subsided, Ilooked again. My friends and I were no longer alone. Lord Poseidon and none other thanAdonys were standing in front of us. They were radiating with blue power and Poseidonwas holding his trident, and Adonys was gripping a bronze sword. Realization dawned in allof our eyes. We could see Poseidon and Adonys’s resemblance. Adonys was the son of theSea God.

"Jessamyn, Kalissa, India, and Sapphire," Poseidon’s voice boomed, "this is no dream.I have brought you to my great palace for a reason." We could hardly believe what we werehearing. "The sea is in grave danger, and my son Adonys has seen you fit to be warriors ofthe sea in these dangerous times. This responsibility may only be placed on those worthy ofit," Poseidon continued, "Do you accept to take the test?”

Kalissa was apparently the only one who was not shaken enough to not talk, and said“Yes. We do, but on a quest won’t we have to go above the surface?! We’re not oldenough!”. “ I am the god of the sea, I think I can make a change. Very well, you shall takethe test." Poseidon replied, "Follow Adonys. He shall lead you to the warriors traininghall.", and with that, Poseidon vanished in a burst of Bluish - Gold, and we were left alonewith Adonys.

"You...y... y-you’re the son of the sea god!?!?" Kalissa stuttered incredulously. Indiaremembered how to move and her jaw dropped, and for once, was at loss for words.Sapphire just sat on a rock looking dizzy, and I fell over out of shock, and Adonys swamover and grabbed me making me feel like I was on fire, "Well you guys better get going to

the heroes’ training room," Adonys said, "Then we’ll see if I chose right." And he led usthrough the garden towards the palace.

Chapter 4"No! Swing harder!" Adonys yelled. "Not that hard!" he yelled again as a long knife

hit his sword so hard his wrist almost snapped. We had been training to become warriorsfor a week, and had seen no improvement in our fighting skills, except for our basic moves,and double thrusts which was odd, because that was one of our hardest moves.

Our magic skills had improved though. We could finally transform ourselves intohumans. But one day, after a long and hard, 4 hour session of fighting skills, things startedgetting weird. We were practicing, and then out of nowhere, "BOOM!!!" A sound like agunshot surrounded us. I felt like I was being stretched and then compressed in less than asecond. Finally we found ourselves in another garden, transformed into humans. It took awhile for me to get up because I felt sick from the weird transportation thing, but eventuallyI managed it and surveyed my surroundings.

It was on some sort of land, but the land was all black and ashy. The plants glowedfaintly with bioluminescent light, and black trees stretched up higher than we could see. Theplace was beautiful in it’s own strange way. The sky was jet-black, but our attention was noton the plants, or the trees, or the sky, or the heaping mounds of gemstones the size of dinnerplates that were within our reach.

Standing in front of us was an enormous cave. The cave seemed to be radiating witha dark, enormous power. I could’ve sworn there was nothing there. It was pitch black, and itwasn’t just dark, it was literally nothing. I picked up a gemstone, and tossed it at the shadow.The gem seemed to melt right into the blackness. There wasn’t even a clattering sound, as ifthe gem had never hit the ground.

Adonys had a look of terror upon his face. ?No way!” he whispered. I edged closer tohim, and said very quietly ?What is that.” . Out loud he said, ?We’re at the cave of death.One touch, and you will instantly die. Nothing can save you. Not even Hades, God of deathhimself can bring you back.”"Okay," India said "thanks for illustrating that we’re basicallyfacing our deaths. Now, WHY ARE WE HERE ANYWAY?"

Kalissa gazed at the deadly cave transfixed. She took a step forward like she washypnotized, and would have melted or whatever straight to her death, if India hadn’tgrabbed her."Hey! Can we please find out what the heck is wrong with Kalissa? ‘Cause she’sstaring at the deadly cave and pulling against me to walk to her death in the deadly cave?!?!?!”India yelled. "We need to get out of here." Adonys said. "No kidding!" India said irritated."No! That’s not what I meant. Can’t you tell? This is a trap! Someone's messing with us.We’ve got to- NO!!!!!! GRAB Jessamyn NOW!" a split second before I would’ve walkedinto the barrier of death Adonys grabbed my arm.

I probably looked the same as Kalissa. Same transfixed, glassy eyes, straining with allmy might to walk into the deadly cave. I tried to talk, scream, something, but it was useless.It was like something besides myself was in control of me. Then one by one all of the other

girls’ went rigid. Only Adonys stayed the same. He yelped something in a weird language,and in a flurry of bubbles that came out of nowhere we disappeared, only to appear in adifferent part of wherever we were. But the good news was that our trance had been broken.

Kalissa shook her head vigorously and said "What just happened?""I don’t know."Adonys said, "We were transported somehow to dead guy cave, you know the big cave thatwill kill you and can’t be stopped even by a god, and you girls just went into a trance." I said"Well I remember that around the time you said this is our first test, I didn’t have anycontrol over myself. It was like something else was controlling me." "I don’t even remembercoming to the cave, and why would that be?" Kalissa asked irritated. "I don’t know okay?I’ve already answered you. You were just, like being drawn to the cave!’" Adonys repliedgripping his sword so hard that his knuckles turned white. "Guys, why don’t we get out ofhere, and forget about it instead of fighting about what happened okay?" Sapphire said."Stay out of it!" Kalissa and Adonys yelled at the same time. "Okay, you wanna play games?FINE! I didn't want to be here in the first place! This is your fault!" Kalissa yelled. "Myfault! How dare you blame me! You didn't have to agree! My father gave you a chance todecline!" he shouted. Kalissa screeched angrily and unsheathed her twin knives. "STOP IT!"I screamed. I twisted Adonys's arms behind his back, while India did the same to Kalissa.Adonys turned his head and glared at me, but I didn't let go. "Do you want to get out ofhere or not?!" I hissed.

"Fine. Now we need to get out of here. Fast." he growled, "I couldn’t get out of hereon my own because we’re to far away from the palace for just my power, since one singleteleportation spell can only reach a few miles, but if we each do our own spell we might beable to get out of here completely.". "Great idea, except for the fact that we don’t know howto do a teleportation spell." Sapphire said flatly. "Well I do," Adonys said,"repeat after meand concentrate exactly where you want to go, which should be my dad’s palace okay?""You do know that we're not going to get this on our first try right? I mean look at whathappened Sapphire tried to evaporate that rock?! It exploded and nearly broke her arm!" Icomplained. "Do you want to get out of here or not?!" he mocked in a high pitchedimitation of my voice."Shut it!" I growled. Then Adonys yelled something in what sounded like Latin or maybeeven Greek, and we repeated him concentrating with all our might on my bedroom.

And BOOM!!! We were back in my room at the palace. "That was scary!" Sapphiresaid. "Talk about scary!" Kalissa yelled, "One second I’m standing here in the doorway, nextsecond I’m in the middle of nowhere, being told that I almost got sucked into my doom atthe cave of death!!!" "Guys, let’s just forget about it." I said. "Yeah you’re right," India said."HOLY SCHNITZEL!!!! IT’S 3 O’CLOCK IN THE MORNING!!!!" Kalissa yelled."We need some sleep." Sapphire added. ?Yeah, let’s go.” said Kalissa, so we all went to ourrooms, and we settled down to a dreamless sleep.

Chapter 5My eyes fluttered open. A blurry figure was standing above my head. I blinked a

couple times but then I realized no one was there. I sat up and yawned. "Good morning." Isaid to myself. I looked at my clock. It was 10 o’clock. I got dressed and did my hair andstuff.

As I started to swim out of the room I heard someone start to cry. "Oh Great!" Ithought and I started to swim towards Kalissa’s room, where the crying seemed to becoming from. As I entered the room, I saw all of my friends sitting on Kalissa’s bed huddledaround her. As I got closer to her bed I could see that she was the one crying. "Kalissa,what’s wrong?" I asked. "It...It’s Milana and Ayla." she said. "What happened?!?" I askedtrying to stay calm. "They- they -they’ve been taken hostage by Lyra!!! She and her littlepretty boy minions, Hunter, Dimitri, and Jett just…, just.., disappeared with Milana andAyla, and then after about a week Dimitri said that their master was holding them hostageand that they wanted the Son of Poseidon in exchange!!!!” She wailed, "It’s all my fault! Ishould’ve stayed, instead of taken this job!!!" "Kalissa," Adonys said, "No matter whathappened, you and the rest of them, would’ve had to take the job. It’s your fate." "Wait waitwait wait wait!" I exclaimed, "Did you say she was taken hostage by Lyra!” Kalissa nodded.And as much as I hadn’t liked Lyra, I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that Lyra,the girl who had been considered cool, by basically everybody at School, would kidnap twoof my friends and hold them hostage.

"Well it looks like we have our first mission." Adonys said. We all stared at him."What?" he asked. "You’re right!" we said in unison, "We’ll get them back!" I promisedKalissa. "There’s just one slightly huge problem." Kalissa sniffled, "who is Lyra’s master,and where are Milana and Ayla being kept?" "I have no idea." Adonys answered grimly. Lastthing I remember was seeing my friends so shocked and frightened, you’d have thought theywere standing face-to-face with death, and then Kalissa gave a huge sob and I fainted out offright.

Chapter 6KA-BOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!!! A gigantic rock exploded into tiny bits that rained

down on us. We had been training quadruple hard since we got the news Milana, and Aylahad been kidnaped. I yelled a curse and the rock bits became blood-red sea-roses that raineddown on us instead. Kalissa screamed and tripped over a boulder that had somehow resistedmy spell. A giant shark chasing her poofed into mist that quickly disappeared under water,when India swam by. A deathly golden-brown sea otter raced past me and I knew thatSapphire had been there. Behind me, Adonys’s voice rang out, and suddenly he was rightnext to me slashing a monster in half that would’ve turned me into mermaid soup if hehadn’t been there.

"That is enough." A voice boomed, and the monsters all disappeared in a “poof” ofgolden mist. A light lit up the palace and Poseidon was there. "You are ready." he said,"You must pack all your possessions and find your friends. You have been trained well, andyou are ready." Kalissa stepped forwards. "Can you tell us where we need to go?" she asked."Child," Poseidon looked grim, "even I, a mighty god, cannot tell you that, but I do know,

and I can tell you this. Where you think she is, is almost exactly where she really is. But, I dohave a theory." Kalissa’s face brightened a little."To travel West.” Kalissa lookeddisappointed at this little bit of information, but she knew better than to upset a god. So weteleported.

We appeared in Upstate New York, in the middle of a street, and a loud honksounded. Sapphire screamed and we ran out of the way as a big white Toyota zoomed pastus. And yes, I know what a car is. "Where to, Adonys?" I asked. No reply. I waited and stillnothing. I turned around and saw my friends staring speechless at the spot Adonys had beena split second before.

Chapter 7"Awww. Did little Wohswie lose her pwecious wittle boyfwend?" drawled a cold

voice. I turned around again, and Lyra’s little minion, Dimitri, was standing in punkishclothes leaning against a street pole. "What. Did. You. Do. With. Adonys." I could barelycontain my anger as he pulled out a knife and started advancing toward us. "Go away youlittle coward!" Kalissa yelled. "Ummm yeah, let’s not taunt the freaky psycho with a knifeabout to kill us, shall we?" Sapphire wavered. Hunter kept walking and Kalissa pulled outher double swords, while Sapphire ran frightened, into an alley. "DIE COWARD!!!" Indiayelled, charged, and brought down her blade, which would have sliced the little Knucklehead in half, but a golden blade with a purple hilt appeared out of nowhere and forced herback. “Hunter! Get out of here! This isn’t your fight!" Kalissa screamed. "It is now!" he said,and laughed a maniacal laugh. "Scram!" I yelled and jumped into action. I pulled out a silversword and tried to hit Dimitri, but another blade appeared out of nowhere, and Jett, anotherof Lyra’s minions deflected my blade, Kalissa ran in, and slammed the hilt of her swordbetween Jett’s eyes which sent him flying into a lamp post. The good news was that Jett wasout of action. The bad news was I was about to be too. Someone yelled a curse, and myankle erupted in pain. I could feel it morphing back into a mermaid’s tail. "I’m gonna killyou for that Dimitri !" Kalissa screamed. I saw her and India on the ground, their legstransformed back into tails. "Don’t move!" Adonys’s voice whispered urgently. I almostscreamed out of fright. An invisible hand clamped over my mouth, and Adonys’s voicewhispered again, this time more urgently, "Don’t Move!!!" Then Dimitri looked back at mestraining against Adonys’s hand. "I see you Son of the Sea God." and he said another spelland Adonys became visible again. He tried to slice Dimitri in half, but he looked straightinto Adonys’s eyes, and he crumpled to the ground screaming and writhing in pain. "I’vebeen gifted by my master." he said proudly, "All I have to do is look into your eyes, and youwill live your worst fears!" "No!" a voice screamed. "Leave him alone!" I screamed, almostin tears. "I HATE YOU!" I cried. I ran at Dimitri and for a split second he was so shockedhe didn't even notice what was happening. And that second was all I needed. I punched,kicked, scratched, hit any part of him I could. He went down without even the slightestresistance. Hunter, who was a coward and nothing without his sidekicks, screamed like alittle girl and disappeared only thinking to grab Jett.

Adonys, now better since Dimitri was out lying on the sidewalk, got up still lookingshaken. I walked up to Dimitri and grabbed him, then threw him at Adonys’s feet. "Makesure he stays down." I said as I kicked him in the ribs again for good measure. Dimitriwinced in pain and then rasped, "You'll play. I'll make sure you pay!" before going out cold.

I watched as Adonys tied up Dimitri, blind folded him, made sure he wouldn’t beable to escape, and then punched him in the nose.

"Run!!!!" India yelled. We turned around and a ten foot tall, humongous hound,black as night, with glowing red eyes and teeth and claws sharper than anything you couldget from a pencil sharpener, jumped onto a parked car, and growled. I stood there paralyzedas the hell hound barked and pounced. Just as I would’ve become Mer- kabobbed, abouttwo-zillion golden arrows sprouted from the creature’s back. The hell hound fell over deadand the archer was revealed, a boy about our age, armed with a golden bow, and arrows. "I’mSean, son of Apollo." said the boy. "And Hot!" India and Kalissa said in unison, just quietenough for the boy not to hear.

Kalissa walked up to the boy and said, "I’m Kalissa, I’m a mermaid." Then India said,"I’m India, and we’re on a quest to save the world from some doom!" To our surprise, theboy said "Yeah I know." "Say What?!?!?" I said. "I’ve talked to an oracle, and she said Iwould join you, and help you save the world, and fall in love with one of the girls." Seananswered and looked around at all of the girls. Adonys immediately moved to my side andput his arm around me, and said "She’s taken. By the way I’m Adonys , Son of Poseidon,you know the super powerful God of the Sea, one of the big three brothers, or the sons ofKronos, the diabolical ,evil Titan Lord who’s also the Lord of time.” “Uh yeah, right." Seanreplied looking puzzled. Sapphire now recovered, because of the shock of the hell houndsaid, "I already have someone.”, while Kalissa and India moved up and said gleefully "I’mOpen!!!!!" "Okayyy," he said, "I still don’t know who the two taken girls are.”I’m Jessamyn,also a mermaid." I said. "Oh, sorry."Sapphire said. "I’m Sapphire. You can also call me Saphif you want, and I’m also a mermaid." "Okay Sapphire and Jessamyn........"Sean said. He thenfaced Sapphire and asked, "Who exactly do you like?" "His name is Jasper."Sapphirereplied. I almost choked when I heard this. "That’s My Cousin!!!" "Nice to know."Seanreplied to both of us. "Sooo....What are we going to do now???"India asked. "We continue, Iguess," I said. And we went on.

Chapter 8"We should set up camp here, I guess." Sean said. We’d been traveling west for a few

hours, and it was probably about midnight. "I agree with Sean!" Kalissa yelled. "Me too!"India said glaring at Kalissa. "Uhh, we don’t have any supplies, or a tent." I said. "I do.”Adonys said. "I packed some before we left. But I don’t have a tent" he looked pointedly atSean. "I’m a hunter." he said, "I have one on me 24/7." He then opened his knapsack andtook out a glowing gold tent. "Ugh!" I mumbled, "Gold is not my color unless it’s withblue." I said. "Believe me," Adonys said, "I know."

"Could you set my tent up already?"Sapphire asked, looking tired. "I can’t! I have todo Jessamyn’s tent first." snapped Adonys. "I’ll do it for you since little mister In Lovewon’t do it for you." Sean said nicely. (I’m being sarcastic about the nicely part) Anyway, heset Sapphire’s tent up, and we tied Dimitri up and blindfolded him, and shoved him into atent. "How many tents do we have?" I asked. "Two." replied Sean. I opened his knapsackand pulled out another golden tent. "Ugh." Adonys muttered and he charmed it so that itturned Blue with a golden tip of a trident on it "That’s better." I said. I crawled in to thetent and did another spell so that it would be filled with water. I then changed my legs backinto a tail, and settled down on the sea moss that Adonys had conjured up. "The nerve ofthat little child of Apollo," he said, "He thinks he can just go to the oracle, get a prophecy,and barge in and join us on our quest, and then get some random girl of his choice?!? Howdare him!" Adonys had been extremely snappy ever since that Sean kid had joined our quest,but Kalissa and India were the complete opposite about it. Sapphire crawled into the tent,and changed into a mermaid, and said "Can we go to sleep now? I’m really tired.""Whatever." Adonys snapped. Sapphire rolled over and fell asleep, and I was super tired, soI decided to follow her example.

That night, I dreamed that I was somewhere in a swamp. "How dare you come here!"a voice shouted. I whirled around and saw Lyra, standing on a fallen tree. She had yelled butshe hadn’t been talking to me, because her side was facing me. I scanned the swamp, and sawtwo shadowy figures on their knees at her feet. "You dare show your face to me and mymaster, after you failed our direct orders?!?!" The figures shuffled and I caught a bit ofmoonlight on their faces. It was Hunter and Jett. "Ummm, I’m sorry?" Hunter, the creepanswered. "Sorry?!? Sorry, cut it! You jeopardized the mission, and left my best agent fordead!! You should be killed, and sacrificed to my lord, but alas you hooligans are all wehave!" Lyra yelled, but I noticed that when she talked, it was like something else was comingout of her, and controlling her every move. That voice wasn’t her own, either. It was steelysharp and sent chills up my spine, but it was also somehow deeper. And her eyes scared me.They were Golden instead of their regular Green-Blue. Her eyes were glazed over, and shemoved stiffly. Then I heard a muffled "Help!” I looked around to see where it had comefrom but I couldn’t see anyone. Then I heard it again. This time so did Lyra. "Silence,Prisoners!" she shouted, and turned to the direction I was. I was about to dive into a bushand hide, but it was too late she was already staring in my direction. But then I noticed shewasn’t looking at me she was looking past me. I turned around and there, was Ayla andMilana, tied tightly to a tree, and gagged. I felt a sickening feeling in my stomach, as Iwatched them struggle against their bonds. I tried to move over to them and get them out,but I realized that I couldn’t move. This was a dream, but a real dream showing me whereMilana and Ayla were. I watched as Black Mist curled up from the swamp, and I realizedthis was Black Lagoon. But then Lyra’s voice said again, “Oh what is it we have here?" andthe golden eyes turned their gaze upon me. Hunter and Jett shuffled around, and I could tellthat they could see me. “Chase her away!" Lyra shouted. She must not know our plans!"

And with that, her puny little minions turned towards me, their faces corrupted with pureevil, and they drew their swords. I tried to jump out of the way, but I still couldn’t move. Ifelt a tension loosen in my jaw and the last thing I remember was screaming as loud as I everwould, as a sharp blade pierce my face.

Chapter 9“Oh my gods!" Is she okay?" “What happened?" There were so many voices, around

me I couldn’t comprehend what I was hearing. I opened my eyes, but I couldn’t see anything.“Jessamyn? Can you hear us?" someone asked. I tried opening and closing my eyes a fewmore times, and everything came into focus. Sapphire, Kalissa, India, Adonys and Sean werekneeling around me, their faces terrified. “Yeah, I can hear you." I said a little dazed. “Whathappened?" India asked, but before I could answer a ?Hello?" a voice outside of the tentasked. I got up, and very cautiously, my hand on my sword I peeked outside the door andsaw a young girl standing outside. She looked about our age, and had short red hair, andfreckles. “Uh, Hi?" I said. “Hey!" she answered. “I’m Tara, hunter of Artemis, Goddess ofthe hunt and the moon!". “Hey that means you’re my dad’s, sister’s, hunter!" Sean said,stunned. “Son of Apollo?" she asked. “Yup." he answered. “SAY WHAT?!?" we asked.“My father is Apollo, God of the Sun, and the hunt, and her lead Huntress is my dad’ssister, Artemis, Goddess of the Moon, and hunt, plus Tara is immortal, as long as shedoesn’t fall in love, or die in battle." Sean answered. “Ooohhh, cool." We replied. Anyway,I’ve come to join your quest." Tara said. “Another one?" Adonys groaned. Well come onTara, I suppose you already know what our quest is about?" I said. “Uh huh." she answered.“Okay then." and we led her into the tent and filled her in on our recent suspicions. In thecommotion I almost forgot to tell them about my dream.

Chapter 10BOOM! “Kalissa!" Sean yelled. He dove and pushed her out of the way, as a model

Aircraft’s wire strings holding it to the ceiling cracked and it fell. Adonys’s face twisted intoa strange expression as one of the wings broke off, and a loud crack echoed throughout theroom as the heavy metal smashed Adonys’s wrist under it. ?Adonys!” I shrieked and ran overto him. ?I’ll... be fine.” he gasped as his face turned white.

We were traveling through the Smithsonian, Air and Space museum because wefigured that not too many monsters would attack us even, because we surrounded bymortals, even though they could not see through the mist, which was what Olympians calledthe element that prevented mortals from seeing monsters, or any other magical stuff as itwas. Apparently we were wrong.

“I told you those things would follow us in here!" Tara yelled. “What exactly arethose things?" I asked as we got up and started running again. “They’re Phoenixes, youknow, fire-breathing birds, that live forever, but every five-hundred years, they erupt inflames, and a new phoenix comes from the ashes? Anyway they’re dangerous! Just keeprunning!" she answered. “Duck!" Adonys’s voice called out, and as a column of white hotflames shot over our heads. Sapphire screamed as a phoenix’s talon raked her shoulder.

“Grab her!" Kalissa said, and I grabbed Sapphire’s hand, and easily slid her on the marblefloor.

RRRRRR! A growl sounded from behind a large model of the Apollo Eleven, and ahell hound leapt out. “Well now we know the Oracle wasn’t kidding about being houndedendlessly!" Adonys said sarcastically. Kalissa drew her twin knives, and faced the hell hound,while Tara grabbed her bow and notched an arrow in it. Sean followed her example, andAdonys drew his sword, while I put Sapphire down and pulled mine out. The hell houndfaced us, hate gleaming in its fiery red eyes, and it pounced. It just about landed right onSapphire’s head, but to our shock, the hell hound, missed, soared straight over her, andaccidently sliced through the flock of phoenixes, who erupted into flames.

It turned back toward us and clawed at us. Great I thought one problem gone andanother one arrives. It’s tail hit Adonys’s bad wrist and he cried out in pain. I caught himand threw a knife at the hound which fell down and disintegrated.

“How amazing, they beat the hound." someone said sarcastically. I turned around,and saw Dimitri standing with his little friends, their swords drawn. Dimitri snickered andadvanced toward us. “Oh gods," Kalissa said, Not you hooligans again."

“Yes it’s us hooligans again." Hunter said. We all started laughing hysterically, untilwe doubled over. “What are you laughing about?" Jett snarled, but looking puzzled. “We’relaughing, because you idiots just called yourselves hooligans!" India said, “And anyways,how in bloody tarnation, did you get out of the net we let you in at the back of themuseum?" she asked Dimitri. “Simple," he answered ?I just waited for them to show up, andget me out." he pointed at the weirdo’s.

“Okay, well then, prepare to be skewered." I said. And with that, we attacked. It wasa full scale battle. Swords flashed, knives cut deep into soft skin.

It was going well until the brats started to regain their wits, and Dimitri lunged atAdonys. No!" I yelled, unsheathed my sword, and banged it on Dimitri’s helmet, whichvibrated so hard he was knocked out. Then Jett who was apparently the slowest of all ofthose dimwits, tried to stab Sapphire on the shoulder, because she was still on the ground,and I had to kick Dimitri to the side, stepping on his leg, and making sure it was broken, sothat Jett didn’t slice through Sapphire. I definitely never would’ve made it in time, so Iyelled, “Kalissa! Behind you!" and thank the gods, she actually deflected Jett’s blade with somuch force, she sent him flying into a bust of Neil Armstrong.

“Good Job!" I said, and jogged over to her. Adonys and Sean were still locked incombat, with Hunter, who was putting up a surprisingly good fight. Tara was helping andshooting silver arrows that whistled straight through the air, to the chinks in his armor. Thearrows were perfectly accurate, but at the last second, Hunter would dodge them.

?Impossible!” I heard Tara whisper. I’d heard stories about the huntresses of Artemis.They were immortal, as long as they did not break their oath to Artemis, and fall in lovewith a boy, or die in battle. Their arrows, also never missed a shot.

“Help, or not?" India asked. I think we should let them finish him off themselves." I

said. “You don’t get it do you?" Hunter said. “Get what?" Adonys asked, "That it’s way tooeasy to fight you?" Of course, Hunter was usually easy to fight, but now, he had obviouslyhad a lot of help. Adonys and Sean were already tiring easily, but Hunter hadn’t even brokena sweat.

“What you don’t get," Hunter continued, “Is that you’ll never win. My master is waytoo powerful. You’ll never even get near her." Hunter’s eyes gleamed, almost gold. “She ismore powerful than all the God’s combined." Hunter continued, but this time when hespoke I noticed a steely sharp rasp in his voice like nails on a chalkboard.

“Your master will never get through with this!" Adonys yelled, "We’ll kill him. . ."he paused to take a breath, "and then. . . drag your sorry butt back to. . . Olympus." Hetalked confidently, but I could tell something was wrong. Adonys’s eyes seemed to be goingin and out of focus, and his chest was heaving like he couldn’t get enough air. Once in awhile, Adonys would stagger like he was going to fall over.

Then, Hunter muttered a spell, and laughed while he watched Adonys’s eyes slide tothe back if his head and collapse. Unfortunately, Hunter took this as his chance, and tried tostab Adonys’s shoulder, but one of Tara’s arrows flashed right where the sword would’vekilled Adonys, and apparently, the arrow was magic, because as soon as it made impact withthe sword, it shattered and emitted a loud screech. The sound of it was purely terrifying, andHunter thought it was too. He grabbed all of his friends this time and disappeared. “Thankthe gods, that’s over!" Sapphire said. And we ran over to Adonys.

Chapter 11 We all surrounded Adonys, while Sean leaned over him. “Oh no." Sean said. “Thislooks bad. Real bad." “How can you tell?" India asked.

“My dad happens to also be the god of medicine." Sean replied. “Well is thereanything you can do?" I asked hopeful. “I can try to heal him, but I’m really not that good.It’s not like anything bad will happen, it’s just nothing much will happen." Sean answered.“Well, try it then!" I said.

“Okay, okay, I will." he said. Then he waved his hand over Adonys’s head. Adonys’seyes opened, but closed again. Some of the cuts he had obtained faded and disappeared, butnothing else happened.

“Told . . . you . . . not . . . much . . . can . . . do." he wheezed, looking just as tired asSapphire. “It's okay, you need to rest too. Go ahead and sit down." Kalissa told him. Andthen it hit me.

“He needs Water!" I exclaimed. Get him water!" Everyone looked at me puzzled.“He’s a son of Poseidon. Water heals him!" ?I’m so tired again. “Oh." they said, and hurriedoff to find some water.

Only Sapphire stayed back. “Uhhhhhh" she groaned. ?I’m so tired." I said. “Talkabout tired." she said, I’m also starving." We need to get some of that potion, so that we canturn any humanoid creature into a mermaid, once it eats enough of it. Then we can havesome food." I said. “Or we could go eat at some seafood restaurant."Sapphire replied.

“Whatev,” I said. Just then Tara ran back carrying five bottles of water. “I have water!" she said, and

set them down next to us. “Good!" I said, and uncapped them. After they were all open Ipoured the water over his head. ?I think its working!" Kalissa said, as she, Sean, and Indiawalked in, and saw what we were doing. She was right. Adonys’s scratches and cuts werefading, but he still wasn’t waking up. “I don’t think I can heal him anymore, unless I neededto faint as well." Sean said. Well if you can’t, there’s no need to try, we should just let himrest, until he gets better." I replied. Just one problem." said Kalissa. Where are we going tocamp? It’s like 9 o’clock at night."“I dunno." Sapphire said. “Uh, how bout we try findingsome isolated area, where we can sleep?" Kalissa said. “Anywhere’s fine with me," I said,“but I’m hungry, and we need to find some seafood." “Okay, then we’ll try to find somegood seafood restaurant." said Tara. “So let’s go! I’m dang starvin’!" Kalissa said.

We ended up eating at some Sushi place in New Jersey, named Shogun’s. Once ourtable was ready, Sean sat down and was immediately followed by Kalissa who sat right nextto him. The food there wasn’t bad, but I barely ate because I was worried about Adonys. Hestill hadn’t woken up.

Over dinner, we ended up talking about our suspicions and plans. I think we shouldstop camping, and stay at a hotel." India said. “I don’t know about you guys, but I have nomortal money on me, I only have drachmas." I said. “I know. Same here." said Kalissa.“Well, I think I have some mortal money with me." Sean replied. “Me too." said Tara, Iused some to pay for the food, and I know I have enough to get all but one of us into acheap motel, and buy breakfast." “Okay then," said Sean, ?I have enough mortal money toget me into a cheap motel, and breakfast, so I can pay for myself." “Then let’s get a hotel!"India said.

Chapter 12We stayed at a Sunrise Inn, for about 30 bucks a person. I dragged Adonys in and

got some strange looks from people that were up late, but other than that, no one reallybothered us. We all had to share a room, because it was less money. It had two beds, and thecouch turned into a cot, and we also had a reclining chair, which we figured somebody couldlie in. When we got into our room, we saw that there were a lot of extra blankets on the bed,so we set them up on the floor as two extra beds.

As soon as we had set up our beds, we got straight into them. I took one of the actualbeds, Kalissa took the other one, Sapphire got the cot with a blanket, India took the chair,and a blanket, while the two boys (Adonys we had to set down) took the floor beds thatconsisted of one blanket under and one on top. “Good Night everyone," yawned India.“Night.” we said back, and fell asleep.

In the morning we piled the blankets back on the bed, and ordered breakfast. Adonyshad finally woken up, so we didn’t have to carry him. Tara looked at the room service menuand said “Okay people, listen up. The rules are you can’t get anything to eat that’s over 3dollars total."Kay" everyone said.

I got pancakes and orange juice which was actually pretty good for human food andgobbled it all up because I was starving. Thank the gods, it only cost Two dollars, and fiftycents, <cause that pretty much wiped us out. As soon as we had finished breakfast, we headeddownstairs and checked out.

Chapter 13“Uhh” Sapphire groaned as we walked outside. Her shoulder was still stung from the

phoenix slash. “Sooooo, what are we gonna do now?” she asked. India looked at Sean asthough he would have an answer. He returned the look with a shrug of his shoulders. Adonys scanned the lot, and his eyes focused on something, and his face froze in amask of terror. “Is there something wrong?” I asked. But even before the question was out ofmy mouth, I knew the answer. A large jagged stone spire about as tall as a pickup truck wasgrowing out of the asphalt and surrounding us, as if it was alive. “IT’S A TRAP” Sapphireyelled. She was right.

But, even as she spoke several other rocks with edges so sharp and rough that theygleamed, poked out of the ground. “Run!” India screamed but it was no use everywhere welooked, rocks were waiting to rip us to shreds. The rocks started to move inwards forcing usin. We all screamed, and screamed but we knew no one would come to help. Everyonearound us, were mortals.

Suddenly I had an idea. “Pull out your weapons, and start hitting the rocks withthem!” I yelled. “Hey, you’re right! If we bang on the rocks hard enough they’ll break!” Seansaid. “Enough chit chat! Start banging unless you want to be torn to shreds by rocks!” yelledAdonys, who already had his sword out, and was pounding at the rocks which were alreadycracking form his strength. I drew my sword and started hacking at the stones as hard as I possibly could. The rockscracked and shattered, but anytime a rock broke, a new one replaced it. “This is impossible!”yelled India who was hacking away with both hands.

A laugh sounded from somewhere outside the rocks. The voice sounded vaguelyfamiliar, but in my panic I couldn’t place who it belonged to. “Looks like these idiots arehaving a bit too much fun with the little traps we set for them. No matter. We can get themout. In thirty minutes.” The voice scorned. “No!” another voice commanded. “The mastersaid that we must take them alive! Well at least the son of the sea god and all the mermaids,especially the half-blood’s girlfriend, if the half-blood escapes. Release them at once!” Thevoice barked. “Fine, but she’s not his girlfriend!” said the one who had laughed. “Still likeher do you?” the other one mocked, “Just get them out of there.” “Fine, but you don’t haveto be so pushy. I don’t care what Lyra says, I do not take orders from you!” the voice whohad laughed answered.

They muttered some type of spell, I recognized was dark magic from the way it sentchills up my spine, and the rocks slowly backed out, and sank back into the ground. I fellwith exhaustion, and from the tired groans and loud thuds I heard, so did everyone else. Istruggled to keep my eyes open, but another voice whispered another dark incantation and

my eyes closed against my will. Chapter 14

When I woke up, I found that I was being dragged somewhere. I immediately openedmy eyes and freaked out. My wrist was being held like iron by Hunter, who was swimmingvery easily even though my weight had been added. “Let me go you freak!” I screamed.“Well,” he answered, “It was either I carry you or Dimitri carries you, and we couldn’t allowyou to persuade him to go back to the ocean, and help you, so I had to do it, and believe me,I really don’t want to.” “Well then,” I retorted, “LET! ME! GO!” “Sorry that can’t happen.”He grinned impishly, and muttered a spell and suddenly I couldn’t speak any more. Helaughed and started running faster than anyone could, and suddenly we were in a room filledwith lights so bright that they blinded me. “Good. Good.” A new voice said. This voice was female and had a dark, evil, sharpedge to it that could kill you just by whispering in your ear. I knew exactly who it was. Lyra. “Hurry now.” She crooned. “We can’t have our guests die of fright before we can putthem to any use. Bring them here. Wait!” her voice changed from victory to panic.“WHERE IS THE BOY!” she yelled. I felt Hunter shuffle around. He went rigid, andturned back around. “He… he… he must have escaped when we were taking them. B… butwe do have the girl.” He was scared. I could hear it in his voice, and he was trembling likecrazy. “HE WHAT?!?!” Lyra yelled. “He…escaped?” Hunter asked. His whimper wasbarely heard as a terrifying shriek split the air. The noise was so loud that it caused me toblack out again.

“NO!!!” I heard a voice scream. I opened my eyes as wide as I could and saw Kalissaand all my other mermaid friends, in mermaid form, being tied up. On the other side of theroom, I saw Adonys thrashing like a madman against the arms of Hunter. “Leave her alone!”Adonys yelled. I looked down and finally started to look at my surroundings.

I was in mermaid form just like all my friends tied to wooden post. I looked for Seanand Tara, but they were not there. Only the children of the sea, I thought. I strained againstthe pole, but a burning pain sliced down my tail and I screamed in pain. Poison. Whenever Itried to move a tearing sensation would stream down me, and I would almost black outfrom the pain, but seeing Adonys’s horrified face whenever I screamed kept me awake. “Get out of my head!” Kalissa yelled, struggling against an invisible force. She seemedto be unaware of everything around her. I glanced at India, but she seemed completely fine.Well, not completely fine. She was tied to a pole and poisoned, but at least she wasn’tstruggling with something that wasn’t there. Then I looked at Sapphire, expecting her to beperfectly fine like India, but instead, she was writhing but not in pain. She was movingagainst her bonds, and seemed completely oblivious to the fact that she was poisoned andevery move she made felt like a dagger with a thousand points was ripping through her tail. Lyra moved over to her and started untying her ropes. What in Holy Poseidon wasshe doing?!? And then I understood. Hypnosis. But why hadn’t it kicked in on India and meyet? But, immediately after I answered the question, my mind went curiously blank. I wasn’t

in pain. And then Lyra's voice spoke in my head. “Serve your master!” it boomed. “You arenot my master! Stay out of my head!” I screamed back. “Well then, little one,” she almostlaughed, “Let’s see how well you hold out to this!” A wave a complete blackness surged over me and I couldn’t feel anything. I wasn’table to hold out and I knew it. Then I heard Adonys. His voice was quieter and moreecho-ey than Lyra's voice but it was definitely there. It was also somewhat strained like itpained him to be in here. “Fight her!” he said, “Jessamyn, I know you’re in there! You’restrong, and you can get out! Just fight her! I know you can do it!” and with that his voicefaded away. With a tremendous amount of effort, I pushed against the blackness, and slowly, very,very slowly, the black faded to the dark rich red, of the room I was being held hostage in.Then the darkness came crushing back down on me, and this time with so much force Icompletely blacked out.

Chapter 15?Uhhh,” I groaned. What happened? I thought. My head felt like a microwave had

eaten it. It was all hot, and it felt like it was crushed. I tried to remember what hadhappened. I saw a girl. A girl with long black hair, who was laughing, really hard. But it wasa cold laugh, and the girls pinched face was laughing in scorn. She turned her head, and Isaw mermaids tied so tightly to wooden poles, it looked her circulation had long been cutoff. But that wasn’t the worst part. There faces were contorted in pain, as if every move theymade hurt them. I watched as one of the mermaids struggled, and piercing scream splitthrough the air.

There was another person. A boy on his knees, pleading with the girl. Tears werestreaming down his face. I couldn’t see very clearly, but, I thought I knew the boy. Then helooked up and his eyes flashed a dangerously bright green. And it all came flooding back tome. The boy was Adonys, son of Poseidon, and the girl, the one laughing, was Lyra, amermaid, that had gone to the dark side, in this case, with some mysterious master, whomwe knew very little about. And she had hypnotized us, and tried to make us fight Adonys,but the clever half-blood had escaped at the very last minute, with a huge gash in his neck.

I took notice of my surroundings for the first time. I was in an underwater cave, theentrance barred with thick metal bars that would take superman all eternity to brake justone. There was a small bed of rotting sea moss in the corner of the cave, and at the very top,there was a little air space and a window. I sat down on the bed and started crying.

I cried for hours, and hours, until, Jett swam by my cave prison and poked somerancid smelling shrimp through the bars. I glided over to the food, and started picking at it.Jett laughed a horrible, high pitched laugh, and snickered ?Enjoy your stay at the MontePrison!”. ?Beat it!” I said. ?Whatever.” he said, and sped back down the corridor howlingcrazily, at his lame joke.

As soon as I heard Jett close the door, I yelled, ?Kalissa, Sapphire, India, are youthere?” I heard Kalissa and Sapphire’s voices. ?I’m here.” they both said, but I didn’t hear

India. ?Do you guys know if India’s here?” I asked. ?No, she’s not here,” Sapphire answered.?Okay, then.” I replied, ?I have a plan to get us out of here, and I know it’s pretty basic but,these guys are pretty weak, so we can take them. Anyway my plan is, when our food isdelivered for the next time, whoever the food get’s delivered to first, will have to grab Jett,and threaten to kill him, unless he gives you the key. Then unlock the doors, and take himdown and then get the rest of us out, okay?” ?Okay.” Kalissa said. ?I’m in too.” Sapphiresaid.

The door to te prison flew open, just as we finished speaking. This time instead ofJett, all of Lyra’s little minions were there, lead by none other than the diabolical, evil,ruthless, heartless, demonic- well I think you get the point. Anyways the stupid littleminions were being led by Lyra, who had a triumphant look on her usually bitter face.

?Well, well, well,” sneered Lyra, ?it seems as though, I finally get to use you mypretty little slaves.” ?What do you mean Lyra?” Kalissa said resentfully. ?I mean, that I amgoing to make you hypnotize the son of the sea god.” sneered Lyra. ?NO!” I screamed, ?Iwill never help you!” ?Oh yes you will.” Lyra retorted, ?You have to, because you are stillunder my control.” ?What have you done with India, and the half-bloods?!?” Sapphireyelled. ?I simply teleported them to their palace, as they were of no use to me. You see, Ineed the mermaids that can sing. Half-bloods are not mermaids, and as I saw from India’sgrades in that stupid school, she was not the best at singing, even though she was extremelygood.” Lyra answered. ?But why do you need singers?” I asked. ?Well, you see, to use a fullhypnotizing spell on a boy, you need to have extremely, extremely skilled girl singers, toentrance them. That’s where you come in. Well, two of you actually. You shall sing tohypnotize the son of the Sea God. Enough chatting, Dimitri, unlock the prisons." “Kay." hereplied and swam over to my cave, and slipped a gold and purple scythe shaped key throughan unseen lock on my door. Lyra snapped her fingers and lights went on in the room. Theonly thing was, Sapphire, Kalissa, and I weren’t in the jail cell anymore, we were in some sortof auditorium.

“Stay!" Lyra barked. I immediately froze in place against my will, and I stayed likethat until all of us were free. “Kalissa! Come forward!” She demanded. Of course, Kalissacame forward. “Sing!” Lyra screamed. Kalissa started singing a song about the nights ofterror, when the gods and titans had declared war. I noticed Lyra flinch when Kalissa saidthe name Kronos, lord of the titans, and time. Right in the middle of the song Lyrascreeched, “STOP! That’s enough!!! Step back!” She stepped back so all of us were in astraight line again. “Now you girl!” She screamed, pointing at Sapphire

Sapphire swam forward shaking angrily. “What. Your Highness?!?” she mocked.

“SING TO ME!”Lyra commanded. “Whatever.” Sapphire said, and began singing atraditional mermaid song, which was usually used to lure sailors to the mer.

When she finished her song, I felt lights beating down from me and I knew it wasmy turn to sing. I tried to think of something to sing but nothing came. Lyra fidgeted likeshe was going to zap me or something if I didn’t start singing. Then it hit me. I stepped

forward, and sang about olive gardens and magic, and moonlit summer nights. Sometimesthe melody was cheerful and happy, but other times it would become sad and haunting. Atthe very end, I a hit a note so high, I almost lost control of it.

Once I stopped, I scooted back waiting for Lyra to yell at us, but instead, she yelledat her minions. “Hunter! Jett! Dimitri! Take Kalissa to her cave. Her voice is way too strongfor what we are doing. She will not be able to hit the high notes!” “Yes master” they said.

Chapter 16After the two boys took Kalissa away, it was just Sapphire, Dimitri, Lyra, and I in the

room. “Follow me." Lyra commanded. I started to glide through the water, even though Itried as hard as I could, to not move. I could see Sapphire behind me, doing the same.

We were almost out of the room, when a glimmer of gold caught my eye. I whirledaround and found myself gazing at a wall, but the wall was made a shiny silver substance. AsI looked it, solidified and became a mirror. I stared at the mirror transfixed. Then I realizedit was magic. My reflection looked . . . prettier.

My hair sparkled gold in invisible light, and my complexion was cream colored. Mytail was splashed with gold instead of yellow, and my eyes shimmered. I looked perfect.Then Lyra called ?Hurry up!” And I moved slowly away from the mirror against my will. Ihastily grabbed a bronze canteen on the floor as much of liquid ?mirror” as I could into it.As soon as I touched the mirror, my skin turned the exact color as it had been in the mirror.I looked at my tail, and I saw it was glimmering superbly. I blinked, and then looked again,but I looked the same as my reflection did. The liquid must have transformed me into theimage of my reflection. But then a white light surrounded me, and I was back to normal.Imagine what would happen if I drank this. I thought. ?Hurry!” Lyra shrieked and I raced toher faster than I would have thought possible.

Then I felt something loosen inside of me, and found that Lyra was no longercontrolling me. I turned around to see why, and I almost screamed in shock. A maskedfigure had drawn swords against Lyra’s neck. ?All of you out!” the person said. From thevoice I judged that our rescuer was female. I didn’t need telling twice. I bolted away as fast asI could with Sapphire, and the masked figure behind me.

Lyra swore loudly as we got away, but by that time we were to far away for them todo anything. We kept swimming until we were all too tired to go any further. As I slumpeddown against a tree, I realized another feature about our rescuer. She had legs. She tore offher mask, and expecting to see someone I recognized, this face was completely unfamiliar.Long black hair, cut at odd angles framed her pale, pointed face. She had a permanent ?don’tyou dare contradict me” look on her face, and the way she moved kind of gave her apowerful look. ?What in Hades grave were you doing?!” she yelled. ?Ummm, before weanswer you can we find out who you are, why you’re here, what you want, and how you gothere?” Sapphire asked.

The girl took a deep breath and answered. ?My name is Narcissa. Daughter of Zeus. I’m here

because I ran away, I want to kill my sister , I got here with a map, a strong potion, and a very

deadly sword, and I’m coming with you.” She stared at us fiercely as if daring any of us to

contradict her.

?I’m all for her coming with us.” Sapphire squeaked. ?Um, Narcissa, we have no

recollection of anyone named , so we really don’t think you’ll find her. But you can come with

us if you like.” I said, but Narcissa drew herself up to full height, and answered, ?Oh you’re

going to meet very soon. Very, very soon.” I didn’t like the tone she was using very much.

?Next problem.” I said, ?Where are we.” ?Bottom of Dragon’s Lagoon.” Narcissa said

automatically. ?How did you know that?” Sapphire asked. ?My map.” Narcissa replied like it

should be the most obvious thing in the world. ?Okay then. Where are our friends?” Sapphire

asked. Again Narcissa answered. ?In Poseidon’s Palace. Map.” she added seeing our puzzled

faces. ?How does your map know all this stuff?” I asked. ?It’s magic.” she said warily, as though

tired of answering our questions.

She pulled a backpack off her shoulder which I was pretty sure hadn’t been there before.

She reached into the pack, and pulled a blank piece of parchment out. She waved her hand

across it and I couldn’t believe my eyes. The sheet of Parchment was now a map of the whole

world, except it seemed to be filled with writhing black dots. Narcissa pressed her finger to a

spot on the map, and it zoomed straight in. I recognized from the architectural structure that it

was Poseidon’s Palace. I also realized that the little black dots were actually moving figures

drawn into the map. The figures seemed to be curiously mermaid shaped. I looked closer at one

of the figures, and saw writing over it’s head that seemed to move with it. It read Kalissa, the

mermaid.

Narcissa, touched the map again, and it zoomed out. She wiped her hand over it and it

automatically went blank. ?Isn’t it amazing!?” she said, as she put it into the bag. ?That’s so

cool!” Sapphire said. ?Anyway,” I said, ? now that we know where we are, and where we should

go, we can get out of here.” ?Thank the gods.” said Sapphire.

Chapter 17

I grabbed Sapphire, and Narcissa’s wrists, and Sapphire, and I used a teleporting spell to

transport, Sapphire, Narcissa, and I to Poseidon’s Palace. Usually when we teleport nothing

happens, we just end up at the place we are thinking about, and nothing usually goes wrong but

this time, it did.

Our destination was finally coming into focus. I could see the glittering blue banner

emblazoned with a gold trident. The world around us was still a bit fuzzy, but it was getting

clearer by the second. I could feel the tingling sensation that came at the end of teleportation,

and all of a sudden, I was slammed into a huge invisible wall made of pure force, and yelped.

Sapphire and Narcissa screamed too, as they hit the barrier.

Sapphire, was still screaming as we fell back into the sand. As soon as she realized we

were back on the ground she stopped though, thank the gods. ?What was that?" she asked.

Narcissa answered her looking shaken ?That was a force field, designed to keep out intruders.”.

?But we’re not intruders!" I said. ?I don’t understand." Sapphire said. A look of comprehension

dawned on Narcissa’s face, ?You’re not intruders, but I am.". ?What!?" Sapphire, and I asked

together, stunned. ?Poseidon, has never met me, he doesn’t know wether or not he can trust

me.”. ?Of course he can trust you! Why couldn’t he?!” Sapphire said, ?You rescued us from

Lyra!". ?Oh just stop arguing! I can’t come in! So you guys have to go to the palace without

me." Narcissa finished but started again as she saw we were about to argue, ?I have all the stuff I

need to camp out here!" and she shook her handy dandy bag with the handy dandy map in it.

?Fine." I reluctantly turned around and swam into the palace.

Sapphire, and I swam through the gardens, stopped at the door of the great hall. As I

reached out to lift the door knocker shaped as a hippocampus, the door swung open, and

revealed Kalissa standing at the door. She must have been coming to check on the commotion of

the shield and Narcissa.

When Kalissa saw us she screamed ?THEY’RE ALIVE!" In a fraction of a second the

rest of our gang was there. Sapphire and I were surrounded by shouts of joy and disbelief.

Adonys actually kissed me on the cheek in his excitement. All of a sudden, my dream from way

back in Chapter 9 when Tara showed up. ?Guys!" I shouted. They all looked at me surprised

that I was spoiling the happy mood, cause I usually never shut myself up, much less anyone else.

?What?" they asked. ?Remember how I had that nightmare? When Tara showed up? Right

before we entered the Smithsonian!?" I asked. They all nodded, except for Tara because she

hadn’t been there. ?Okay anyway, my dream, was one of those visions that mermaids sometimes

have," they all gasped as I said this but I continued anyway, ?The vision was about Milana, and

Ayla." They all gasped even louder, and I still continued. ?They’re being held in Black Lagoon."

They gasped their loudest of all, and Kalissa actually slumped to a faint.

Chapter 18

Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know what your thinking. ?What’s Black Lagoon?" you ask. My

answer, I really don’t know. Nobody does. A long time ago, a fire burned down all the trees

there, and ever since then, the lagoon has been completely black. Literally. The mist is black, the

plants are black, even the water is black. It’s terrifying. The prospect of just saying it, is enough

to give any mermaid a heart attack. It’s like when people say Voldemort in the Harry Potter

books. Hold on let me rephrase the heart attack thing. It’s enough to give any mermaid with a

heart, a heart attack. <Kay back to the story.

Immediately after packing for Black Lagoon, I went straight to Poseidon and asked him

to let Narcissa inside the palace. He immediately said that he would have to meet her first. I

went to the place where me and Sapphire and Narcissa had landed after our failed

transportation, but she wasn’t there. I decided that she had decided to camp somewhere else. I

looked everywhere, but she wasn’t there. I was swimming back to the palace, when I found a

small piece of paper lying on the ground. The Map! I thought. I picked it up, but it wasn’t the

map. It was note with one hastily scribbled word on it.

It said ?HELP!". Narcissa had been captured. I swam back to the palace as fast as I

could. I went straight to Sapphire. She was in her room, surrounded by everybody who wanted

to know what had happened after we’d been captured by Lyra. As I entered they all turned to

look at me. I took a shaky breath and said, Sapphire, ?Narcissa’s been captured.". ?No." she

whispered. ?Who?" everyone else said. I hastily explained about how we had met Narcissa, and

who she was. ?Sapphire, Jessamyn, she saved you, and you too Adonys! We have to save her!"

Kalissa said. ?That settles it!" I yelled,” We’re going to Black Lagoon! Now!"

We teleported somewhere near the outskirts of Black Lagoon. ?Why can’t you just

teleport into the lagoon?" you ask. My answer, Because, you can’t. It’s impossible to teleport

straight into it. You have to go at least a mile away from it. The fact that you can’t teleport

there adds to the fear of the place.

?Urgh. We’re not even in and I still have the creeps." said Kalissa. ?Me too." said India.

We walked to the edge of the lagoon, but India stopped. ?I’m not sure about this." she

whispered. ?Come on." Tara replied and Sean butted in, sounding brave, ?We have to save

Milana and Ayla." but I could tell from his tone that he was terrified as well. But that gave India

enough courage to walk in.

The place was scary. Many of the trees lay on the ground dead and black, but the living,

still black trees’, which were mostly weeping willows, leaves were thick enough to filter out

almost every ray of sunlight that hit it’s leaves. It was literally black as night. The golden drops

of sunlight looked like light from a sick gray moon. Sean and Tara looked around sadly, for

they respected the moon and the sun.

The black rosebushes that littered the ground, were armed with cruelly sharp thorns, and

the ferns lay limply on the dark forest floor. There was a small little creek running beside us, but

the water didn’t run with the cheerful gurgle of most other streams, but with a heavy flow that

made one sleepy just by listening to it.

Nobody spoke, so it came as a surprise when Adonys’s voice broke the silence. ?There."

he whispered, and pointed. We raised our heads to where Adonys was pointing. ?Oh!" came

Sapphire’s gasp. Above us, rose one of the most forbidding castles I had ever seen.

The castle was made out of gray stones, except for one high turret, at the top of the

castle, which was made of what looked like pure gold. ?That’s definitely where we need to go."

Sean said, trying to sound brave, but a tremble in his voice gave him away.

It took us about five minutes to get to the castle, but when we got there we realized that

it was the back. It took us another five minutes to get to the front, but that wasn’t the last of our

problems. There were two guards at the front. As we moved closer, I realized that they were Jett

and Dimitri. We could take them down in no time.

?When I say go, charge at them, with your swords out. Tara and Sean will stay behind

and fire arrows at them." Adonys whispered. ?Alright." we said, so we waited for Adonys to give

the order. ?Swords out.” he said, ?One. Two. Three. GO!"he shouted the last word. The

minions were so surprised, I doubt they even knew what hit em. We knocked them out, and tied

them up. Then we entered the castle.

?And when your done with that," we heard Lyra’s voice, and followed it to a big

corridor. There, Lyra was sitting on a throne made of pure gold and purple satin cushions. But

what concerned me more was the familiar, pale, black haired figure at the ground on her feet. ?I

want you to kill them," she continued, Narcissa.".

I tried to keep quiet, but Sapphire let out a gasp of surprise. Two heads snapped in our

direction. We tried to hide but it was to late. ?You!" I hissed. ?Me." Narcissa smiled back. ?I

thought we could trust you!" I yelled, anger boiling inside me. ?Never trust a snake.” she replied

and drew an emerald, outlined with silver, and elegantly curled into the shape of a twisting

serpent. looking as calm as ever, which angered me even more. ?TRAITOR!" Sapphire yelled.

Now Narcissa looked mad. ?Don’t call me that!"she hissed. ?Why not? It’s what you are!” I

yelled back. Narcissa opened her mouth to argue again, but Lyra stopped her. ?Enough!" she

shouted, ?Get them.".

?With pleasure." Narcissa answered. She unsheathed two golden twin swords, each with

a little scythe trinket on the hilt. Before we could protest she came running at us with her

swords. I thought that she was mad to take on us, because she was hopelessly outnumbered, but

in reality, we were a bit mad to take on her.

She was very skilled. Every attack she made grazed at least one of our shoulders, and

every attack we made she dodged. Tara and Sean sent arrow after arrow towards her, but she

dodged each and every one of them.

We kept blocking, but we were eventually bound to run out of energy, so I needed to

think of a plan and fast. As I blocked an especially hard attack, I thought of our recent

conversation to see if I could find her weakness. I studied her face, full of rage as she tried to kill

us, the same as when Sapphire had called her a traitor. Suddenly it hit me.

?TRAITOR!"I yelled, ?YOU’RE A LYING, GOOD FOR NOTHING, BRAT OF A

TRAITOR!!!" Narcissa looked momentarily stunned, and Sean took his chance. He sent an

arrow whistling straight towards her. I moved out of the way, and it struck her clean through the

heart. ?Don’t call me traitor." she whispered, then died.

?NO!" yelled Lyra. I had momentarily forgotten about her during the battle. ?The master

is not ready to fight!" she screamed, and pressed a golden button on the wall, which I was sure

hadn’t been there before. Sirens blared, lights flashed, and a voice boomed out of a speaker.

?INTRUDER ALERT! INTRUDER ALERT!" I screamed as a phoenix flew over and blew

white hot flames at us. ?RUN!" Kalissa yelled. We bolted to a corner where the phoenix

couldn’t find us. ?Milana and Ayla are probably being kept in the dungeons, so look for a flight

of stairs!" India shouted.

Then a gigantic hydra used one of it’s heads to send an archway crashing down, so that it

could get at us. ?I’ll cut off it’s heads!" I yelled, ?Then Sapphire, you conjure up some fire to

weld it together!" Thank the gods that the hydra’s invincible middle head was stuck under some

of the rubble it had destroyed. I tried to get near the thing, but it kept spraying acid at me.

Finally, India got it’s attention by stabbing it’s leg. It turned to look at her, and I cut right

through all of it’s necks. I waited for Sapphire to weld them together but she didn’t. They were

starting to multiply and reform, so I yelled ?Sapphire! Fire!". ?Oh!" she said, and a bolt of

flames sailed past my shoulder and burned their necks together.

?Over there!" I heard Sean’s voice ring out, and I whirled around. He was pointing to a

stone staircase. I grabbed Adonys and Sapphire, who grabbed India and Kalissa. We almost flew

down the stairs, and Thank the Gods, were in the dungeons. But the cells were weird. They

looked like a rock had sprouted between the cell and the rest of the room. They were only

visible by little fissures outlining the rock. Judging from the way no light was visible from the

fissures, it was completely dark inside.

?We should split up and look for them." said Adonys. ?Agreed." I replied. I walked

towards the eastern side of the prison and pressed my ear against the cell to see if I could hear

anything. I didn’t so I asked, ?Is anyone in there? Milana? Ayla? You there?" no answer, so I

moved onto the nest one, and did the same thing.

I kept doing it, until I was at what felt like the two hundredth door. ?Milana, Ayla? Are

you in there?". At first I heard nothing and was about to move on to the next door, when I heard

a low moan. ?Milana, is that you?" I asked. ?It’s me, Ayla." she sounded really weak. ?Stand

back." I said, ?I’m gonna get you outta here." I blasted through the rock door, and went in to

get Ayla. Sure enough slumped in a corner, was a very weak, and very pale looking Ayla. I pulled

her up, but she almost immediately fell back down. Now that I knew how weak she was, I

pulled her up again, and this time, before she could fall, I hoisted her arm around my neck so

that she could stay up easier.

"Guys I found her!!!" came Kalissa’s voice. We followed it, until we found her and

everyone else standing at a door. When they saw me supporting Ayla, and they knew that

Milana had been found they all cheered. Then, India aimed a curse at the rock, and a large

fissure started running down the front. Apparently, Milana did not realize we were breaking

down the wall, so when it fell down, we saw her legs were stuck under some of the rubble. ?Ya

know.” she laughed, ?Stand back we’re gonna break the wall down’ could’ve been tossed out.".

?Oops. Sorry that was my fault." India replied.

Kalissa pulled Milana out of the rocks. She looked a little dazed at first but then her eyes

started to focus on all of us individually. We turned around and started walking back to the

lagoon, relieved that Milana and Ayla were all right. All of a sudden, Milana stopped. ?You

okay Milana?" we asked uncertainly. She didn’t answer. Now we were really freaking out.

?Milana?!" Kalissa asked looking worried. Milana was still silent, but this time she walked over

to Sean. ?Hi, remember me?" she said overly sweetly.

Before anyone could react she punched him hard in the nose so that it started to bleed. I

gasped, and so did everyone else, except for Adonys, who started to laugh. I could tell she was

really mad, because when she kicked him in the chest, she flicked her foot for good measure

which was something she did only when she was furious with someone.

?Milana!!!" India shrieked, ?What in Poseidon’s name are you doing!?!" She looked

horrified, and I think we all know why. Milana simply shrugged, and said ?Payback.". Sean tried

to stand up, but Milana spun her torso around and punched him in the eye. Sean decided that

the only way to control her was to attack her back. He tried to punch her but she ducked with

amazing grace. She was like a wild animal. Sean lay on the floor in seconds.

"You really suck now dude, ya know?"Milana said as she stood over him. "Well I

stopped practicing and I’d never thought that I’d see you again and didn’t know that you hated

me so much." Sean said, blood bubbling in his mouth. "Surprise!"Milana growled. She raised

her fist to sock him again, but Sapphire intervened. "Er, I think we better get going if we want

to stay alive." she said. Sean started to agree, but Milana interrupted, ?Oh shut up Sean! No one

cares!"

?Can we please leave now?!" India said loudly, ?This place is giving me the

creeps.""Yeah, sure I was getting bored anyway."Milana replied resentfully. She stood up and

started to walk to the exit of the castle, we sighed and followed her.

Chapter 19

We barely made it out of Black Lagoon, much less the castle. Lyra’s minions, and

monsters had been right on our trail, until we made it out of the forest. We were all about to

collapse, but we had to get away so we grabbed onto each other and teleported to the first place

we thought of. There were ten of us, and four of our group either were too weak to teleport, or

didn’t know how, so it was extremely hard.

I had no idea where we were, because we had used a different form of teleportation. The core of

the teleportation chain, (Adonys) used magic to project an image to us. We then had to focus

on the image of the place, teleport and we would get there. We were somewhere in a beautiful

valley. This was as far as we could go since we were so weak and tired. Sean pitched up the two

tents, and we fell asleep almost immediately.

Adonys woke everyone up about what he said was five hours later but felt like one. ?We

can’t stay here all night." he said, ?They’re bound to find us at some point.” Milana and Ayla

wouldn’t wake up, so we let them stay in the tents while we teleported. We stayed at a hotel

about a block away from the beach. We fell asleep again, but this time we stayed asleep til

morning. In the morning I flipped the T.V. on, and waited til everyone but Milana was up.

Sapphire kept hovering over her to see if she was awake. ?Leave her alone. She’ll wake up

when she’s ready." I said. "Wait. What if she never wakes up?"she asked sounding terrified.

?Why would that happen?" Adonys had sneaked up behind us and we hadn’t noticed, so we

jumped when we heard him. Tara had come too."You saw the way she looked right? Like the

night of the living dead!"she said. "That doesn’t mean that she’s actually dead…right?"Sapphire

asked freaking out. Milana moved around. "See I told you!"I said. "Shhhh you’re going to wake

her up!"said Kalissa. "If she isn’t dead."Sapphire argued. Milana finally woke up. Phew! We

thought you were dead!"Sapphire said sounding relieved. "You thought she was dead" I

corrected, feeling bored. "Okay, now that we’ve cleared that up can we eat now? I’m

starving!!!!!"Milana complained.

We went down to a restaurant, and ate our breakfast. As soon as we were finished with

the food, we went straight down to the water. I motioned for all the mermaids to come with me,

but I told the half-bloods, ?Stay here, we’ll be back in a minute." We dove straight into the

ocean and as soon as my body connected with it, I felt a tingling sensation in my legs and all of

a sudden, I had a tail. ?Ahhh," I breathed. I missed being back in the water. I turned a sharp

right, and made sure that the others were following me. We kept swimming until we were in a

little cove. It was guarded by a bunch of sharp rocks, and no human could have ever made it

past them. You had to touch the rocks in just the right place, and then a little symbol in the

rocks would glow blue and the rocks would open up for entrance to the cove. We made it in.

?Over here!" I called. Kalissa, Sapphire, India, Milana and I climbed out of the water.

?Okay guys." I said, ?You all know what this cove is right?". They nodded. ?It’s the

Sacred Mermaid Cove. Any human who eats the seaweed growing here instantly is able to

breathe under water, or if they eat enough, becomes a mermaid." said Kalissa. ?Right.” I replied,

?So that means that we have to get as much seaweed as we can from here." I turned around, and

enchanted the bag that Sapphire had been carrying so that it was a little bigger and then

duplicated it so that there was one for each of us. Put your seaweed in here." I said, and then we

all started picking as fast as we could.

Soon all of our bags were completely filled. We swam back to the beach as fast as we

could. Once we got to the shore, there were some un invited ?guests" waiting for us. By guests, I

mean Dimitri, Jett, and Hunter. They were holding Adonys, Tara and Sean’s hands behind their

back.

?Guys! Get Down!" I said, and we swam behind a sand bar. ?We need a plan......" said

India. ?Fast." Kalissa added. C’mon think, I thought, then bright as daylight one of those

lightbulb ideas popped into my head. ?Someone needs to go up there and distract them.... then

we attack them. This time we aim to capture, dead or alive. When we’ve got <em, we make sure

Adonys, Tara, and Sean eat the seaweed, and we make a run, I mean swim, for it!”. One

problem.... Who’s going to be the distraction?" India and Kalissa wondered. I turned to Sapphire

(who wasn’t paying any attention to anything we were talking about) ?Sapphire!" I said. ?Huh?"

she turned and faced me. ?Go distract Dimitri, Jett, and Hunter.”. ?But...." she said. ?Just do it!"

I hissed. ?Okay." she answered softly.

Chapter 20

Sapphire slowly crawled onto the shore, waiting for her fins to turn back to legs. Once

they did, she got up and walked over to the evil boys. ?Hey there," she said batting her eyes.

Adonys and Sean locked faces. ?What the heck is she doing?” Sean asked. Tara started to say,

?She’s going to distract them" but Adonys stopped her in the middle of the sentence, so she

wouldn’t blow the attack. ?You guys really don’t know any battle tactics do you?" he asked.

Tara and Sean sighed.

Sapphire had them distracted for about three minutes and then we crept up behind them

and pulled our swords out. Then we put our swords at their throats. ?Surrender, or you lose

your heads.” I paused, ?Literally.” Jett and Hunter looked at Dimitri who seemed to be the

leader. Dimitri slowly put up his hands. We all cheered as Kalissa pulled the ropes off of

Adonys, Tara, and Sean, and used them to bind their hands. We spell proofed the ropes so that

they couldn’t use magic.

I turned to Adonys, Sean, and Tara. I gave each of them two sacks of seaweed. ?Eat this,

and as soon as you finish chewing the last one completely submerge yourselves in the water.

You’ll turn mer." I said. They nodded and I walked towards the sea. One touch of the water

would give me a tail. I sat down on the edge of the shore where I willed the water not to touch

me. Sapphire sat down silently beside me. It was almost the Summer Solstice, so the days were

getting longer. But right now the sun was slowly dropping and the sky was lit with orange, pink,

and purple.

A few minutes later Tara, Adonys, and Sean had finished with the seaweed. Kalissa and

Milana were pushing them like crazy. ?In the water! In the water!" they shrieked, but they stood

back and hesitated like they were scared something would go wrong. I laughed and raised the

water in a huge wave. They were too slow to realize what was happening so the wave swallowed

all of us.

I looked at Tara whose legs had become a long silvery tail. Sean’s was gold. I twirled

around in the water. ?Follow me!" Adonys said. He dove straight down and we followed. A

bright blue light signified that we were nearing my cave and the rest of my neighborhood. I

hadn’t been there in a long time. But it seemed different. It was all desolate, and there were no

merchildren playing in the streets. It was like they knew something was going on. I looked at

Sapphire, Kalissa, and India who lived here too. Their faces were turned away like they hadn’t

seen it, but I knew they had. I sighed and followed Adonys past the town.

?Wait!" I said. They all stopped. I whistled and nine dolphins swam out of the caves.

We hopped onto them and we lugged our three prisoners onto them too. ?Take us to

Poseidon’s palace." I said, and we swam off.

Chapter 21

?OUCH!" Kalissa yelled, as we dragged Lyra’s minions off the dolphins. ?What?" I

asked. ?HE BIT ME!!!" she shrieked, pointing at Hunter. India laughed and helped drag him

inside. ?What’s your problem?!" Kalissa hissed at him. He just scowled as they dragged him in.

Adonys and Sean were trying to get Dimitri and Jett off the dolphins and into the palace.

Adonys caught with me and asked, ?What do ya think my dad will do to them?”. Sean answered

from behind either he’s gonna interrogate <em and kill <em on the spot, or he’s gonna send them

up to Olympus where they get interrogated, then killed on the spot.”. ?I hope it’s the first one.”

I growled. ?Wow. You really don’t like them do you?” asked Tara.”You wouldn’t either if you

knew them the way I do.” I answered.

By then we were in the throne room with Poseidon, so we stopped talking. I stepped

forward and bowed. ?We have rescued Milana and Ayla.” I said, ? I was right, they were in

Black Lagoon. We found Lyra and her minions there. Narcissa was one. We killed her, but the

other one’s have been captured.” I finished, and Poseidon smiled, ?Thank you Jessamyn.”. I

bowed again, then swam back and Sean, Adonys, and India took Hunter, Jett and Dimitri

forward.

?Hunter, Jett, and Dimitri!” Poseidon’s eyes flickered with a ominous power he’d never

shown before. The traitors flinched. ?You have proved yourselves unworthy of living with the

title of mer. I will banish you to

<0F\ J@L 2"<VJ@L (death island). You will live alone and you will be cursed so that every

time you touch water, your bodies will burn as though ten thousand fires were scorching it as a

reminder of how you have destroyed yourselves and nearly this kingdom as well!” he raised his

trident and a blast of green blue light exploded out of the end of it. Instantly Hunter, Jett ,and

Dimitri started screaming and trying to swim up out of the water. Another blast of light hit

them and they were instantly gone.

Chapter 22

I was finally back in my cave, in my room. I swam to my closet and picked out an orange

top, with bronze straps that paired with my hair perfectly. I chose a beautiful bronze bracelet to

go with it. I spent a whole hour brushing my hair in front of a mirror. Finally, I picked up the

canteen with the magic liquid mirror in it that I had taken from Lyra’s palace in Dragon

Lagoon.

Slowly I raised it to my lips, and a silver flash surrounded me. I looked at my tail, which

was now tinged with gold. My skin had a smooth tan, not too dark, but still a light shade of

bronze and as I brushed my hair, I saw it shimmer. I waited and waited, but my I stayed just like

I had in my reflection. "Yes!" I said out loud. A knock sounded on the rock door of my room

and I jumped and turned around to see Adonys standing in the door way. ?You've gotta quit

doing that!” I said still recovering from my fright. ?Oh come on!” he laughed, ?I save your life

about a hundred times, and then when I come by, all I get is <I didn’t even hear you come in!’!!!”

he mimicked me. ?Fine.” I said, ?You look great. Can we get going now?”. ?Whatever you say.”

he replied. ?Race ya!” I shouted, and I was already out of the cave. ?Mara!” I shouted. A dolphin

came whistling out of the cave, and just as I mounted it I heard Adonys shout, ?No fair!”.

I sat down in front of Nereid School waiting for Adonys. ?It’s about time!” I joked as he

finally sat down next to me. ?I would have gotten here earlier if you hadn’t pulled a surprise race

on me, and took a dolphin!” he laughed. ?Whatever! Let’s go in and see our friends.” I said, and

swam in.

The place looked amazing. It was covered in blue and silver seaweed, our school colors,

while sapphires, aquamarines, and silver gleamed underneath our tails. A moonlight colored

banner was slowly floating down to the sand. It read ?GRADUATING STUDENTS’

PROM!”. I looked up, and I could barely, just barely see the stars and the moon shining above

me. All of the mer here, besides me, my friends, and the teachers had never been above the

surface.

?Jessamyn!!!” Sapphire squealed jarring me from my thoughts. ?Your top is so pretty!!!

And you look like you’ve been through the whole makeup shop!”she kept going, until I

interrupted,. ?Listen, I have something I need to show you. Bring Kalissa, India, Ayla and Milana

to the girls bathroom.”. We were all there in a millisecond.

I drew the hip flask with the magic mirror liquid in it. ?This stuff is magic. Take a sip

then look in the mirror.” I took their saltwater-punch from them, and poured in a little of the

mirror and they drank it. Instantly the bathroom was full of white flashes. India’s hair looked

like the sun as it set in the sky, and her tail looked like a fiery sky during a sunset. Kalissa was

just as pretty with a green tail that had a pink streak right through the middle that made her

look like a beautiful and exotic flower. Sapphire’s tail had become turquoise like the shallow

water on a beach, and her hair fanned out behind her like a cloud. They looked at the mirror

and gasped. ?Jessamyn! How did you do it?” Kalissa exclaimed. ?I guess the magic stuff just

brings out your inner beauty.” we swam out of the bathroom.

?So,” I asked ?who’d you guys bring to the prom?”. Sapphire answered first ?I brought

your cousin, ya know, Jasper.”. Kalissa giggled as I retched. ?I’m here alone.” she replied, ?I’m

done with guys.”. I looked at India. ?I came with Sean.” she said. Just then Adonys swam up.

?You guys should get back to your dates.” I said.

I dragged Adonys to the dance floor. A slow song had just begun to play. ?I’m glad Jett,

Dimitri, and Hunter are gone. They were so much trouble.” I said. ?I couldn’t agree more.

Thank the gods they’re gone.” Adonys replied.

?Attention! May I have your attention please?!” Sapphire, Milana, and Kalissa’s teacher

Ms. DeYoung was at the microphone. Everyone turned to face her. ?Thank you.” she said. ?I

am very glad you are all her tonight. As you all know tonight, at midnight, you will all be

allowed to go above the surface.” Everyone cheered. ?Now, as you can all see, there is a banner

falling to the ground right over there. Once the banner reaches the floor, it will be midnight.

There are thirty seconds left.” she smiled, ?You may begin your countdown when I say go.” we

waited. ?Go.” she said. ?TEN! NINE! EIGHT! SEVEN! SIX! FIVE! FOUR! THREE! TWO!

ONE!!!” on one, we all swam as fast as we could to the surface. All of us sat on the rocks, to see

the stars. "Hey! What's that?!" I pointed to a shimmering patch of stars who's glow seemed to

be brightening every second to make out the form of a trident. "Next mission, I guess." Adonys

said and we dove under the sea in the direction of the Palace.

The End!!!