Surrender of the Brutal King (The Poseidon Trials Book 2) Read online

“Yes! Does this mean I have magic?”

  I don’t know. I think the whole shell needs color for your power to be present.

  “Is something waking it up? Being in Aquarius?”

  That is the most likely reason. Or perhaps the magic of the palace is so strong it’s waking it up? I don’t know.

  I scrambled up from the dresser stool and rushed to the window. Looking out at the ocean, I willed myself to feel the pull of the water, that sense of freedom and excitement I had felt on the deck of the ship with Poseidon.

  Nothing happened. I just saw masses of blue, raw with power and weight.

  “Maybe you’re right; the whole thing needs to be filled with color,” I conceded.

  I’m always right, she answered. I stuck my tongue out as I moved back from the window, excitement still whirring through me.

  “Do you think I can speed it up?”

  Not without knowing what’s caused it, Lily said.

  “Good point. Kryvo, can you sense magic?”

  “No,” answered the starfish. “Poseidon said he can, though.”

  “He didn’t say anything about me having new magic when I saw him earlier.” My shoulders slumped a little. “Well, hopefully it keeps filling with color, and then…” And then what? I would be able to do what Lily could? Hold my breath for hours, make water move, swim like I was born of the ocean?

  Gods, I hoped so.

  I thought my excitement about my tattoo might keep me awake, but my concerns were unfounded. The physicality of the Trial won out over my churning brain, and I slept like the dead.

  When I finally roused myself from the peace of sleep, all the thoughts from the previous day crashed back over me. I leaped from the bed to stand in front of the mirror, staring at the tiny splurge of color in the middle of my shell.

  “It may be little,” I murmured, running my fingers over it, “but it is bright.”

  And it was. The shade of blue was deep and vivid, and the turquoise ombre a beautiful bright color.

  “You slept a long time,” squeaked Kryvo. “I was beginning to worry.”

  “Really?”

  “Yes. It is long past midday.”

  “Huh.” I wasn’t surprised. I had massively exerted myself the previous day, both physically and mentally.

  I made my way into my bathroom, noting that I felt surprisingly good. I expected to have aches and pains from the exertion of being thrown around on the ship, but as I stretched my limbs in the shower, I only felt stronger.

  I washed my vest in the large sink, and once it was dry, I dressed in more of the identical clothes from the closet: dark pants and a white shirt over the vest. I couldn’t stop staring at the tattoo as I braided my hair.

  “Please, please, please let this mean I am a real Nereid.” If my power came to life and my shell colored, maybe that would mean Poseidon would get his heart of the ocean? And then we could heal Lily.

  Once I was ready, I realized just how hungry I was. All my mornings in the palace had begun with somebody collecting me from my room, to deliver me to whatever stressful activity was happening next. But today, I had no idea what was coming next.

  Putting Kryvo on my collarbone, I cautiously pushed open my bedroom door.

  “Holy shit!”

  Poseidon was standing in the hall, right outside my room. I clutched the doorframe, my hand on my chest, trying to slow my startled heart rate.

  “Are you trying to scare me to death?”

  “I was about to knock,” he said drily.

  I looked at him. He was wearing his fighting garb, and he looked healthy again. No stone was visible on his face. “What do you want?”

  He pointed to the wall behind him. The gold paintings of waves were gone, words in their place.

  Gather in the ballroom when the sun sets for the second Trial.

  I frowned. “Is that from Atlas?”

  “Yes.”

  “How can he make stuff like that happen inside your palace?”

  Poseidon scowled. “I don’t know. I believe he might have been infiltrating my palace for some time.”

  “He spoke to me here. In the courtyard,” I said.

  Fury flashed on Poseidon’s face, the smell of the ocean and the sound of waves crashing over me in a rush. “When?”

  “Before the first Trial.”

  “What did he say?”

  “Not a lot. Just wanted to psych me out, I think.” I shrugged. “Don’t worry about it.”

  A rumbling sounded in his chest. “Don’t worry about it?” he repeated. “My oldest enemy, an ancient, all-powerful Titan is able to roam around my personal palace and intimidate my—" he paused, eyes flicking over me, “Guests, and you’re telling me not to worry about it?”

  “Once you beat him in the Trials, he’ll be gone,” I said.

  Poseidon snarled. “I do not trust the bastard to return my trident, even if I do win.”

  “Really? Then why compete?”

  “For my people.” He stood straighter, his jaw clenched. Sweet baby Jesus, he was a fine example of a man.

  “Right,” I said, trying not to show my thoughts on my face.

  “And if I win fairly, my Olympian brethren can back me.”

  “Of course. Olympian brethren. Known for their fairness.” If there was anything most of the Olympian gods were, it was not fair. Bored, petty, over-indulged children would be closer to the truth. Poseidon’s eyes darkened, but before he could respond to my sarcasm, I stepped out of my room, closing the door behind me. “Where can I get breakfast?”

  7

  ALMI

  “You can eat shortly. First, I want to show you something.”

  He held his hand out, and I took it without question. Last time I had taken his hand he had taken me to the pegasus stables and Blue. If whatever he was showing me this time was even half as good, I wanted in.

  To my surprise, he flashed us to the deck of a ship.

  I looked around at the shiny planks, gleaming sails, and impressive gold-embellished wheel. “This is a Typhoon,” I said, turning in a slow circle.

  “I’m impressed,” said Poseidon. “You have been studying.”

  “I have a good memory,” I murmured, staring around me as my heart skipped in my chest. “Is this your ship?” The freaking ship I’d come here for in the first place?

  Poseidon eyed me a moment, then shrugged. “It is one of many ships. But for our purposes, it is an escape plan.”

  “An escape plan?”

  “Atlas is unpredictable, and he hates me. Should anything happen, I want you to come to this ship. It will be here over the palace, at all times, and if you are riding Blue, you will be able to access it.”

  I stared at him, mouth opening and closing like a goldfish as I tried to pick a question.

  “What could happen?” was the question that emerged from my lips first.

  “I die.”

  “You’re an immortal god! How the hell would you die?”

  “Titans ruled Olympus long before us. And the Olympians only won the war because a few Titans defected and joined us against their own kind.”

  Fear squished about in my stomach, making me feel a little ill. “He doesn’t look as dangerous as you,” I said.

  Poseidon’s chest expanded a little, almost proudly, then his face turned even more serious. “Do not underestimate him. If anything happens to me, you come to this ship on Blue.”

  “Then what?”

  “Then the ship will take you somewhere safe.”

  “Can you control it if you’re…” I didn’t want to say dead. My mind was revolting at the idea of Poseidon dying more than it was celebrating the fact that I may have found the ship that could help Lily.

  “She’ll know what to do.” He touched the wood of the railings almost intimately, and I knew then that it was his own ship, not just part of a fleet or something.

  “What is she called?”

  He looked into my eyes a long moment, and I tried not to squirm.
“Okeánios ánemos.”

  My pulse quickened. It was his ship. The only ship that could move underwater as well as through the sky. “She’s lovely,” I said.

  He held my eyes a moment longer, the wildness burning behind that constant stoic control. “There is some color in your shell,” he said.

  I forgot about the ship completely and looked down at my chest. “Yes! Can you feel if I have any water magic?”

  He shook his head. “I can sense no power from you.” He held his hands up, clapped, and parted them to reveal two of the vials he had given me before. I took them from him, and as my fingers brushed his palm, that intoxicating sense of freedom powered over me. My hair whipping around me as I moved fast, no constraints, no rules, no end to the possibilities…

  It wasn’t an image so much as a feeling, and it was nothing like anything I had ever felt before coming to the palace.

  My whole adult life had been about one singular, all-consuming focus: Lily. The possibility of not having to worry for her life all the time, to be able to just live free…

  I wanted it. I wanted it bad.

  I realized that Poseidon had tensed, and I was still resting my hand in his, fingers clutching the vials in his palm.

  “Oh, sorry,” I stuttered, whipping my hand back.

  Did he feel something, too?

  I risked looking up into his eyes. The froth-tipped waves were crashing in his piercing irises, his jaw clenched tightly. His other hand shot out as mine retracted, and he gripped my shoulder, dropped his head and pulled me toward him. Heat coursed through my body, making my cheeks flush, and a need that was utterly unfamiliar to me pound through my torso, pooling between my legs.

  The smell of the ocean surrounded me as I lifted my other hand, unable to stop myself touching his hard, beautiful face. His skin was smooth and hot as I brushed my knuckles down his jaw, and I felt his whole body harden.

  “Poseidon,” I whispered, as he ducked his head further, his warm breath feathering over my lips as his mouth almost touched mine.

  He stopped still.

  For a split second, all I could hear was the sound of my own heart trying to pound its way out of my ribcage, then everything flashed white.

  I found myself back in front of my bedroom door, and Poseidon stepped back into the corridor, releasing his grip on me. “The ballroom, in a few hours,” he barked, and I barely got a glimpse of the wildness in his eyes before he flashed away.

  “I don’t want to be on you when you and him do that.” Kryvo’s tiny voice cut through my stunned silence.

  “Do what?” I whispered. “What even was that?”

  The first kiss I could have put down to adrenaline, or overexcitement. But that? That had come out of nowhere.

  No. Not nowhere. If he had felt even a fraction of that blissful feeling I had when our skin had touched, then he could easily have translated that into desire for me.

  Is that what I had done? Misread my desperation for a life free of worry as a desperation for him? Maybe I was mixing them up.

  Maybe he was mixing them up.

  I took a deep breath. “Marriage bonds are stupid,” I said.

  “You seem to quite enjoy it.”

  I frowned, unable to respond. Did I enjoy it?

  Hell yes.

  Did I need or understand it?

  Fuck no.

  I had been on the ship. More than that, Poseidon had told me how to get to it. He had as good as given me a damn key. Blue could take me straight there.

  I could go to the stables, get on the pegasus’ back, and steal the ship I had come to get that very second.

  Except… I couldn’t.

  Atlas had held me up in front of the whole world of Olympus, and I was as bound to these asshole Trials as much as I was to the king of confusing-emotional-shit, Poseidon.

  My ridiculous husband had given up his damn trident and realm to save me. I couldn’t run. Could I?

  “Ohhhh, what a fucking mess.” I sagged against the door behind me.

  “What’s wrong?” Kryvo squeaked.

  I hadn’t told him about my plan to get the ship and find Atlantis and the legendary healing font. Mostly because I had been suspicious that he was a spy. But that suspicion had leaked away a while back, I realized.

  “Let’s get some food, and I’ll tell you all about it,” I said.

  8

  ALMI

  I followed the starfish’s directions to a hall that made every other canteen I’d ever seen look, well frankly, shit.

  It was a cathedral-like space, with a huge arched ceiling painted with golden waves, and long tables with bench seats lining the hall like pews. All of the tables were covered in food and I walked along them with a plate, loading up with pastries, bread and cold meat cuts.

  There were other diners in the room, but not many. I supposed I was too late for the lunch rush. Lots of folk were wearing the blue leather of Poseidon’s guard, and I found myself wondering where Galatea was.

  “I thought you would die yesterday.”

  A crisp, clear female voice spoke behind me, and I whirled, nearly dropping my overloaded plate.

  Kalypso raised one perfect brow at my food. “That lot might kill you instead,” she smiled. Her liquid hair moved around her face, and I tried to shake off my awe. She was regal in her beauty, her rich dark skin glowing with power.

  “Did you win?” I asked her. I hadn’t thought to ask who came first in the Trial.

  She pursed her lips, and her eyes moved from me to somewhere behind me. I glanced over my shoulder but could see nothing.

  “No. Ceto won.”

  “Oh.”

  Ceto terrified me. Of all the contestants, she was the one I could least imagine ruling a realm. She was a literal monster.

  “Oh, indeed. So, how does your husband fare?”

  I frowned at her, both at hearing Poseidon described as my husband, but also at her questions. “Good. Why are you talking to me?”

  “You are one of us,” she said, her eyes a bright icy blue. “One of the five competitors for a place as a ruling god.”

  Desire burned in her tone, and a true sense of danger started to trickle through me. She wanted the trident and Aquarius. Bad.

  “Atlas is forcing me to do this. I don’t want to rule anything.” I decided to seize my opportunity to ask something I’d been wondering about. “Do you have to share Aquarius with him if you win?”

  Her features hardened, and my sense of danger heightened. “I share what I want, with who I want,” she hissed.

  I held my empty hand up in submission. “Okay, I get it. I’m a fan of consent too.”

  Her eyes narrowed suspiciously, but she relaxed a little, the power rolling from her lessening a touch. “What are your powers?”

  “I’d love to chat, but I have to take this,”—I held up my stacked plate—“to meet a friend.”

  She stared at me a moment, then shrugged. “Fine. See you at sundown.”

  “Yeah, see you.”

  I made my way out of the dining hall as quickly as I could. I hadn’t intended to take my food back to my room, and I certainly wasn’t going to tell her that the friend I was meeting was a tiny magic starfish, but I didn’t want to spend any more time with Kalypso than I had to. Being in her company felt like being with a ticking timebomb, a weird pressure pushing at my mind the whole time her eyes were on me.

  Maybe that was a god thing. I shook my head as I hurried along the corridors.

  “You missed a turn,” squeaked Kryvo.

  “Good thing I’ve got you with me,” I muttered to him, backing up.

  Eventually I found my room and I wolfed down everything I’d put on my plate, using my dresser as a table. As I ate, I told Kryvo what I had read in the book and about the Font of Zoi.

  “So, I’m thinking that if I can get to the font, then I can cure Lily of both the sleeping sickness and the stone blight,” I finished, stuffing the last of a small meat pie into my mouth.

/>   “There are a few problems with your plan,” said Kryvo, his little suckers squelching on the dresser surface.

  “Just a few?” I muttered.

  “Firstly, and most importantly, if Poseidon knows about this font, he would have visited it and used it himself already.”

  I nodded slowly. “Yes. I know, I… I have to ask him about it, I guess.”

  “You do not want to?”

  “I don’t want him to say it won’t work,” I said, realizing the truth of the words as I said them. “Atlantis is my only hope. If Poseidon tells me it won’t work, then I have nothing.”

  “That’s not true. Poseidon said that the Oracle told him the stone blight can be cured by the heart of the ocean, correct?”

  “Yes.”

  “If your power awakens then you might make the prophecy possible.”

  “Maybe.” I looked at the starfish. “I don’t think pinning my hopes on my absent magic is a very solid plan though.”

  “I don’t like to upset you, Almi, but if the Oracle said that the heart of the ocean is the only way to cure the blight then…”

  “Then my font won’t work,” I said on a sigh.

  “It looks that way. I think you should reset your focus on finding out more about this heart.”

  I stared at him, not really seeing anything. My glum acknowledgment of his words was working its way through me, and I was trying to keep my anger at bay. It wasn’t fair that this had happened to Lily. She was a good person and had been her whole life. Selfless and kind. Why should she, and all the other families in Aquarius, be affected by this blight? Poseidon included.

  I didn’t have the emotional capacity to work out why I felt a surge of panic when I thought about him turning to stone again and was relieved when Kryvo spoke. “Do you want me to see if there is anything in the palace about the heart of the ocean?”

  “Could you? That’s a great idea.”

  The starfish wiggled his arms. “Of course. I am your friend.”

  I smiled at him. “Yes. You are. Thank you.”

  He was right. I should move my focus to finding out about the heart. If Poseidon and the Oracle were right, then Lily and I were connected to it somehow. And I couldn’t steal the damn ship and get to Atlantis anyway, not while I was bound to the Trials. I needed to set aside the certainty I felt that there were answers there and concentrate on the heart of the ocean.