Page 39 of Emerge

"We don't have much time. Let's go." I followed Dylan, who was also blue.

"How is this possible?" I wanted to stare at my tail because in the light it glistened like the inside of an abalone shell.

"Does it matter? I'm the son of a god; anything is possible." I couldn't see his face, but he sounded annoyed with my questioning, so I didn't ask any more.

We swam for a few minutes before diving deep to the seafloor, where there was a cave-like entrance. I hadn't seen it at first, but as we drew closer, I spotted a faint shimmer over the rock. I wondered if it was only visible to us or if humans were able to see it too.

We swam through the opening and I gasped, taking in the giant castle that glistened in the magical light in the underground cavern. There were buildings and what looked like houses around it, but it was much smaller than I expected.

I saw tritons below, and I was tempted to yell to them for help but found I couldn't open my mouth. I glared at Dylan, who had put his arm out to stop me from swimming forward.

"Remember what's on the line." He took my hand like we were a couple and swam down to a group of buildings just as an alarm went off.

We waited against a wall, which I realized was made of coral, as tritons rushed toward the sound of the alarm. Dylan pulled me down a path between two buildings and lifted a metal grate from the ground.

I gave him a look like he was absurd, and he pushed me along. I was glad I wasn't scared of confined spaces, because it was a narrow tunnel that was only the width of a person. We came to a door and he handed me the knife. "Cut a hole for us to swim through."

I did as he asked, not that I had a choice. I really wanted to stab him, but every time I tried to get myself to, my body wouldn't allow it. I cut a circle in the door large enough for us to swim through, and we entered an empty room.

I cut through four more doors before we entered a large room that glistened with jewels. There was no one around, which I found unnerving. Dylan knew exactly where we were going as we swam across the room to another set of doors. He had been in this castle before.

I didn't know how close he was to Poseidon, but if he was willing to break into the castle and take his trident, I could assume they didn't have a close relationship. Poseidon had sent him to live elsewhere.

They opened into a large room that looked like a sitting room. I guess a triton or a siren could sit, but why would they if they could just float around?

I felt like we were in one of those amusement park funhouses that had countless doors. The double doors on the far side of the room sparkled and Dylan tried the knobs.

"This is Poseidon's sleeping chamber. He's in stasis." I raised a brow in question. "Cut through it. Be quick. They've probably realized by now something is happening."

I did as he asked and he took the knife back from me, sliding it into the sheath around his waist. So much for using it against him.

When we floated into the room, I covered my mouth to stop a gasp of bubbles. A man was in the large bed that looked like it was carved from a giant diamond. His tail was a shimmering teal color and long silvery hair floated around him. Cradled to his chest was a trident that glistened despite the darkness in the room.

I floated near the door, frozen in place as Dylan swam to the bed like there wasn't a Greek god taking a nap. He pulled something from the sheath that was short but the same diameter as the trident and slowly swapped the trident with it.

If he woke up, he'd spot me first and smite me with his lightning eyes. I shuddered as Dylan swam back to me and lifted his chin toward the door. Once we were out, my muscles relaxed, but that was short-lived.

The doors leading to the outside were wide open and a line of tritons swam in, their own, smaller tridents pointed at us.

"Show time, Riley. Don't let me down." He held the trident like it was an extension of himself and pointed it toward the approaching tritons. A burst of light came from it and knocked the tritons back. "Make them go away so we can get out of here."

It became clear that Dylan didn't have the ability to control sirens and tritons. He was controlling me, but it had to have been the blood he gave me.

The tritons were already coming back toward us. I took a deep breath and made sure to put enough power behind my words. "Go home to your families."

They stopped and looked confused. Many left, but there were a few that shook off my compulsion and stayed to face us. We were outnumbered four to one.

"Good girl. This I can work with." He pointed the trident at them and, instead of a flash of light, the water began swirling around them, allowing us to slip past them.

As we swam back the way we came, the blue color slowly faded from my skin. Dylan noticed and made a growling noise before grabbing my hand and swimming even faster toward the exit.

"Where's my mom?" I tried yanking my hand out of his grasp, but he was strong.

"She'll be fine." He came to a screeching halt as tritons and other creatures surrounded us and blocked the exit. "She didn't do a good job of creating a diversion."

He didn't ask me to get them to leave, instead he pointed the trident straight above us at the rock. A lightning bolt shot from the end and sent rock falling everywhere except on us. The soldiers swam for cover and we swam up through the new hole he had created.

If Poseidon hadn't woken up before, Dylan damaging his home would surely wake him up. What would happen to me if I were caught by tritons? Would they kill me right away or take me to Poseidon?

I didn't want to find out, so I sped up as we exited the cavern into open water. He let my hand go. "What are you-" I didn't get to finish because he slammed the bottom of the trident into the sea floor.

The earth jolted with such force that the entire top of the cavern caved in, crashing into the depths below. My eyes burned as I watched tritons and their guardians try to dodge the fast-moving falling rock.

"Let's go." Dylan's face was set in stone as he swam past me.

I didn't want to go with him, but I couldn't get the images of Ivy and Aiden being stalked out of my head. This war between Dylan and Poseidon wasn't my battle, but somehow, I felt responsible for what was happening below.

We were just about to the shore when Dylan had circled back and came straight for me. Before I had time to process what was happening, he hit me over the head with the trident.

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