Page 45 of Poseidon's Trident
Thad turns one last longing glance at the sea lions before the door closes again. “Look, Thad. I think it’s weird and I know you think it’s weird too, but the people here are helping those sea lions so they can eventually go back into the wild and if they can’t, they are happy here anyway.”
“Maybe my dad can help them, though, and they can adapt.”
“Don’t you think Poseidon has enough to deal with right now?” I pat him on the shoulder.
“You’re right. He does.” Thad hangs his head.
“Beth, we need to move through the dark to find the person who is waiting for us.” Adrian raises his eyebrows.
“You could always just call out for Artemis. We all know that’s who’s waiting for us.” I roll my eyes.
“You know I can’t tell you that.” Adrian shakes his head and moves through the creepy dark aquarium; the only lights are in the back of each of the small tanks around the room.
“Where is she waiting for us?” I ask.
Adrian waves me forward and I trudge along behind him with Jayden at my side. Raven keeps having to prod at Thad to keep moving as he frowns at the exhibits.
“Why would they keep the fish in here like this?” Thad asks.
“Humans like to be able to see things they’ve never seen before. The oceans to them are mostly uncharted and humans don’t like the unknown, but they love to be able to see it for themselves,” Raven says.
“It’s why they keep animals in zoos. They want to see animals of the world without actually having to travel the world.” I glance over my shoulder.
“I knew humans were weird, but I don’t like this.” Thad shakes his head.
“I find it hard to believe you’ve never lived in a place with an aquarium before,” Jayden cuts in with a scoff.
I round a corner even as I squeeze Jayden’s hand in warning. He told me he would try but he’s not. He didn’t even last a fucking day before he went back to his bullshit.
“I have but I never felt the need to visit because I can see all these things in the actual ocean.” Thad narrows his eyes at Jayden.
“Please don’t start a fight in here. We’ve already gotten in enough trouble for other things in the past.” I tug on Jayden’s hand.
“Sorry, I really don’t know what’s going on with me today. Of course, we can’t get into a fight and destroy the aquarium. We don’t want the humans coming after us again.” Jayden runs a hand down his face.
“Try harder.” I kiss his cheek.
Thad grumbles something I can’t hear behind me and I glance over my shoulder. He’s staring into one of the tanks with a forlorn expression.
“Thad, come on. We can’t. How would you even get them to the water quick enough?”
“I know.” He hangs his head and trudges after us.
It’s like herding cats with him. He wants to save all the sea creatures in this place but even if we could without getting in some serious trouble, we would have no way to get them to the water safely and I’m pretty sure all the creatures here wouldn’t survive in the ocean.
I round the last corner and there is Artemis standing with her bow strapped to her back as she whispers with a nereid. The woman speaking to Artemis has green hair and blue eyes. She glances up at our approach and I stop.
“I thought you lived at Lake Havasu?” I step forward.
“I think you have me mistaken for someone else, daughter of Zeus,” the nereid says in a lilting tone.
She doesn’t sound like the girl whose stream we saved from the rot the sirens left behind. Shit. Are we going to have to deal with more sirens? I sure as fuck hope not with four guys and only me and Raven not affected by their song.
“We met a nereid in Lake Havasu and helped her get rid of a siren problem.” I shrug.
“Ahh, I have heard from my sister about the fierce heroes who saved her home from the sirens plaguing her. She gave you quite the gift in return.” The woman bows her head slightly.
“The gift wasn’t necessary but it has been extremely helpful in our missions.” I nod to the woman.
