Chapter 88

Poseidon laced his fingers through my hair, and I wanted so badly to stay here in his arms and not move, not think. But I couldn’t. Without the fourth element clicking into place, who knew how long I had before one of the other three decided to attack me again? I felt like I was a walking time bomb fixing to explode at any moment. Worse, that one of my gods would get hurt.

I pushed up from my prone position half on Poseidon’s muscled chest. “Any ideas on how to help me learn how to control water?”

“Make love again?” he said in a sexy voice that had me quaking inside to do just that.

“I would love to.” I kissed his lips in a quick peck before rising from the bed and hunting for my clothes. “Except that hasn’t worked and we should save that for after we figure this out.”

“Celebration sex,” he smiled, “I like it.”

“Umm...where are my clothes?”

His face paled, but he waved a hand, and I was dressed in a dark rose-colored swimsuit. “As you say, let’s work on getting you acclimated to water.”

“You make it sound like I’ve never been around the stuff.” I placed my hand on my hip.

“Not like this you haven’t.” His smile was contagious.

After he magicked a black Speedo for himself, he held out his hand to me.

I blinked and we were no longer in his home. One second we were in the bedroom, the next, I was in the ocean with nothing around us but waves.

“Put your air mask on,” he instructed.

Not wanting to take any chances with my abilities, I did as he asked.

“Now follow me.” He kept hold of my hand, but he was a faster swimmer than me, so I felt like he was hauling me behind him. Every once in a while, he glanced back at me, and I gave him a reassuring nod.

He stopped underwater, pulling me to his side. A dark figure glided toward us, and I gaped. A blue whale. It sang as it swam with a baby alongside.

“May I?” My lip trembled and I bit it to keep from accidentally bursting my bubble.

“Of course.” Poseidon whistled and the whale and her baby turned toward us.

I stretched out my hand, feeling the mother’s side. She was so powerful, so huge that I forgot to breathe. It was amazing how a creature like this could move so gracefully in the water.

“Thank you,” I said to the whale and repeated to Poseidon. “That was...Wow. Thank you.”

“This is just the beginning.” He gestured toward the open water. “There are miles and miles of ocean and animals. All unique.”

“Let’s just skip the sharks.” I pushed closer to him. “They freak me out.”

“They only do what they were created.” He chuckled. “There are worst things in the world. But I will not take you to any of them on purpose.”

“Good. I saw the movie Jaws when I was three and I’ve never been able to get over that phobia.” Of course, I had told myself it didn’t matter I was terrified of sharks because after my folks died in a plane accident, I never thought I would ever be on a plane to fly over said ocean—and look at me now.

“How about a school of dolphins?”

“Yes, yes,” I practically squealed. “Now you’re talking my language.”

He laughed and I reveled in the sound. “They are mischievous buggers, but I can see why people love them so much.”

We swam for a while, my hand in his and I marveled at the wonders of his realm. From the bright, colored coral to the sea fans and hiding octopus to the fish swimming in unison to look like a bigger fish. Diving toward us were dozens of long, sleek gray dolphins. They nudged my legs and hands almost as though they were sniffing me like friendly dogs would.

“Here.” Poseidon handed me his trident. “Throw it. They love to play fetch.”

“Wait, are you serious?” I balked.

“Of course. It’s their favorite game. That and chase, but until you can control water, you’ll lose against them.”

“No.” I gawked at the trident. “I mean how can I throw that? Don’t you have a ball or something else I can use?”

“Nope. Last time I tried something like that, it ended up sinking the Titanic.”

“You’re joking.” I shook my head.

“I wish I was. I threw a baseball a lot harder than I meant to. Then I had an emergency call in Olympus, and by the time I got back, the dolphins were upset that they hadn’t found the ball. It was only later when I heard the news of the sinking ship and homed in where the ball was that I found it in the hull of the ship.”

“That’s terrible.” I crossed my arms. “So wouldn’t me tossing the trident to them cause a worse catastrophe?”

“No, it never goes out of my reach for more than a hundred yards.”

“How is that possible? I’ve never really seen you with it until—” I couldn’t finish the words. Until the day he tried to kill me.

He swallowed, his Adam’s apple showing more pronounced. “When it is not visible, it’s in the astral realm, waiting for me. Kinda like when my brother calls lightning from nowhere.”

“All right.” I uncrossed my arms and held out my hand, still a bit freaked out to touch a legendary weapon and one that nearly demolished me.

The metal was warm in my hand, surprisingly so. I had thought it would have been cool. Carefully, I threw it. One small dolphin darted up and grasped it in its mouth. Another tried to take the trident away, but the little one swam to me, dropping it before me.

Again, I threw it and another dolphin snagged it this time. Over and over I played with the dolphins, their antics making me laugh. One placed the trident at my feet and when I went to reach for it, the sly mammal grabbed it and spun in a circle as though to say, ‘I win, I win. I got the trident.’

“You’re right, they are sneaky,” I said with a smile. “What’s next?”

“How about we go to the surface? One of the best ways to connect with my element is—”

“Water skiing?” I added. “Oh, or jet skiing.” Had always wanted to do one of those but never got around to it. Emily had invited me a few times in high school, but with my parents’ deaths, I never really wanted to go. Didn’t realize at the time that I was fighting major depression despite taking medication for it. I only made it through school with tons of caffeine to wake me up and sleeping pills at night.

“No,” he chuckled. “Though that would be something Hermes would want to do too.”

“You’re right.” A tiny octopus crawling along the seafloor with a suntan lotion lid in one of its arms caught my attention for a second. “He had me go parasailing to learn his magic.”

“I’m surprised he didn’t take you sky diving. That’s his favorite human activity.”

Tears burned the backs of my eyes. It wasn’t Poseidon’s fault that he didn’t know a lot about me. He hadn’t been around unlike the others. “My parents died in a plane crash,” I tried to keep my voice light, but it still came out splintered. “Kinda never got on a plane after that. Until when I came here.”

“Oh, Paige,” he swooped me into his arms. “I’m so sorry.”

My tears came out so fast, I couldn’t stop them. Poseidon didn’t chastise me or grow impatient. He merely was here for me, stroking my back, letting the tears run their course.

In time, I was able to push back the tears, and just let Poseidon hold me until I could get myself back together without falling apart.

I eased back, rubbing my eyes, which popped my air bubble and hastily crafted another. I didn’t want his look of pity—had gotten too many of those my entire life.

“So what did you have in mind?” I tilted my head to the side and felt the ghost of a smile on my lips. “Water skiing? We could get the other three to come too. Dion has a boat and Hermes and I can ski while you keep us safe in the water.”

“And what of Hephaestus?” Poseidon arched an eyebrow, but his gruff voice whenever he said the god’s name wasn’t as harsh as before and I wondered what had happened to cause that. It couldn’t have been from my meltdown. I’d seen the way the two gods had acted around each other. They say oil and water don’t mix, but Heph and Poseidon were like flammable oil and water with a lit match thrown in.

“I guess he could fix our skis if there was anything that happened to them?” I offered in a sweet voice.

Poseidon grunted. “Or I guess he could make s’mores over a fire.”

I nudged his shoulder with mine. “See? He’s clearly an asset to our team, just as you and the others.”

“No, not this time.” Poseidon held out his hand and I took it. “We’ll connect with water in a much gentler way.”

We broke through the surface, and I bobbed up and down with the waves. Poseidon held up his trident and the water around us calmed.

“Now. Float.”

“What?” I tucked my hair behind my ears, breaking my air mask again, not sure if I heard him right.

“On your back, stretch out and float.”

“Are you kidding me? That’s all I have to do to learn how to master your element?” Why had he said it was the most powerful? “I’ve been floating in pools all my life. What about surfing, I’ve wanted to learn how to do that too.”

“You’re not ready for that yet.”

I rolled my eyes.

“Floating is not as easy as it sounds.” There was a twinkle in his eyes that made my heart skip a beat.

“Do I get a reward for how long I can float?” I asked in a sultry voice. The least I could get was some sexy one-on-one time with Poseidon rather than doing silly exercises.

“Not sinking.”

I splashed him with water. “You’re no fun.”

“Careful little witch, I control the seas.”

A huge wave crashed over me, and I sputtered out saltwater. “Hey, no fair.”

“Send a bigger wave into me then.”

“You know I can’t, or I might make something worse happen...like bring a hurricane in the middle of your kitchen.”

“Try my idea,” he said, wiping my wet hair off and kissing my forehead. “If you last thirty seconds, I’ll let you splash me as much as you want.”

“Deal.” Even though it might have been juvenile to have a water fight with the god of the sea, I was only nineteen, so give me a break. Not like many had a chance like this. I rubbed my hands together. “Watch and lose.”

I lay down on my back in the water.

“Easy—peas—”

A wave nudged me, and my concentration dropped.

“Hey, stop that.”

“I am not doing anything. It’s you, you are fighting.”

Okay, so I lay down again, the lower half of my body sinking. “What’s going on? I can do this in a pool, why not here?”

“A pool is smooth, no current, no waves.” Poseidon touched my arm. “Let go. Allow the water to hold you up. It will not let you drown.”

Easy for him to say. He wasn’t the one being tossed back and forth.

No matter how hard I worked to stay afloat, either my legs pulled me down in the water or the waves sloshed over my face.

“I can’t do this.” I straightened, put my air mask on, and dived into the water.

“Paige,” Poseidon called out after me, but I kept swimming.

An array of brightly colored fish flashed before me, spelling out the words, ‘I’m sorry.”

“It’s not you.” I spun around and found him waiting for me with open arms. “I don’t know why I can’t do this. It’s like I have a block or something.”

He held me again. This time he enlarged my bubble until we were both inside. He kissed my lips until I clung to him, tasting his saltiness on my tongue that I couldn’t get enough of.

When he pulled back gently, I didn’t want to stop, but I knew I couldn’t kiss him all day. Damn it.

“Ready to try something else?” he asked.

I shrugged, giving him a brittle smile.

“After this, I promise, no more tests. And I’ll even give you a massage all over your body.”

“That sounds like heaven.” I nearly swooned. We’d only been out here for an hour or so, but I felt drained like I’d been wrestling with a riptide all day.

“See that rock ahead? Try to send the trident out with water to it.”

At his words, my insides twisted. I didn’t want to mess this up and I didn’t want to have the backlash either of water or another element. But I had to figure this out. There was only so much time before Zeus showed up and honestly, I was getting pissed off that he’d come after me and my men so much.

I wanted to take the battle to him for once and get him to back off for good. Concentrating on the power around me, I pushed the trident away from me. It shot through the water.

“I did it!” I spun to see Poseidon’s proud look.

Instead, horror showed in his eyes, and he darted straight past me.

“Wha—”

The baby whale! The trident was headed right for it.