[rerum]
Tessa's heartbeat was still racing when she landed on the opposite side of the portal. Her pulse raced in her ears, and her entire body buzzed from the adrenaline that came from time-travel. They'd escaped in time, but Vinny would no doubt be right after them. Right?
Tessa took a deep breath of the foggy air around her, and began to take note of the changes that had occurred. Her glittering flapper dress of the Roaring Twenties had elongated and changed into—what was that, a Victorian dress and jacket? Her hair was pinned elegantly on top of her head, and Artemis' bow and Tempest remained in pin form in the small pocket of her jacket.
"Where are we now?" Imogen asked, picking at the hem of her jacket. The daughter of Cupid's flashy dress had morphed as well, turning into a style similar to Tessa's—elaborate skirts, a slight train, and a tight jacket. Her blonde hair was twisted into a chignon at the base of her head, and her bow had turned into what seemed to be a parasol.
Tessa looked around, noticing that she and her friends had been dumped atop a bridge. A dark river sat below them, and on either side of the river, a city shrouded in the darkness of night pierced through with light in the smog.
"London," Tessa decided at last. "In the 1870s."
"So that explains the get-up," Eli chimed. The son of Ahklys, now donning a dress coat, pants, and waistcoat with a top hat, grinned impishly at Tessa.
The daughter of Poseidon eyed Eli carefully, noting how he was acting when he looked away. He seemed to be a bit more fidgety, less his collected and bubbly self. He wouldn't hold anyone's gaze for longer than a few moments, and when he looked away, Tessa could see secrets darting behind his piercing blue irises.
"We should get moving," Kaden spoke from where he leant against the bridge. Tessa turned to look at her boyfriend and felt her heart flutter—he wore similar clothing to Eli, and as did Reese, but there was something about how he was carrying himself that made Tessa swoon. He could have belonged in any era, his grace and good looks were as timeless as beauty itself.
"Tessa?" The son of Venus' voice shook her out of her reverie.
"Huh?"
"You're staring at me."
Tessa's eyes widened and she was grateful for the darkness to mask her blush. Focus, Brennan.
"Kaden's right," Reese glanced around the bridge and the city surrounding them. "If it's night here, we'll only have a little bit of time to find the relic and return it to Olympus by midnight."
"But how do we know where to go? We can't just walk around in the middle of the night waiting to find Vinny." Eli countered, folding his arms.
Kaden brandished Crocea Mars, which had hidden itself as a walking stick of the era with a bright ruby handle. "We know what the last relic is, though. That might help us find it."
"What is it?" Imogen asked.
Kaden met Tessa's gaze, and with a chill, the realization dawned on her. "My father's trident."
Imogen's eyes widened. "Then we need to get a move on. If that's not returned, there really will be war."
"But the other relics didn't correlate to where they were hidden." Eli knit his eyebrows together.
Tessa racked her brain for some sort of lead. If her father's trident was stolen in this era, it would have to be located in the last place that someone would think to find it. A place so simple, that it would be the perfect place to hide it due to said simplicity.
Tessa shut her eyes, spreading her senses out around her. Her father's trident was forged in the sea, and to the sea it would have to return. The very energy that surged through Tessa's veins, the tides the weapon could rearrange, all correlated back to the sea. If Tessa could feel some form of connection to it...
"There!" She exclaimed, although she didn't exactly know where 'there' was.
"Where?" Reese asked.
"Just...I have a feeling. I can sense the trident, so I can lead us to it." Tessa explained, already starting down the bridge. "Come on!"
And with that, Tessa dashed off down the Blackfriars Bridge of London, weaving through the smog and shadows.
~~
Surprisingly, it wasn't too late in the city. As Tessa and her friends emerged into London, carriages were still racing past and pedestrians lined the sidewalks and streets. Everywhere Tessa looked, she spotted parasols, top hats, waistcoats, gas-lamps, and more. The Twenties and the Forties had been something else, in a world that was fairly similar to her own. But now, being here in an era ruled by different customs, was unlike anything she'd imagined.
They'd been walking for about fifteen minutes, and with each foot, Tessa could feel that they were getting closer to the trident. Wherever it was hidden, they'd find it, surely.
"How much longer?" Imogen groaned from behind Tessa. "This dress is wearing me out."
Tessa could relate to that; their Victorian gowns had yards upon yards of silk and brocade, not counting their petticoats and corsets and slips underneath. In other words, it wasn't exactly fun to walk around in when you had someplace to be.
"Maybe ten more minutes?" Tessa guessed. "We're getting closer; I know that much."
"As long as we're—" Reese started, but the son of Apollo's voice trailed off. Tessa stopped in her tracks and turned to face the blond boy, whose features had turned grave as he stared across the street.
"Reese, what's up?" Kaden asked, nudging his best friend.
The son of Apollo hardly responded. It was like he'd entered some sort of trance, until in the blink of an eye he took off, dashing in front of a carriage as he bolted across the street.
The initial stupor wore off, thankfully, and Tessa and her friends sprang into action. They ran after Reese--which proved to be difficult in all of their clothing—hearts pounding.
"What do you think happened?" Eli asked as they ran around a corner in the wake of their friend.
Tessa shook her head. "No idea." Reese had just taken off without any sort of warning, and whatever he'd seen was enough to spook him.
They continued to run down the streets of London, dodging people as they did. However, even Reese must have tired from the run in the several layers he was wearing, because he'd stopped at the corner of another street.
"Reese!" Imogen exclaimed. "What the hell was that?"
The son of Apollo turned to his girlfriend with a desperate look in his eyes, a look that Tessa hadn't seen since...
Oh.
"I saw him," Reese's voice was scratchy as he spoke, and his blue eyes turned watery. "I swear to the gods, I saw Flynn."
Silence stretched over the demigods at that. Tessa knew how difficult it had been for Reese in the months following Flynn's demise; he'd been his other half and literally saw him burst into flames. But if that was the case, there should have been no possible way that Flynn had survived the explosion of the portals.
"It looked just like him," Reese's voice cracked and he swiped at his eyes.
Tessa thought back to Amelie the day after the battle, where she'd cooped herself up as she tried to figure out a way to bring Flynn back. Like Reese, the daughter of Hecate had been adamant on Flynn's survival. Both of them must have felt something, some disturbance in the matrix, that led to them believing that the one they both loved was still out there.
And Tessa couldn't deter them from that belief. She'd known firsthand what it was like to see someone she loved ripped away from her, and to have them come back when she least expected it. Only in Mark's case he hadn't erupted into a starburst of flames between space and time.
"Reese—" Kaden tried, reaching for his best friend, but the son of Apollo cut him off.
"Don't try to tell me that he's dead," Reese glared at them all. "He's not."
Imogen rested a hand on her boyfriend's shoulder, staring at him with sad green eyes. She gave Tessa, Kaden, and Eli a look that seemed to ask them to do anything they could to placate him for the time being.
"Reese," Tessa started slowly. "I believe you."
The son of Apollo eyed Tessa carefully. "You do?"
Tessa nodded. "I believe you when you say you saw someone who looked exactly like Flynn. You know why? Because back in the Twenties, I saw someone who looked exactly like me." She took a shaky breath. "I know you must want to follow them, but if we don't find the relic and stop Vinny, we'll never be able to find Flynn. Okay?"
Reese bit down on his lip, staring out to where Flynn's look-a-like had probably evaded him. He turned back to Tessa and the others, his posture a little straighter, his eyes a little brighter. "Okay."
"Then let's get going," She continued.
After another moment, the demigods embarked back on the path. It took Tessa a moment to regain the connection between herself and Poseidon's trident, but before long, they were back on the trail. Kaden walked at Tessa's side, and with one glance of his face, she knew what was coming.
"What was all of that about?" Kaden asked her, his voice hardly above a murmur.
Tessa fiddled with the hem of her jacket. "I had no choice," She sighed. "When you lose someone, you'd do anything to get them back. That kind of grief can cloud your perception of reality, and as heartless as it seems, we can't afford for Reese to lose his head right now."
"No, not that," Kaden interjected. "What did you see in the Twenties?"
And so Tessa enlightened him on the girl she had seen within the party, and how she'd looked like a mirror image of Tessa, save the labyrinthine belt around her waist. Kaden didn't appear to be fazed, if only slightly puzzled.
"Maybe it was one of your ancestors?" He tried as they walked around a corner.
Tessa shook her head. "I doubt it," She said. "This girl...she looked at me like she knew exactly who I was and why I was there."
"That's weird," Kaden muttered.
"Very." Tessa concurred.
The son of Venus at her side drew out a breath, gazing at her with luminous eyes. "One mystery at a time, huh?"
Tessa smiled weakly, and linked her arm in his as an answer. Together, they continued on down the path, following their friends through London. However, as they neared the trident, Tessa couldn't help but scan her surroundings, in search of a boy and girl who looked too much like herself and her late friend to be strangers.
~~
The trail stopped at the British Museum. A feeling like a flare erupted within Tessa as soon as she saw the building, and she knew that Vinny's third and final relic was inside, waiting to be taken. There was only one problem.
It was locked.
"Well, great," Eli folded his arms and leant against the door. "Now what?"
Tessa made a considerate face and took a few paces back. She stared up at the museum, trying to rationalize an alternate way inside, when it dawned on her.
The past two relics had been in an enclosed space, only opened when her hand had touched the lock. Could the same tactic be used now? The trident was inside, that was for sure, but the museum itself could have just been the equivalent to the box or the drawer from before.
"Let me try something," She muttered, forging her way to the front door. She stared down at the doorknob, and with a silent prayer, pressed her hand to the lock.
The door swung open.
Eli narrowed her eyes at her. "What kind of witchcraft..."
Tessa laughed wryly, masking her utter confusion. "Just come on."
She and her friends made their way inside, keeping an eye out for any caretakers or traitors hellbent on destroying the space-time continuum. However, the museum was entirely empty.
"If I were a trident, where would I hide?" Reese murmured as they passed one of the exhibition rooms.
"The Ancient Greek and Roman galleries?" Kaden tried. "It'd be like hiding in plain sight."
"Worth a shot," Imogen shrugged.
The demigods continued on, but something just felt off to Tessa. The museum shouldn't have been this empty, right? There'd have to have been guards or something to make sure no one barged in to steal things, so why were they getting in scotch-free? All of these worries and more flew through Tessa's head at hurricane-force speeds, but before she could voice any of them, they arrived at their destination.
The room was filled with statues and ruins from the Ancient Greek and Roman eras. Paintings and frescoes lined the walls, and glass cases filled with artifacts and relics from the olden days dotted the vast hall. However, like a beacon of light at the end of the room, sat Poseidon's trident.
Even from where Tessa stood on the opposite side of the room, she could feel the amount of power that the trident emanated. Her father ruled all of the oceans and seas with a mere wave of this weapon, controlling the currents and the tides. It was the scepter of a king from beneath the waves, and now the princess of the depths would bring it to light once more.
"Watch my back," Tessa commanded, and before she could hear her friends' protests, she marched towards the trident in the back of the room.
Something was off, but the feeling was muted with each step Tessa took towards the trident. Its power overwhelmed her, canceling out all other fears and worries she harbored within her heart and mind. While it didn't look like much, she knew that the three-pronged spear could cause a whole lot of damage if it fell into the wrong hands.
She reached out for it, and just as her fingers grazed the sleek metal of the weapon, it disappeared.
Tessa stumbled backwards in confusion, blinking rapidly as if to ward off a sudden daze. However, the trident was gone. As if it had been a figment of her imagination, it had dissolved into nothing.
"Guys—" Tessa started, but her voice died in her throat as an expanse of light and magic unfolded before her, where the trident had been. And before Tessa could so much as scream, she was sucked into the portal that had erupted into existence before her very eyes.