by Jaymin Eve
Close up, I noticed that Connor’s hands were shaking. It was the first time I’d ever seen him rattled.
“You are the key, Maddison,” he said, his voice low and strained. “Asher’s parents searched for you for hundreds of years. The god-child held in stasis, the key to Atlantis rising. Only, you weren’t the only one in stasis. The rest of them are too, and now they’re all going to die. You’re the only one that can save them. You’re the only one who can stop Sonaris.”
I still didn’t understand. It didn’t make sense.
Connor took a deep breath. “Atlantis will rise, and if you’re not there to free your people, Sonaris will destroy them all.”
He took another step closer, and Asher held up a warning hand. “Don’t,” he said softly. The sort of softness that meant he was furious and already considering the murder plan.
Connor finally turned his gaze away from me to Asher. “I’m not joking around,” he said, and I remembered that these two had a history. I hadn’t asked Asher about it, because it had slipped my mind, but now I was curious. “Ash, it’s happening now. Sonaris could damn the entire world.”
“This was foreseen,” Asher said softly, and I realized he was trying to explain it to me. “A thousand years ago a prophet predicted it. My parents tried to force it into fruition. They lost their lives in the process. I have been trying to stop it from happening by refusing to step one foot into the waters of Atlantis.”
“Until me,” I added. “My kidnapping forced your hand.”
He nodded. “Yes, and I have no regrets. If anything, the last few months, and most of my life, has taught me that you can’t fight fate.”
“What do I have to do with it?”
Asher’s jaw was rigid, the muscles in his arms vibrating. “The daughter of the gods was the key to Atlantis’s demise, and she will be the one to return it. Her sacrifice returns the people, and in return, is the only thing to stop Sonaris.”
Connor was nodding. I could see him from the corner of my eye.
“So … you do believe I’m Sonaris’s daughter?” I asked, part of me hurt that he hadn’t confided this in me before.
Asher didn’t answer immediately. “I … I don’t know,” he finally said. “In some ways, it makes sense.”
For the first time I started to consider that I might actually be a ten-thousand-year-old half supe, half god. I must have been frozen in time, as a small child at least, because the earliest memories I had were being five and thinking I was human.
Someone had freed me from Atlantis, dropped me in the human world with a block over my power, and set this entire thing in motion.
“It wasn’t just your power that brought about the rise,” Connor said. I’d almost forgotten he was there. “It was the combination of almost direct descendants from the three royal lines.”
“Who is the third?” I asked. Asher was Cornipicus, I was Sonaris, but who was Jervania?
“Connor,” Asher said. “He’s almost as pure of blood as me. His parents were best friends with mine, and I was raised for some time with his family. I went between them and Jesse’s, until….”
“Until you left us,” Connor said bitterly. “We had a fundamental disagreement on the prophecy, and Asher has spent his time since avoiding anything to do with Atlantis.”
That wasn’t strictly true, since his four best friends all had Atlantean blood in them. He just avoided the prophecy and anyone connected to it.
“So your blood was in the water with ours?” I asked, and Connor nodded. “How am I the key, then?”
“Sonaris sank Atlantis,” Connor said. “His blood is the only thing that would have broken the spell. You have his blood. If your power was at full strength, you could have broken the lock without us.”
Fuck.
Connor held a hand out to me. “Are you ready to return, to save the very people you cursed ten thousand years ago?”
Asher’s power blasted him back across the bridge, and I had to grab his arm to stop him following after Connor.
“No, please,” I said. “Fighting him is not going to stop what’s happening. I think … I think I need to at least return to Atlantis and see what he’s talking about.”
Asher’s arms wrapped around me as he pulled me into his chest. “I can’t let you do this,” he said, his voice filled with worry. “We have no idea what awaits us there.”
A few strands of pink hair that had escaped my updo fell across my face, and I thought about how the year of pink hair had brought me more joy than I ever thought was possible, but also a shit-ton of fear and stress and crazy.
I made up my mind right then, pulling back from Asher to see Connor. “I’ll meet you at the Atlantis location in one week. You can prove your story to me, explain everything that would be required to fix the situation, and then we will go from there.”
In one week it was my birthday. Before I met with anyone and changed the fate of the world, I was going to change my hair.
New color had always been synonymous with new fate for me.
Let those fate-bitches do their best to take me down. The year of pink was over.
It was time for something different.
The year of purple.
41
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Blurb: Every year Lettie makes the trip back to Hotel Paranormal - a hotel which is used exclusively by a multitude of supernatural beings. This is her one chance to release her glamour and spend time with her siren sisters.
This year the wolves are there too. Including Axel, an alpha wolf, who leads his people with a iron fist and a darkly captivating presence.
The last time they were at the hotel, Lettie and Axel spent one night together, and this year he plans on tracking her down again -the siren who sung a song around his soul.
Only sirens don't settle and alphas don't mate outside their pack. There is no white picket fence in their future.
It's a battle of the wills, with explosive chemistry, and two alpha supernaturals who will learn that above all else, love is worth fighting for.
Acknowledgments
I’ve always loved school based books. Something about the new beginnings and the firsts we experience during our schooling years. I really wanted this story to feel like you were taking a stroll through magic classes, and feeling the vibe of being in a school for supernaturals. It was so much fun for me to explore that exciting new beginning for Maddi.
And I hope you all loved it too!
As always, thanks to my family for loving me, even on my erratic and distracted days. You are my reason for everything.
Thank you to Heather, my amazing PA, who keeps life functioning when I can’t. And who always betas my books, and lifts me up when I’m really sure that this one is shit.
Huge thanks to Marice, Lela, and Teresa for reading an early copy, and providing such amazing feedback. I appreciate you guys.
Thank you to my review team, my Nerd Herd, and everyone else that has a hand in supporting me. Without you, I would not be writing books.
To my editors Lee, from Ocean’s Edge Editing, and Liv, from Hot Tree editing, I appreciate your hard work on this piece.
Thank you to Tamara, my cover artist, for this absolute masterpiece. OMG. You could not have done a more amazing job. I adore it. (Think it might be my favourite).
To the readers who have stuck with me through thirty plus books, 7 years, and countless breakdowns (lucky you didn’t see those), I thank you. Sending you big love.
About the Author
Jaymin Eve is the Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author of paranormal romance, urban fantasy, and sci-fi novels filled with epic love stories, great adventure, and plenty of laughs. She lives in Australia with her husband, two beautiful daughters, and a couple of crazy pets.
https://www.amazon.com/Jay
min-Eve/e/B00E1URI2I
Also by Jaymin Eve
Supernatural Academy (Urban Fantasy/PNR)
Year One
Year Two (2019)
Dark Legacy (Dark contemporary high school romance)
Book One: Broken Wings
Book Two: Broken Trust (June 2019)
Book Three: (2019)
Secret Keepers Series (Complete PNR/Urban Fantasy)
Book One: House of Darken
Book Two: House of Imperial
Book Three: House of Leights
Book Four: House of Royale
Storm Princess Saga (Complete High Fantasy)
Book One: The Princess Must Die
Book Two: The Princess Must Strike
Book Three: The Princess Must Reign
Curse of the Gods Series (Complete Reverse Harem Fantasy)
Book One: Trickery
Book Two: Persuasion
Book Three: Seduction
Book Four: Strength
Novella: Neutral
Book Five: Pain
NYC Mecca Series (Complete - UF series)
Book One: Queen Heir
Book Two: Queen Alpha
Book Three: Queen Fae
Book Four: Queen Mecca
A Walker Saga (Complete - YA Fantasy)
Book One: First World
Book Two: Spurn
Book Three: Crais
Book Four: Regali
Book Five: Nephilius
Book Six: Dronish
Book Seven: Earth
Supernatural Prison Trilogy (UF series)
Book One: Dragon Marked
Book Two: Dragon Mystics
Book Three: Dragon Mated
Book Four: Broken Compass
Book Five: Magical Compass
Book Six: Louis
Book Seven: Jacob’s story (tbd)
Hive Trilogy (Complete UF/PNR series)
Book One: Ash
Book Two: Anarchy
Book Three: Annihilate
Sinclair Stories (Standalone Contemporary Romance)
Songbird
