by Alyssa Day
Conlan grinned and unexpectedly leaned forward to press a brief kiss on her forehead. “I could never have wished for a more worthy mate for my brother, little witch.”
Her mouth fell open, but before she could form a single response, he was gone, following Alaric out the doorway. Somebody immediately started shouting at somebody else, and she didn’t want to hear it. She walked away from the noise and toward the table, head held high. The room was now empty except for Riley and Marie, so the warriors must have made their escape through a back entrance.
Riley didn’t stand, but held out a hand to indicate the chair across from her. “Please join me while the boys beat on each other for a while,” she said wearily, but with a smile.
Marie came up beside Erin with a silver carafe. “More coffee?” she offered, as if this were a normal ladies’ brunch and Ven hadn’t nearly killed Christophe on the floor near where she stood.
Erin shrugged. “When in Atlantis, I guess,” she said. “Yes, I’d love more coffee, please. And maybe some chocolate-covered Valium?”
Marie smiled, poured the coffee, mentioned duties, and glided off in that serene, swanlike way she had. Erin watched her disappear down a corridor, then turned to face Riley. She could feel the heat of the flush burning her cheeks, but tried to ignore it. “So, you’re going to marry Conlan. Is he much like his brother?”
Riley laughed. “I wondered when you’d get around to asking that. Two peas in a pod, except really sexy peas in an underwater pod, to stretch a metaphor.”
“He pulls this ‘I’m the warrior, you do as I say’ stuff on you, too?”
Riley rolled her eyes. “Let’s just say that he tries and leave it at that. In their defense, it’s bred in their genes and then trained into them for years, Erin. For centuries after that, they live for nothing but to protect and defend humanity. Once you recognize you’re dealing with a warrior you learn to make certain concessions.”
Erin tried to wrap her mind around the idea. “So you’re saying that you let Conlan get away with this?”
“Are you kidding? If I gave him an inch, he’d have me locked in my room ‘for my own safety.’” Riley flashed a very wicked grin. “You have to stand up to him, Erin. No matter what your hormones might be telling you.”
Erin’s face heated up again. “Um, about that. This is kind of personal, but do you and Conlan—” She paused, unable to think of a delicate way to ask the question.
“Go at each other like bunnies?” Riley asked drily.
The burst of laughter escaped before Erin could stop it. “I was going to say have some sort of runaway flash fire raging between you, but the bunnies thing works.”
“I figured a little laughter might relieve the tension,” Riley said, reaching for her glass of juice. “Has he told you about the soul-meld?”
“No, but Marie mentioned it. What exactly does that mean? And don’t tell me that Ven will explain it, or I may have to take your pastries hostage,” she threatened, only half joking.
Riley put her hands up to cover the plate. “Touch my baklava and somebody gets hurt,” she warned, grinning.
“Okay, okay. Your pastry’s safe from me, since you’re eating for two. But, seriously, I need to know what this soul-meld is about.”
The smile faded from Riley’s face, and she nodded. “You deserve the truth, especially considering the way Ven’s acting about you.” She glanced up at the doorway, but it remained empty, although they could still hear the faint sounds of the three men arguing outside.
“The soul-meld is an ancient legacy that apparently very rarely happened around here in the past few thousand years. As the legend goes, certain Atlanteans have the capacity to reach a higher, almost divine level of connection with the person they fall in love with. When this happens, the doors to their souls fall open and each can travel inside of the other.” Riley paused and bit her lip, then continued. “It’s a connection far more intense than anything else could ever be, and intimacy with someone you’re soul-melded with will rock your socks off.”
Erin stared at the other woman, her mind racing frantically. “But I’m not Atlantean. Well, maybe one-one-thousandth or something.”
“Same here,” returned Riley. “Apparently only one of the pair needs to be pure Atlantean. In fact, Alaric has a few theories about some of us humans having DNA from the Atlantean ancients who left Atlantis just before the Cataclysm. It would make sense, in my case, because of my emotional empathy. My sister has the same talent.”
Erin shook her head, relief sweeping through her. “No, that doesn’t make sense. I don’t have a drop of emotional empathy.”
Riley leaned forward and touched her hand. “But you are a witch, Erin,” she said patiently. “What do you think the proportion of witches is in the general population?”
“I don’t know. Fewer than one percent?”
“Way fewer. Fewer than point zero one percent, to be exact. My sister is…well, she knows this kind of thing. From what we’re learning from the Fae and from what Alaric has learned from the scrolls in Poseidon’s Temple, it seems that the witches are descended from the ancient Atlanteans.” Riley leaned back in her chair and sipped some more of her juice. “Throw in your gem singer Gift, and you’re almost certainly descended from Atlantis.”
Erin rubbed her temples, where a fierce headache was beginning to form. “Okay, let’s assume for the moment that I am some kind of great great great to the nth power granddaughter of some old Atlantean couple. And let’s assume the bunny thing, too,” she said, ducking her head and staring into her coffee cup rather than look at Riley. “But Ven said free will. So just because we might have done the soul-meld thing once doesn’t mean we’re stuck together, does it?”
Silence. When she glanced up at Riley, the other woman’s expression was troubled. “Nooo,” she said, drawing out the word. “But I guess, considering the bond I have with Conlan, it’s hard for me to understand why you’d ever want to leave Ven if you truly have reached the soul-meld with him.”
“Because I’m not a possession. I don’t mean to offend you, and I’m not saying that you are. But maybe Conlan is more of a modern thinker than his brother. Ven is a cross between some marauding Viking lord and…and a pirate! Or a big, hairy caveman. And I’m not about to be his captive or his wench or his, um, cavewoman…” She trailed off, running out of righteous indignation at about the same time the ridiculous nature of the whole thing hit her.
Riley was clearly having a hard time not laughing, from the way she was biting her lower lip.
“Oh, just laugh at me. I sound like an idiot,” Erin admitted, smiling ruefully. “Cavewoman, for the Goddess’s sake.”
They both burst into giggles, and laughed so hard Erin actually felt tears rolling down her cheeks. A tingle of sensation warned her just before she felt Ven’s hands on her shoulders. She looked up to see him staring down at her, unsmiling.
“Perhaps you would care to share the joke? I could use some humor right about now,” he said.
Conlan did a sort of flashing thing across the table and lifted Riley up and into his arms, bending his head to kiss her in a “don’t care that we’re in public, can’t wait to get you home and naked” kind of way that filled Erin with a powerful sense of longing.
Alaric rounded the table more slowly and took up a position at the end. “We need to talk.”
Conlan gently helped Riley, who looked a little stunned, back into her seat. When Riley blinked up at her, Erin mouthed the word “bunnies” and it set them both off again, peals of laughter ringing out.
When Erin could catch her breath, Ven was seated beside her, one hand twined in her hair as if he needed the contact. She chanced a quick look at his face, but it was as forbidding as it had been before, so she decided to ignore the hair touching and turned toward Alaric. “Sorry about that. Private joke. Okay, what is the plan and when do we leave?”
Ven’s voice was quiet, but filled with harsh command. “We don’t leave. You’re not going anywher
e. Caligula is after you, for whatever reason, and you’re not going anywhere near him until after we neutralize him and his entire blood pride.”
She yanked her head away from his hand and stood up. “Don’t give me orders. Caligula has my sister, and I am most definitely going after him. For one thing, I am a pretty strong witch. I’ll be able to help neutralize any witches he has working for him.”
He raised his voice, but only said one word. “No.”
She ignored him and went on. “The second reason is obvious. He wants me. Use me as bait.”
Ven stood up and yanked her around to face him, fury raging in his eyes. “There is no fucking way you are putting yourself in danger, do you hear me? If I have to personally chain you to my bed, I’ll do it to keep you away from that monster.”
She tried to pull away, but his grip was too powerful, so she settled for kicking him in the shin. “Who is the monster? You told me you were! And just because you want to fuck me doesn’t mean you have the right to keep me prisoner, chained to your bed or otherwise, you sick pervert!”
The tense silence that fell over the room reminded her that the two of them weren’t alone, and she groaned, waves of mortification washing over her.
Conlan’s voice sliced through the tension. “Put her down, Ven. Now. You have no right, as she says. Not this way, brother.”
Ven actually snarled at his brother and prince, but he released his grip on Erin’s shoulders and she staggered away from him. “How dare you talk to me of rights?” He shot the words at Conlan. “You know the power of the soul-meld. Think back to how you were with Riley when you first met and she was in danger.”
Alaric raised his hands, palms up, identical glowing blue balls of power shimmering on them. “I will gladly blast you up against the wall if you need to be taught a lesson in free will,” he said.
“Try it, priest,” Ven growled. “You’re pathetic. You had Quinn in your arms and you let her go, and now you suffer every day because of it. Don’t think I’ll make your foolish mistakes.”
Alaric’s eyes glowed a fierce emerald green, and he hurled the balls of power at Ven, almost faster than Erin’s eyes could track.
Almost.
She flung herself forward, between Ven and Alaric, and raised a shield more quickly than she’d ever done. The glowing spheres bounced off her shield and winked out of existence, and she lowered her hands and released her shield. “I don’t need your help either, Alaric, so back off.”
Ignoring Ven and the priest, she turned to Conlan and bowed. “Your Highness, you told me to ask for any favor. Well, I don’t want the crown jewels or my own beachfront Atlantean cottage or even the new car behind door number three. All I ask is that you send some of your warriors to help me rescue my sister and destroy Caligula.”
She drew a deep breath and tried to stop her knees and hands from shaking. “If you can’t do that, then I ask only that you send me home and leave me alone. Because if you reward me for helping your wife and child by letting your brother keep me prisoner, well…” She paused, trying to think of an elegant way to put it, but came up empty. “Well, that’s a pretty crappy way for a future king to act.”
“Guess she told you, your princeliness,” came a mocking voice from near the Temple doorway.
Erin whirled around to see Justice standing there, leaning against the wall, ever-present sword rising over his shoulder.
He leapt lightly down the stairs and strode toward them. “There’s something else you might want to know before you go getting all kingly one way or another,” he added, steering clear of Ven to head toward Conlan. Once there, he stopped and looked at each of them in turn, going for the dramatic pause, probably.
But Erin didn’t have the energy to appreciate his showmanship, because something entirely unexpected was happening to her. The amber on her fingers had started shrieking out a shrill warning to her from the moment Justice began to walk toward them. Now it was so loud that it nearly drowned out his words, screaming at her of danger and threat and dark, powerful evil.
She pointed a finger at Justice and pronounced the sentence she’d trained for ten long years to carry out. Tried on a little formal speak of her own. “Death magic. You stink of death magic, Atlantean, and it’s my sworn duty to kill you.”
Chapter 15
Ven tried to put his arms around Erin, but she shot a look of fierce warning at him and, remembering the gazebo, he held up his hands and stood back, grinning. He never believed for a minute that she’d really kill Justice, but it wouldn’t hurt old blue hair to get knocked on his ass.
It was Riley who broke the standoff. The only one with no power at all, except the gentle talent of emotional empathy, stood there and faced them all down.
Ven had never admired her more.
“That. Is. Enough,” she shouted, loudly enough to cut through all the edgy magic shimmering in the room. “All of you, cut this crap out. It’s not good for the baby.”
Justice bowed to Riley, more deeply than Ven had ever seen him bow before, and then took two steps back and away from her. “I would not bring strife and discord to your presence, my lady,” he said smoothly, flicking a glance at Erin.
“Right,” Erin snapped. “You’d just bring death magic. Into Atlantis. Into a temple, even. Near a pregnant woman. You’re just a peach, aren’t you?”
Marie appeared from one of the corridors leading to the other rooms in the Temple. “Is there a problem?”
The situation went from amusing to deadly in a heartbeat when Erin and Alaric both called power, preparing to strike Justice down where he stood. Ven had never been particularly magically inclined beyond the simplest calling of the elements, but even he felt the whisper of the forces swirling around the witch and the priest.
Justice must have realized it, too, because he reached back as if to draw his sword, but Marie was suddenly there, next to him, and she shot out her own hand, lightning quick, and caught his wrist. Then she started chanting something in such a quiet voice that Ven couldn’t catch the words.
Beside him, Erin gasped, then dropped her hands to her sides, as her head tilted upward as if pulled by the strings of an unseen puppeteer. He moved to hold her, fighting his way through a strange, liquid menace that curled around her like transparent mist. When he was able to put his hand on her skin, the mist vanished—or recognized a friend and dissipated—leaving him free to hold her tightly in his arms.
She opened her mouth and sang out several notes in the pure, wondrous tone she’d used to heal Riley, and the silvery shimmer rose to surround her body, and Ven with it, like it had before. At the same time, an identical gossamer mist of light rose around Marie and enveloped Justice where he stood, somehow trapped by her delicate hold on his wrist.
Abruptly, Erin closed her mouth. The final notes of her song trembled in the air and then floated, evanescent, down to earth. Ven felt the sense of loss again, as though part of his soul disappeared with the music. He shook off the feeling and shot a look at Justice, who now knelt on the floor next to Marie.
“It wasn’t death magic at all, was it?” Erin asked, staring wide-eyed at Justice.
Marie knelt in front of Justice and framed his face with her hands. “How did I never know this about you before, Lord Justice? You have been in this Temple on many occasions.”
He shook his head, the blue braid hanging down in front of one shoulder until it nearly touched the floor as he crouched there. “There was no gem singer before, Marie. She must truly be a descendant in the direct line of the Nereids to recognize me.”
Conlan bit off a command. “Will someone tell me what in the nine hells is going on? Right now?”
Marie slowly turned her head to look at Conlan. “Lord Justice has not been dabbling in death magic, Your Highness. He is half Nereid. The Temple Goddess just called him home.”
An hour later, they reassembled in Conlan’s war chamber, on neutral ground. Ven had spent most of that hour trying to think of ways to wrap Erin up
in a cocoon of safety and keep her hidden from anything dangerous for, oh, say, the rest of her life.
Maybe even the rest of his.
Although that would be a neat trick, considering the substantial difference between their relative life spans. Riley and Erin entered the room just then, and he tabled that miserable thought somewhere in the back of his mind. Erin took a seat near Riley, across the room from where Ven stood watching her, but he was reassured by the way her gaze sought him out.
Maybe he wasn’t the only one caught up by powerful forces he didn’t know how to handle. She smiled at him, and heat rushed through him, burning his skin and nerve endings with sizzling flames. All he could think of was how much he wanted to be inside her, and he put every bit of that longing into the slow smile he gave her, then felt a brief moment of fierce triumph when she blushed and clutched the arms of her chair. She wanted him, too, and that had to mean something.
It must mean something.
Justice sauntered in, trying for nonchalant, even though Ven could tell that he was shaken by what had happened at the Temple. Ven’s first instinct was to block Erin with his body, but the warning in her eyes stopped him.
For the moment.
“Hey, the Scooby gang’s all here,” Ven said. “What do you say we figure this all out.”
“We’re not all here yet, Ven. Marie is coming,” Conlan said, then nodded. “Here she is, right on time.”
Marie walked through the door, looking around curiously. Ven figured it was the first time she had been in this part of the palace. None but Conlan, Alaric, and the warriors usually saw this room.
“Who wants to start first and explain the half-Nereid part to me?” Conlan looked from Justice to Marie and back again. “I knew your mother, Justice. She was a lovely woman, but she was no sea goddess and, as far as I know, she did not have forty-nine sisters.”
Brennan spoke up from his position against the wall. “He speaks the truth. When we were children together, your grandparents used to feed us treats. I do not recall their names being Doris and Nereus.”
