Atlas Lost
International Bestselling Author
Alaska Angelini
Atlas Lost
International Bestselling Author
Alaska Angelini
Copyright © 2019 by Alaska Angelini
All Rights Reserved
All characters in this book are fictitious. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is strictly coincidental. The scanning, uploading and distribution of this book via the Internet or any other means without the permission of the publisher is illegal, and is punishable by law. Please purchase only authorized electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the author’s rights is appreciated.
Prologue
Atlas
Before birth, we all chose our soul’s mission. Most of the time, we don’t allow ourselves to remember the obstacles or rewards we put in our path for lessons. We go through life ignoring intuition, jumping from one longing to another. Travel, adventure…love. Love encompassed many things. It was a look, a gesture, a wave to provide reassurance. Love was of the divine. It didn’t judge or intentionally inflict harm. The emotion provided fulfillment to those it came in contact with. One could say it was the universal term for the definition of good. It taught, nourished, and alleviated doubt. It was believed love had power to heal the most damaged soul. What no one cared to mention was it was also a soul’s destruction.
Love was blinding.
Consuming.
A killer.
To lose love brought an agony worse than a million torturous deaths. Once, I had known nothing but love. For my people. My wife and child. My life had been the epitome of perfection. And I tried to keep it that way by moving us from our home planet of Paltenia to ensure the safety and survival of my people. But I had no idea what that move would mean.
The Paltenians were mostly a peaceful species. We were raised to believe in the pureness of all things, despite the constant attacks we underwent. Where some, like our enemy, the Ri, viewed us as weak because of stance, that did not make us naïve. We were far from ill-equipped if faced with threats. The Paltenian had some of the best fighters of all known beings. Not only because of our gifts, but our mindset. Protection was ingrained. It came from the depth of our devotion to one another. That devotion was what made me lose everything. Love was my downfall.
Music drifted in the background, joining with the laughter as we celebrated our one-year anniversary in our new home in inner-earth. The planet was more populated than I had expected, and our territory was small, but we were happy underground, finally safe from the Ri, who wouldn’t let the past stay far behind.
“One. Two.” Shouts went up as everyone lifted their glasses in the crowded room and heavily drank the helet-shu. I laughed, smiling at my sister as her glass rose toward me. Kelu was the only family I had left. We were all that remained of the royal Paltenian line. Cousins, aunts, uncles…my parents—all dead in the last Ri conflict that had nearly destroyed half our race. It was also the moment I knew if we didn’t leave our home, we would end up dead too.
Burning from the dark amber liquid had me swallowing hard and wincing as I laughed through the drunken effects. We were all gone. All intoxicated more than we should have been.
“Where’s my queen? Leone?”
I turned, searching our connection as mates. When her presence registered in a wave of warmth, I knew she was mingling somewhere close. Leone was known to be social. She was the smile in the room when times were tough. The comfort when others were grieving. I calmed, reaching out as the warriors approached to shake my hand. The room tilted under my feet, and I blinked through the sensation, once again feeling out telepathically. I wasn’t able to connect before screams accompanied my suddenly racing heart.
“Niya? No. Niya! Niya!”
My mate yelling for our daughter was barely an echo in the royal hall. The battle-laced cry from a mother was enough to have everyone stiffen, on-guard. The fact that it was the queen had more than just me withdrawing my weapon. Her voice had never sounded so scared. Like a mist, a terror-filled prickly, ice-cold energy blanketed us. Stabs of panic speared me to life. Even as I raced from the large stone entryway of our new kingdom into the small valley outside, I tried to push into Leone’s mind. A dark tint merged with the green surrounding trees as two visions became one. Our connection was blocked.
“Leone! Niya!”
Men and some of the female warriors caught up as I slowed. Panicked, I grasped the tie connecting us at the core. Ripples raced over my skin, and I broke off in a sprint to the right. The earth, a planet we’d only been on for a year, looked suddenly alien and unfamiliar. It blurred as an unexplainable sharp force stabbed into my chest, puncturing my heart. I stumbled, my feet refusing to carry their quick cadence. I was merging with Leone, clawing our link until I saw and felt the agony she was suffering through.
Colors blinded me. A face: dark, scaly…yellow eyes. A wide reptilian mouth pulled back until it formed a smile. Blood washed over my tongue—hers—and I gasped, clutching my chest while I continued to try to run forward. Seconds went by before Leone’s line of sight cleared from her pain, connecting on our daughter as her head lifted. Dark hair stuck to the wetness covering Niya’s flushed cheeks. Our daughter was screaming, reaching toward me and her mother. Toward help.
“I beg of you. I beg of you! Please. Take me. Kill me. Don’t hurt my daughter.”
Long, dark gray fingers wrapped around Niya’s throat as the leader of Ri let my little girl dangle in his grasp. Sharp claws from his free hand rose, slicing through Niya’s cheek as he offered some form of sadistic caress. Leone sobbed, losing air as I felt her try to lunge forward. But it was pointless. And exactly what Ri wanted. He wanted me to see. To feel. He knew I was watching.
“I didn’t take the Paltenians to be cowards. Did you not think I would find you? Did you tire of our games?”
One moment, he was looking at my daughter, the next, he thrust Niya’s body forward. Tiny legs kicked out in an attempt to break free. Even her fists were swinging to make contact. Niya had always been a warrior, just as her mother. Leone refused to step down from leading troops because she was my queen. Even pregnant, she stayed on top of everyone’s training.
“Please. Ri. P-Please.”
Angrier, I roared, barely realizing I was running at a blurring pace. Running blind…using all my intuition to search out my daughter and mate’s energy. Leone was barely hanging on. Death was approaching, and with it, a part of my heart was dying too.
Love.
Love had done more than get my mate and child killed that day. What our race believed in was put to the ultimate test. And Ri almost got exactly what he wanted—more war.
“Are you even listening?”
My eyes rose from the earth’s floor. Four days had gone by. My daughter and wife had been cremated to be with our ancestors. Even now, as I drunkenly stared at my people, I could still smell the smoke. It clung to me, calling me home—calling me far away from this hell I was now living. I was numb. Completely numb from the agonizing grief and what I knew I had to do.
“Atlas, listen to me, you have no choice. To stand down will only give Ri the excuse to try again. Leaving Paltenia didn’t help us. It didn’t solve our problems. They only followed us to this planet. What if he kills my mother next, or Kelu, your sister, or—”
“If we go to war, Lu, they’re dead anyway. Is that what you want?”
“You think we can’t win?” Russo’s eyes narrowed as he stepped from the crowd toward where I was seated on the throne. His life force made itself known, adding pressure against mine, but I easily ignored the slight threat he was posing through anger.
“We are under a
peace treaty on this planet. We do not know this land. We are not fully equipped to go to war. Do none of you see what is happening? This is what Ri wants.”
“Then we give it to him! Even without sufficient weapons, the Ri don’t stand a chance against our powers.”
I swallowed hard, ignoring the ache cramping my chest. Powers? What powers? My gifts were gone. Dead, with my family. Chakra by chakra, I felt the vortexes of energy obstructing at the trauma festering inside. If anyone wanted revenge, it was me. But love for my people and a lifetime of lessons from my guides kept me rational. And it was a pure miracle. It didn’t change the fact that I was useless until I let this pain and anger go.
“There will be no war.”
“Then you betray your people? Your child? Queen? You know what this means.”
My sister, Kelu’s, voice sparked fury. Tears wanted to come. They didn’t. I didn’t have any left to shed. The emptiness within swallowed them whole.
“I know what this means.”
“You’ve lost your mind,” Lu rushed out. “You risk banishment if you don’t protect us. Banishment, Atlas! I’ve been your best friend my entire life. You must do something. Call Ri out. Avenge Leone and Niya. Avenge us.”
Standing, I placed my crown on the throne. A single emerald sat in the middle of the thin gold band, glistening in the light. Green, just like the energy of the heart.
“I am doing something. Have you learned nothing, dear friend? Do you not think evil courses through my blood? I want war. I want death. If I ran off pure emotion, I’d burn the universe down searching for Ri for what he’s done. It will not come to that on my watch. If I act, you will all pay the price. My father had the Ri king and queen killed. His son murdered my family. Blood is everything. Two for two. Karma is finished. This ends with me.”
Chapter 1
Cara
It was a flicker. Nothing more, nothing less. A spark of light so small, I wondered if I had imagined the glow that had emanated from the snap of my fingers the night before. It wouldn’t have been a big deal if it hadn’t played into my growing suspicions of something not being right. Strange occurrences bombarded me. Signs. Symptoms. Half physical, the other mental. Nothing made sense, and yet…there were terrifying moments where everything did.
“If you could be anywhere in the world right now, where would it be?”
“In the world?”
The vibration causing me to shake only emphasized the high pitch of my voice at Dean’s question. Sweat poured from my skin, soaking into my uniformed polo as we hiked deeper into the woods. It didn’t matter that there was a slight chill in the air. I felt nothing but the heat leaving me in waves. Pressure against the middle of my forehead thumped in a constant mantra with my heart. Although the feeling had been present the last few weeks, the intensity was stronger today, adding to the spin inside my head. The answer was one I couldn’t process, yet with flashes of mountains I’d never seen before, I found the location unexplainably tumbling out.
“Chili.”
“Really?”
“No. I mean, yes.”
My head shook from the exhaustion of having to speak. It didn’t matter my answer. I couldn’t process locations with how my stomach was beginning to twist with nausea. Dean glanced at me, throwing me a surprised look as he avoided a large rock at the edge of the path. “Chili would be nice, I guess. I was thinking more Jamaica or Cancun. I need the beach. Palm Trees. Hell, anywhere outside of Boise.”
“We are outside of Boise. A good half hour.”
“You know what I mean.”
Birds chirped in the distance, more awake than I felt. For nearly a year, this was the path we had taken to collect biological samples for our job. Never once had it seemed as taxing as today. We hadn’t even made it to the location and already I wanted to beg for a break.
“Just think, two more weeks and you could go to Chili if you want. Are you ready for your vacation? …Cara?”
Tingling intensified down my skin, increasing with every step deeper into the forest. My hand came out to steady myself on a passing tree, but I missed it completely, falling on all fours as I tried to stop the vertigo that had been plaguing me since I had awoken continually throughout the night. One-eleven. Three-thirty-three. Four-forty-four. I’d given up going back to sleep after that.
“Shit! Are you okay?”
Dean raced over, helping me to my feet as I braced my free hand on the large tree to my side. Maybe I knew what was happening. After all, I’d been here before. Denial. I knew this stage too.
“Yeah, I’m good. I must have tripped or something.”
“You sure? You look...”
“I’m fine. Let’s keep going. We have a long day ahead of us.”
Taking a deep breath, I gave my partner a reassuring nod, then followed as he began down the path again. Concerned glances were thrown my way, but I wouldn’t let him see more than he already had. It was bad enough I asked him to carry the equipment. Weakness was something I never gave myself over to. Had I not put my pride aside, I wouldn’t have made it this far.
The trail thinned, winding around trees, as we began the steep uphill. Movement dashed off to my side, and my head whipped around, not seeing anything but a stump rooted between two larger trees. There was nothing special about it. It was like any other, yet something had me looking at it cautiously. Fear sent my hair standing on end. I paused, cocking my head to get a better look. A grand fir. Yet…
“Cara?”
My heart slammed in my chest as the spinning grew worse.
Stealing a look at Dean, my gaze returned to the one place it suddenly didn’t want to leave. A place it couldn’t leave. Alarms were going off in my mind, screaming for me to run. Run. Run!
“Cara, what is it?”
Closer, I stared, narrowing my lids while the center of my forehead seemed to protrude with the rapid thrumming. Color began to swirl, mass shades of brown and green. I took an unsteady step higher. Then another. Clear light began to outline the shape of something…a person?
“Jesus. You’re as pale as a ghost. You can’t do this. I’m taking you back to the lab. Courtney can help me today. You need to go home and rest. Maybe see a doctor.”
The last had my gaze jerking to him. I could barely breathe, let alone continue to hike up the mountain. He was right. We still had another mile trek. Just the thought left me feeling weaker.
“I’m sorry.”
“Sorry? For not feeling well?”
My head shook as he came level with me.
“I shouldn’t have come into work. I thought I could push through, but I guess I didn’t realize how sick I was getting. I think it’s the flu.”
“Don’t apologize.” He settled his palm between my shoulder blades and led us back down. “You’re too hard on yourself. A day off will do you wonders. I bet Gene would even let you take vacation early if you wanted.”
Lowering my eyes, all I could do was nod. Remission had been a wonderful thing, but increasing symptoms over the weeks left me feeling like it was over. My gut told me yes, even if I did want to make excuses like stress or over-working myself. Truth was, when I beat cancer the first time, I threw myself into life. I hadn’t slowed down since. Could I be wrong? Was this nothing but a virus?
Branches rustled behind us, and I glanced over my shoulder. A part of me was glad to be leaving the forest. Never once had I feared this place, but something wasn’t right. Or maybe it was my fear, stemmed from the hallucinations. After all, it’s not like what I saw was real. It couldn’t be. Not the person…not the spark from my fingers.
“Tell me why you chose Chili. Have you been there before?”
“N-No. I don’t know why I said that. I…” A shuddering exhale shook my shoulders, and I gripped Dean’s polo as mountains and wilderness flashed into my view, blurring beneath me as I seemed to fly toward a large rock formation. An entrance appeared at the base of a mountain, only to vanish, then reappear. As if it was there, but hidde
n. My entire body convulsed with sudden unexplainable anxiety. The “run” feeling was back. I spun in a circle, scanning the forest as if our lives depended on it. The explanation of what it could be evaded me just like common sense. All I knew was a familiar reaction I’d experienced before: survival instinct.
“Cara, honey, calm. Are you going to be sick?”
Branches tore into my hair as I stumbled backward, continuing to look for the threat. The heat rose, nearly making my insides boil. I couldn’t breathe. Couldn’t think. What I could do was feel.
“We have to go. We have to...run. Run. Dean, run!”
“Run? From what? Cara, talk to me. What’s happening? What’s wrong?” Dean followed my jerky vision, searching. When his eyes returned to me confused, I couldn’t withhold the tears. My mind said I was crazy. My heart pleaded for me to react. And my body…it was failing me. Lightheadedness set in, making the trees sway.
“Please. Just…p-please. We have to…we have to…run—”
Time slowed, and I saw the ground getting closer before I could process falling. Sounds were so far away, like an echo in the farthest reaches of a pitch-black void. Dean was suddenly turning and standing over me, but nothing he was saying registered. All I could see was yellow. Yellow eyes, evil eyes, surrounded by dark gray skin. The face was just over his shoulder. Staring. Smiling.
Nothing.
****
“Cara? Cara?”
“Hmmm?”
I blinked. A blurry figure stood above me. It was enough to cause my body to jolt. Moments passed as memories flooded in of the monster. But this wasn’t him. Dean’s eyes were wide, full of fear as he tried to calm my scrambling form.
“Shhh. It’s okay. It just me.”
“What happened? I mean—” My head shook. “What time is it?”
As he raised his wrist to look at his watch, I knew he was going to come back with an answer I wouldn’t like.
“Eleven-eleven. You’ve been out for quite some time. You didn’t even wake up on the ambulance ride. You scared the shit out of me, Cara. How are you feeling now?”
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