Lords of Atlantis Boxed Set 2

by Starla Night

On the next rapid, one of their senior VPs had pushed Chaz in. He hadn’t laughed so hard getting out again.

  But here, there was no surface. There was no light. There was no raft.

  She was alone in a turbulent, frigid silence. Cold weight pooled in her lungs. She couldn’t breathe. There was no thought. Just animal survival. She bit, thrashed, struggled. The water held her in a fluid vise. There was no escape.

  This was how she died.

  And all hope for Jonah, for Balim’s happiness as a husband, for the warriors of Atlantis died with her.

  She’d wanted to be his bride. Why did that desire cause her to transform back to human? She’d wanted to embrace the mer way. She’d wanted to marry and yield and give in…

  “…more, Bella. Yes, drink all.” Balim’s voice echoed, disjointed, as his words vibrated through the thick, black slurry at the bottom of the sea.

  The cold receded, and the weight lifted off her chest. Her belly warmed with energy. She was not dying. She was transforming back into mer.

  Oh, thank goodness. She could bring hope to the warriors. She could make Balim’s darkness ease and rest in happiness. She could save Jonah’s cure…

  The ocean lightened again, and she opened her eyes.

  Balim’s dark gaze gleamed with heartblood-red hope as he hovered over her.

  She rested in his arms.

  As she blinked and focused on him, his relief lasted only a few instants before he queried her. “Bella? Can you see and hear me?”

  “Yes.” Her chest vibrated. She sucked in a deep mouthful of water, and it soothed her even though it was unnatural.

  “I am sorry, Bella. Forgive me.” His eyes darkened. “Forgive me. I could not lose you. I am so sorry.”

  “No…” She tried to explain her realization. That he would never hurt her. He would protect her always. She knew it now, and had known it, and that was why she’d agreed to marry—

  A Life Tree blossom rested in his hand. It wilted as the shiny color faded. The bead of nectar was no longer in its center.

  Oh, but there was a second one, and she’d just have to convince or beg or trick Pelan’s bride into giving it to…

  Wait. Balim wasn’t apologizing because he’d left only one flower. He was apologizing because the elixir had failed and he’d had no choice but to give her the nectar of the Life Tree blossom. It raced through her veins now, healing her injuries and transforming her to mer.

  Her healing. Her transformation. Her cure!

  “No…” she moaned.

  His eyes closed tight, and he pulled her to his body, rocking her as the wave of grief crashed over her.

  “No, Balim. Jonah’s not here. I can’t… You couldn’t have wasted it.”

  “You were dying.”

  “I would have rather died.”

  “I know, Bella. I know.”

  The Life Tree faded into a blur. Balim communicated with the other warriors, explaining only enough so they understood why this joyful moment represented such tragedy to her, and then he carried her away from the sanctuary and the lost hope it represented. Flying across the city while she closed her eyes and hung on tight, willing reality to be different and for her not to be alive if only there was a way to save the cure for Jonah.

  The pressure changed—no, that wasn’t it. The wide-open ocean feelings narrowed to a tunnel inside one of the living spherical castles. His castle. How did she know? The castle held his subtle flavor, like sleeping in his sheets while wearing his oversized shirt.

  He rested her inside a small room, and when the smooth oak-like precious wood slid against her heels and buttocks and elbows, she opened her eyes.

  The room was a vibrant olive green. The aperture he’d swum through looked out onto a courtyard garden bursting with plants. They nestled at the base of a dome, and the walls were pocketed with rooms just like the one she rested in. Twisty corridors and trailing plants unveiled a fairy forest rather than revealed they were deep beneath the sea. Lavender flowers fluttered on subtle currents.

  Balim rested on his knees. His hands hung useless in his lap. “There is food in the pantry. Are you hungry?”

  “No.” Grief bubbled up in her chest. “I’ll never be hungry again.”

  Matching pain flashed in his eyes. “I had no choice.”

  She tried to cover her mouth to regain control before the sobs wracked her.

  He examined her, his caring touch soothing as it probed. “We should return to the Life Tree. Married or not, it will heal you.”

  “No. I can’t be there right now.”

  “Bella. You can only save your son if you are alive to do so.”

  “Do you have the vial?”

  He pulled out the small blue vial. It seemed less sinister than on the surface.

  “Get rid of it.”

  “What about Jonah?”

  “I never want to see it again.”

  He touched a seamless wall and pushed out a cabinet, stored it inside, and hid it away.

  She couldn’t endure this pain. She couldn’t.

  “Please.” He massaged her temples. “Do not suffer. You will resolve this. You will become a queen and—”

  “Stop.” She opened her eyes and leaned into him, teasing her hot nipples along his chest once more. “Make me forget everything and just exist.”

  His gaze darkened with hunger, and then his lips covered hers. Sweet aches twisted between her legs, tightening her pussy and making her want him. She melded his abdomen to hers. His cock pressed against her soft belly, making delicious promises if she would once more let him in.

  “I wish,” he vibrated in his chest as his mouth descended to kiss her collarbone, her chest, and then to snag a hot, aching nipple, “we had more of those plastics.”

  A sliver of responsibility returned. She couldn’t just lose herself with Balim or be swept away.

  Well, for a little while.

  “Yeah,” she agreed, breathless with arousal. “But we can still feel pleasure.” She wrapped her fingers around his hard cock while he groaned and switched to her other breast. “Let me teach you.”

  “I must heal you.” His vibrations sounded ragged. “A warrior must pleasure his bride.”

  “You will. Watch.” She encompassed his cock in her hands, savoring the length and curvature. He watched her suck the head into her hot mouth, skepticism battling arousal, and then she sucked him in deeper, tonguing his shaft.

  He groaned. “How is this pleasure possible? My mind is quiet and empty and filled with you.”

  “It gets better,” she promised, her chest vibrating as she continued to tease and arouse his shaft. Watching him fight his arousal made her own increase. She slipped her fingers between the soft, slick folds of her feminine center. She was so ready for him, and she wanted him, but the sliver of responsibility had returned and she couldn’t give in without betraying…everything. She pushed those thoughts from her mind.

  Balim took advantage of her distraction to lift her, rotating her mouth around his cock, and rested his hand on her soft feminine vee. “You need this.”

  “Yes. I do.”

  He palmed her mons, massaging her and studying her, chasing her pleasure until he pressed in one finger and found her G-spot.

  “How?” she gasped.

  “I see your soul light.” He smiled, cocky, his pleasure immobilizing her. “You are bared to me, Bella.”

  She shook. Waves of arousal crashed over her, the orgasm threatening. He did see her. Chaz had never seen her. No one had ever seen her. Not like Balim.

  Dangerous. This was too dangerous.

  No. Forgetting everything was what she wanted. Needed. Craved.

  Tingles filled her fingers and lips and toes. A rainbow of happiness wrapping around her chest in happy fulfillment. Everything would be okay. She was fine and everyone else was fine too. For this one moment, her burdens lifted and she was free as she’d been at seventeen leaving her house for the first time, a future career woman with the world
at her feet and fortunes waiting for her to pluck.

  Just like before she’d had Jonah. That’s how it was now. She was happy, as if she’d never had Jonah.

  She was forgetting him.

  All the nights she’d intended to put him down in his crib and get to work—and instead found herself playing with his baby fingers, booping his stubby nose, gazing deeply into his serious brown eyes as he drifted to sleep on her chest. All the days she’d taken her weekend work to the closest park and sat in the shade while he raced around the shallow cement pool chasing wily ducks. The fearless way he tried absolutely every food she carried home from a street truck, considering each bite with quiet contemplation. His delighted laughter when she’d finally mastered the newest silly dance that he and his friends had been trying to teach her so he could introduce her as the “cool” mom at school.

  All the ways Jonah had seeped into her broken heart and sealed the holes, teaching her the true face of unconditional love.“No,” she murmured.

  Balim held her stationary, stopping his movements, holding her safe. “Bella?”

  She swallowed her sudden, uncharacteristic emotion. She was breaking inside, and yet she didn’t want him to know it. “I can’t be the only one to enjoy this.”

  “Bella, you are a female with maturity and experience. I do not have many gifts to give you. You are not frightened or confused. You know your heart and your mind. I cannot convince you to be carefree or take away your burdens unless you let me. So if I ease your tiredness and comfort, it will strengthen you to bear your burdens once again.”

  Was that true? Did giving in to him strengthen her?

  “Let me do this.”

  Yes, this was about more than her. Perhaps Balim was right. Perhaps she wasn’t forgetting. Perhaps she just needed to rest so she would be strong.

  She just needed to let herself go…

  He held his position as the orgasm exploded around her, rainbows flying free, lifting on a cresting wave of delicious tingles and then falling. He withdrew from her, releasing her pussy as she closed her hand around his trembling shaft. He grunted in surprise and then her mouth filled with his heat and salt. They were linked on a spiritual level. Souls. Lights. And more than fate operated. She felt him in her bones.

  And that was terrifying.

  Bella struggled to separate. Balim helped her, again stroking her with silent support as though he knew the chaos running through her mind and he didn’t judge her. He never judged her. That was also terrifying.

  She struggled free and stared at him.

  He stared back.

  “Sorry.” She touched her forehead where there ought to be a headache, but she felt fine. “I was thinking about Jonah.”

  He nodded and waved for her to come to him. “Rest.”

  “I just can’t be happy until he’s safe.”

  “That is correct.”

  Now she had to find a new cure.

  Balim’s normal answer somehow calmed her. He was right. As the medical professional he’d once called himself, he had restored her equilibrium and she was more able to think. This cure had been removed. Failure stung. Just like her failure to test Chaz had stung.

  So long as Jonah lived, she had time. She had the will.

  And deep in her heart, she knew he still lived.

  He was connected to her. As a mermaid with resonance, she sensed his soul.

  And no matter how she fought it, she also sensed Balim.

  She returned to Balim’s side and rested against the floor, floating. She would think of a new cure. Right now. “Did you know the story of the name Jonah?”

  “No.”

  “In ancient times, he was ordered to deliver a prophecy, but he tried to get out of it by sailing away. A storm came up to punish him and endangered the sailors. Realizing his mistake, Jonah sacrificed himself to save everyone else. He jumped overboard and was swallowed by a whale.”

  Balim frowned. “No whale would swallow a human.”

  “Some whales do. The Moby Dick whale.”

  “Sharks swallow humans. Fish scavenge the dead. No whale acts as you describe.”

  “It’s just a story,” she said. “Anyway, three days later, the whale spit Jonah out on shore, where he delivered the prophecy. Disasters were averted. Happy ending.”

  He listened and then prompted, “Then what happened?”

  “I don’t know.” She sighed as the weight settled on her once more. “It’s ironic. My Jonah’s been swallowed by the whale of cancer. And he’s been in the belly of the beast much longer than three days.”

  She had to stop because her chest trembled and she feared her underwater voice would wobble.

  Balim cupped her cheek and stroked one thumb across her lower lip. Soothing, loving.

  “Sorry.” She swallowed and collected herself. “I know it’s not the time for this. We have to get the blossom to the Sons of Hercules so they reveal Jonah’s position and not destroy Atlantis with this poison. And then save him. Somehow.”

  “You will.” Balim held her gaze with absolute faith. “By—”

  “Healer Balim!” Ciran shouted from the entrance to their castle, and his vibrations echoed through the long tube through the wall into their courtyard. “King Kadir assigns guards to Queen Bella!”

  “Enter!” He offered his hand to Bella and floated into the main courtyard to greet the warrior.

  So the working world intruded.

  Ciran flew in with two warriors. The trio tucked their tridents against their elbows and saluted.

  “Queen Bella,” Ciran acknowledged.

  “You still haven’t learned how to smile,” she noted.

  “My soul mate does not mind.”

  Ciran’s quiet announcement rocked the warriors and surprised Bella.

  “If you have found your soul mate, why are you here?” Balim voiced the question for all.

  “Because she has not chosen me.” Ciran saw that his answer did not satisfy and tried again. “New York City is not a sacred island. Queen Bella evaluated my lack of smile and selected Faier as a better spokesman. As I did not need to seek my bride now she has been found, I yielded my place to another warrior.”

  “Who is it?” Bella asked. “Your bride, I mean.”

  “When she has selected me, I will tell you.” He gestured to his accompanying warriors, closing the conversation. “These will be your guards until the welcome ceremony when you may choose alternates: Iyen and Gailen.”

  Iyen had deep maroon tattoos and a silent but capable mien. He saluted again, his fingers touching before his fit chest and his gaze passing Bella to take in the whole area as though seeking enemies.

  Gailen grinned and also saluted; his thumbs couldn’t bend. “Nice to meet you, Marketing Executive Queen Bella.”

  She straightened. “Er, thank you.”

  “You are welcome.”

  Balim made a tsk sound—which was a feat underwater—and gripped Gailen’s wrists, rotating them to examine the thumbs. “No improvements to your thumbs?”

  “Nope.” He showed his limited range of motion to Balim. “I am as scarred and limping as Faier, but not half so heroic.” For Bella’s information, he added, “Faier received his injuries saving other warriors from raiders and from snatching a child from inside the teeth of a megalodon. I received mine trying to rescue myself.”

  Balim frowned as he rotated the thumbs. “We all broke a little when we escaped our origin cities, Gailen. Not everyone has as visual an injury.”

  Iyen fixed his gaze on Balim for a long, measured moment and then resumed his silent scanning of the interior.

  “Your bones have fused improperly.” Balim wiggled the joints. “On the surface, humans would break the bones a second time and then splint them into the correct position. We may try it here.”

  “How strange to break something already healed.”

  “Yes. Humans cannot regrow limbs, but they have adeptness at fixing the limbs that remain. You would be awed by thei
r mechanical limbs.”

  Gailen looked like he was considering the procedure. “Does it take long?”

  “The healing process can. You could not grip during that time.”

  Gailen pulled his hands away and wrapped his fingers around his trident. His badly healed thumbs rested on the metal. “I wield a trident. I complete patrols. I have battled the enemy. Make me infirm when I am infirm and can no longer be of use to you.”

  “As you wish.”

  “Good,” Ciran said, relieved. “Queen Bella, Iyen and Gailen are your guards during the period before you have made your fins and captured your queen power, and afterward, they will serve as your messengers. They will stay with you when you separate from Balim.”

  She clutched Balim’s hand. “I won’t separate.”

  “I see.” Ciran seemed to calculate her answer. “Balim, you did not complete the mer ‘hospital,’ and so you must review the health of the warriors King Kadir has chosen to surface.”

  “How many?”

  “Forty-three warriors and one queen.”

  Balim’s arm around Bella tightened. “That is more warriors than founded our city.”

  “Including the warriors who have surfaced, it is less than half of our current strength. The number remaining can continue patrols with one backup. I have calculated it.” He never smiled once through the conversation, so serious and yet also somehow young and confident.

  “I thought we were waiting to send up big numbers to the completed platform.”

  “The surface weather is changing from fall to winter, and soon we must wait another year. Perhaps two. King Kadir will not wait. Atlantis will not wait. We will become powerful with queens, vibrant with young fry, and the world will see our united strength.”

  His chest vibrated with conviction, and the other warriors straightened, heartened by his words.

  Balim looked at Bella. For one instant, she united with him. They both knew what dangers lurked in the surface shadows.

  Bella voiced the caution of experience. “The Sons of Hercules aren’t going to sit idle. And you don’t have a hospital or a doctor. It’s a big risk.”

  “We have considered every angle,” Ciran said. “Another healer has surfaced from Dragao Azul. He will fly to New York as needed.”