Atlantis Betrayed

she’d had to touch and feel the petals on the blossoms, the rough or smooth bark on various trees—it all overwhelmed her until she believed she’d be completely unsurprised to see a white rabbit consulting its pocket watch at any corner.

“How can you ever bear to leave it? I would never spend a minute indoors if I lived here,” she whispered, not wanting even the sound of her own voice to disturb the moment. “I have to set a book here. My fingers are itching for my paints. Oh, the children are going to love it. If there were only a way to bring these fragrances to the pages of a book.”

He looked around as if seeing it for the first time. “It’s pretty.”

“Pretty? Are you kidding? This is the most glorious garden I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen a lot of gardens. Even the queen’s gardens at Buckingham Palace.”

He laughed. “Well, if you think about it, this is a queen’s garden, too. Or at least a high princess, soon to be queen. Atlantis is a lot older than England, too.”

“I don’t want to meet her, Christophe. I’m dressed like—like—”

“A lot like me, actually,” a friendly female voice said from behind them.

Fiona turned to find a smiling woman with vivid reddish-gold hair walking toward them. She, like Fiona, was dressed simply in trousers and top. The woman held out her hand and Fiona shook it.

“Hey, Christophe, I thought you were in London. Oh, which I guess would explain the British accent of your friend.”

Christophe bowed. “Princess Riley, this is Lady Fiona Campbell of Scotland by way of London.”

Fiona wanted to crawl in a hole and pull the dirt in over top of her. “Oh, Your Highness, I’m sorry. I’m so pleased to meet you.” She bowed her head a little, since curtseying would look ridiculous.

The princess laughed. “No bowing, no Your Highness- ing, please. Just Riley. It is a true pleasure to meet you.” Her dark blue eyes were glowing, not with magic but with simple joy.

“Truly a pleasure. You are most welcome,” Riley said, her voice slowing. She turned to Christophe. “Really? Finally? Oh, I’m so happy for you!”

Fiona watched in utter shock as the high princess of Atlantis jumped across the space separating her from Christophe and threw her arms around him. “I knew it. I knew it, I knew it. Underneath that surly exterior, I knew there was a heart beating.”

“Yes,” Christophe said, raising one eyebrow and tentatively patting the princess on her back. “My heart grew three sizes today.”

Riley pulled away and punched his arm lightly. “Funny guy. I have to quit letting Ven raid my Christmas video collection. You are all taking over my best lines.”

She put her hand on Fiona’s arm. “Let’s go find something to eat and have a long chat, shall we?”

Fiona stared back at Christophe, but he just grinned and held out his hands, helpless against Hurricane Riley. So Fiona did the last thing she ever, in her lifetime, could have imagined doing. She went to have lunch with the princess of Atlantis.

* * *

Christophe watched as Riley herded Fiona off toward the terrace, probably to stuff her with food and pump her for information. Riley was aknasha, and with her Gift of emotional empathy she had clearly picked up on his feelings for Fiona. Maybe now she could explain them to him. He felt like his insides were tangled up into knots of razor wire mixed with flowering vine. Every moment he spent with Fiona made him want to be with her more, but danger haunted his footsteps. Danger and violence. She’d already seen too much of it. He’d thought his heart would explode out of his chest when he saw what had happened to that vamp and realized that she must be the one holding the blessed water.

“Can’t stay with her. Can’t leave her. Where does that leave me?”

He felt Alaric’s presence before the priest appeared, and he weighed the odds of getting away. Slim to not a chance in the nine hells, he figured.

“You do not have the Siren,” the priest said even before he’d fully transformed into his corporeal shape. “And yet you have returned. With another human. Perhaps we can open a nature preserve for humans?”

“You are dangerously close to sedition, my friend,” Prince Conlan growled, appearing next to Alaric.

The two of them were getting far too good at popping in and out. Made a man feel spied on. Christophe stood his ground, but bowed to his prince.

“Really? You’re bowing to me when there’s nobody here to see it? Are you feeling okay?” Conlan reached up a hand as if to brush Christophe’s forehead.

“Bad habits must be wearing off on me,” Christophe muttered, ducking.

“Bad habits? More bad habits? You’re already a walking cornucopia of bad habits. One more might send you into the abyss, screaming,” Alaric said.

“I’m the horn of the goat who suckled Zeus?” Christophe tilted his head. “I’ve been called worse, I guess.”

“Nice. Greek mythology for ten points, ding, ding, ding,” Conlan called out. “Next up, hot human women for twenty.”

“Your wife might not appreciate you calling another woman hot, Your Highness,” Christophe pointed out.

“Your Highness me again and I’ll kick your ass. Also, last week she told me not to release Liam on unsuspecting women because he is, and I quote, ‘hot enough to blister paint.’ Don’t worry about me and Riley, Christophe. We’re doing just fine.” The prince’s wicked grin left Christophe in little doubt of that, but it was all far, far beside the point.

“Not that talking about women isn’t fun, guys, but I have news and it’s all bad.”

“The Siren?” Alaric’s eyes glowed a hot metallic green. “Tell me the Siren isn’t in the hands of the vampires.”

“I’d love to tell you that, but I can’t. I don’t know where it is, yet. And I can go one worse. Denal willingly went to the Summer Lands with a Fae princess.”

“What?” Conlan smacked his hand against the trunk of a tree. “Our alliance with Rhys na Garanwyn is supposed to prevent this. I’m going to have his arrogant ass on a platter for this one.”

“Leaving aside the truly nasty visual that creates, you can leave na Garanwyn out of this. Maeve na Feransel is Unseelie Court.”

Dead silence. Alaric looked at Conlan. Conlan looked at Alaric. They both looked at him. Just when Christophe started to sweat, Conlan finally spoke.

“I think we’d better go inside and call Ven. We’re going to need to do some planning.”

“Fiona deserves to be in on it,” Christophe said. “She has a stake in this, too.”

“What are you talking about? What stake could a human female possibly have in one of the missing gems of Poseidon’s Trident?” Alaric made no secret of his belief that only the Atlantean priesthood had a claim on the sea god’s most precious object of power.

“It’s kind of complicated,” Christophe said. “But she’s secretly a ninja, both vamps and Fae may want to hurt her, and the Unseelie princess who invited Denal to play? She’s Fiona’s best friend.”

The priest and the prince both froze and stared at him for several long seconds.

“Yes,” Conlan said finally. “We most definitely want to talk to your Fiona.”

Alaric raised an eyebrow, as if waiting for Christophe to deny that she was his Fiona. When he didn’t, the priest sighed. “And so another one, as Princess Riley would say, bites the dust.”

Chapter 25

Atlantis, the palace war room, half an hour later

Fiona swallowed past the lump of awe that seemed to have permanently settled in her throat. First she’d had fruit and juice with the princess of Atlantis, who offered her the use of the palace gardens for her next book any time she wanted, so long as she promised to autograph a book for Prince Aidan.

Then Christophe had come to find her, told her she was needed at a war council, and she’d walked through