Jewel of Atlantis

'Where are you?' a deep male voice said.

'Pickup has been delayed,' Gray responded.

'Should we send another courier?'

He rubbed a hand down his face. 'No. I have scheduled a pickup within the next few days. Copy.' 'Copy. Over.'

'Over.' Gray shoved the box into his backpack and picked up his plate. He took a bite, acting as if he hadn't just had a conversation with his box. Or boss. Or whoever. His expression remained blanketed as he chewed.

She decided not to ask about his work; she could guess. The package: Dunamis. What she couldn't guess was how he felt about the food. She waited beside him, rising on her haunches, ready to hear his praise. 'Well?'

'Tastes like chicken,' he said, and he didn't sound glad.

'Oh.' Not what she'd wanted to hear because she remembered how he'd complained about chicken in one of her visions. She'd hoped for delicious, scrumptious, or savory. 'It's good for you, so eat it whether you like it or not.'

She filled a leaf for herself, sat back and nibbled on the burned flakes. Not wonderful, but not as bad as that energy bar either. 'I wish we had pizza delivery here. I've always wondered what one of those gooey round things taste like.'

His hand froze midair, hovering just in front of his mouth for a split second before he lowered it. 'First you knew about the Hoover, among other surface items, then you knew about my sister Katie, and now you know about pizza, yet you don't know what it tastes like. I know you said you don't want to talk about this, but I have to know. How can you know of them, but not have experienced them? You said you never visited the surface.'

She didn't want to answer. She could walk away from him again—she doubted he had the strength to follow—but he'd just bring it up the next time he saw her. Determination seeped from his every pore.

He'd been upset with the thought of her reading his mind, so how would he react to knowing she'd watched his life unfold all these many years?

No matter the answer to that, he deserved to know.

She closed her eyes and gathered her courage, then forced the words to emerge. 'I've had visions of you

for years.' There. She'd confessed, and the rest spilled from her. 'I watched you grow from boy to man.'

'What? How?' Those simple single-word questions whipped from him, lashing out. 'I didn't see your entire Me,' she assured him, 'but merely glimpses.'

A moment passed in heavy silence while he absorbed her revelation. 'Glimpses of what, exactly?' Now his tone was devoid of emotion, and somehow that was all the more frightening.

'I saw your family, your home. Your,' she coughed and glanced away, 'women.' 'That seems like more than a glimpse to me.' Still, no emotion.

'I had no control over it. I tried to stop them, to close my mind to them, but the harder I tried, the more visions I received.'

His eyes narrowed. 'I don't like being spied on.'

'I didn't spy on you,' she ground out. 'I wish to the gods you'd had visions of me, so that this wouldn't seem so one-sided and wrong.'

His eyes widened, and his mouth fell open. 'That's it. That's where I've seen you.' 'What?' Her brow furrowed. 'Where?'

'I've seen you before. I told you that. Remember, I asked you if we'd met before?' It all fell into place, and Gray's fish settled like lead in his stomach. Why hadn't he recognized who she was immediately? He'd known she was familiar to him the first moment he saw her.

Over the years, he'd dreamed of her. He'd thought nothing of the dreams at the time, thought they were merely products of his overactive imagination and the weird things he'd encountered, but now he replayed some of them through his mind.

Jewel chained to a wall, her body draped in a blue robe, her black hair streaming around her. Men and women were paraded in front of her, some killed afterward, others spared.

Jewel being held down while someone chopped off her hair. A punishment, the one-armed, knife-wielding bastard said, for omitting details.

Jewel, trying to escape a tower, falling to the ground and breaking her leg.

He shook his head, the images alone sparking fury. Dark, potent fury. This was so hard to take in. Almost impossible, really. He only prayed he was mistaken, that he hadn't dreamed of her actual life.

'Let me see your leg,' he demanded softly.

Her face scrunched in confusion.

'Show me your lower right leg.' He remembered how the bone had popped through the skin, how she'd cried in pain and hours passed before anyone found her. And then she'd been punished, forced to watch an innocent man slain. Her physical wound somehow and miraculously healed days later, but a scar had remained. 'Please, sweetheart. Show me your leg.'

Surprise flashed in her eyes, but she stood and lifted her robe.

His lungs constricted, and he scrubbed a hand down his face. There, on her shin, was the scar. His childhood dreams had been real. He'd actually seen glimpses of her life, and he hadn't been able to stop them, either. He'd tried, though. God knew he'd tried anything and everything to rid himself of the haunting images of the dream woman's tragic, tortured life. Therapy. Hypnosis.

Jewel had known one cruelty after another. It had been bad enough when he assumed they were merely dreams, but knowing they were real, that Jewel had truly lived those horrible things, he wanted to gather her in his arms and keep her safe for the rest of her life.

'I've seen enough,' he said, his tone cracked. How had she survived? How had she retained such innocence? How could she still see beauty in the world?

She dropped her robe and sat back on the ground, picking up her plate, resuming her eating. 'What was that all about?'

'It isn't one-sided,' he told her, his tone flat.

She paused, looked at her leg, then at him. 'You saw glimpses of me?'

He nodded.

Her cheeks bloomed bright with color, and her mouth formed a small O. 'What did you see me do?'

Obviously she didn't like the knowledge that she'd been watched, either. 'This and that,' he answered vaguely. 'What was happening when I saw you that first time as flesh and blood? Those people were being paraded in front of you, then carried away or killed by the demons.'

Going pale, she set her leaf aside. 'You know of my ability to read minds.' He tensed, because he suddenly knew where she was going with this.

'Whoever owns me at the time brings me their citizens and enemies alike and commands me to ferret out any betrayers. The first time I refused to do this, I had to watch a man die horribly. I've tried to lie, to protect the people, but I can't. Lying cripples me for a reason I don't understand, the words frozen in my throat, so at times I'm forced to admit things about people that I do not want to.'

'I'm sorry,' he said, reaching for her, wishing there were more soothing words he could give her.

'So many times I wished they would have simply punished me instead. That I could have withstood, but no one wanted to hurt the very one who held the answers they so desired.'

'Have you always had this ability?'

'Always.'

'Was your mother or father—were they like you?'

'Not my mother. She was part of the siren race, and while she was powerful, she could not read minds or tell the future. I'm not sure about my father.'

'So you are siren?' Gray searched his mind, but didn't recall any glimpses of Jewel's childhood or family. That explained the sexiness of her voice, though.

'Part siren. I'm not sure what the other half is. My mother and I, we lived in a village of peace-loving