him. Grace, with her archer’s bow and deadly aim, had never stood a chance against him. And soon, their daughter would add her own guidance to Atlantis’s future.
Christophe, their problem child. All attitude and arrogance until he met the infamous cat burglar, the Scarlet Ninja, otherwise known to only a select few as Lady Fiona, famous children’s book author and illustrator. Fiona and her little brother had curbed some of the wildness in Christophe. Not all, Conlan amended, remembering that he had heard about more exploits of the Scarlet Ninja only last month when he’d gone to London. Just enough.
And Serai, ancient Atlantean princess, held in stasis for so long that she’d nearly died trapped in a crystal box. Daniel, her eleven-thousand-year-old vampire consort. They’d met before Atlantis had ever sunk beneath the waves, and only found each other again recently, after so many millennia of each believing the other dead.
Now, finally, Alaric. Conlan’s best friend for nearly five hundred years had met his true mate. The soul-meld had caught them both, and Conlan truly believed they would be the better for it, as he and his own
Then he considered the idea of baby Alarics running around and didn’t know whether to laugh or flee, but he finally knew exactly what to say.
He stood up at the head of the table, with the magical crystal arrangement in front of him that would carry his voice to every table in the garden and every home in the land, and he reached down to pull Riley and Aidan up to join them.
“Today marks the day we have anticipated for thousands of years. Atlantis will finally rise and take its place in the world again. We are here to celebrate that amazing accomplishment and honor those who made it possible. But I am also here to acknowledge the strides we have already made in joining the wider world.”
He gestured. “You see at the table here to my right that today we have our first-ever shape-shifter guests in Atlantis. More than that, both of them are soul-melded to Atlanteans, so we consider them part of the family.”
Everyone cheered and Kat waved, but Ethan stood up and bowed. “You can be part of my panther pride, too, anytime, Your Highness. I’ve seen you Atlanteans in a fight!”
Another cheer.
“After eleven thousand years, one of our own, a Nightwalker Guild mage, returned to Atlantis to claim the princess he’d loved and lost. A vampire sits at the table to my left, soul-melded to an ancient Atlantean princess. He, too, is part of our family.”
More cheering, but then Serai stood up as gracefully as she did everything. “If you call me
For a brief moment, Serai disappeared and a saber-toothed tiger stood in her place. The crowd went wild, cheering and stomping their feet, and then the very elegant princess reappeared and took her seat. Conlan bowed deeply in her direction, grinning at Daniel as he did so. He had a feeling that the princess kept her vampire very busy.
“We were once a very great civilization, when Atlantis rode the surface of the waves. Today we will rejoin the world, and the eyes of every country and every people will be upon us.”
He looked around at the faces of those he loved so much. “We will continue as our ancestors began, more than eleven thousand years ago. Atlantis will become a productive member of the world economy, a valuable participant in international strategy, and—most important of all—we will continue the work that my warriors still perform today, so many millennia after Poseidon first assigned us the task.”
He gestured with his hand and every one of the Seven, every warrior in training, and every warrior assigned to every segment of the Seven Isles, stood.
“Because now, finally, our prophecy is fulfilled and we will protect humanity no matter what is to come. Warriors, to me,” he shouted, and the warriors all streamed up to stand near him, and turned and faced the crowd and recited the oath with him.
“We have waited, and watched, and protected,” Conlan said. “And now, Atlantis will rise!”
As if on cue, a booming noise sounded and the whole of Atlantis jerked sideways, as if buffeted by a huge wave or an immovable object. Everyone looked up, and for the first time in more generations than anyone could count, they could see real sunlight over the dome of Atlantis. With a mighty heave, the dome broke through the waves and kept rising and rising, until the Seven Isles floated on the ocean’s surface once more.
Everyone waited, seemingly afraid to breathe, and for a moment even Conlan feared that the dome was too damaged to open, but then the top and sides unfolded like the petals of a giant crystalline flower, and Atlantis showed her face to the world.
And the world was there to greet them. Conlan shot up into the air in mist shape and viewed the sea in all directions, and he realized there were hundreds of ships, helicopters, and airplanes, and even a hang glider carrying a homemade banner that said WELCOME TO THE WORLD, ATLANTIS on it in bright blue letters.
Conlan floated back down to report, and his people started cheering again, as the first helicopters flew overhead and called down on loudspeakers for permission to land and greet them.
“We made it,” Riley said, holding Aidan tight.
“We did,” Conlan agreed, putting his arms around them both. “Are you ready to go be High Princess Riley for a little while?”
“Let me get my glass slippers,” she said, and together they walked forward to face the future.
Chapter 31
Quinn walked around for hours, exploring Atlantis, enjoying the celebratory spirit of the people, and loving the feel of the ocean breeze on her face and the dispersal of her slight feeling of claustrophobia. Alaric was busy; Riley was busy; everyone had tasks to do and people to meet, except for her, and she was perfectly fine with that. She needed time to process what had happened with her life and her career.
She also needed time to absorb the fact that she was now soul-melded to a magical Atlantean high priest— who was definitely a wizard in bed. Her cheeks heated up at the thought, and she deliberately ignored the slight soreness between her legs. After so many years of famine, she and Alaric had definitely had a feast, and she was feeling the aftereffects a little. Mostly, though, she just wandered around, smiling blissfully like a schoolgirl with her first crush, which was not only uncharacteristic for her, but also kind of embarrassing.
The day was sunny and clear—perfect weather for a lost continent to suddenly reappear. Quinn continued to walk, in no particular direction, content simply to observe. The Atlanteans were so delighted to be free of their long captivity under the waves that everywhere she looked, people were laughing and hugging and, in a few memorable cases, breaking into song. Everything was absolutely wonderful, and Quinn felt a little like singing herself, which made her laugh.
A cold breeze swept over her, chilling her flesh and carrying a dark sensation of impending danger that only an emotional empath should have been able to sense, but as she watched, the people nearest her shuddered and drew closer to one another, looking around themselves in mild alarm.
The first pings of unease snaked down her spine, and she opened her emotional shields to see what she could pick up. At first it was only the expected—the ordinary. People were excited and curious about the outside world. Most of them had already brushed off that ill wind as an unaccountably cold ocean breeze, which, after all, most of them had never felt in their lifetimes.
Sure. That
Quinn had seen far too much to discount her instincts at this stage of the game. Her skin kept trying to crawl off her arms, and her fingers were itching to go for the guns she wasn’t carrying. Her muscles tensed involuntarily, steeling for a blow, and she was suddenly absolutely, one thousand percent sure that something—somewhere very near—was preparing to go spectacularly wrong.
