Atlantis Rising

He lay the unconscious form of the priest on the table and turned, breathing harshly, to help Riley.

She stood, trapped, between Ven and Justice, who each held one of her arms and whose grim expressions signaled a major need to hurt somebody.

Conlan was all over that idea.

He started toward Riley. 'Take your hand off her or the next thing you'll feel will be my boot up your ass,' he snarled at his brother.

'Yeah? And what exactly are you protecting? The woman—the empath who had the power to shut you down on the beach and now took Alaric out?'

Riley gasped. 'What? Are you kidding? How could I do that?'

Denal spoke up from the hallway. 'Lady Riley would never—'

Bastien cut him off. 'Shut up, boy. This is a matter beyond your knowledge.'

. Conlan's steps faltered. He knew her. He'd been inside her soul, godsdamn it. But, it was true that she'd been so furious, and then Alaric—

'What are you thinking?' she cried out. 'Why are you looking at me like that? You can't possibly think that I —'

A hoarse voice from behind Conlan cut into her plea. 'She is telling the truth, Conlan. She had nothing to do with this.'

Conlan swung around to see Alaric pulling himself to a sitting position on the table, face drawn and pale. 'That was a sign from the Trident. It is ready to be found.'

The breath left Conlan in a rush, relief nearly making him dizzy. 'Riley, I—'

'No,' she said, voice devoid of any feeling. 'You can keep your pretty speeches. You've just proven that I'm nothing to you.'

She pulled her arm free of Ven and, head held high, turned to leave the room. At the doorway, she stopped and spoke without looking at him. 'I can feel Reisen again. If I can help you locate him, I will. For Quinn's sake. For the rebellion.'

Conlan tried to reach her emotions, but—worse by far than the locked shields—all he encountered in her mind was desolation.

'And stay out of my mind, Conlan. We're through.'

Denal looked around at all of them, dared to speak. 'What do we do now?'

Alaric answered. 'Now we wait for another surge, so that I can locate the Trident.'

Bastien slammed his fist into the wall. 'And then we go open a can of whup ass on the House of Mycenae.'

Conlan stood there with his guts bleeding on the floor, and the woman who'd caused it walked down the hall and out of his life. He bared his teeth in a snarl. 'Exactly right, Bastien.

'Exactly right.'

Anubisa lifted her head from the limp and bloody form of Barrabas's pathetic excuse for a general and hissed. The disturbance in the elements had blown through her mind like a clean wind driving the acrid stink of death off a battlefield.

She despised clean winds.

It was time to put Barrabas to work.

Chapter 26

Riley sat on the couch in the games room, emptiness washing through her, an island of quiet in the midst of the rushing preparations for battle. She and Alaric had spent the entire day working together to try to locate Reisen and the Trident. She'd intermittently received frustratingly brief connections to their emotions, even as the Trident played a dangerous game of cat and mouse with the priest.

Finally, with the sunset, the flashes of power had become more powerful. Alaric had been able to track them, and the stronger emotional broadcasting she was feeling from Reisen and his warriors had helped triangulate a location.

Now, it was all about waiting. She was unable to process so many frantic emotional ups and downs, so she'd decided to quit trying.

After she'd steadfastly ignored Conlan all afternoon, he'd finally gone away to help prepare to hunt down Reisen and the Trident.

She'd help them find their Trident they needed so badly, and then she'd never have to deal with any of these bastards again.

She nearly reached out to touch Conlan's mind before she caught herself and slammed her mental shields shut.

The Trident. Yeah, the thing that he needed so badly, so he could go become the king and marry his precious queen. Well, bully for him. The look of doubt on his face when Ven had accused her of harming Alaric was something she'd never forget.

Could never forgive. He'd been inside her—mind and body—inside her heart. But he'd still doubted her.

Thank God she'd never told him that she loved him.

'Not that I do,' she muttered bitterly. 'Fleeting moment of lust-induced insanity, right?'

A shard of pain lodged somewhere deep in her chest twinged a protest at the thought, but she crushed it.

Ruthlessly.

Just like he'd been. Ruthless. Crushing her stupid fantasies of finally finding someone who would understand who she really was—and love her. Not abandon her.

'Riley?'

Great. Now she was even imagining his voice. She squeezed her eyes closed more tightly and ignored the wetness that pooled on her lashes.

A finger stroked her cheek, and her eyes flew open. She hadn't conjured him. He was here.

He knelt in front of her, took her hands in spite of her attempt to avoid his grasp. The room was suddenly empty, too. No warriors, no weapons. Just the two of them.

And the pain.

'Riley, you can't let a second of doubt destroy what we found between us,' he said. 'Alaric and his doomsaying can rot in the nine hells, for all I care. I need you.'

Even with her shields clamped shut on her emotions and blocking his, she could see the anguish in his face. The lines bracketing his mouth seemed to have deepened a decade's worth in the space of the past half hour.

She probably didn't look so hot herself.

Not that she cared. She closed her eyes again, determined to shut him out.

Weakening when she felt his breath on her face—felt his kiss on her forehead.

'I've only survived for five hundred years by never trusting anyone, Riley. Never believing in anyone. Never loving anyone.'

She opened her eyes, needing to see his face.

Then she opened her shields, needing to feel his heart.

Both told her the same thing. Conlan—this proud warrior—was humbling himself before her. Desperate for her forgiveness.

The pain in his eyes rivaled anything she'd felt in his memories from the time of Anubisa's torture. And suddenly she couldn't bear it.

Couldn't bear to be the one who caused him pain.

'Conlan, I—'

The sound of boots striding down the hallway interrupted her. It was Ven, and he had his battle face on.

'Alaric says we go now. The Trident is screaming inside his head, and there's a new level of power to it.' He stared down at Conlan and Riley, clearly not happy with what he saw, but didn't say another word. Just turned on