The Veiled Descendants

by Sophia Menesini

  “Tomorrow?” Beck questions.

  “We should really start planning tonight, Soren,” Shea comments, placing her hands on her hips.

  “No. The invasion is tomorrow,” Soren explains.

  “What?”

  Everyone practically screams the word.

  Poseidon and Triton look at each other worriedly.

  Caen is shouting at Soren along with Jo, while Beck is talking quietly but hurriedly with Caius.

  The air is thick with panic.

  Shea has to shake her head to clear it, but once she does, she sticks two fingers in her mouth and whistles.

  Everyone stops talking, and a yowl breaks through the sudden silence as all eyes land on Shea.

  Caeruleus lands on her shoulder.

  “Hey, buddy,” Shea whispers, nuzzling her face against his.

  All eyes are still watching her, and she can feel the royals in the courtyard getting impatient, so she cuts her lovefest with her Lionbird short and focuses on the jarring news they’ve just received.

  “Okay. First, Soren, we’re half a week early. How can the invasion be tomorrow?”

  “I don’t know, Your Highness,” he explains, and Shea tries to ignore the title in favor of focusing on what he’s saying.

  Before he can continue, Jo interrupts him, “It’s Her Majesty now,” she tells Soren, who looks at her, confused.

  “Shea and I married on Orena. She’ll still need a coronation of course, but considering the circumstances, I think we can just refer to her as queen consort for now.”

  Soren looks shocked, and Shea takes the small victory. That is until he smirks at her, clearing his throat, “Of course, Your Majesty.” Soren nods to Shea and Shea just shakes her head.

  It’s probably not right to wish him harm at the moment since he really could die soon. Although.

  Soren continues, “Scouts report that the Lycon army marched from Oceanus after the scourge. It’s like they knew when you’d be back. Soldiers from the eastern part of Arethusa managed to send reports that the Merrow have been ravaging the Arethusian countryside.”

  “What?” Jo exclaims.

  “Yes. We sent units in to retrieve as many civilians as we could. The large estates were hit first.”

  “Many of our palace staff are from the farmlands in the east,” Jo murmurs. “Eione?”

  “She traveled with a unit to retrieve her family. They were ambushed, my queen…none survived. I’m sorry, Queen Joana,” Soren reports with a heavy heart.

  A small choked noise escapes Jo’s throat, but she manages to hold it together.

  “And my…grandmother,” Jo inquires, “Lady Catherine? Did she make it out of Galene?”

  Soren doesn’t respond, but it’s answer enough.

  “We lost a lot of good people while you were gone. But we’re not going to let them die in vain,” Caius tells Jo.

  A tear falls from her wife’s eye, and Shea watches her wipe it away quickly.

  “So, tomorrow? What in Hades are we going to do?” Jo asks, looking around the small group.

  “Well,” Shea responds, and everyone turns back to her. “First we’re going to evacuate the city. And then? We’re going to fight.”

  “Then I take it you found who you were after,” Soren asks.

  Triton steps forward, and Soren’s eyes widen in realization at who he is.

  “They found me,” Triton states.

  “Then there’s a chance,” Caius sighs.

  “Soren,” Jo orders, and Soren stands at attention, “take us to the war room. I want Thetis and Venus there when we arrive.”

  Soren salutes and orders two of his men to find V and Thetis.

  Thetis.

  Shea pauses as she remembers what she’s done. She broke her promise. Triton knows about Proteus. Shea rubs a hand over her face as she follows the group inside the palace, hoping this doesn’t go as badly as she predicts it will.

  Soren leads them through the airy halls.

  Guards stand at every corner, and there’s quite a few royals roaming the halls with papers and supplies.

  They’re taken past the doors leading into the ballroom and throne room, and up a large quantity of stairs to the top of a tower. Slits in the white stone let in a bit of light, but otherwise the steps are not illuminated.

  Finally, they all arrive at the top and Shea tries to hide the fact she’s out of breath.

  Beck, Soren, Caius, and Jo step into the tower room with ease, while Caen leans against the wall with a groan.

  Shea takes a moment to catch her breath and she almost bursts out laughing as she sees her brother trying to hide his heavy breathing. Poseidon makes the same attempt, and almost gets away with it, but he leans against the door frame for just a moment.

  How are there heavy royals when palaces have so many stairs?

  “Don’t ask questions you don’t want the answers to,” Triton’s voice tapers into her mind, and she glares at him as she pushes off the wall.

  “Will you stop that. My thoughts are private,” Shea orders, but her brother merely rolls his eyes.

  “Then stop thinking so loud. You’re the one who opened the connection in the first place,” Triton argues.

  “Me? You almost killed me; I needed the advantage!”

  “I agree, but then don’t start saying your thoughts are private when you invaded mine first!”

  “I did not,” Shea scoffs.

  “Children,” Poseidon bellows.

  Shea and Triton both turn to their father, looking like scolded kids, and they realize they’re the only ones left in the tower halls.

  “Considering you both have the plans, might you care to join us?” Poseidon asks wryly, laughing at both of them.

  Triton scowls at him, and stalks into the room, pushing past the old sea god. Shea’s about to follow him in when a voice calls her name from behind.

  “Shea!”

  Shea turns at the familiar tone and smiles when she sees Venus casually run up the last few stairs. Shea shakes her head at the lack of difficulty and almost falls to the ground at the force with which V hugs her.

  “I’m so glad you’re okay. Look at you,” V says as she pulls away, holding both of Shea’s hands while she looks her over.

  “Your magic is stunning, and you opened a few of your connections. I can feel Triton. I always knew power would look good on you.” V laughs, spinning Shea around in a twirl, which almost has Shea falling to the ground again.

  “You can see my magic?” Shea asks.

  V still looks as beautiful as ever. Her hair is braided back in a warrior style and she’s wearing black leather pants and boots with a light chain mail top. A waist belt secures the heavy material, and there are two daggers on either side of the belt in holsters.

  “Our kind of magic gives off an aura,” V responds. “A specialty of mine, auras. Helps me see love connections…and magic. So, tell me, do you see doors like more of your ocean family or something else? For some reason, mirrors are what I conjure when I enter Olympus mentally to open connections to another’s magic. I can’t believe you found him.”

  Shea opens her mouth to respond to V's Olympus explanation about the magical doors, room and halls in her mind, when she sees Thetis over V’s shoulder.

  She’s dressed in the same pants, with similar boots, but her top looks more like a violet robe that falls just above her knees in slits. Gold trim laces the shoulders and a breastplate covers the beautiful material. Her hair is also pulled back from her face in a bun and it exposes a necklace she’s wearing made of small shells with a miniature conch as the centerpiece.

  It’s glowing. But what really catches Shea’s attention is the look on Thetis’s face—the look of fury.

  “We should go in,” Shea prompts, but V is one step ahead of her, already making her way to the door.

  Shea attempts to follow, but a sharp hand with long nails practically pierces the skin on her shoulder as she’s yanked back to face Thetis’s wrath.
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  “Thetis.” Shea smiles anxiously.

  “What is he doing here?” Thetis grinds out, glaring Shea down.

  “Who?”

  The nails finally pierce Shea’s skin and she covers her cry with a cough.

  “Triton! Right. Well, he’s here to help.”

  “Why?” Thetis growls. “Why didn’t Poseidon just take the net from him?”

  Shea’s eyes narrow and she pulls her shoulder out of Thetis’s grip.

  “You knew.”

  “Of course I bloody knew. Poseidon created Triton’s shell, so obviously he has power over it. What, did you really believe that whole ‘child of Poseidon is needed to kill another child’? Because if you did, I may have overestimated your intelligence,” Thetis snaps.

  “If you knew, why you didn’t say anything?” Shea seethes.

  Thetis scoffs, “You were going to find out anyway, and besides it’s very important that Poseidon returns to Atlantis. I knew he’d need the net in order to regain enough power to open the black gates. You were never supposed to bring Triton back, so I’m asking you why in Hades is he here?”

  “We could have prevented so many deaths if we had known,” Shea practically roars, but she forces herself to quiet her voice, so the others don’t hear. “Why is it so important for him to return?”

  “You truly know nothing about your own magic, your heritage,” Thetis comments, disapprovingly surprised. She shakes her head, refusing to answer. “It doesn’t matter, that’s not important now. What is important is that I need to leave.”

  Shea’s eyes widen as Thetis turns her back on her.

  “Where the bloody Underdeep do you think you’re going? You can’t leave! We need you, the invasion is tomorrow,” Shea growls, turning Thetis back around to face her.

  But when Thetis turns, the small conch shell around her neck is glowing a dark blue, and her eyes are the same shade.

  She sees Thetis’s lips moving, but she can’t hear any words; instead she hears the most beautiful singing voice, it’s soft and ethereal. The sound overwhelms her senses and her vision is blacking out.

  “Thetis!”

  A deep, masculine voice rips through the sound, and Shea gulps, gasping, as she feels her lungs burning for air.

  She blinks, trying to clear her vision, and two warm hands cup her face. She focuses on the person in front of her and smiles at Triton, relieved to be breathing.

  Movement catches the corner of Shea’s eye, and she turns quickly, her hand going to her waterskin as her gaze narrows on Thetis.

  Ice blocks her path to the stairs and she’s standing there glaring at Triton.

  “What the Underdeep was that?” Shea rasps angrily.

  “Your brother’s magic, enjoy it much?” Thetis drawls.

  Shea attempts to lunge at her, but Triton holds her back.

  “Chári,” Triton attempts, but Thetis recoils at the name.

  “You will never call me that again,” Thetis hisses in response.

  Triton swallows, nodding. He steps away from Shea, gesturing to her to remain calm and he moves toward Thetis until he stands in front of her.

  “Okay,” he tells her, “I’m sorry.”

  Thetis chuckles coldly. “What pathetic words leaving your tongue, particularly since you don’t know the meaning.”

  “You don’t know him anymore,” Shea objects, still catching her breath from Thetis’s attack.

  “And you do?” Thetis snaps. “Seems his siren magic is powerful enough to overtake even someone like you.”

  “I’m not under any magic. I just know good when I see it,” Shea spits, looking Thetis up and down accusingly.

  “I helped you, I saved you, and this is the thanks I get.”

  “Thetis, there’s more important things happening than our bad blood,” Triton intervenes. “We need to stop Perses.”

  “Because you did that so well the first time,” Thetis sasses, and Triton winces.

  “I know you’re angry,” he says. “You have every right to be. I hurt you. I lost you your home.” Triton steps closer to her and she doesn’t step away.

  Thetis is watching him warily, and Shea finds herself surprised he’s getting so close.

  “I was a monster when you met me, but even then, I cared for you, I still care for you. And I want to stop him so we can save Nereid, so I can save you.” Triton smiles and Thetis’s face looks softer, vulnerable.

  “So, I can save our child.”

  And suddenly Shea can’t breathe again. The air is sucked out of the room, and Thetis’s features harden. She pushes Triton back and her attention shifts to Shea.

  “You,” she breathes.

  Shea stands her ground.

  “Thetis,” she warns.

  “You,” Thetis repeats, storming toward Shea.

  She grabs Shea, her hand wrapping around her throat, and throws her back against the wall. She squeezes and Shea chokes on the pressure.

  “You promised me, you swore you wouldn’t tell him!”

  “I…didn’t,” Shea chokes, “I didn’t…have…a…choice…”

  “Thetis!” Triton barks.

  “What in Hades is going on out here—Shea!”

  Shea hears Jo’s voice from the war room’s door and then there’s two sets of hands pulling Thetis off of her. Shea slips down, her ass falling on the ground as she coughs at the inhale of air.

  Caen is at her side, checking to see if she’s alright while Beck is running interference between Thetis and Jo.

  Triton is holding Thetis back while she struggles.

  Yelling has broken out in the hall as everyone begins arguing with one another.

  Shea’s vision seems to be righting itself and as the rest of the voices filter in, she thinks she can hear someone who’s not in the room with them.

  “Yes…Tear yourselves apart…And you call yourselves the heroes…”

  Shea looks around with fear, waiting for her half brother’s face to appear, but he doesn’t. Then she realizes that she’s heard his voice before. She tunes out the screaming and enters what she now realizes is Olympus. She instinctively knows what she’s looking for.

  The mental link to the Olympian palace has opened up into many more halls and doors with marks on the front.

  She passes a lightning bolt and a clam with pink mist spilling from the frame, a scent from the slippery serpent drifting from the door. Shea slips deeper into darkness until she finds what she’s looking for.

  This one isn’t marked. It looks just like her own, similar to Triton’s blue wooden door. But this magic is black, with veins of purple lightning striking through the thick mists of power.

  The door isn’t opened, not all the way, but it is cracked.

  Whispers escape from the small sliver of space and Shea throws herself up against it, trying to slam the door closed.

  “How?” she whispers to herself.

  She tries to close the door again, but when she reaches out and touches it, a memory surfaces of Perses’s hand on her throat.

  His eyes searching hers, and then he had released her. Like he’d found what he was looking for.

  “A connection,” Shea gasps.

  She’s shocked. Connecting with Triton had almost killed her, and Perses had just done it like a snap of his fingers.

  “You could be as powerful; you could be a goddess. Join me, sister, open the door and share my power.”

  ​Perses’s voice escapes from the cracks, and Shea steps away from it.

  ​“So, it can kill me too, no thanks,” Shea hisses, turning her back on the dark magic.

  ​“Your choice. Either way, you’ll meet your fate tomorrow.”

  ​Shea forces herself out of her mind, and she winces as she comes back to the screaming and yelling in the tower hall.

  ​“Enough,” Shea coughs.

  ​But no one can hear her over the sound of shouting.

  A soft meow catches her attention from the door to the war room and she sees Cae
ruleus staring at her. He sits down and yowls. No one pays him any mind, but Shea understands.

  She turns back to look at her wife, who is shouting at Thetis.

  At Caen threatening her and Thetis threatening him back, while Venus holds Caen back.

  At Beck arguing with Triton and Jo.

  Shea pushes herself up using the wall; she straightens and squares her jaw.

  “Oi!” Shea roars. “Enough!”

  She attracts the attention of everyone in the hall.

  “We don’t have time for this. Perses will be here tomorrow and as he just informed me in my mind, he’s prepared for all of us to meet our fates.”

  That seems to capture everyone’s attention.

  “Now, we have exactly one night to figure out a way to kill Perses, to hold off a siege of Lycon soldiers and Merrow. And finally, somehow survive this battle. So instead of fighting each other, let’s focus on the real enemy.”

  “Except I don’t know who that is anymore,” Thetis growls, shaking Triton off.

  He lets her go.

  “Then I suggest you figure it out, and quickly. Because I have no problem with Soren locking you up, and then regardless of the outcome you can worry about who comes and finds you,” Shea bites.

  “You would imprison your nephew’s mother?” Thetis inquires sarcastically.

  “I can’t afford to act emotionally right now. Can you?”

  Thetis steps back like Shea has struck her and Shea takes it as a win.

  She may feel bad for telling Triton about Proteus, but Thetis knew that Poseidon could have stopped Perses before their voyage even if it meant him never returning to Atlantis, and that is unforgivable.

  She’s the reason Dari and Phoebus are dead. It’s enough for the last of her guilt to go away.

  “Shall we?” Shea asks, and she leads the group back into the war room.

  The tower is impressive; it’s completely open to the air except for a white marble railing that goes all the way around. Shea can see the ocean, the harbor, her ship, and even…

  Her thoughts narrow down to the view ahead, out in the distance past the lower town’s gates. Past the castle farmlands, along the Trident’s Fork Road to the smoke in the distance and the lights. The more Shea studies it, the more she realizes what all those objects are. It’s a camp, and more specifically, as she can just barely make out the colors flying, a Lycon camp.