Return to Atlantis: a Fantasy Romance (Kingdom in the Sea Book 1)

by Vivienne Savage

  It felt wrong and untrue, like she was cheating on the spirit of the relationship she could have with Manu if the rigid traditions of their society didn’t dictate he run like an asshole from her to protect his neck from the guillotine. She didn’t think Aegaeon would jail him or pursue execution, but he had a legitimate fear of losing everything he’d worked his entire career to achieve.

  And she couldn’t take that from him. Fate had been against them from the start, but what bothered her the most was that they hadn’t even had a chance to see where it would go—if they could mesh and whether they belonged together.

  More importantly, Kai wondered if she’d become powerful enough to overcome the Gloom. Each day she dwelled upon the matter made her wonder how she could ever hope to defeat a goddess twisted by hate and envy, a goddess with centuries of time to plot the demise of their city.

  Those and so many other concerns flooded her mind until she surrendered to her subconscious and crawled from bed.

  The fields…

  The whisper crept into her thoughts again, though it could have been a figment of her imagination, or the rustle of the breeze blowing through her curtains. She didn’t understand how it worked on a magical level, but Aegaeon had explained it once. Oxygen exchange occurred somehow, the ocean current passing through the barrier—which wasn’t actual glass at all—and sending wind currents over Atlantis.

  Kai heated water for tea with a kettle enchanted to boil water when placed on its matching slate tile. Cosmas had brought her samples of his favorite loose leaf blends, so she brewed a kettle of seaweed-infused green tea and settled on the balcony off her solarium overlooking the city. Even at the early hour of three in the morning Atlantian time, the world continued to move down below in the city that never slept.

  It made her miss New York, for the one time she’d visited Manhattan with friends years ago. They’d been stationed in Norfolk and had a weekend to themselves, so they drove northeast over the terrifying Delaware Memorial Bridge and spent six hours in a crowded sedan because one of the ladies had been invited to a party.

  Had Kai been recalled for any reason to their base, she’d have been up shit’s creek, but they’d just returned from a long deployment and had been desperate to dance the night away on dry land. They’d also shopped far too much. Kai remembered splurging and spending two grand during that weekend, then wondering what the hell happened when she looked at her bank account later.

  Still, she wouldn’t take it back. The only regret she did have was never keeping in touch with those girls after her discharge. Most of them chose to stay in. She hadn’t. She’d missed home, missed her family, and wanted to get a college education.

  Kai sipped her tea, musing over her past and how much of it had been worthless, wondering if any of it impacted her now. Yes, she decided. Everything she’d done, every class she took, every day she served, all added up to the woman she’d become, and she wouldn’t take any of it back. None of it. All of those experiences made her.

  The kettle yielded three cups of tea, all of which she sipped while watching distant coral gliders and tiny pedestrian dots. She couldn’t get the damned fields of gold out of her mind and contemplated visiting them. It was a twenty-minute swim at the most.

  Refusing to wake Amerin over something as simple as squeezing into her suit, she dragged sharkskin over her lower body. The first time she’d dressed on her own, it took almost twenty minutes to stretch out all the wrinkles and force the form-fitting material to obey.

  It came on easier this time, broken in to her shape.

  Kai made it as far as the guard post at the city gates before she encountered resistance.

  “I don’t know…we should contact Commander Cosmas. We were told you’re not to leave the city without an escort, Your Highness,” a stoic-faced guardsman told her. His gaze drifted to the armband above her elbow.

  Mers did not trade rings, as they slipped from wet fingers and were easily lost in the water. Instead, they gave their betrothed elaborate bands, chokers, or even belts carved from shells, jewels, and precious metals charmed to resist oxidation. Hers was pretty and pink, decorated with flowers carved from shells.

  “Right, but they were all asleep. Can’t one of you come with me? I’m not going far.”

  “Definitely not. As great an honor as it would be to swim by your side, only the designated mers can serve as your personal guard. They were all hand-chosen by Commanders Manu and Cosmas.”

  “You’re not serious.”

  “Quite serious, Princess Kailani.”

  One of them got on a communicator just out of her earshot, and she remained there, feeling like a naughty child under their watch, until Cosmas arrived about fifteen minutes later. He looked smug and altogether too satisfied for a man dragged out of bed in the middle of the night.

  “I’m told you made an escape attempt.”

  Kai rolled her eyes. “It’s not that dramatic. I didn’t try to creep past them or anything. I presented myself at the gate and said where I’d like to go. Even asked for one of them to come with me because I knew you and Manu would lose your shit if I left the city alone.”

  “I have better bowel control than that.”

  Kai stared at him, unamused.

  He merely grinned, reminding her too much of Manu. No wonder the two were goddamn friends, because they both delighted far too much in making fun of her. “If you’re going to make that face at me, I may change my mind about accompanying you.”

  “Am I a child, to be babysat now at all hours of the day and night?”

  “No, but you’re our princess, and you mean something to me. I won’t force my company on you, but as a fellow insomniac, I’d like to join you.”

  Kai sighed. “Well, when you put it that way…maybe.”

  “I’ll introduce you to Leilei.”

  “Who’s Leilei?”

  “You’ll only find out if you become my companion.”

  “Fine.”

  “Excellent, so where are we going?”

  “The Fields of Gold. I picked starfish with Amerin there two days ago, and I can’t get the place off my mind. It’s like—ugh.” She pursed her lips, unable to describe why she awakened with a desire to see the starfish. “I don’t know.”

  Cosmas canted his head. “A stop at the armory then.”

  “Seriously? We’re only going for a walk.”

  “A swim, technically. No Myrmidon leaves the city limits unarmed.”

  “Manu does.”

  “Trust me, Manu is always armed. You simply haven’t seen the weapon.”

  Leilei turned out to be a gorgeous Atlantic dusktip, a navy-skinned shark bred for agility, with bright purple and pink spots on her caudal and her long pectoral fins. They reminded Kai of a sky at twilight, and she had to be the most beautiful creature Kai had seen since her arrival. Her turquoise eyes and her markings glowed like starlight.

  She was also quite the attention whore and swam back and forth, letting Kai stroke her sides and rub her nose, behaving more like a water puppy than one thousand pounds of ferocious underwater beast.

  “Cosmas, she’s beautiful.” The man’s talent for riding sharks reminded her of an aquatic Cesar Milan, somehow owning over a dozen animals of five different breeds. She’d visited his farm outside of the city where he owned a few hundred acres of fenced, magically compartmentalized water, granting each animal territory and freedom to be sharks. Prey could enter and exit, but the sharks couldn’t, and she suspected even if they could, none would leave because they loved their daddy, and when he was present, they didn’t fight amongst themselves. “She’s definitely the most gorgeous you’ve shown me.”

  “I’m glad you think so, considering she’s yours.”

  Kai stared. “What?”

  “She’s yours. Manu chose her from the rider program for you, but I wasn’t sure until now whether the two of you would mesh.” A big grin stretched across his face from ear to ear. “Seems she likes you.”


  “Manu chose her?”

  “Yes. He asked me yesterday if I’d introduce both of you. I planned to fetch you in the morning to bring you to the stables, but we’re both awake, so.” He shrugged.

  “I thought…” Thought he hated her. She hadn’t thought it possible three months ago, but she missed his company and had decided that, even though Atlantians didn’t celebrate Christmas, the only gift she wished for herself, was for her friend to talk to her again.

  “We’ll speak later about this issue with Manu. For now, come on.” He nodded toward Leilei. “Remember how to saddle up?”

  “I think so.”

  On a shark of Leilei’s size and build, saddle design required the rider to sit before the dorsal fin, leaning forward. Cosmas only had to correct her once when she incorrectly looped the excess girth. That went behind the pectoral fins. She found shark riding oddly similar to horseback riding. The motions differed, more natural underwater. Sharks had no gait, instead cruising smooth as glass through the currents.

  Since he wanted Kai to begin bonding with her new friend, Cosmas swam alongside them, pulling off an Olympic-worthy dolphin kick Lochte or Phelps would have envied. Leilei had a lot of energy, and she wondered if her smaller size was relative to her age. Some of the other battle sharks were massive monsters almost twice her length. Every mile or so, she had to cue the shark to slow down before they left Cosmas behind in their wake. Not that her concern was necessary. The third time Leilei bolted, Kai glanced to her right and found Cosmas keeping pace beside her, cruising through the water with a sleek shark tail.

  “About time!”

  “About time what?”

  “You’ve never brought out a tail before.”

  He chuckled. “Not often a reason to show off, but I figured we should give the little lady what she wants. Care for a race?”

  “A race? Dude, I’m on a fucking shark. You won’t keep up.”

  “Precisely. She’s your shark, and she’s faster than me. Your job, and your only job right now, is to tail me. Consider this our next lesson. You’ll have to control her and her speed. Think you can do that?”

  Giving her no chance to decline his challenge, Cosmas darted into the lead, leaving her in his wake. Not about to accept defeat, she and Leilei gave chase, racing alongside him and pulling into the lead.

  “You’re failing, Kai!” Cosmas shouted. “Remember the terms of the race!”

  Curbing Leilei was easier said than done, her mind young, enthusiastic, and playful. She wanted to impress her rider. Kai coaxed her to slow down, pitting her consciousness against the filly’s until she obeyed.

  The first time Cosmas stopped and Kai had to put the brakes on her mount, Leilei resisted her, an echo of thought reverberating through her mind.

  Her shark wanted to speed against Cosmas in a true race.

  No, Kai thought at her, deciding to be stunned later, much, much later, about actually hearing the little voice inside her own thoughts. It isn’t yet time to go fast.

  Go fast!

  Despite urging Leilei to decelerate, the creature twisted into a tight circle, pulling off a maneuver that almost wrenched Kai from the saddle. She held on and dropped her heels, tightening with her thighs, refusing to be thrown.

  “Shit!” Cosmas swore, knocked aside by the powerful tail. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine!” she shouted despite Leilei taking her on a ride, like an aquatic bronco with something to prove at the rodeo.

  “Back out of her thoughts, I’ll take con—”

  “No! I have her.”

  “You most certainly do not. Kai, she can hurt you.”

  “I have her!” she insisted, queasy from the motion of whipping left and right, turning tight figure-eights.

  Gripping the reins so tightly her nails buried in her palms, Kai gritted her teeth and hurled her next thought with all of the mental energy she possessed. Leilei, you will obey me now! There will be a time for fun, but this isn’t it. Listen to me now, or we won’t go out again. I’ll take another shark next time. Do you want that?

  Silence. The underwater acrobatics slowed.

  You don’t want that do you? I want us to have so much fun together, but to do that, you have to listen to me. Do you want to hurt me?

  No.

  Then listen. Be a good girl, Leilei, then we’ll be able to have all the fun later.

  Drifting back from them and watching the entire exchange, Cosmas rubbed his face where the tail had struck him, his cheek already showing signs of a bruise.

  “Are you all right?” she asked him.

  “Nothing but my pride is damaged.” Slanting a skeptical look at Leilei, he moved into the lead again. The algae mound bordering the field was already in view. “That was very well done, by the way. I didn’t think you’d be able to control her, but you did.”

  “She’s like a child. Most children don’t want you to be disappointed in them. How old is she?” Kai asked, cresting the hill overlooking the Fields of Gold.

  “Two years old. A young one compared to most others at the breeder’s. Why?”

  “Curious. She’s a little…”

  “Playful? Yes.” He chuckled. “Manu thought her persona complemented yours.”

  Kai glanced at him, feeling skeptical. Manu had thought about her quite a bit for a man who had practically fired her from their friendship. “He did, did he?”

  “He did. Goddess’s honest truth.”

  “Hm. Why aren’t you on Perseus?”

  “He’d only distract Leilei. A first swim between a rider and their shark should be with minimal interference,” he explained. “And my presence here is enough. I thought it would be better for her to give you one hundred percent of her focus, and it seems I was right.”

  “Ah.”

  The stretch of starfish-speckled ocean floor was prettier than ever. A synchronized smack of fuchsia bioluminescent jellies passed above it, their number no less than five dozen. The many undiscovered ocean creatures never failed to amaze her.

  After admiring the departing group for a time, Kai slipped from Leilei’s back and touched down on the sandy bottom, cautious due to the sinkholes Amerin had mentioned.

  “They’re certainly hauling ass,” Cosmas muttered, regaining his legs. “Must be a predator nearby.”

  “What are their main predators in this area? Other jellies? Turtles?”

  “Doomlantern jellies can suck in about a dozen of them at once, if not more. Quite a sight to see.”

  “Doomlantern?”

  “Yep. Not something you’d be familiar with on the surface, as they’re native to these waters and only spawn near Atlantis. Roughly the size of a bed sheet.” Kai stared, but he only grinned wider and continued. “They were almost hunted to extinction a few decades back until your mother forbade their slaughter. Said it was better for our people to merely avoid them. Live and let live, because there’s enough sand under these waves for all of us to thrive.”

  “She said that?”

  He nodded. “She did. Like most members on the Council of Lords, my father returned from court outraged about it. But it only endeared her to me. I thought she had to be one special queen to stand up for the defenseless.”

  “Technically, they’re not defenseless if they’re as large as a bed sheet.”

  “Compared to us, they were. Mers would go out armed with harpoon blasters while riding greater shark breeds to hunt them for sport and food, though we had ample other creatures to eat. They’re not even particularly tasty, but from a distance, Kai…they’re gorgeous, fascinating creatures. They’ll test even us if they encounter a mer in passing, and we lack the willpower to persuade them away.”

  “They sound beautiful, and a little scary.” She pursed her lips. “We should go on a hike one day. Or whatever the mer equivalent of a hike is. Riding on our sharks. I want to see all of the local fauna. I’ve only seen a little while out training with Manu, but there has to be more.”

  “There’s ple
nty more, especially once you get to the outskirts of the Atlantian safe zone. We’ll make it a picnic.” He squinted at the starfish spawning field, a wrinkle creasing his brow. “I’ve never known it to be this serene. It’s almost unsettling.”

  A stillness settled in the golden expanse, the atmosphere different from what Kai remembered during the visit with Amerin. They’d chatted among the stars for hours that day while watching sea creatures Kai thought long extinct. Every hour of exploration in the Atlantian kingdom was a dream come true for her, especially when Cosmas took her to view the laomedon riders in action, a special cavalry regiment under him trained to ride the fierce, bottom-dwelling crocodilians that reminded her of a cross between a mosasaurus and a dolphin. They could hold their breath for hours.

  “Amerin told me the golden stars spawn year-round.”

  “They do, making this a popular feeding ground.”

  Now there wasn’t a single scuttling hermit crab or any inquisitive fish scavenging through the sand, making the area too quiet, almost unsettling, once the jellyfish departed. Without them, the area dimmed further. If the starfish were absent, the only light would have been the single lamp installation at the northern corner of the field. Serving underwater street lamps, the Atlantian techs planted bioluminescent, thirty-meter poles of hard coral every quarter mile throughout the hundred-league radius surrounding Atlantis. Beyond that, they relied on subtler markers on the long stretches of sea-road connecting the various colonies and townships of their kingdom. They didn’t want mortals to find those.

  Hoping to feel something romantic for Cosmas, she took his hand and ignored his startled eyebrow. “I have it on good experience that these little guys are delicious. Wanna share one?”

  He laughed. “I’ve had them before. If you’re able to stop at one, your willpower is greater than mine, Kai. Let’s not tease ourselves.”

  “Fine. We’ll gather as many as we can carry back to Atlantis.”

  “Better.” He glanced at the watch strapped to his left wrist, the glowing ink below the glass highlighting the time. “Let’s place a little wager on it,” he said, withdrawing his hand.