Shattered by the Sea Lord (Lords of Atlantis Book 8)

by Starla Night

  “…breakfast…”

  Some wake up call.

  She tied on her caftan and stuffed her undergarments into one pocket. “My morning nude-visitor count is going up. Although I suppose these are shorter.”

  “For now.” Ciran sobered. “I did not want to infringe on your memories of your first soul mate last night. But it is customary for a warrior to give his bride his mating gemstone.”

  From his pocket, he pulled out an iridescent Sea Opal and rested it in her open palm. He curved her fingers around it. “Please.”

  It was smooth and heavy in her hand, and so large, she couldn’t fully close her hand. Most Sea Opals were white as clouds, but Ciran’s had a stormy underbelly. Iridescent white gleamed with streaks of green, blue, and black.

  And yet it was him. Solid, comforting, and unbreakable.

  He was so earnest, so worthy, so certain. The cry echoed in her the deepest recesses of her heart. I wanted an easier love for you. But he knew what he was asking. He knew her. And he wanted the struggle, the burden.

  He was truly a good man.

  She pressed the gem to her chest. “Thank you. I’ll treasure it.”

  He brushed her lips.

  These were the lips that had kissed her so thoroughly last night. Her body recognized him, oriented on him, craved him. Desire streaked to her pussy and she clenched her thighs.

  He tilted his head as if he’d only intended to give her a quick kiss and now, her reaction to his slightest touch caused him to deepen the connection. His cock hardened against her thigh.

  Maybe they could slip into the lagoon for a few minutes before breakfast…

  “Dannika?” Hadali called at the top of the stairs. “Ciran? Do you mind if I get Val some elixir?”

  Maybe not.

  Ciran leaned back and licked his lips.

  She took a deep breath and let it out with a shaky cough. “No, please come down.”

  He pattered down the stairs and scooped a coconut shell full of water. They returned to the beach structures where they’d had dinner the night before.

  Breakfast was a mashed sweet pumpkin with coconut milk, smoked fish, and a sharp tea with peppery spices. It wasn’t coffee, but her heart hopped.

  Val needed help rolling out of the hammock, and she limped to the breakfast table between Hadali and Tulu. One leg swelled and bruises almost sealed her eyes shut. She picked up her spoon with a shaky hand. “I know what you’re going to say. Now I look like I was in a plane crash.”

  “I’m so sorry.” Dannika smoothed her Sea Opal. “You’ve been drinking the elixir, right?”

  “Yeah, so I’d hate to see what I’d look like without the magical potion.”

  “You would look largely the same.” Ciran offered to cut her smoked fish into smaller chunks, and she accepted. “It is a problem with your resonance. I am sorry, Val. You do not have an affinity for the sea.”

  “Don’t I know it.” She touched her cut lip and winced. “I never wanted to go on a cruise. I’d rather go to the mountains than a beach any day. Maybe I’m secretly a dragon. Speaking of dragons, Hadali, is that a Chinese dragon on your chest?”

  Hadali looked down at the round tattoo covering the left side of his chest. It did not look like a dragon. It looked like a lion with scales and hooves, but it was shooting flames against a bamboo backdrop.

  “It’s a qilin.” He stroked the center. “It symbolizes protecting the home. And the bamboo means flexibility and endurance. I’m supposed to have a bunch of tattoos already, but we haven’t officially started my warrior training, so I’ll get a more then.” He pointed down the table. “Nuno’s got a tiger.”

  He straightened and puffed his chest. “Courage.”

  “And the plum blossom means he’s unafraid of difficulties,” Hadali said.

  They went around the breakfast table showing off tattoos. Each child had a central animal surrounded by a floral motif. Tulu had a protective lion and steadfast pine trees, and the others had a mysterious mantis, happy magpie, industrious crab, and more surrounded by a variety of plants.

  “Fascinating,” Ciran said. “The heart tattoo is normally a personal totem symbol but ours are usually more abstract.”

  Dannika tapped the curling circles on his pectoral, the green and coffee brown almost like a yin yang. “This has meaning?”

  “A feeling.” He traced the colors with his index finger. “Reason and emotion. For an effective strategy, both are necessary to understand your enemy and yourself.”

  Itime and Konomelu had similar abstract tattoos that meant fierce loyalty and a quiet blade.

  “In Sanctuary, Prince Ankena ruled that we would honor the traditions of our brides and our warriors,” Konomelu said.

  “And not a single dragon,” Val said.

  “I tried.” Meg dropped her carved wooden spoon with a clatter, stretched, and sighed. “I used so many squid inks and at least five feather quills. I drew on so many leaves. I just never got it right. No dragons, no chrysanthemums. And nobody wanted a squid. I could draw those in my sleep.”

  Val shook her head and then winced again. “Maybe I need my eyes checked.”

  They had to get Val real help. She needed modern medicine.

  Being stranded on a deserted island for decades was much worse for an ordinary human than for a bride with access to healing elixir. Meg and Angie and Bex were all healthy and strong, and they barely had wrinkles, much less scars. Dannika’s bruises from being whipped by metal had faded to shadowy greens and light purples in a day.

  Hopefully, Angie, Meg, and Bex had secret powers up their sleeves.

  Even though their island grass dresses were basically sleeveless.

  The kids finished their breakfast and ran off to play. Angie called them back to help clean up. Over the chorus of frustrated “aws”, Meg stood.

  “I have an announcement.” She rested her hand on Itime’s calm shoulder. “After breakfast, I’m going in the ocean.”

  The kids all dropped silent, eyes wide.

  “And I’ll need your help. You know why. So, uh, let’s be helpful, okay?” She patted Itime’s shoulder and sat. “That’s all.”

  Her kids rushed to pack away the food.

  The warriors gathered at the top of the flat white beach.

  “Why does Meg dread the water?” Ciran asked the warriors.

  Tulu answered. “Disney princess powers.”

  “What does that mean?”

  Konomelu exchanged glances with Itime. “It is best if you see for yourself.”

  Shallow blue water stretched to the coral. Waves stumbled over the ring separating their island sanctuary from the wild, free ocean.

  “Gosh, this is beautiful.” Val squinted from beneath a sunshade. Meg’s youngest played in the sand beside her. “Well, good luck transforming into an unstoppable force.”

  “Thanks,” Dannika said.

  Bex sauntered over, then Meg followed by the biggest cluster of kids, and then Angie, arms crossed, bringing up the rear.

  They divested their clothes. Dannika held on to Ciran’s Sea Opal for good luck. The sand was warming up fast, the damp line where the waves ended soothed her hot toes. The turquoise water—clear and sandy up close—invited her in.

  Ciran strode into the low waves.

  They had made love yesterday. Her body tingled with his nearness. Her unused muscles twinged in a liquid reminder of how long it had been since a man had filled her.

  Ciran’s gaze lasered onto hers as the clear surf splashed up her thighs. He sensed her emotions, as always, and amplified her determination with dark promise.

  She would succeed today.

  The other women would witness her queen powers and develop their own. They would push back the warriors who confined them to this island.

  “Okay, guys.” Meg squeezed her eyes shut and held out her hands. “Help me in. And get ready.”

  Tulu walked in front of her. Her younger sons took her hands and led her, cautious and b
lind, into the shallow surf. She let out her breath in a nervous hiss and talked quietly to herself. “Here we go. Here we go…”

  Angie stood back with her arms crossed.

  Out at waist level in the gently rocking waves, Tulu asked, “Ready?”

  Meg took a deep breath, held it, and nodded her head. On their cue, they all descended.

  Dannika dropped as well. Water closed over her head.

  Her eyes adjusted even before she finished sucking in seawater. The sand gave way to spikes of coral, which housed schools of royal blue tang, curious yellow and black butterflyfish, bumbling green, blue, and yellow parrotfish, and, of course, squids.

  Big squids, small squids, bumbling squids, inking squids. They floated tentacles-first, their mantles pointed downward, so they looked like sock puppets with big eyes on the sides. The fins on their mantles rilled.

  As the ground descended into the deep ocean, the slope reversed. Ancient, bleached coral grew for the surface like a lattice fence. A large coral ridge sheltered them from the patrol’s view.

  Nuno and Bex waited below in the hollow. Dannika would join them and demonstrate her powers.

  Her stomach squeezed.

  Behind Meg, Angie’s kids splashed into the water and shifted, squealing. The passel of squid rippled colors across their funnels and jetted away, then reversed course and chased after the giggling children, seizing them and pinching with their beaks. The kids shrieked.

  “It is strange,” Ciran vibrated, floating beside Dannika. “I have never seen squids behave this way.”

  “Chasing and biting?”

  “Usually they are curious, solemn creatures who would rather trick us into thinking they are a marine hermit crab than draw attention to themselves. Yet these squids swim erratically and attack. It is as though they hear an irritating noise that they cannot escape.”

  Something drove them mad. But what?

  Meg’s bubbles ascended for the surface and she convulsed as she shifted. Her sons floated close to her. She opened her eyes, peered around, and grinned. “I did it!”

  “Good job, Mom,” her sons chorused.

  So, she was happy to submerge. Just getting into the water, though, was a whole operation.

  Itime approached Dannika. “Can you shield her?”

  “Shield her? Right now?”

  He nodded.

  Adrenaline flooded her body. Her hands trembled and her heart raced. Dannika clenched the Sea Opal close to her heart in one hand and flexed her fingers on the other. Nothing happened.

  “Um, give me a minute.” She flicked her fingers like trying to dry-start a lighter. Nothing, nothing, nothing. How frustrating!

  Ciran clasped her hand, gently calming her. “Your soul is dimming.”

  “I know.”

  He stroked her cheek and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “You have the power within you. Remember what you did before and let it flow out.”

  He was right.

  She kissed him back, letting his hot, sweet caresses center her. And with new calm, her fingertips tingled with power. Dannika pulled back and turned to Meg, extending her hand to release the power.

  But horror affixed Meg’s face. She held up her own hand in a warning gesture. “No. No. No!”

  The power in Dannika’s fingertips drained away.

  Hmm?

  Doot-doot-doooooot.

  The contrabassoon of squids grew from a normal symphonic bass to an insistent rumble of a train grinding into Central Park. Every squid near the reef oriented on Meg, tentacles pointed like arrows, longer arms trailing.

  “Your shield,” Itime repeated, and his usual calm had an edge.

  Oh, right.

  Dannika held out her one hand again and willed the calm to return. Be conscious of Ciran. Don’t think about what’s happening with Meg. Focus.

  But she hadn’t gotten her license in Zen Buddhism yet and hadn’t become enlightened enough to hold her meditative state while witnessing a wild squid-storm.

  Meg turned and kicked her little stubby feet for the shoreline. “Quick, boys. Go, go!”

  Tulu floated at the ready, tensed for battle.

  Dooot. Dooot. Dooooooot.

  The contrabassoon of doom blatted as the squid converged on Meg and her sons. Tulu bashed the bodies away, waving and kicking. Itime flew to his side, and they tried to ward off the mollusk invasion.

  Okay. Okay. Tune it out. Focus.

  Shield.

  A squid smacked Dannika in the face. Another crawled across her outstretched arms and a third gnawed on her toes.

  What in the heck?

  She shook them off.

  Ciran battled his own hoard. “What is this behavior?”

  Meg shrieked and kicked for the surface. She broke free and splashed.

  The squid surged after her.

  This was not Disney princess. This was The Birds, or in Meg’s case, The Squids. Plus a few random tangs and parrotfish caught up in the excitement.

  The kids helped Meg reach the shore, and Dannika and Ciran stumbled out of the surf with her, fighting through the marine bodies to reach the sand.

  Meg crawled and lay facedown on the beach.

  Squids flew after her, hurtling through the air and beaching themselves on the hot, white sand.

  “Whew!” Val waved from her sunshade. “I’ve heard of flying fish. I’ve never heard of flying squids.”

  Angie shook her head, hands on her grass dress-clad hips. “We hadn’t either.”

  “There are some species,” Konomelu said. “But, yes, this is rare.”

  The kids frolicked through the mess and tossed beached fish into the surf.

  Dannika drained out the last of her water, finished coughing, and wiped her face. She asked Angie, “Does that happen often?”

  “All the time,” Angie said.

  Bex, sniffling from her shift, nodded.

  “This is why, as nice as it would be to discover secret powers, I doubt it will ever be possible because my daughter can’t even enter the water.”

  Chapter Twenty

  They tried all morning to get Meg in the shallows, but the squids were too agitated. They even took a lunch break, and at the first attempt in the afternoon, Dannika managed to wade in unmolested and put up her shield. Meg snuck in, and the shield held okay.

  Then the squids turned on Dannika, pinching and biting her, and the morning’s frustration repeated all over again.

  The kids gave up in boredom and went their own ways on the island. Konomelu and Itime retired to a quieter section of the reef to hunt the evening’s dinner. The women did beach duty.

  Meg collapsed on the white sand, chest heaving, tears and saltwater streaming sideways down her face, the flailing corpses of insistent squid-suiciders flopping around her.

  “Why me?” she asked the cloudless white sky. “What did I ever do to you? Why am I the first sea horseman of the squidocalypse?”

  Ciran had remained near. He flipped squids back into the surf, comfortably nude. “It is a mark of your power. If it was not so strong, you would not call them so fiercely.”

  “Oh my God. You mean, that’s my queen power? I can summon a cloud of squids to attack me?”

  “No.” He snorted. “What an odd power.”

  “Hey, you’re the one telling me. I’m just Meg of the Squids over here.”

  “Yes. What I meant was that you have a strong resonance. The other queens have an affinity for some sea creatures, but their connection is not as intense as yours. Once you control this and can swim in the water unmolested, we will discover which of the three powers you possess.”

  “But we can’t find out because I can’t even get in the water. Argh.”

  Dannika tossed in another wriggly rubber squid, doing her part to clean the beach. If she could just make a big enough shield to cover herself as well as Meg, this wouldn’t happen.

  But she needed practice.

  A lot of practice.

  “Is there somewhere els
e we can go?” Dannika asked. “Somewhere that’s far from prying eyes and tentacles? Where we can get centered and explore our powers without fear?”

  The trio of women looked at each other.

  Bex stretched and straightened. “There is.”

  “I’ll just stay here with Val and prepare dinner.” Angie brushed down her grass dress and retied her fashionable box-shaped hat.

  “Mom,” Meg said in warning. “If I can brave squids, you can do this.”

  “Of course, but someone should check on Val.”

  “I’ll be fine.” Val waved. “Have fun.”

  “See?” Meg grabbed Angie’s hand. “Come on.”

  Angie let herself be dragged. “I’ll just be in everyone’s way.”

  “Whine, whine, whine. You’d think the island would collapse if you didn’t plan four courses.”

  “Well, I take my hostess duties seriously.”

  “What about your duty to rescue Prince Ankena and Luk? Come on.”

  Angie surrendered and walked away from the beach with only a few long-suffering sighs and a small, “You can’t complain if dinner isn’t up to its usual standard…”

  “No one will complain if we have to eat squid jerky and sashimi. This is important. Let’s go.”

  Dannika and Ciran followed the group up the headland trail back to the cavern lagoon.

  Of course. What a perfect place to practice.

  Ciran divested his clothes and dove in with a tiny splash.

  Bex dropped her wrap and stepped off the ledge, disappearing into the water with a much bigger crash. Angie and Meg did the same. Meg had no hesitations, which just proved that she was afraid of the squids, not the water. Dannika took the longest tugging off her damp clothes, and then she splashed in.

  Shifting was rough as ever. Dannika choked through it.

  Bex paddled to Ciran. “Did you check the boulder?”

  “It is in place.”

  The women floated, ready to learn.

  “The first step in developing your powers is to fully shift into mer.” Ciran swam back and forth in front of the four women, his long fins dangling in the quiet, shallow lagoon. “Can you transform?”

  “We can make fins?” Angie squinted. “Just like the men?”

  “Yes. What is your greatest level of transformation?”