Kai’s shrug was both graceful and dismissive. “More than I have any right to be.” He looked up and met Jacob’s gaze directly. “Are we at peace, prince of Atlantis?”
Prince of Atlantis.
Prince of nothing, Jacob thought with wry irony. There was nothing left of Atlantis or its people. He was the last Atlantean, yet his influence was vast. He had commanded a nearly unthinkable spread of the world’s resources in a war against the Beltiamatu.
A pointless war. He knew that now.
Jacob stared into Kai’s eyes—the swirl of blue and green, touched by flickers of gold, like sunlight upon waves. He knew, too, that his eyes were different—black rimmed with gold, like the corona of an eclipse.
That gold bound them together—royal Beltiamatu blood.
“We have a problem,” Jacob said, not answering Kai’s question. “My rudimentary instruments are tracking aether fumes rising from the Blue Mountains. It appears that the Tiamat’s rising from beneath the ground upset the Tree of Life.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means that the Tree of Life is sending signals—inadvertent or otherwise—into space. Signals that it is likely the single largest source of aether in universe.”
“And you think it will attract others?”
“The transformative power of dark energy concentrated in one place, wouldn’t it attract you?”
Kai looked down at his chest. He gave Jacob no answer.
“It’s still in you, isn’t it?” Jacob asked. “The aether core from Atlantis?”
“It keeps me alive. It keeps the transformations under control,” Kai replied. “And Ginny has the other aether core.”
“If my worst fears play out, if the aether fumes attract the attention of other worlds, the people of Earth—our people—might need you again. But until then, it’s time to heal and rebuild.” He extended his hand to Kai. “We are at peace, king of the Beltiamatu.” Their hands clasped, and Jacob’s smile reflected the warmth and the relief in his heart. “Cousin.”
* * *
The sky had deepened into dark, scurrying clouds, heavy with rain and infused with the promise of lightning, as Jacob’s speedboat drew up alongside his yacht. Kai waited until the Atlantean prince was once more safely onboard the larger vessel. Only then did he dive under the water and beckon to the legion of mer-warriors who accompanied him. “A storm brews,” Kai said simply. “Escort his ship safely to shore.”
Several Beltiamatu warriors broke off to swim alongside Jacob’s yacht, and the others followed Kai back to Oceri where his mother, Thaleia, awaited him in the narrow entrance chamber. She looked him over anxiously. “Is everything well?”
Kai nodded.
“What did Jacob want?”
“To wish us well.” The corner of his mouth quirked into a smile. “Atlantis and the Beltiamatu are finally, and officially, at peace. He had other news for me, but nothing of immediate importance.” Kai’s shoulders stiffened. Starting tomorrow, he would look to rebuilding the Beltiamatu’s capability and capacity for war. If Jacob was right, then the wars the Beltiamatu had endured was nothing compared to the one headed toward them.
“Did he have any news of your grandfather?” Thaleia asked.
Kai shook his head.
“Or Ginny?”
“None. Grandfather knows where to find me; he’ll return if the situation demands it.”
Relief flittered over Thaleia’s thin face. “So, there is nothing to fear.”
Kai managed a faint smile. “For now, there is nothing to fear.”
“Then you will do your duty to the Beltiamatu?”
He turned his face away. How many times could he refuse his mother’s request without damaging their still-fragile relationship? “Not yet,” Kai said.
Thaleia however, persisted. “Naia is not better.”
“She is not any worse either,” Kai insisted. The Beltiamatu healers had stabilized Naia’s nerve degeneration, saving her life, but months had passed and she had not regained consciousness.
“Are you waiting for her,” Thaleia asked.
Was he? Kai did not know.
“You are the last of the royal bloodline,” Thaleia continued. Her tail fins fluttered in the current-less water. “If something happens to you—”
“I am not ready,” he said bluntly.
“When will you be?”
Kai’s jaw clenched. When I can forgive myself for not being brave enough to defy my cursed legacy to love Naia, and choose her, and keep her.
He did not know when he would be ready, or if he ever would be…
Kai, the king of the Beltiamatu, the last of his royal bloodline, had no answer for his people, for his mother, or for himself.
* * *
“Dr. Waters, is the section on Sumerian history going to be on our next test?”
Ginny refocused her wandering thoughts and glanced at the student slouched in the last row of the classroom. “Yes, it’s going to be on the exam.”
The student huffed under his breath. “It’s the same day as Dr. Maher’s Ancient Greek Civ mid-terms.”
Ginny tilted her head. “Are you suggesting that ancient Greek civilization is more relevant than Sumerian history?”
The student pressed his tongue against the inside of his cheek. The smile he offered Ginny was charmingly lopsided. “I don’t know about more relevant, but ancient Greece is practically current affairs compared to ancient Sumeria. With the emphasis on affairs.”
The other graduate students snickered. No more than five of the thirty seats in the class were occupied. Sumerian history just wasn’t a thing, and Ginny could hardly blame the students. Inanna and the Illojim had worked hard to bury their existence in mythology.
Ginny managed a smile and a shrug. “I’d recommend paying attention anyway. You never know when knowing Sumerian history might be the key to saving the world.”
“Like never,” a student muttered as they filed out of the class, their tablets and books tucked under their arms.
The corridor was empty and the halls quiet by the time Ginny gathered her computer laptop and her paper notebooks. She had been vague, deliberately so, about her long leave of absence, citing post-traumatic shock and stress from her abduction. Fortunately, the world had been so focused on other things that her absence was a blip on her dean’s radar. He had waved her excuses away with a distracted frown, and only barely remembered to say, “Welcome back.”
It was good, however, to be back in her life, to realize that the source of her headaches were plagiarized student papers in double-spaced twenty-four-point font, instead of aliens masquerading as ancient gods and dragon-shaped starships rising from the Earth.
Her boots tapped quietly on the corridor. Wrapped in the shroud of almost perfect silence, it didn’t take long for her to realize that she was not alone. Footsteps followed her.
If fear skittered in her heart, as it had on a night seemingly forever ago when she had been abducted, it vanished quickly. She stopped walking and turned around, more than ready for any assailant.
The footsteps finally followed her around the corner.
Zamir met her eyes, then his gaze dropped to the glowing ball of aether in her hand. “I like your flashlight.”
Ginny’s open-mouthed shock broadened into a smile. “What are you doing here? When did you get into town?”
“I just got in from the airport.”
“Is everything all right in Bermuda?” she asked.
“I have a small cottage on Horseshoe Island, on the northeastern edge of Bermuda. I’m settled in.”
All the better to keep an eye on the Beltiamatu city of Oceri, Ginny realized, from which Kai ruled the ocean. “Any word from him?”
“No, but I heard from Jacob.”
“Oh?” Ginny’s eyes widened. “What did he say?”
* * *
What did he say?
Zamir turned over Jacob’s words in his mind.
The Earth was leaki
ng aether. The analogy comparing the aether leak to an exposed nuclear core, however, only went so far. The miasma of dark energy spewed a space-trail that any marginally advanced race could follow, straight down to their defenseless planet.
Zamir would have chosen the exposed nuclear core over the aether leak, each and every time.
Ginny studied his face. “It’s not good, is it?” she asked quietly.
Zamir drew a deep breath. He could have given anything to return Ginny to her life. He had made her that promise. He wanted, desperately, to keep her safe. But there was no safety for someone who carried an aether core within.
Like Kai. And like Ginny.
Ginny deserved more, far more, than a trivial lie. He took her hands in his, marveling, as he always did, at how small and delicate they were. How fragile, and yet when aether glowed in the palm of her hand, she could do almost anything.
And she had done everything, including killing Nergal—up close and personal, without the cold distance of guns, or the glowing ease of aether magic.
He would be lying to himself if he thought she needed his protection, or that—after everything they had done together—they weren’t equals, that they weren’t a perfectly matched team.
He would be lying to himself if he thought she wasn’t ready for the truth.
“It’s not bad. Yet,” Zamir conceded. “But it could be.” His breath slipped out in a sigh. “I’ll tell you over dinner.”
“How long will you be staying?”
Did he imagine the hopeful lilt in her voice that mirrored the yet-unuttered words in his heart?
How could he be any less courageous in love than his son and grandson had been?
Zamir’s grip tightened on Ginny’s hand. “For as long as I can. For as long as you want.”
She arched her eyebrows. “Forever?”
He laughed, the sound coming from deep within him. The pitch of nerves in his stomach eased; the tightness around his chest didn’t—but that was all right. He was just going to have get used to having love right next to him, instead of an arm’s length away. He used his free hand to tilt up her chin. Their lips were so close together, they shared the same breath as he whispered, “Is that in human years, Beltiamatu years, or Illojim years?”
Ginny squeezed his hand, her smile radiant as she tiptoed into his kiss. “All of the above.”
THE END
If you enjoyed CURSED LEGACY, please leave a review. Reviews are critical for a book’s success, and your review will help other readers decide if they’d enjoy the novel too. Thank you!
Turn the page for a preview of my newest story, CONFESSIONS OF THE UNDERWORLD BOATER.
Confessions of the Underworld Boater
Chapter One Sneak Peak!
Losing my job wasn’t the problem…
Being recalled was.
No one believes in the Greek gods anymore, which leaves me with nothing to do at the banks of the river Styx.
Boredom isn’t an excuse for bad judgment, but I should have known better than to hang out in Fort Lauderdale.
The nightclub owned by my elder brother Thanatos—Death—is the hottest destination on the beach, until mortals inexplicably sicken and die—
—and show up at the Styx.
The displaced mortals are the first pawns in the long-overdue war between the gods of Olympus and the offspring of the Titans—the children of Nyx, my siblings and me.
My name is Charon, and my only power as the ferryman is to travel any path between Point A and Point B.
Unfortunately, that power isn't going to be enough to escape—or avert—the apocalypse headed my way…
CHAPTER ONE
Times get hard when people stop believing in you.
Well, not me, personally. I was just a guy with a job—lowly, but essential. Or so I thought.
The head honchos—Zeus, Hera, those folks up on Mount Olympus—should have paid more attention to the changing times. Perhaps invested more in marketing.
Or being less of an asshole and a bitch.
Whatever the reason, no one believes in the ancient gods anymore, which means that the dead no longer arrive at the underworld—
Which means that I, Charon, ferryman of the Styx, am flat out of a job.
Granted, the pay wasn’t great—a coin per person—but the lines were long, and the people kept coming.
Until they didn’t.
The problem, though, with having just one job for several thousand years is that I don’t really know how to do much else—all right, anything else—for a living. So here I am, still living off a boat, ferrying people around…
In Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
The Venice of America. 165 miles of navigable waterways. From the mega-yachts docked on Millionaire’s Row, to the dinghies bobbing alongside rotting wooden piers, this place has the only two things I need to cheerfully putter through immortality.
Lots of water.
And lots of People Watching.
Some crazy folks start out as tourists but end up staying. Others can’t decide whether to come or to go, like Orpheus—I remember that guy from way back when; amazing voice, but he couldn’t catch a lucky break.
Being in Fort Lauderdale is almost like being back at the Underworld.
Except it’s brighter here. Way brighter.
Dawn is my favorite time of the day. Whether it’s the eighty degrees of summer or the seventy-five of winter, I’m out on the deck at the first break of light, when black melts into tints of deepest blue, when the water lapping against the side of my sailboat is as inky dark as the Styx. It reminds me of home, where color exists only in the subtlest hues.
I relish the privacy. The solitude.
The ability to breathe deep and long, drawing the salt-tinged air into my lungs.
Fort Lauderdale smells different from the Underworld, although I’m not entirely sure why the world of the living would stink of despair and fear, while the Underworld does not.
Maybe it’s because we’re all camping out here now.
All twenty-two of us—my brothers and sisters, the children of Nyx…
Not everyone set up home in South Florida, although most of us did. I don’t recall who came up with the grand idea of good, old-fashioned family bonding—
—But that person ought to take Sisyphus’s place, interminably rolling that massive rock up that steep mountain.
Because that was an absolutely shit idea.
Especially when I’m the youngest and everyone else thinks I’m on call—
My cellphone buzzes in my shorts pocket.
—to solve all their damn problems.
I accept the call and snarl into the phone. “Who died this time?”
Read CONFESSIONS OF THE UNDERWORLD BOATER now!
Urban Fantasy and Science Fiction entwine in the world of the DOUBLE HELIX
“The Double Helix is the kind of series you’d expect to see with a movie deal. I loved, loved, LOVED it. I fell in love with the characters and will be reading all four books again in the future…a treat I reserve for my favorites.”—Full Time Reader
“I wish I could award more than 5 stars. This phenomenal series continues to astonish and delight.”—Hillel Kaminsky
THE DOUBLE HELIX COLLECTION
Finally available as a single collection, the books in the Double Helix series have gathered over 100 reviews with an average of 4.5 stars.
“Higher octane than Heroes. More heart than X-Men.”
His genetic code sourced from the best that humanity offers, Galahad embodies the pinnacle of perfection. When Zara Itani, a mercenary, frees him from his laboratory prison, she offers him a chance to claim everything that had ever been denied him, starting with his humanity.
Perfection cannot be unleashed without repercussions; Galahad’s freedom shatters Danyael Sabre’s life.
An alpha empath, Danyael is rare and coveted, even among the alpha mutants who dominate the Genetic Revolution. He wields the power to heal or
kill with a touch, but craves only privacy—an impossible dream for the man who was used as Galahad’s physical template.
Galahad and Danyael, two men, one face. One man seeks to embrace destiny, and the other to escape it. But destiny has a name. Zara. Assassin.
The multiple award-winning Double Helix series, consisting of Perfection Unleashed, Perfect Betrayal, Perfect Weapon, and Perfection Challenged, will defy your notions of perfection and humanity and plunge you into a world transformed by the Genetic Revolution.
MIRIYA
Her destiny collides with a man who can kill with a touch…
Thirty years into the First Genetic Revolution, society’s tolerance for human derivatives is wearing thin. Clones and in vitros are regarded with suspicion, and mutants with resentment. Yet in spite of the hostile environment, some alpha telepaths—like Miriya Templeton—have thrived.
Not for much longer…
Destiny has set her life on a collision course with Danyael Sabre, the alpha empath who can kill with a touch. Whether he becomes friend or foe, whether he and she live or die, will depend on the choices she makes. On her decisions hang the outcomes of the Second Genetic Revolution.
Miriya does not believe in destiny, nor want any part of the revolution, but she will risk everything to save a beloved friend, even if it means returning home to New Orleans. The decadent elegance of the Mardi Gras krewes conceal treachery and brewing death.
It’s too much for a novice like Miriya.
Natural talent and courage won’t save her.
Conviction might, but first, she has to decide what to believe in…and who to fight for…
PERFECTION UNLEASHED (Double Helix #1)
Winner of six literary awards, including Gold Medal, Science Fiction, Readers Favorites 2013
Cursed Legacy: Lord of the Ocean #3 Page 19