Placing a hand on her cheek, I brushed her super soft skin. “I understand, sweetheart. You have no idea how much I understand. But … wouldn’t you like a chance to grow up and experience everything life has to offer? You are not meant to be here ... this paradise is for those who have passed on.”
She regarded me silently, and I wasn’t sure she truly comprehended what I was saying. Eventually she smiled and nodded, and I released her back to her mother, who was hovering close by.
The silence was heavy after this, the pain palpable. Asher wrapped his hands around me, bringing me back to stand, supporting me as everything hurt in my body. This was the point the transparent souls started to drift away—this was not their business, and they had paradise to get back to.
“We’re ready to return,” a male said, stepping forward. He was one of those who had marks across every inch of his skin. “Back to Atlantis. We will trust in your plans. The previous royals stayed behind and went down with the island. That’s why you were stuck in stasis for all those years.”
We were finally with the very people who could tell us everything about being an Atlantean, and their final days on the island.
They went into the underworld before we were even born,Asher said in my mind.
Yes. And apparently our mothers didn’t flee. They stayed and had us, and then everything went to shit.
His arm anchored me close.
That little girl broke me,I told him, my energy drenched in sorrow.She fucking broke me, Ash.
He soothed me the best he could, with love and support and the reminder that we were going to change their circumstances. All of them.
They were going to freak when they saw the world today.
But first we had to figure out how to save them all.
“I need to find the Hellbringers,” I said. “Without them, I can’t defeat the gods. They’re too strong, and their power is too great for me to control alone.”
They’d been here for ten thousand years, and they weren’t like the dead, content in their afterlife. Surely one of them knew something.
“The land they exist in is not one we can venture to,” the heavily tatted man said. “But you are born from the gods.” He turned and pointed across the island. “They’re in that direction. You’ll know when you reach the dark veil.”
Great. Another fucking curtain of nightmares. Hopefully I could part this one just as easily.
“I will be back for you,” I promised them. “I’ll figure out a way for you to all return to the land of the living. Atlantis has risen again, and it needs its people back.”
The man reached out to touch me, just on the forearm, and there was clearly no malice in his move. When our skin connected, I felt a flash of everything they’d been through to this point. How one of the gods—Sonaris by the looks of it—had saved them by sending them here. He’d cared about his people, in his own weird way.
“We will make this right,” I whispered. “Just hold on a little longer.”
I felt their collective hush, and then as one they slammed their fists against their chest, the thump echoing like a crack of thunder, and then they returned to the party.
The tatted man was the last to turn away. “We can’t interact with those who are dead, even though they can touch each other no problem. It’s been hard, but at least we weren’t alone. Everyone that comes to this island has Atlantean blood. We have seen our descendants, those who escaped and have died over the years. We have each other. But it would be nice to return home. This is not a land for those still with their vessels. It feels … unnatural.”
“That’s one way to put it,” Asher grumbled. He’d been letting me take the lead and I was overflowing with his support. “We will not let this injustice stand. We are Atlanteans of our word, and we will return y—”
His words were cut off as two translucent beings drifted past, their eyes alight as they chatted to each other.
Asher blinked, staring at them. “Mom … Dad,” he murmured.
The tatted man stepped in front of him. Asher’s eyes blazed as he nailed the man with a dark glare. The Atlantean was smart enough to take a step back, hands held high.
“They won’t remember you,” he got out quickly, before Asher made another move.
My mate paused, giving him a second to explain.
“Those who have died come here for peace, and in that peace they do not remember their loved ones. They don’t mourn for those they have lost. It’s part of life here. When their loved ones die, though, and their souls arrive here, that’s when all the memories return. The dead don’t remember the living, but they know each other in death.”
“But you all remember?” I said softly, and he nodded.
“Yes. My mate, she escaped with our children before the fall. They are here … their souls are now … but they don’t know me. So I watch from afar and feel joy that they are at peace.”
