“Should we go to him?” I shouted to be heard over the torrent of winds trying to push the man back. They had legitimately sprung up out of nowhere.
Asher linked our hands together and then we were racing. Despite this world’s attempt at keeping us apart, we made it to the Atlantean, steadying him as he sucked in air. It was clearly a reflex leftover from his life above, because there was no shortness of breath here. I didn’t even feel the slightest strain.
“Is everything okay?” I asked him, tightening my hold so he was upright.
“These are the weapons of the royals,” he said, between breaths. “We managed to find them and I figured you might need the extra help.”
Extra help would never go astray on this mission.
I reached for the closest one but he waved my hand away. “No, this is for him,” he said, handing it to Asher. It was pure gold, from the tip of the very shiny prongs all the way down the carved handle. On the end was a large, smoothly-polished jewel. A ruby, I would guess from the color and texture.
“This was your mother’s,” he told Asher.
Asher’s eyes flared the same shade as the weapon, and his skin turned a darker shade of bronze as he flexed his fingers around the trident. “It … feels right,” he said, running his gaze down the handle. “My power responds to it, much more than any of the others I’ve held.”
I was paying some attention to Asher, but most of it was on the other weapon.Was this finally it?Was I finally going to find the weapon that called to me? I’d been trying for nearly three years at the Academy, and outside of a mild affinity for some, nothing had stirred my power.
The man lifted it toward me. I held my breath as my fingers wrapped around the middle. Like a hallelujah moment, everything went still and silent, before the surge of power shocked me deep in my chest.Fuck yes. My fingers tingled, head tilting back as that surge rocked all the way to my toes.
Storms raged above us, the once aquamarine sky now dark as ash. “This has never happened before,” the tatted man said, looking above. “You’re upsetting the balance. You should hurry before the souls are affected.”
The power was still riding me, but I wasn’t so far gone that I would risk their afterlife. I nodded, sucking the energy back into my center. The trident pulsed, working with me, like we’d been besties forever.
“They’re gorgeous,” I noted, and I might be biased, but I was pretty sure mine was even better than Asher’s. His was pure gold, sure, and that was pretty cool. But mine was a deep rich copper, with a large aquamarine stone. It felt like a sign. So much of my year had been connected to this color, and now I knew I’d chosen it for a reason.
“Copperite is a mineral found only in the oceans of Atlantis,” the man told me. “It’s one of a kind, almost indestructible. Please use it to save our people.”
That was all he said before he took off, racing back across the stormy seas.
“Holy shit,” I said to Asher, both of us staring at our pretties. “I almost want to stroke this thing and call it my precious.”
His eyes flashed as a rumble of laughter left him. “Trust me, baby, the only shaft you’ll ever need to call your precious is not a fucking trident.”
My eyes wandered down his chest, before I shook my head. “No, Ash. No! Not the time. We have to get our asses through that veil.”
At this point, I wasn’t sure if I was convincing him or myself.
He muttered some choice words but didn’t argue. Making our way to the veil, the winds buffeted against us but my trident stayed steady.
“We need something to anchor it to,” I thought out loud. “Leave our hands free until we need to use it. Like a scabbard, but the trident version.”
Asher’s smile stretched across his face and my damn heart skipped a few beats. “Don’t do that,” I scolded him. “You’re too distracting. We’ve already wasted too much time. We need to focus.”
More fucking gorgeous smirking. My thighs clenched automatically against the sensations rocking through my traitorous vagina. Bitch was greedy and she clearly didn’t realize that this was an end-of-the-world situation and no fucking was allowed.
Asher laughed, and I was gone. So freaking gone.
“Come on, baby. Let’s do this thing so I can spend some quality time loving on you.”
Our trident situation forgotten, we ran, and as I moved, the weapon seemed to grow lighter and lighter until I could barely feel it.
“It’s adjusting to our power,” Asher said, twirling his as he sprinted. “Now that’s the sort of weapon everyone should have.”
I didn’t disagree, and I was doubly glad our ancestral weapons had found their way back to us. They’d clearly been sent into the underworld to keep them from falling into the wrong hands. Someone had been looking ahead, and my heart really hoped it wasn’t Sonaris. I couldn’t correlate the god I knew with the one who remained strong in the memories of his people.
They were like day and night.
We reached the veil in moments and I didn’t stop, stretching out with my free hand, smashing through the darkness. Asher slipped in after me, and on the other side was a completely different land.
