“You will glow,” Mab whispered to me, “when your full potential is released.”
I blinked at her, my breath catching in my chest as I tried to fill my lungs. “Full potential?”
She just shook her head. “Now is not the time for you to know everything. Now is the time for you to find out exactly what you’re facing.”
She nudged a book out from the shelf and then fluttered away like this weird-ass conversation hadn’t just happened. I was already reaching for the book, trusting that she was leading me exactly where I needed to go. It was not a large book, only a little bigger than my hand, and the cover was a nondescript plain green, rough textured, a few marks and scuffs on it. When I cracked the front open, it creaked like a book that had never been opened before.
I sensed this was a book that had been overlooked, so small and plain.
“Axl,” I called, staring down at the front page. It was written in Atlantean, no translation.
He hurried over to me, his face awash with happiness and excitement. Boy was totally in his element. Before I could say anything, he swept his arms around me and hauled me closer, holding so tight that all the air sort of huffed out of my lungs.
“Thank you,” he murmured, not letting go. “Thank you for finding this library. It’s … beyond anything I could have imagined.”
Swallowing hard, I patted his shoulder, and eventually he sat me down. His expression sobered a little. “I’m not going with you to Atlantis,” he said quickly, like he needed to get the words out. “I think it’s more important that I stay here and compile information. Anything to help us with whatever we’re facing.”
“Good idea,” I said, knowing that no one would be better at that job than Axl. Providing he didn’t get distracted. “But first, can you help me translate this book?”
I held it out to him, and a reverent expression crossed his face. No one loved the mystery of what was inside a book more than this dude. He led me out into the light, to the cushions in the center of the room. “What made you grab this book?” he asked, seeming confused.
I shrugged. “Something pointed me in that direction.”
His brow furrowed, but for once he didn’t complain about my wishy-washy explanation. A notepad and pen whipped through the air toward us and Axl wasted no time starting his translation. Asher was the best with the language, but Axl was a close second.
“It’s a diary,” Axl said suddenly, his eyes speeding across the sloping, artistic text that the Atlanteans used. Almost like hieroglyphics or pictographs, with a decidedly Asian flare. “A diary from the days before Atlantis sank.”
I was basically glued to his side as I stared down at the page, willing my brain to suddenly understand Atlantean. I mean, come on, I could make magic happen, surely I could learn a language in two minutes.
Like he understood, Axl’s notepad moved right in front of me and I watched the pen race across the page, powered solely by his magic. He flicked through pages until he found the parts worth translating.
Three days until the countdown clock ceases. Three more days until we know the fate of our world. For hundreds of years we have lived…
“It’s very modern,” I said quietly, “the way they talk.”
Axl shook his head. “My spell both translates and modernizes. Best it can anyway. Some words have no literal translation to our language today.”
Axl could make a fortune if he could market some of his magical inventions. I went back to the diary.
…on Earth, mostly at peace with everyone around us, but then they had to go too far. Push too hard to control everything. I fear for my children. For my mate who is on the frontline, waiting for Sonaris and Lotus to war. To destroy.
It broke off then, and Axl turned the page.
Two days until the countdown clock ceases. The babes are due to be born any day. Three royal god babies that are the reason we are all here, waiting for our last breaths of air to cease in our lungs. No amount of magic can prevent this from happening. No spell has worked, and Faerie has forsaken us. Many Atlanteans have fled, but I stay with my mate. With my children. There is no place in this world that is far enough to escape the wrath of these vengeful gods.
I rubbed a hand across my chest, trying to ease the ache there. This was making me feel things I wasn’t sure I could handle on top of the Asher things, but we had to find out exactly what happened.
Axl continued to turn pages, his pen racing. There was more talk of her day-to-day, the children and what she was doing to love them in their last days. It was heartbreaking to read most of it, and then…
The babies were born today. The three of them, under the blood moon, at the strike of midnight on the day the countdown clock ceases. Three babes, two male, and the shining daughter of Lotus. The goddess that doomed us all.
“Breathe, Maddi,” Axl said, not looking up from the book, but somehow knowing I was about to hyperventilate. “This doesn’t mean it’s you. Or anything to do with you. All it means is that there were three god children born just before Atlantis sank.”
The next paragraphs were disjoined ramblings. Until finally…
We are attempting to escape. There are only minutes left, but my mate has a way, and we might possibly survive this. Turned out he was wrong, only Atlantis will be broken by this curse of children, because the gods’ power is weak now. Their offspring took from them in an unexpected way. The Original Mother would not abide by this abomination and she will take the power back.
The Hellbringers are locked in their cages. The gods are lost to the anger of their Mother.
