Doing this without Asher was never in my life plan, but the future I envisioned was not to be, and that meant I had to adapt. I could be strong enough without Asher. I could survive.
I just didn’t want to. I’d never looked for a savior … I wanted a partner. An equal partner to share the burden of whatever this new world was going to dump on us. Now I would do it alone … I would do it for both of us.
I would be enough.
“Maddi!” Ilia whisper-yelled as she grabbed my arm. “It’s there, it’s actually rising.Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit…”
She started muttering under her breath, her hand clamped tightly to my arm.
I couldn’t speak.
The moment we cleared the barrier, an entire world blazed to life around us. The barrier space was massive, I couldn’t even calculate the size, but it was much bigger than the Academy. Maybe the size of a few towns I’d lived in before. There were fifty or more boats bobbing in the current, surrounding the tops of the ten statues I could see.
“It’s the gods,” Jesse said reverently. “Our Atlantean gods, and some of the supe ones as well.”
He bowed his head, as did Ilia on my other side. I wasn’t sure how I felt about it all, because they were raised on these gods, but I had no idea who most of them were. And I was pretty sure one of the gods killed Asher. So, yeah, I wasn’t bowing my fucking head to those assholes.
“So the ten statues are all gods?” I asked, whispering for some reason even though there was plenty of noise coming from the other supes who had gotten here before us. So far no one was paying attention to us, used to the Academy boats coming and going from this area.
Jesse shook his head. “Man, I wish Axl was here … he would die to see this. He would explain it all better than me, because my memories are sketchy.”
I patted his arm. “You’ll be fine, I only need a brief idea. We can learn the rest as we go.”
Jesse nodded. “Right. So … the Atlanteans had their own set of gods that were very important to them. There are seven of them.”
“The other three statues are the royal families of Atlantis,” Calen said, sounding more somber than usual.
I nodded, my eyes locked on the tips of those giant statues I could see. There was only the smallest part emerged from the water, but it was enough for me to tell that the ten statues would each be as large as the Statue of Liberty in New York.
“The main Atlantean gods are Sonaris, god of the sea,” Rone said, having emerged from the bowels of the boat a few minutes ago, Larissa at his side. They were near the back of the boat, so I finally turned away from the water to see them all.
“Sonaris I know,” I said. “Who are the others?”
“Lotus, goddess of storms and weather,” Rone added, and my gut tightened.
“Draconis, the god of the underworld,” Jesse continued, holding his fingers up so they could tick them off. “He transported lost sea dwelling souls to their eternal rest.” He cleared his throat. “He was also the rumored consort to Lotus.”
Another shiver of energy down my spine that I ignored.
“Who else?”
Jesse hurried through the rest. “There was Fallon, the god of the sky; Clune, the goddess of war; Petuni, the goddess of fertility. And the seventh is and always will be the mother, who is mother of all gods. Our first god. The one who created the fey realm and blessed the supernaturals with their abilities. It was said that she was the consort to the all-knowing god of human worship. That he had his creation, and she had hers.”
Everything in my body felt tight, like someone could flick my skin and I would shatter into a million pieces.
“So six gods, one mother of all gods, and three royals make the ten statues,” I said softly. Whether Lotus or Queen Helene was my mother, they were both up there, carved and worshipped.
“There are lots of other gods,” Calen reminded me, breaking me from my shocked state of mind. “You met Shera, who was a minor deity, but there are other many more major ones worshipped by supernaturals. Including the god of shifters and goddess of fey, but in regard to specific Atlantean worship, these are our main.”
I shook my head. “It’s a lot to take in, especially when I’m still not sure how I tie into all of this—”
“Maddison!”
I was cut off by the shout, and spinning back to stare across the sea, I found a familiar face bobbing in the water, near one of the huge statue heads. “Connor,” I said, half irritated and half resigned to being nice to him.
“You need to get in here and see what’s going on under the water,” he said, waving me over.
Crossing my arms, I shook my head. “Honestly, I don’t trust you not to kidnap me, so I’m keeping my ass above the surface for the time being.”
