She smiled brightly. “Ah, my son. The only one I was able to influence from his stasis in Atlantis. He has been very useful to me. He’s currently with your father.”
“Draconis?”
A single nod. “Yes. Draconis is yours and Connor’s father. We should have had a third child as well, but things did not exactly go to plan. Three children to bring about a new era of supernaturals in the world. Only …shegot in the way.”
“Who is she?” I asked.
Lotus snarled, and it transformed her face completely. She still looked beautiful, but there was an insane tinge to it now. Inhuman. Which made sense considering what she was.
“Don’t you worry about her. She’s kept us locked down for too long, and now … now she is going to pay. Fate cannot be circumvented, it can only be delayed.”
Nothing she said was making sense to me, but I had a sudden thought.
“Asher … isshehis mother?”
Lotus snarled again, and she was about to answer, but before she could, a burst of energy slammed into both of us, sending us tumbling across the sky. As I was one of those lowly beings who didn’t know how to fly myself, the moment her hold on me was lost, I tumbled down into a freefall.
Panic gripped me hard, and I wondered if I was going to be testing out my new demigod status sooner than expected. Would I go splat on Atlantis? And if I did, would that kill me?
I never got to find out. Lotus caught me with her power, hauling me back up to her side. “Stay with me, daughter. Your energy fuels my own.”
I was starting to wonder if that’s the real reason she had me. My shell helped them bring Atlantis to rise—only an idiot wouldn’t recognize that it had shot up when Connor and I “died,” and now she was saying my power fueled hers. I was nothing more than a battery charger for her to use.
We zoomed forward, and I saw exactly who had hit us with power before.
A woman.
Goddess, probably, since she was floating as well. She was almost pure gold, from her skin down to the brief mesh that covered her body. Golden hair flowed out around her, long enough to touch her feet, wavy and without a single frizz.
She looked weird and creepy, and somehow incredibly striking at the same time. Like a living statue, she was perfection, but the sense I got from her was nothing short of scary. She scared me and made Lotus look like a five-year-old child playing god.
“I warned you, Lotus,” she said softly, her words tumbling across the sky like a rage of thunder. “You cannot bring about this change. I will not allow it.”
Lotus scoffed. “You don’t get a say here, Galindra. You never did. You tried to fight back by placing your child in the womb instead of mine, but you could not prevent the two already born of my energy. You cannot stop me.”
This was theshe.Galindra.The name wasn’t familiar to me, but that didn’t mean much. I wasn’t really up on the supernatural or Atlantean gods. But she definitely hadn’t been one of the ten statues.
“Seems we are at an impasse,” Galindra said, gliding closer. As she moved, I blinked, because there was a trail of glittering clouds that followed. Like the weirdest entourage ever.
My world stopped as another figure emerged from the clouds. Just as Galindra was, he glided along the air, and if I hadn’t been held up by Lotus, I would have collapsed and fallen to the ground in that moment.
“Asher,” I choked out.
For the briefest moment, his dark golden eyes met mine. I felt that spark of connection between us, so briefly, and then it was gone. He dismissed me without another look, joining the golden woman, his expression both fierce and somehow … empty. My heart, the heart that had already been shattered, screamed in pain, and my soul wept for what I had lost.
Asher was alive, but I had a very scary suspicion that he was no longer my Asher.
He looked bigger, his shoulders broad as they strained against the white tunic shirt he wore. It allowed for some glimpses of tanned chest, and like me, he was definitely more golden. LikeGalindra.Was she his mother? The one who had tried to stop Lotus all the years ago?
I hated that there was just so much I still didn’t know. I hated that I felt like someone was stabbing me in the gut. I especially hated that hope was trying to burst through my pain and sadness.
Asher wasn’t dead. He was right here before me, but … nothing would ever be the same. I already knew it.
Lotus jerked her hands in the air, storms building around us, and I managed to tear my gaze from Asher. I immediately wanted to look back, because his beautiful face was something I never thought I’d see again, but the goddesses held my attention.
“You cannot fight this,” Galindra said. “I have called the gods’ council, and we all have to appear. If we don’t, you know the consequences.”
Lotus snarled. “Why the hell would you bring them into this?”
