I swallowed hard. “Are the Atlanteans alive?”
He shrugged. “We won’t know until we explore.”
My emotions were a mess, had been for most of this year, and I really didn’t know how I felt about the possibility that everyone from original Atlantis had perished with the spell. Asher, Connor, and I survived, but we were not normal supes. We’d been in stasis for ten thousand years, freed somehow fifteen to twenty years ago—still needed to figure out how—and were now about to find out if the rest of our people were gone or not.
I moved away from Connor, because he was not the person I wanted at my side when we made this discovery. I’d started this crazy journey with five Atlanteans, and we would uncover this next part together. I held both hands out. Asher took one; Calen took the other. Jesse, Axl—head buried in his notebook—and Rone stepped closer. With my family surrounding me, we walked into Atlantis.
“Where are all the supes that were on the boats? And Tee and Jessa?” I asked quietly, not wanting to disturb the unnatural silence.
“They’re still where they were last time,” Louis replied, not bothering to keep his voice low. “On the other side of Atlantis, near the statues. Jess, Brax, and Tee are keeping them all under control until I give them the signal. I didn’t want them to come in. Not yet. It’s too risky.”
We all quieted at that ominous statement, but we didn’t stop walking. I couldn’t help but glance up at the huge statues that surrounded this circular land. I knew it was a huge island, as big as some European countries in size, and I wondered where all the people who had lived here when it sank were.
The first thing we came to was a statue, right in the center of a round garden. This land had been underwater for ten thousand years, but there was no evidence of that here. The garden was filled with purple and blue flowers, nothing like I’d ever seen before—a cross between a tulip and rose, maybe. The scent coming from them was sweet and floral, but with hints of ocean and … honey. It had that earthy, sweet scent.
The fact that they were alive at all astonished me.How?
The statue itself was interesting. It was about twenty feet tall, of a figure draped in gold robes. The face at the front was a woman, but as we walked around it I noticed there were two more faces carved into the back and side. Both of those were men.
“The three royal houses,” Asher said, his face turned to them. His grip tightened on my hand.
Connor stepped up, touching the statue. “Yes, this represents that fact that despite there being three royal houses, they all rule together. One land. One people.”
How they knew so much was beyond me, but I supposed they’d had years of learning as much as they could about Atlantis while I’d had months. “I always got the feeling that the three houses were sort of frenemies,” I said, finding myself moving forward as well. I looked up at the woman, wondering if she was the queen who had given birth to me.
“I think they were,” Connor said with a small smile. “But in the end they always put their people first. I think that’s why they went ahead with the gods’ plans. It was to save their people.”
“Instead they damned them,” Asher bit out, his face awash in darkness. He didn’t bother to touch the statue. He let my hand go and walked past that statue and into the city. We wandered for ages, taking in the absolute spectacle that was Atlantis. Everything was laid out circularly, and the first part we entered was definitely living quarters. It started with the smallest house, simple and plain in color, but still gorgeous: curved pillars, shells adorning the windowsills, and white and pale-blue porches. Peeking inside, I saw that it was simple inside too. Their couches were round shells with cushions—almost like a giant clam shell. Beds looked to be made of driftwood—massive chunks that were naturally curved, with thick, soft padding built into them.
As we moved further into Atlantis, the houses got fancier, until we were basically at castles and mansions. Despite their obvious luxury, they still maintained the same simple design and light ocean colors. It took us hours to reach the end of the housing, and it was only because Louis magicked all of us to move faster than was supernaturally possible that we even made it at all.
Around the midpoint, I was guessing, there was an amphitheater. It was huge, dug deep in the ground, with stadium seating rising up all around it. Off to the right were three golden palaces. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that they were the residences of the royal families, positioned closest to the stadium.
They didn’t have any fences or protection around them though, like they didn’t have to hide from their people. For the briefest moment, I had this flash of the world here, filled with noise and laughter, with powerful supes who used their magic freely. For a moment, I felt it all, saw it all, and then when that flash was over, I mourned the loss.
“Where are they?” I asked, finally breaking the hours of silence we’d had while exploring through the city. There was a ton of Atlantis left to discover; we’d only taken a single path through the houses where they lived. Everything in front of us looked like schools and market stalls and brightly-colored tents. There would be so much more, but the silence was weighing on me heavily.
I spoke too soon, because not a minute later, the sky—bright blue and cloudless—turned to a dark, stormy mess. It was so fast … so damn fast. None of us believed this to be a natural weather change.
And we were all right.
From the clouds emerged five gods.
I forced myself to stay relaxed and breathe. This might be the last thing I ever saw, depending how the next few minutes went, but I would not give them the satisfaction of my fear.
Not now. Not ever.
45
Asher was tense at my side, even though most wouldn’t be able to tell, what with his arms hanging loosely and expression neutral. He shifted closer, shielding me with his broad shoulders, and I didn’t fight him. I could see the gold threading his eyes and I knew he was about eight seconds from losing his shit.
Two of the gods were familiar to me: Lotus and Draconis, goddess of storms and god of the underworld, but the other three were complete unknowns. Jesse pressed to my other side, and I could feel the guys right at my back. Ilia and Larissa tried to move around to stand with me, but Rone and Calen stopped them in their tracks, placing them at the back.
I could feel my friends’ anger from where I was, but thankfully they stayed put. They were probably the most outgunned here, and I would die a million deaths if I lost either of them.
Louis remained close, a little off to the side; he looked relaxed. Wasn’t sure I’d ever seen anything ruffle that sorcerer, and I wished I could say the same about myself. I was about ready to shit a brick, because … gods. How the fuck were we really supposed to take on five damn gods?
The storm grew around us as the five lowered themselves to the ground softly, like they’d just stepped down a single step and not a hundred-foot drop.
