Her dreams were haunted with another face now, too.
She didn’t even have to close her eyes to see the harsh handsomeness of the Breed warrior with the piercing lavender gaze.
He’d crowded her thoughts like a ghost for the past week. Despite that he wasn’t real—that none of her awful nightmare existed anywhere but in those fitful, disturbing moments of her sleep—Phaedra still recalled the cold accusation in his deep voice when he realized she was Atlantean. She still felt the stunning heat from the blast of otherworldly light that had ignited without warning, incinerating everything in its reach.
She could still hear the anguished screams that ripped through the wasteland in the instant before she woke up.
She shook her head, more in an effort to chase away the terrible memories than anything else.
Not that it worked. So far, nothing had.
She didn’t think a week at the colony would be much help, either. Idle days on a mystical Mediterranean island would only give her more time to think. More time to relax, and possibly fall back into the dream she never wanted to visit again. She didn’t need a vacation. What she really needed was to keep busy, like always.
Hesitating, she caught her lip between her teeth. “This is a mistake, Sia. I should go back to the shelter—”
“The shelter will be just fine without you until you return. Trygg and I will see to that personally.” Looping her arm around Phaedra’s, Tamisia started guiding her farther into the mansion. “Anyway, you can’t back out now. Zael and Brynne are already here, waiting to bring you to the colony with them.”
As she spoke, Sia walked Phaedra to one of the large rooms off the foyer. The quiet rumble of conversation faded to a pause as they reached the entrance. Seated inside on sumptuous sofas and chairs were several members of the Rome command center she’d met through Sia and Trygg, along with Ekizael and Brynne, the mated couple who in recent months had taken on a diplomatic role between the Breed warriors of the Order and the Atlanteans of the colony.
Another Breed male sat with the group as well, someone Phaedra had never seen before. Tawny-haired and grim, he glanced at her in unreadable silence from across the room, his broad shoulders hunched forward as if he carried a heavy burden on his back, his big hands clasped together between his spread knees.
As she entered the room with Sia, all of the males rose, including the stranger. Her fellow Atlantean was the first to greet her. Zael’s golden handsomeness and dazzling smile belied the fact that he had once served in the highest ranks of their queen’s legion of deadly guards.
“Phaedra. It’s been a long time. How good to see you again.”
“You as well, Ekizael.”
He reached out to the stunning brunette beside him and brought her closer. “This is my mate, Brynne.”
“Hello, Phaedra.” The tall beauty spoke with a refined British accent. “I’ve very much been looking forward to meeting you.”
“Likewise,” Phaedra said, returning Brynne’s warm smile and greeting. “The pleasure is mine, Brynne.”
Although this was their first face-to-face introduction, Phaedra was well aware of the daywalking Breed female who had captured Zael’s seemingly untamable heart. That she was gorgeous came as no surprise, but there was also a keen intelligence and courage in Brynne’s eyes.
As for Zael, he gazed at his mate with unmasked pride—and no wonder. Brynne had recently won the trust and respect of the entire colony when she helped defeat a traitor who had not only slain one of their council elders, but had also intended to steal an irreplaceable treasure—the colony’s sacred, powerful crystal.
Without it, the hidden enclave would have no protection from the outside world, including the whims of their mercurial queen, Selene, whose reign over the larger Atlantean realm appeared to be growing increasingly desperate . . . and volatile.
“Tamisia told me about the trouble on the island a few months ago. The colony was very fortunate to have both of you on their side when Elyon’s collusion with Selene was exposed.”
Zael gave a grim nod. “All credit goes to Brynne, if you want to know the truth. Without her at my side, I wouldn’t be standing here today and Elyon would’ve escaped back to the realm to trade the crystal for Selene’s favor.”
Lazaro Archer, the dark-haired commander of the Order’s presence in Rome, gave a dry grunt. “Trading it to the Atlantean queen might’ve been the best-case scenario. Imagine if the traitor had decided there might be more profit in taking the crystal to Opus Nostrum.”
Phaedra’s skin prickled at the mention of the secret cabal whose escalating acts of terror had been making news around the world for months. The idea of a violent group like that obtaining the power of an Atlantean crystal made her blood run cold in her veins.
There were only five of the egg-sized, unearthly energy sources in existence, and no chance of there ever being any more. Phaedra felt that reality more personally than most. After all, her parents had been the ones responsible for creating the crystals long, long ago.
Brilliant scientists and alchemists, they had literally given their lives in devotion to their work. They’d been gone for many centuries, from the time Phaedra was just an infant, but she still felt their loss to this day.
“Who’s to say Selene and Opus aren’t working together?” The low-growled comment from the tawny-haired stranger drew everyone’s attention. “Someone’s pulling Opus’s strings. We can’t be sure it’s not the Atlantean queen.”
Lazaro let go of a quiet curse. “We’d better all pray to hell they’re not. The Order’s got its hands full enough lately putting out Opus’s fires. If they were to join forces with a madwoman like Selene—”
“It would be all-out war.” This time, it was Trygg who chimed in with a grave prediction.
Phaedra swallowed. Before the warriors had the chance to delve any deeper into Order business or the tactics of their violent trade, Tamisia pointedly cleared her throat.
