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“Atlas.” My eyes flick over my old friend. It’s been a long time since we’ve had a good conversation. We’re both too busy. Swimming around the sculpture garden of our youth feels like yesterday and a million years ago. There’s something off about him, more than how he changed when he became king. Atlas was always the life of the party, the jovial one who kept Nico in check with humor. He made me put my studies away to go out and play a game in the stadium.
“What are you hiding?” he asks.
“Hiding?” I shrug.
Eros clears his throat. “Why do we have such an honor in my old home?”
“I was surprised when I was given the message that you were caught out during curfew traveling to Zaffiro to stay in a dome that is clearly one of the least defendable in all the Veiled City. It made me think that the four of you—five of you—are up to something. Where is Nico?” Atlas cranes his head around the room and takes off for the bedroom. “What the hell happened here?”
“There—” Eros starts.
“Not you or you or you.” Atlas points at Eros, me, and Holter before rounding on Annabelle. “You. You tell me. What happened here?”
“I don’t care who you are, Atlas, or what our past is. If you talk to my mate with disrespect again, I will finish you,” Eros growls.
“And then I will feed your flesh to the ground dwellers on the bottom of the seabed,” I add.
“Nothing from you?” Atlas raises his eyebrow at Holter.
“They have it covered. But I’d comb through history, removing your name from the record.” Holter twitches his lips up at Atlas.
“Spoken like Nico’s little brother. Now I’ll put my life in jeopardy and ask respectfully: what happened here? And where is your other mate?”
“Firstly, you are part of the security council as king. You know what happened here. And secondly, there is no curfew anymore. Nico is simply out.” Holter crosses his arms over his chest.
“The curfew just lifted, and I didn’t pass him in the hall.”
“He’s Nico. The curfew is lifted. He’s a capable male.” Annabelle nods at him.
“I am not the enemy here.”
“Yet we don’t know if you are a true friend either in these times, yes?” Annabelle moves closer to Atlas.
Atlas breaks out into a wide smile. “Are you sure you’re not the politician here, Annabelle Portsmouth? Collector of dangerous males.”
“They’re no more dangerous than I am.” She nods. I don’t like the banter between the two of them. It feels too much like flirting.
“I don’t know what’s going on here”—Eros steps between Atlas and Annabelle—“but it’s starting to feel like foreplay to me. And there’s no way I’m going to deal with you and Nico and him in a pod.”
“I’m not looking for a mate. And I’d rather slit my own throat than join a pod with Nico, as much as I actually do like the missing asshole.”
Something drops in the hidden library. Remarkably, the only one who turns is Atlas. The rest of us act as if we didn’t hear it.
“What was that?” Atlas steps over to the wall of bookshelves. The way the room is built into the angle of the dome, it’s hard to tell it exists. “Is there someone behind these bookcases?” His eyes flick over each of us, and he turns back to the shelves, running his hand down the central support. “I’m taking that as a yes. As you all know, it’s against the law to lie to your king. Open it.”
Eros crosses the room and flicks the latch, letting the door slide open.
Atlas is standing in front of the door when Michio appears. He smirks at the king and leans on the doorframe. “Forrest’s large ass rubbed a book when he had his ear to the door. Atlas.” He extends his arm in the traditional greeting like it’s normal to pop out of a hidden chamber when you’re missing.
“Michio, thank Poseidon. Forrest.” Atlas takes the Stele’s governor’s arm as well.
“King Zennon.”
“We have much to talk about. Like where the hell you went and what you know. There are going to be many wary eyes staring at the two of you. How did you get out of the dome?” Atlas crosses his arms over his chest. He hasn’t let either Michio or Forrest out of the library.
“We should talk somewhere private about this,” Forrest says.
“You mean not in front of them? Oh, I’m sure they know more than you about anything that’s going on. Castor’s an acting governor and the next in line, according to every Glyden citizen you ask. And I’m sure the two of you didn’t end up in Eros’s secret library by chance. So. Which of you is going to start talking?” His blue eyes glare around the room. And it’s the first time I can see why the Diamont dome put him up as king. He saunters over to the torn sofa and sits in the middle of it. “Let’s have a chat. Hell, with me here and the governor of Stele, it’s almost a quorum for the security council.”
