Page 37 of Taken By the Crab King of Atlantis

“I’m here!” Marina says from beside me.

Yen smiles at Marina, but it quickly turns into a frown. “How?…” Her eyes widen when she looks at me.

The two of us stand in a giant ball of light. The magic of the sacrifice has restored her, and myself.

I set her down on her feet, with one arm still wrapped around her, and I hold out a hand to the hole I created in the overflow chamber door. The glow around us pulses once, then expands rapidly until it fills the entire city. It dissipates in a flash.

Glass and metal fly through the air and pieces the overflow chamber door back together as if it had never been broken. The chamber starts to fill, and the water line around us drops. “This is my city,” I say.

“It’s a god thing,” Marina says, matter-of-factly. She wraps herself around my legs tightly, on the other side to Yen, and I put a hand on her head.

“People haven’t seen my power demonstrated in a long time. They underestimate me. And Corvin will be caught. But there will be cleanup to do in Atlantis,” I say.

“I’d like to help,” Yen says, still wrapped around me.

“You almost died.”

She looks up at me and searches my face. “You chose me." She sounds stunned.

“I will always choose you.”

Her eyes widen in shock, and then she buries her head in my chest. I kiss the top of her head, holding her close. She almost died because of her connection to me and Atlantis, and it’s too close to what happened with Yvette.

I don’t want her to help the city. I want to take them both somewhere safe and keep them under lock and key. But it’s not about me right now. She’s had a huge shock, and she needs to recover. Knowing Yen, that means being of service to others.

So I shut my eyes and push my fears aside. “We can both help,” I say into her hair.

14

YEN

I’ve never been so soaked in all my life, and not in a sexy way. When Karkinos and I reached the first emergency services area, there were people everywhere. Crying, running around and searching for lost family. Most of the adults could swim and breathe underwater, but the children were at risk. It was still unclear if there were any casualties.

They offered me more appropriate clothes than my sodden white dress, and I gratefully accepted them.

Now I’m wearing black leggings that feel like wetsuit material, black slip-on shoes of the same material, and an oversized black t-shirt in some kind of water resistant cotton.

I don’t mind. In fact, it’s freeing after being dolled up for two days. I’m used to working, and the emergency services workers don’t stand on ceremony as Karkinos and I lend a hand.

Marina was taken back home, but Karkinos and I stayed, and have been doing any odd job that needs doing for the past two hours.

We’re both moving around so much we don’t have time to talk, but it feels good to be working together. We fall into an easy sync, and sometimes I catch him looking at me. It makes me smile.

Kilandra finds us a few hours later. “You’re needed for more serious heavy lifting,” she tells Karkinos. He looks to me, checking in, and I nod that it's okay. Only then does he follow the guards she brought with her.

She picks up a box next to me. “What are we doing?”

“Opening medical supplies to see what’s still dry. Dry stuff goes up to the right, wet stuff goes to the left.”

For a few minutes she works beside me silently, getting into the rhythm of the work.

I can feel she wants to say something, and I can also feel her watching me. I care a lot less about that than I did yesterday.

Lina and Nerissa come in carrying boxes. It’s the first time I’ve seen Lina since the submarine. I meet her gaze steadily. She meets my gaze and bows to me, holding the cameo of Queen Yvette hanging around her neck. I return her bow with a shallower one. I’m glad she no longer resents me, but I'm still getting used to the cameo thing.

Nerissa winks at me, bowing also, before following Lina out.

They’re not the first people to bow to me since Karkinos and I turned up at this site.