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Iwatched her sleep like a creepy stalker, but I didn’t care. Thousands of years had gone by since I had last been able to sit next to her. The warm rays of the sun heated her skin, casting a golden glow and heating her feverish skin. She was a stubborn little thing. Until this moment I hadn’t realized how sick she had grown. We had very little time to turn this around.
Reaching out a hand, I brushed the dark wet strands away from her beautiful face. Zosime had always been a stunning woman, although now her features had shifted slightly. She was inhumanely perfect, which wasn’t a shock considering her lineage and the magik that had been used to save her.
If Atlantis hadn’t been wiped from earth, I had no doubt she would have become the subject of paintings and sculptures. Her bravery as she fought battle after battle would have catapulted her into the human legends. Beauty, bravery, and brains. It was an alluring combination. Any man lucky enough to be loved by her, was given an incomparable gift. I had that once.
Water lapped at her skin, rocking her gently like a mother rocks her child. Zosime’s scales glowed, the dim light flickering, one more sign of how ill she was. Her blue-green eyes locked on mine. The irises were pale and flat, the glow that should have been there was gone.
“Where are my mates? Are they safe?”
I heard her voice in my mind. Her heart was beating erratically as her panic began to rise.
“Fynn has gone to find the others, all are safe,” I tried to soothe her, “It is okay, Soyale.”
Tears pooled in her eyes at that last word.
Her tongue stuck to the roof of her dry mouth as she tried to speak. I conjured a bottle of water and held it to her cracked lips. Most trickled out the side of her mouth, but she managed to swallow some of it.
“I never thought I would hear my mother tongue spoken again.”
My heart shattered at the sorrowful homesickness in her voice. She was longing for a time and place long gone.Hearing the language of the Ancients brought all those memories rushing back to her.
“Soyale.” I wanted to say more, but the lump in my throat threatened to choke me.
She sucked in a sharp breath at that single word.
There was no direct translation for the word, the meaning too deep a concept to sum up in a single phrase. A love so deep it was limitless, the act of offering to trade their soul for just a day of your love, an oath of love and loyalty for eternity—it was all those things and so much more.
An ancient word that was never spoken unless the speaker was certain of their feelings. The word had been used with only a handful of couples for as long as the Ancients had existed. Ancients were immortal and could not break an oath, so the word was almost considered taboo. Eternity was a long time to keep a promise.
Her emotions and memories danced across her face like a movie. Emotions, pain, disbelief, joy, and confusion showed in her expressions. I knew the moment she recognized me. The mischievous young man that beautiful summer day in Atlantis. A day that was both forever ago, and yesterday to me. It was a day I would never forget. I had not been allowed to show myself to her again, and I knew she assumed I was killed in the final battle.
“How are you sitting beside me? Atlanteans were not fully human, but we were also not immortal. Even if you survived the fall of Atlantis, you would have died millennia ago.”
“I am not Atlantean.”
Her eyes narrowed and then widened as she figured it out.
“Soyale, I am an Ancient. I did not enjoy the games some of the Ancients played with the beings on earth, so I kept to myself. I heard rumors of the Lure and came to investigate. I had not been in Atlantis for centuries, but I needed to see for myself what was happening. The moment I saw you in Atlantis, I forgot my mission. We spent that one beautiful day together. In my immortal life I had never been that happy or had a day so perfect. I planned to promise myself to you for eternity the next day. Before I could tell you, my father summoned me.
“I was pulled from the earthly plane and into an emergency meeting of the remaining Ancients. These were the ones who had not let their own greed corrupt them. I was told the Lure had been released on earth, and we needed to keep an eye on the crown princess of Atlantis. She would wage war against the Lure, and one day she would prevail. She was going to save the world, and then she was going to change it.”
She turned green around the gills as I spoke. Well, not around the gills, she didn’t have those, but her skin definitely took on a green pallor. Her lips parted as her breath came faster.
“Ancients are limited on what we can interfere with, but we watched in awe as this princess rallied entire continents around her and struck fear in the hearts of those who opposed her. Her heart was pure, and she fought with everything in her.”
Salty tears streamed from her eyes, slipping into the sea. I leaned forward and kissed them away.
“I am so proud of every battle you fought. The earth has never seen a warrior like you.”
My tears mixed with hers. We cried for a lost city, for lost loved ones, and for lost time.
“I have waited all these centuries for you to awaken. Hoping and praying that the magik that was slammed into you those final moments wouldn’t take away the woman I loved, or the princess the world needed. You awakened, and again you amazed me with your strength. You learned to adapt to your body, and the new instincts that tried to control you. I wanted to come to you then, but your emotions were still buried. I couldn’t offer my love while yours was still buried.”
“I never forgot you or the day we spent together.” Her voice was weak and shook with the effort to speak.
“I have waited a long time for you to be mine. The council of Ancients opposed my intervention time and time again, but today things changed. The balanced shifted, the Lure is spreading. The Ancients are under attack from those who betrayed us. There is a war coming again, and you are needed. Claim your mates, raise your city from the depths of the sea, and declare your powers. You are the Royal Storm of Atlantis, and it is time this world is reminded of what a true queen looks like.”
I had more to tell her, but she couldn’t take it while she was this weak. Immortal Ancients had been slaughtered. It was an impossibility that had become possible. Bratty Ancients who didn’t get their way had released the Lure as a tantrum. They believed they had control over it, and that by controlling humans they could make the rest of the Ancients miserable.
