Heart Of Atlantis Read Free Page A

Daniel, who obeyed instantly.
    Alaric’s eyes narrowed. Ally Daniel might be, but a primal wariness in Alaric warned him against allowing a vampire so near to an Atlantean princess. It was, however, a problem for another time.
    Serai gently nudged Quinn to one side and lay across Jack’s body, but Quinn shoved her away.
    “No! What are you doing? Get off him!”
    Serai turned to Alaric and spoke to him through the Atlantean mental pathway.
    She must let me try to reach him—I believe a tendril of his essence remains on this side of death’s gate.
    It took only a moment for Alaric to recognize the deep magic in Serai’s aura, and he gently pulled Quinn back and away from Jack.
    “Give her a chance, Quinn. The ancients had magic we have long forgotten.”
    Quinn trembled in his arms as Serai ran gentle hands across the tiger’s bloody fur. The princess began to sing wordlessly before turning to Quinn.
    “Part of him lives, but only his animal side is still—barely—on this side of the river of death. I can call to the tiger that is Jack and help him come back, but his human side is almost certainly lost forever.”
    Quinn’s suspicion all but radiated out from her body. “What
are
you?”
    “I am Serai of Atlantis, and the Emperor gifted me with ancient magic not seen on this world since before my continent dove beneath the oceans,” Serai responded, silvery light shimmering around her. “I gift you his choice, as another once gifted me the choice of life or death for one I loved. Shall I let him seek out his ancestors in the afterlife or do you wish him to live, though it be perhaps only a half life?”
    “I choose life,” Quinn said fiercely. “You make him live, do you hear me? No matter what it takes. Make at least part of him live, and I can find the rest of him somehow. Someday. You
make him live
.”
    Serai began to sing, and currents of magic danced around her in a ballet of delicate power so intricate and complex that Alaric doubted anyone still walking the earth had seen its like. Mere seconds passed before Jack’s body arched up off the ground, and he coughed harshly.
    “Does he know who he is?” Alaric demanded.
    “Honestly, I don’t know what he knows,” Serai said. “Or
who
he knows. If he has reverted fully to tiger and only tiger, he’s not safe to be around.”
    “Thank you. No matter what else, you brought him back from death. We’ll figure the rest out. I owe him that much,” Quinn said.
    Alaric healed the tiger’s bloody wounds and tried to feel for a shred of humanity, but he could not. “I can’t tell. I just don’t know. Shape-shifters are too different from Atlanteans, and Poseidon’s power recoils from trying to analyze the mind of a tiger.”
    “Your magic is unbalanced without the soul-meld,” Serai said, rocking Alaric back on his heels.
    The soul-meld? When he was sworn to an eternity of celibacy and isolation?
    “What do you mean? I am the most powerful—”
    “Yes, yes, I’ve heard it,” Serai interrupted. “Most powerful high priest in the history of Atlantis. But it’s not true, you know. I’ve been around for all of them since Atlantis dove beneath the sea. Your power is not even close to what Nereus wielded. At least, before his wife died and he almost drowned the world.”
    “What—”
    Quinn cut him off. “I don’t care. I don’t care about any of it right now. Not the bankers, or the rebellion, or any damn part of it. I sure as hell don’t care about Atlantean ancient history. I’m leaving, and I’m taking Jack with me. Somewhere he can be safe, until we figure this out. I owe him that. I owe him my life, several times over.”
    “Of course. I know just the place.” Alaric drew in a deep breath and called to power, and he swore a new and different oath—one that he had no intention of ever breaking. “I’ll take you there now, and I’ll never, ever leave your side again.”
    He called to the portal, wondering if the capricious