by Jaymin Eve
I whispered the word to activate a basic shield, something we’d recently learned, which gave me a little protection against the water. When I was a few feet from Asher, I drank in every hard line of him. How could he still look so perfect? His skin a healthy-looking bronze, his muscles strong. If it wasn’t for the fact that he was hanging lifelessly, and I could barely feel his energy, I wouldn’t have known anything was wrong with him. My hands trembled as I pressed them against his chest. He was suspended off the ground and already so tall—this was the highest I could reach.
His body was cold to the touch, directly contrasting to the hot tears streaking my face. “Asher, can you hear me?” I asked, trying to figure out how they kept him contained.
“They’re magical manacles,” Jesse said at my side; all of the guys had arrived by now. “We can’t break them without breaking Asher.”
“Where’s the stone?” Axl cut in. I’d forgotten about the soul stone. “If we can bring Asher back to full strength, he’ll be able to break free.”
Rone sounded pissed. “He’s only like this because he allowed them to access his energy.”
They pushed forward, all of them protected by the same sort of magical shield as mine while they searched for the stone. “Call me if you find it,” I shouted to them, the roar of water loud. “I’ll search further back here.”
I didn’t want to let Asher out of my sight, but there was something calling me back in the waterfall, a sensation tugging at the energy inside of me, urging me toward it.
Is that the stone?
The water as it crashed around me was almost deafening. I had to use more of my limited magic, funnelling it into the shield. The water fell in a thick, heavy sheet, and as I pushed my way through, visibility was limited.
When I was completely immersed, and there was no sound but crashing water, I finally reached the other side, where the call was the strongest.
It was a wall, as long and tall as the waterfall, and carved into the smooth marble were elaborate symbols and images. I recognized them from Asher’s notes. It was definitely Atlantean writing. Was this the wall around the city?
Whatever wanted me, it was inside this wall.
I pressed my hand to it, and that feeling of being called increased.
Something heavy slammed into me from behind, breaking through my shield and cracking my head against the wall. I got the shield back up straight away, because the water could crush me here, but I couldn’t see who had hit me.
“You’re my last chance,” Shera whispered, coming at my left side and forcing me back into the wall. “You must be the key. While your idiot friends are distracted with Asher, I will bleed you to release your power.”
“No,” I cried, right before she broke my fragile shield again and stabbed me.
I hadn’t seen the blade, or her hand, as it moved super-fast. She plunged it right into my gut and I screamed; the pain almost had me blacking out. My shield fell completely as she twisted the blade, whispering something dark. Words slithered across her tongue. Words I did not understand, but they cracked my body wide open.
The heat in my center exploded, close to what had happened the day with Asher, but with five times the force. The only way to describe it was like those images of atomic bombs exploding and the shockwave force that followed. Shera held her ground for twenty seconds, maybe longer, before she was whipped away from me, her screams echoing in my ears with the roar of the thunder.
I collapsed, both hands wrapped around the blade in my belly as energy continued to expel from my body. It was too much for me to handle; she had released it too fast, and the vessel could not handle the onslaught. I dragged myself forward, not knowing where I was heading but knowing I needed something, the water still beating across me, though not crushing me like I’d expected. If anything, it felt like the only thing keeping me alive.
“Help me,” I whispered, half dragging myself on the side without a blade in it.
The water started to rush around me in unusual swivels and swirls until it formed a barrier under me and pushed me along the rocks. When I was probably about halfway through the waterfall, a shadow fell over me, and I flinched.
“Maddi!” I hadn’t heard his voice in so long. For a second I thought I was dying and this was my last nirvana moment before darkness. Asher’s arms wrapped around me; he lifted me with ease. “Hang on, baby, I’ve got you.”
“My power,” I mumbled. “It will kill you.”
He shook his head. “Your power saved me. It broke my chains and restored my energy. And now I need to get you into the water; it will help.”
I had no idea what he was talking about. All I could do was continue to ride out my energy release, hoping like hell I wasn’t about to be exploded into a million pieces. Asher ran, ignoring the waterfall that still surrounded us. He might have had a shield, I had no idea, but whatever he was doing, he was not slow or weak any longer.
He pulled me closer, and the moment we burst from the falls he threw us into the rough ocean that surrounded the bridge. Water closed over our heads, tossing us around for a moment until Asher sank deeper. When we were completely engulfed, some of the echoing screams in my head faded. The pain was less intense, and my power release slowed. The water seemed to absorb my energy, lessening the fissuring of energy in my center.
Asher’s face came into view; he was watching me intently, like he was afraid to look away.
I felt the same way.
It was fucking insane, considering I was stabbed and bleeding power and fluids everywhere, but I moved to be closer to him. I pressed my lips to his. It was a need that went beyond normal hormones. I was driven by something I couldn’t explain. A primal force.
Fire erupted between us, not literally, but it felt like it could be. The energy exploded, crashing out in a visible wave, and then the world started to rumble around us. This time for real.
I pulled back from Asher, my eyes wide as I looked around. What the…?
This was either an underground earthquake or we’d done exactly what Shera wanted.
Atlantis was rising.
My power had finally stopped its insane eruption and was now swirling strongly inside of me, and as I registered this, I noticed something else: I was breathing underwater. No bubble over my mouth. No shield around my head. I was just breathing as if I was above the water, and it didn’t even seem weird to me.
Asher was doing the same thing, and I stopped to think if I’d noticed him do that before. Was it something all strong Atlantean bloodlines could do once they tapped into their powers?
The blade in my gut distracted me when it started to glow. The Atlantean symbols etched across it turned a shimmering aqua color, mixing with my blood.
Asher tugged on my hand, and I rose to the surface with him, both of us popping our heads up to see rocks sliding from the caves into the water. I coughed up water, my lungs expelling the liquid so I could breathe oxygen again.
Asher did the same.
“How?” I said when I could finally speak. “We can breathe water?”
Asher nodded. “Yes. It’s something I’ve kept secret for many years, because it’s not a power any Atlantean descendant has these days.”
Holy fuck.
“And that explosion when we kissed? The ground is still shaking?”
He tugged me so that we were moving through the choppy water toward the lowest cliff.
“I don’t know what that was,” he said, voice deep. “But we need to get out of here.”
He launched himself out of the water with ease, leaning over to pull me up, careful not to dislodge the blade.
“You’re going to have to pull it free,” I said when my feet hit the shaking ground.
Asher shook his head. “No, it’s Atlantean steel. The wound will bleed you out. I need to get you back to the Academy right now. The herbalism department has a special tincture that will remove the blade and clot the blood.”
“We’re hours away from the Acade
my,” I whispered. “I can’t have a blade sticking out my stomach until then.”
It was still hurting me, but it wasn’t as painful as it had been initially. My newly released power was acting like a balm, soothing some of the hurt away. Our attention was forced to the water then as Shera rose from it, and I wondered if she’d been down there searching for us. Or was she doing some other asshole thing under the water? Torturing sea creatures or something.
“It worked,” she shrieked, her body hovering just above the water.
Asher pulled me closer, and I finally noticed that he was bleeding too. His wrists looked like they’d been rubbed raw from those manacles. I gently brushed my fingertips over them, and he tightened his hold on me.
Shera glided closer, her eyes darting between Asher and me. “It was both of you,” she whispered, looking freaky with her hair flying about her face. Her voice had that very deep tone to it again. “The blood of the god children.” She clucked her tongue. “Connor was right.”
Asher pushed me behind him, stepping toward her. “You’re not going to get a chance to find out.” His eyes flashed. “All this time you’ve been trying to break me, I learned of your weakness, Shera. It’s time for my mother’s body to rest with her ancestors.”
I stumbled as the ground rocked again and water started to pour into this area. Asher murmured two words. They sounded short and simple, but they were not familiar to me. Shera screamed the moment he spoke and tried to lower herself into the water again, but Asher held her immobile with his power. A red spot appeared in her chest, spreading across her skin, and she screamed as it consumed her.
I felt Jesse and Rone’s energy a moment before they reached us. They pressed close to my back. Rone’s eyes were black as he took in the blade still hilt-deep in my heaving stomach.
“Mads…” he said softly.
I wanted to reassure him I was okay, but I couldn’t look away from Asher and whatever he was doing to Shera. “Stop!” she screamed. “You need me. I’m the only one who can control hi—”
She was cut off, Asher’s power burning right through her. It was only when Asher stumbled forward that I realized he’d weakened himself greatly to take her out.
Shera exploded then in a puff of smoke and ash that drifted into the water below. “Is she gone?” I asked, watching the black mist.
Asher nodded. “Yes. The gods who take a vessel have one weakness. Atlantean fire. Funnily enough, it’s a spell that was lost to history long ago, no doubt a deliberate move on the part of Sonaris and the others, but it was here, etched on the wall. It’s taken me months to find the entrance and weeks to translate the words, but I finally figured it out last week.”
I could have cried with relief. We’d all made it just in time.
Asher watched me closely. “I was so weak by the time I did though, I didn’t think I’d get the chance to use it,” he murmured. “I’m glad you ignored my orders and came for me.”
“Yo,” Axl shouted from where he stood on the end of the barely visible bridge. “We got to get out of here. This entire place is about to be crushed under the water.”
Asher scooped me into his arms, somehow not jostling the dagger. The three of them sprinted, and over his shoulder, I watched as large chunks of rock fell, crashing into the rising water. I didn’t want to think about the consequences of what we’d done here—we’d initiated something to do with Atlantis. Maybe it was its rise, I didn’t know for sure, but it was definitely something.
Axl and Calen were waiting for us at the entrance, and Asher took the lead, leading us back along the pillared path. I tried not to think about the heat of his body pressing along mine. I focused on the fact I had a knife in my stomach. Nothing like a mortal wound to cool the hormones. I was also pretty sure it was the only thing keeping my power at bay, because the heat blazing in my center was starting to scare me, but it hadn’t done anything yet.
Asher moved down another cavern we hadn’t been in; it ended in a small circle of deep, dark water. “This is the way out,” Asher said. “It moves fast, and it’s best not to fight the currents. They’re magical portals that allow only Atlanteans to travel to the lost city.”
“What happens if you’re not Atlantean?” Calen asked.
Asher turned to him, and I could have cried as his lips quirked and those dimples came out to play. I’d missed them. “Exactly what you’re imagining.”
Calen flinched, and Axl let out a low whistle. “At least I can confirm that we all have Atlantean blood now.”
I groaned as Asher shifted, the burn of the blade increasing. Asher looked down with concern. “We need to move fast. The longer the steel absorbs her blood and power, the harder it will be to remove.”
He then stepped into the water hole, holding me close, and we were whooshed along the waterslide, taking us away from the secret caverns of Atlantis and back to the surface.
38
Because those slipstream entrances changed all the time, we ended up nowhere near our boat, which meant we could literally be miles from our vessel.
“There’s an island this way,” Asher said, pointing into the horizon. “I know there’s equipment there for us to get in touch with the Academy. They’ll open a step-through.”
My energy pulsed inside of me. I was so desperate to get back to my home that I imagined the building in my head. The stone and brick. The ivy-woven pillars and irregular weather patterns. I let myself go there for a moment, because I needed the comfort of home.
The heat spread, and I closed my eyes, too tired and sore to keep fighting.
“Uh, Mads…?” Jesse said, using a tone I hadn’t heard before.
I squinted one eye, not sure what I’d done.
A shimmery step-through was swirling just above the water’s surface. “Did you open that?” I asked, looking at Asher.
He shook his head. “Nope. That was all you.”
I had no idea how I did it, and I wasn’t sure it was safe, but before I could voice that worry, Calen shot himself out of the water and straight into the shimmer.
“Shit,” I cursed. “What if I fucked up and that leads to like … the moon or some crap?”
Axl shrugged. “The likelihood of the step-through leading somewhere you haven’t been before is very slim. What were you just thinking of?”
“The Academy,” I said. “Wanting to go home.”
Everyone looked relieved. Axl shot me a confident smile. “If you take into account our current circumstances and your thoughts at the time, I’ve now weighed both sides, and I think the step-through is the safest.”
He didn’t wait for a reply. Having made his mind up, he followed Calen, and then Jesse did as well. Rone hesitated, gesturing for Asher and me to go first.
“What if it closes after I go through?” I asked.
I mean, how do these things work?
Rone let out a breath, a low pissed-off sound, but he didn’t argue, sending his huge body into the shimmer. “I’m sorry if I hurt you,” Asher said, dark green eyes destroying me with their glittering intensity.
“It’s okay,” I told him truthfully. “Please just get me home.”
His gaze dropped to the blade and the slow pulse of blood still lighting those Atlantean symbols. “Hold on to me,” he said softly.
I wasn’t quite at the place where I was ready to tell him that there was no way I’d ever let him go again.
The next month at the Academy was rough. My step-through took us exactly where I’d intended, inside the grounds and everything, which was supposed to be impossible. I was immediately separated from Asher and the guys and sent into a reinforced medical wing in the herbalism rooms. Asher’s tincture was applied to my wound, and over several days the blade slowly slipped out of my skin, until finally I was free.
It took another week of the tincture for the wound to heal, and I was not allowed any direct contact with anyone, even when I could hear Ilia shouting in the hallway outside of my room.
It wasn’t
just because of the blade though. It was because of my power. Once the blade was free from my skin, my power grew uncontrollable. I’d already destroyed everything in the room but me.
Asher came every single day—the first day he wasn’t allowed to enter, and he demolished the three rooms around me. Luckily, Jesse and Rone were with him and managed to calm him down before he leveled the entire building. Between the two of us, we were quite the destructive pair.
After that day, Asher still came, but he just sat on the floor outside my door. We couldn’t talk to each other—the magical seal was strong—but I could see him through the glass, and the simple fact of knowing he was there, that we were close, was enough to stop me from losing my mind.
Princeps Jones did his best to keep me abreast of the school’s happenings while providing me with as many books as I could read through a small enchanted entrance that allowed things in but not out.
Louis made his appearance twenty days after I returned from Atlantis, having been stuck in some sort of scuffle with the American army that had almost exposed all supernaturals to the world.
“I’m so sorry,” he said, stopping by my bed. He was the first person I’d been near in almost three weeks, and I found myself a little teary as he sat down beside me.
Isolation was not something I would wish on anyone.
“How are you feeling?” Louis asked. “Your injuries took a long time to heal.”
I nodded. “Yes, the blade was Atlantean steel, engraved with powerful symbols. My blood activated it, but I’m good now. Free of pain and fully functional. It’s my power that has everyone scared. It’s a bit of a volatile, violent mess.” I didn’t blame the princeps for keeping everyone away from me. I would not survive if I hurt one of my friends. “Please tell me you can block my power again.”
Lights exploded around me, shattering glass across the room. That was the fifth time this week. I was now an expert at replacing light bulbs and also at giving myself magical baths.
He wrapped one arm around me in a strong hug. “I’m so glad you’re okay. And I’m sorry, Maddi, but I can’t block your powers again. They’re too strong. That’s why I was a little late getting here; I’ve been trying to figure out a way to help you ease into this level of power. I spoke with a few of the top magical users, and we think we have a short-term solution.”