He nodded. “And get the other half of the stone.”
They made their way to the open front door.
“We can’t pass through,” Argan said.
“You moved the stone?” Skylar asked. “I came in the back way.”
“I did too. The energy was impossible to walk through here,” Argan said. “Maybe if Suki were here …”
“Why Suki?”
“Apparently she’s the alchemist among us,” he said. “Story for another time.”
Skylar pursed her lips. “But we’ve gone through energy portals before.”
“Yes,” he said. “With Suki.”
“So?” She was confused for a moment, and then it clicked. “Nooooo! Get out!”
A smug smile spread across Argan’s face. “Yup, I knew you’d find that interesting.”
Skylar tried every manner of energy manipulation she had learned to date but was only met with intense static electricity.
Argan grew bored and sat on the dusty floor. “Can you hurry up?” he asked. “We have our impending doom to return to.”
She conjured a few sparks of light and a faint orb in front of the door, but nothing. Her last attempt landed her on her butt next to Argan. She blew air out of her nose in exasperation. Then she looked at Argan—really looked at him.
“What?” he asked.
“You came for me,” she said, letting the realization sink in. “That’s hero work.”
He dismissed the compliment. “We’re not in the clear yet, Sky.”
“I know, but it doesn’t matter,” she said. “Whatever we’ll face, we’ll do it together.” She leaned in and kissed him softly on the lips.
He intensified the kiss and held her shoulders tightly, then pulled back slightly and leaned his forehead to hers. “I’ve missed you.”
“How did you get here?” she asked. “I mean not just here, but here.”
“Vivienne,” he said.
“Really?” Her surprise gave way to understanding. “I guess this is her turf.” She got up and dusted her behind. She reached out a hand to help Argan up. “The interesting thing is, I feel this is my turf too. I feel so comfortable, even though the places are foreign.”
“You are Sky of Water,” he said, grazing her face with his hand. “My beautiful mermaid.”
“Oh, Argan, mermaids!”
“Yeah, I saw them,” he said. “Like nothing I’d ever seen, and we’ve seen a lot of crazy stuff.”
“We have to help them while we’re here,” she said. “I mean, why wouldn’t we, when we can? I know we can.” She looked at him. “We can, right?”
He chuckled. “Yes, we can.”
They gave up on leaving through the door and made their way back to the crevasse in the back wall. Soon, they were back at the shore.
The dwellers on the threshold were waiting.
“Now what do we do?” one asked.
“There’s two of them?” asked another.
“Are they both the one?” asked a third.
“Two can’t be the one,” the first said condescendingly.
“Maybe two can be the one,” said the second.
“Yes, two definitely can be the one,” they all said in unison.
“Then can three be the one? Or four? How many can be the one?” a fourth asked.
That question apparently stumped them all, because they stopped talking as Skylar and Argan walked down to the water’s edge.
Skylar looked to her right, just beyond the temple, and saw a familiar sight: the city of the Underworld. She now recognized the outward similarity to the city on the left. They were mirrors of each other.
“You rode a kelpie here?” Argan asked.
“Yup, you?”
“Dolphin.”
“Right, you said that earlier. Well, now what?”
Argan let out an ear-piercing call and waited. “Someone’s gotta show, right?”
They only had to wait a minute or so before the back of a large creature floated toward them.
Skylar’s eyes widened. “No way.”
A beluga whale popped her head up and let out a sound Skylar had never heard before. Instead of the familiar clicks and squeaks she knew as whale communication, it emitted a beautiful song—wistful, with a touch of sadness. Strikingly similar to the mermaid’s song.
“Well, this is our ride,” Skylar said. “Ready?”
“Yeah, sure, why not,” Argan said.
They waded into the water and the whale came close enough for them to touch her. They each patted her side gently, like they were petting a dog for the first time.
“Amazing,” Argan said.
Skylar smiled. The touch of the whale’s skin was cool yet supple. She felt tiny hairs on the rubbery surface, like a short coat of velvet. She looked into the great eye of the whale and touched her forehead. The creature’s energy pulsed through her like a heartbeat. This whale was ancient yet retained a childlike exuberance that made Skylar smile. Never in her life did she think she would become so intimately connected to such a foreign creature, but the whale was a connection to the wisdom of the water, the memory of the ocean.
They hopped on the whale and set a course for Atlantis.
“I’m leaving, Grandmother,” Milicent said. Her royal purple designer bags were packed at the front door. “There is nothing for me here and I’ve grown bored.”
“You’ve stayed longer than most of your visits,” Vivienne said. “It’s been lovely.”
“I need to go reinvent myself,” Milicent said. “What does a First Lady do after the White House? The most vivacious of them all, Jackie Kennedy, married a billionaire. I’ve already done that.” She waved her hand in the air. “I need to figure something else out.”
She opened the front door. Her car had arrived. She hugged Vivienne and looked at Noah. They’d continued to be cool toward each other since their shopping excursion. “Are you coming?”
“I’m staying with Grandmother,” he said.
“She’s not your grandmother!” Milicent started to lose her composure but regained it quickly and snapped her mouth shut.
“Well, that may be true, but Italy is good for my soul—and my wardrobe,” he said.
She covered her hurt feelings and slammed the door without another word.
She’d returned to the States during a rainy week in June. Harsh thunder had rolled across the sky every day since she’d been back. The rain seemed odd, almost iridescent, and she knew things were shifting again. The beauty in the colorful rain made her cranky.
She’d spent a few days getting reacquainted with her massive estate, the place she had named Neshoba. Most of the six-person staff spent their time with the horses. The horses seemed to accept handlers much easier with Milicent off property.
She was avoiding Rosen, but she quickly grew bored at the house and couldn’t even drum up interest in riding. On her fourth day home, she ventured to the carriage house that had become a storeroom. All of her East Wing office furniture from the White House, the furniture that had taken Noah months to obtain, now sat in piles. Among the furniture sat a coffin-like contraption she hadn’t seen in years.