He exhaled and crushed me to him, burying his face in my hair. “Fuck…”
We remained locked for long seconds, and when he released me it was with a reluctant sigh.
I turned to Jax with a smile.
He pulled me into a tight hug and kissed my temple. “You keep her fucking safe,” he said over my head.
“I will,” Dillon replied.
Bryce was last, the alpha waiting patiently for his turn to say goodbye. Who would have thought Bryce would ever wait for anything. He’d always claimed what he wanted first. Been the first, the only, but with me he’d learned to bend, to compromise, to share. Still, the embers in his lavender eyes told me it came at a cost.
One that I would need to assuage with my body once I returned, because that was how he communicated his love for me.
He gently gripped my nape, thumb stroking up the column of my neck. Fear clawed at my insides, doubt and confusion. I sucked in a sharp breath and the emotions cut off. Not my emotions but his, communicated through our bond.
“Bryce?” I swept my gaze over his face. “Oh, Bryce…”
He inhaled and closed his eyes for a moment. “You’re my mate and I won’t let her take you from me. I promise you that, Quinn. You’re mine and I’m yours.”
I nodded mutely.
He dipped his head and claimed my mouth in the kind of kiss that belonged in the midst of a coupling, rough and desperate, a kiss that punctuated thrusts, gasps, and pants. For a moment I forgot where we were and that we had an audience. Thankfully, he tore his mouth from mine before I could make a fool of myself by climbing his body.
His eyes blazed with a promise of satiation when I returned. “Don’t be too long.”
He released me and I staggered back into Dillon’s arms.
I took them in one last time, my mates, my Faoladh, then allowed Dillon to steer me toward the ocean and another destiny.
13
Even though my last experience undersea hadn’t gone so well, being back felt like coming home. My bond to Dillon allowed me to shift beneath the waves. My skin became thicker, decorated in rose gold scales. This time there was no panic when the water entered my lungs, and breathing came naturally. My vision sharpened, enabling me to see into the darkness of the depths.
Pontus replaced Dillon, his sandy hair streaked with black streaming out behind him as he swam beside me. His pale eyes made an eerie glowing ring around enlarged pupils, but his body hadn’t erupted in scales. Instead, his skin had a shimmery quality to it. I wagered he would be poreless and smooth to the touch.
We’re almost there, he said in my head.
Are we taking a riportal?
Yes, one only my kind can access.
Then how will I get through?
His chuckle filled my mind. Have you forgotten who you are, Quinn?
Of course, my Atlantean genes would allow me to pass through. Oh shit, the Atlantean I was descended from would be in Atlantis.
Pontus took my hand as we dove lower. The world grew darker, but he began to glow, shedding light to push away the gloom. I caught impressions of shadows around us and sensed curiosity.
They won’t hurt us, Pontus said. They’re simply intrigued by the light.
Another light came into view, a swirling vortex of silver and gold, but it was blocked by shadows darting back and forth. These shadows retreated as we grew closer and the vortex came into full view.
Pontus drew me closer, hugging me to his side so we were practically swimming in tandem.
I clutched his arm around my waist. Are you sure about this?
Surer than I’ve ever been of anything.
I got the impression he was referring to more than the portal, but then we were inside the vortex and the world turned upside down for a moment. The only grounding, the only anchor was Pontus, his arms around me so tight I could barely breathe. I nestled against him, watching the light show from behind my eyelids.
Then the world went dark.
My body felt light, as if it was floating.
“Open your eyes,” Pontus said out loud.
My eyes snapped open to a vista of inky black dotted with tiny pale blips that looked like stars. The vortex lay far behind us, but another was visible in the distance to our left. We were no longer in water. Instead we were suspended in the air somehow, almost weightless, like I imagined space would be like, without the whole freezing to death in a vacuum, of course. We were in motion, being drawn inexorably upward in a gentle arc.
I gripped Pontus tighter. “Where are we?”
“On the walkway to Atlantis.”
The tiny dots I’d noticed grew larger and became figures all floating in the same direction as us.
“The walkway transports Atlanteans from the many vortexes back to the city.”
“And where is the—”
He nudged my chin to make me look up. The sky was a silver metal sheet so vast it seemed to go on forever.
“What is that?”
“That, Quinn, is the ship we arrived on this planet on. That is Atlantis.”
Atlantis was more than a ship, it was a city, with sweeping towers and roads made of water with shapes visible swimming to and fro beneath us. Above the water were hover cars. There was a starlit sky far above us; a holographic image, according to Pontus, but still.
As we cruised along in an automated hover car of our own, I couldn’t help but marvel at the technology, much too advanced for my brain to grasp.
“How big is this ship?”
“The size of your world’s largest city,” he said. “We had a race to preserve, after all. Still, we were forced to leave too many behind. Too many deaths on our hands.”
“I expected it to be inside the sea. In the water like Siritesh.”
“No. Atlanteans are able to live on both land and sea.”
“Hence the rivers of sea water instead of roads?”
“Yes.”
I settled back against the cushy cream leather seats, inadvertently snuggling into him because he’d placed his arm along the back of the seat. He hooked his arm around me and I turned my face to his.
Damn, up close like this, he was even more breathtaking.
He slow-blinked. “You’ll be sharing my quarters while we’re here, Quinn. I hope that won’t be a problem?” His gaze fell to my lips, then flicked back up to meet my eyes.
I forgot how to breathe for a moment. “No. Not a problem.”
A ghost of a smile hovered on his lips. “Good.”
The hover car swerved, drawing my attention back to the view. We were higher now, way above the water and hurtling toward an archway.
Pontus withdrew his arm from around me and I couldn’t help the jab of disappointment. But we were inside a dark tunnel lit by a thin strip of light halfway up the wall. We were moving so fast that the strip was a single line.
We shot out into a vast chamber lined with hover cars and came to a smooth halt.
“Almost there,” Pontus said.
An azure light filled the hover car as a beam swept over us, scanning us, then a voice filled the vehicle.
“Well, well, well, look who decided to pay us a visit?”
Pontus smiled. “Nice to hear your voice again too, Thalassa. Now how about you beam us in.”
I looked at him in confusion. “Beam us—”
The world disintegrated, and when my senses coalesced again, I was standing on a plush cream carpet in a startling white room where the only color was the vibrant green of Thalassa’s hair.