Heart Of Atlantis

Ninja only last month when he’d gone to London. Just enough.
    And Serai, ancient Atlantean princess, held in stasis for so long that she’d nearly died trapped in a crystal box. Daniel, her eleven-thousand-year-old vampire consort. They’d met before Atlantis had ever sunk beneath the waves, and only found each other again recently, after so many millennia of each believing the other dead.
    Now, finally, Alaric. Conlan’s best friend for nearly five hundred years had met his true mate. The soul-meld had caught them both, and Conlan truly believed they would be the better for it, as he and his own
aknasha
had discovered.
    Then he considered the idea of baby Alarics running around and didn’t know whether to laugh or flee, but he finally knew exactly what to say.
    He stood up at the head of the table, with the magical crystal arrangement in front of him that would carry his voice to every table in the garden and every home in the land, and he reached down to pull Riley and Aidan up to join them.
    “Today marks the day we have anticipated for thousands of years. Atlantis will finally rise and take its place in the world again. We are here to celebrate that amazing accomplishment and honor those who made it possible. But I am also here to acknowledge the strides we have already made in joining the wider world.”
    He gestured. “You see at the table here to my right that today we have our first-ever shape-shifter guests in Atlantis. More than that, both of them are soul-melded to Atlanteans, so we consider them part of the family.”
    Everyone cheered and Kat waved, but Ethan stood up and bowed. “You can be part of my panther pride, too, anytime, Your Highness. I’ve seen you Atlanteans in a fight!”
    Another cheer.
    “After eleven thousand years, one of our own, a Nightwalker Guild mage, returned to Atlantis to claim the princess he’d loved and lost. A vampire sits at the table to my left, soul-melded to an ancient Atlantean princess. He, too, is part of our family.”
    More cheering, but then Serai stood up as gracefully as she did everything. “If you call me
ancient
one more time, Prince Conlan, I will challenge you to a duel,” she said, smiling. “And I get to pick the form.”
    For a brief moment, Serai disappeared and a saber-toothed tiger stood in her place. The crowd went wild, cheering and stomping their feet, and then the very elegant princess reappeared and took her seat. Conlan bowed deeply in her direction, grinning at Daniel as he did so. He had a feeling that the princess kept her vampire very busy.
    “We were once a very great civilization, when Atlantis rode the surface of the waves. Today we will rejoin the world, and the eyes of every country and every people will be upon us.”
    He looked around at the faces of those he loved so much. “We will continue as our ancestors began, more than eleven thousand years ago. Atlantis will become a productive member of the world economy, a valuable participant in international strategy, and—most important of all—we will continue the work that my warriors still perform today, so many millennia after Poseidon first assigned us the task.”
    He gestured with his hand and every one of the Seven, every warrior in training, and every warrior assigned to every segment of the Seven Isles, stood.
    “Because now, finally, our prophecy is fulfilled and we will protect humanity no matter what is to come. Warriors, to me,” he shouted, and the warriors all streamed up to stand near him, and turned and faced the crowd and recited the oath with him.
    We will wait. And watch. And protect.
    And serve as first warning on the eve of humanity’s destruction.
    Then, and only then, Atlantis will rise.
    For we are the Warriors of Poseidon, and the mark of the Trident we bear serves as witness to our sacred duty to safeguard mankind.
    “We have waited, and watched, and protected,” Conlan said. “And now, Atlantis will rise!”
    As if on cue, a booming noise sounded and the whole of Atlantis jerked sideways, as if buffeted by a huge wave or an immovable object. Everyone looked up, and for the first time in more generations than anyone could count, they could see real sunlight over the dome of Atlantis. With a mighty heave, the dome broke through the waves and kept rising and rising, until the Seven Isles floated on the ocean’s surface once more.
    Everyone waited, seemingly afraid to breathe, and for a moment even Conlan feared that the dome was too