Heart Of Atlantis

then—realizing his hands were not needed—he simply stalked forward, surrounded by spheres that formed and attacked the demon just because Alaric willed them to do so.
    He was on fire—he was the most powerful high priest Poseidon had ever known—he was a
god
.
    Quinn’s laughter sounded in his mind.
    Don’t get carried away, there, god-boy.
    Her warmth and humor snapped Alaric out of the power’s seductive grip and back into himself, just in time to crush Ptolemy’s sneak attack with what appeared to be a magically created battle-axe.
    The two of them battled with everything in their respective arsenals, seemingly equally matched, until Alaric balanced on the edge of utter fatigue and a potentially fatal case of magical exhaustion. He’d been carrying Atlantis’s safety and the stability of the Trident for too long, and it had drained him. Ptolemy, sensing weakness, laughed and threw a dagger at Alaric, who sent a pulse of magic to deflect it.
    Except it wasn’t a magical dagger. It was ordinary steel, and the magic had no effect on it. Alaric realized it just as it pierced his side, and he felt the hot, wet gush of blood running down his ribs almost before he felt the pain of the stab wound.
    “Not as good as you think you are,” Ptolemy sneered. “You don’t deserve Quinn, and I’ll remind her of that every day when you’re dead and she’s pregnant with my heir.”
    Something vital snapped in Alaric, and any restraint or caution he might have felt toward accepting the full promise of his new powers vanished. He flew up into the air, trailing actual flames, and then he dove toward Ptolemy with the strength and speed of a raptor seeking its prey.
    The demon never had a chance.
    Ptolemy’s magical shields and weapons blew apart like tissue paper in a windstorm in front of Alaric’s towering fury. Alaric hurled the demon back, farther away from Quinn, and smashed him back to the rooftop every time Ptolemy tried to get up.
    A primal rage thundered through Alaric with hurricane force. “Nobody touches my woman, do you understand me?”
    But Ptolemy was beyond words. The demon shrieked unintelligible, garbled sounds of hate and frustration, and gathered his strength for one final rush at Alaric, who let him do it. When Ptolemy had almost reached him, hands outstretched for Alaric’s throat, Alaric threw open all of his shields and channeled the power.
    All
of the power.
    Endless oceans of power poured into him and filled him and burned to be set free. Alaric roared out his triumph and his mastery over the magic, and it obeyed his mental command and formed into a lightning bolt of pure energy that shone as brightly as Alaric himself now did.
    “Now you will die,” he told Ptolemy, and then he plunged the lightning bolt down and through the top of the demon’s skull. The magic cut through bone like butter, and Ptolemy shrieked with all the anguish of the nine hells, and then his body split in two, right down the middle, and the two halves fell to the ground, already dissolving.
    Alaric watched, breathing hard, as the demon melted. And then he smiled.
    The creatures who’d been trying to sneak up behind him shrieked and ran away at the sight of him, but it was too late. Alaric threw a rapid-fire burst of energy spheres at them and incinerated them all.
    They’d tried to hurt his woman. They died. Nothing could be simpler.
    His gaze arrowed toward Quinn, who was standing, a gun in each hand, in front of Noriko and Riley and the baby, and he laughed.
    I see you have rescued yourself again
.
    She smiled at him across the fallen bodies of their enemies.
    Not bad yourself.

    Quinn was fiercely, overwhelmingly glad that Ptolemy was dead.
    “What happened to Alaric? Why is he all Johnny Torch?” Ven shouted, but Quinn shook her head. No time.
    She pulled out the Uzi and swept the roof clear of the few remaining of Ptolemy’s brethren, and she cheered at the sight until her voice was hoarse.
    Threaten to “mate” with her, would they, the little monsters? Now they wouldn’t be mating with anybody.
    Quinn, my love, leave me something to kill.
    She waved at Alaric and blew him a kiss.
    I think you’ve done enough.
    A brief flare of pain alerted her to Alaric’s injury. He was still shining, but not quite as much as he had been.
    Hey, you’re hurt. You need to heal that right now.
    It is nothing
, he replied
.
    She started toward him. “Tell me that again, and I’ll shoot you myself. Let me see