Heart Of Atlantis

died.”
    She shook her head. “No, you would have found a way to save us both. Or I would have saved him and you would have saved me, or we would have saved each other
and
the boy. We would have figured it out together, Alaric. We’re a team. We have to be, or the bad guys win. It’s as simple as that.”
    He shrugged. He’d been doing a lot of that lately, and she didn’t like it. It was almost as if he’d given up the fight, just as surely as Jack had done.
    She decided to change the subject. “Well. Enough of that. Where exactly are we? This isn’t Mount Fuji anymore, that’s for sure.”
    She scanned the pristine length of beach and its beautiful palm tree–covered border. The ocean was so brilliantly blue it almost hurt her eyes, and the rising sun shone on the water as brightly as if the entire vista had escaped from a traveler’s favorite postcard. Seabirds played diving games with the sparkling waves, and a trio of dolphins chose that moment to leap into the air in synchronized splendor. The only sounds were the gentle pounding of the surf in front of them and the calls of birdsong from behind them.
    Alaric pulled her against him, and she leaned her head on his shoulder, trying to soak in a rare moment of peace. Not quite sure how to achieve it.
    “This is an unnamed island in the Bermuda Triangle, Quinn. Atlantis is in a deep-sea trench directly underneath us, about five and a half miles down.”
    Quinn couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Really? Did you just tell me the real location of Atlantis after thousands of years of every explorer and crackpot in history searching for it?”
    “I did. Does that buy me back into your good graces?”
    “Maybe a little. Wow. But, wait. Bermuda Triangle? Really? Is something freaky about to happen? Also, I thought Atlantis would be somewhere off the coast of Greece.”
    She could feel his body begin to shake silently, and it took a moment for Quinn to realize he was laughing.
    “What now? Don’t make me shove you in the surf again,” she threatened.
    “It’s the way you said ‘something freaky’ as if that didn’t describe most of your life. Caught me off guard.”
    She had to admit he had a point.
    “Yes, we were originally located near Greece, when Atlantis rode the surface of the waves, but in the Cataclysm the gods created, Atlantis was transported here inside a tremendous magical vortex. None of our Elders or our records can say how. Since then, this area has been the center of a powerful magical fluctuation that often causes havoc with weather patterns.”
    “Are there sunken ships, airplanes, and spaceships littering the seafloor near Atlantis?” Quinn was fascinated and willing to continue the conversation for a while. She deserved a moment or two without worries about death, danger, or deceit.
    Surely she’d earned that much over the past ten years.
    “No spaceships that I know of, but I wouldn’t discount the notion,” he said without a trace of humor. “We did the best we could to assist any of your ships floundering in various massive storms, especially ones Poseidon caused when he was in a petulant mood, but we are limited in how much we can help, according to how many of us can travel by portal at any time. We can’t exactly swim up from the dome.”
    “The pressure would crush you.”
    “Not to mention our best swimmers can only hold their breath for six or eight minutes. Five miles is a long way down.”
    “This may be the most bizarre conversation I’ve ever had, and that’s saying a lot,” she said. “Let’s at least walk and see if we can find something to drink and some fruit.”
    He held up one hand, and a swirling ribbon of water spiraled playfully through the air from the trees until it stopped and hovered in front of Quinn.
    “It’s perfectly safe to drink.”
    Quinn took him at his word and drank deeply from the magical water fountain. “It’s delicious,” she said, surprised. “As pure as the water at Fuji.”
    “You’re unlikely to find any purer. Nobody ever comes here but me, as far as I know. The island doesn’t show up on your radar, or tracking devices, or whatever instruments your people use to chart the planet.”
    Alaric drank, too, and then released the swirling water, and it retreated back through the trees.
    “You don’t always have to take it all on, either, you know,” she said quietly, making a sharp detour in the conversation. Even when she was frustrated and angry with