Heart Of Atlantis

Keely. Can you blame the poor man for losing his mind?”
    Quinn shook her head. “I can’t quite wrap
my
mind around the idea of centuries of celibacy,” she whispered. “Even if Keely is right—and that’s far too big of a chance to take—what if he doesn’t remember how?”
    Riley rolled her eyes. “I imagine it’s like riding a bike.”
    The sisters both froze and then looked at each other and cracked up.
    “Riding a bike,” Quinn gasped out. “Can you imagine?”
    “Doing—doing wheelies,” Riley said, which set them off again.
    By the time they caught their breath, every other person in the room was staring at them.
    “Care to share the joke with the class?” Erin said, grinning.
    And that started them off again. They were both gasping for air by the time they could regain control and stop laughing.
    “Dinner at your house must have been very interesting,” Ven said.
    “You have no idea. Two emotional empaths during puberty? It was hell,” Quinn said.
    The men winced, and Erin laughed.
    Just then the door opened and a tall, athletic redhead walked in. Justice jumped up and pulled her into his arms, so it must be Keely.
    “We have been alone for too long today,” Justice said firmly, but Keely just laughed.
    “Hey, relax. I’m starving after a long, dusty day translating scrolls from the library of Alexandria. Thank goodness Eleni is having a sleepover with one of her many friends tonight.”
    “It is good she finally has friends, after what she endured,” Justice said grimly.
    Their gazes met in a glance of shared understanding, and then Keely leaned down to grab a slice of bread from a basket on the table, tore a piece off, and ate it.
    “Now I need a plate full of whatever smells so delicious, and a hot bath, and, oh, hey, we have company,” she said, as she finally saw Quinn in the corner.
    “That is not company, that is family,” Justice said. “Keely, my love, meet Quinn Dawson.”
    Keely whistled, her gaze quickly snapping to Alaric and then back to Quinn. She dropped the rest of her bread on a plate and quickly crossed the room, hand outstretched. Quinn stood to shake her hand, but at the last minute, Keely pulled her into a hug.
    “Family, right? Hey, I am a big admirer of yours,” she said seriously after she released Quinn. “It takes a lot of courage to do what you do every day, without special powers or magic. Thank you for making the world safer for the rest of us.”
    Quinn shuffled her feet, uncomfortable with the expression and even more so with the honest sincerity of emotion the woman projected. “Yeah, it’s nothing. I mean, I’m just one of many, and we all do our part.”
    “Untrue,” Alaric said. “You are first among many, and you do far more than your part.”
    “Jack was first,” she fired back at him. “And I left him, trapped as a tiger forever for all I know.”
    Riley took her sister’s hand and squeezed it. “We were all so sorry to learn about Jack. We’ve been praying that he finds his way back.”
    Quinn couldn’t bear to take comfort she knew she didn’t deserve, so she snatched her hand away. “Praying to which god? Because from what I’ve seen of Poseidon, he isn’t much of a bargain.”
    “I still believe the same things and pray to the same god,” Riley said softly. “My worldview has expanded, that’s all.”
    Keely headed back to the table and quietly began arranging a plate of food. While she ate, Conlan and Ven ran through everything that had been discussed, but Alaric sat silent and brooding. When she, Quinn, and Riley were up to speed, Keely nodded and put her fork down.
    “I don’t know if this is a good time for this, then, with the impostor and the danger to Quinn and Anubisa and everything else. But I have confirmation about Zelia and Nereus, Alaric. They were definitely married. I know why the ruling king at the time and the Elders implemented the new rules about celibacy, too.”
    She looked at Quinn and then returned her gaze to Alaric. “It’s absolutely definite. Nereus went insane when Zelia died, and he almost blew up the entire dome.”

    Alaric sat back in his chair, a mask of implacable calm on his features, his emotions shut down behind an impenetrable steel wall. Everyone was staring at him—everyone but Quinn, who looked anywhere else
but
at him. He felt like someone had torn out his guts and put them on display for everyone in the room to pick over and examine.
    “I have no interest in