Heart Of Atlantis

surface.”
    Justice took another breath and stared straight at Alaric. “The dome is going to fail, and we’re five and a half miles underwater. Everyone on Atlantis will die.”

Chapter 15
    At the portal landing area, next to one section of the dome, an hour later
    A single drop of water.
    Only one.
    Quinn and the rest of the group stared at that single drop of water as if it held the answers to all the questions of the universe. It was impossible, or so they’d told her, but the impossible drop beaded along the edge of one of the thousands of cracks and then trickled down the side of the dome to the grass.
    And Quinn’s latent claustrophobia flared into excruciating existence.
    “It’s really true,” she whispered, as if any sound could send the whole structure crashing down around their ears. Of all the ways she’d imagined her demise over the years, death by suffocation and drowning, while being crushed by water pressure, had not even once been among them.
    Figured.
    “What are we going to do?”
    Alaric put an arm around her and pulled her close to his side, as if he could protect her from anything, even a collapsing dome over a soon-to-be-lost-for-real continent.
    “We shore up the dome’s magical barrier, continue to stabilize the Trident, kill Ptolemy the pretender, retrieve Poseidon’s Pride, restore it to the Trident, force Atlantis to rise, and save, as you would say, the day,” Alaric said calmly.
    But she was
aknasha
, and even as fiercely as he was shielding, she could feel that some very strong emotion was going on under that veneer of control. Not quite yet “oh, god, oh, god, we’re all gonna die” emotion; not Alaric, maybe not ever that, but certainly “oh, holy whale shit, how am I going to pull this out of my ass” emotion.
    She was feeling kind of “oh, holy whale shit” herself.
    So it was more than a little surreal when one swam by. An actual whale. She stared into its massive eye as it looked back at her, and she wondered hysterically if they could hitch a ride.
    “How can a whale survive down here at this pressure?”
    “There are many species of marine life who have adapted to a deep, deep sea environment,” Alaric said.
    She knew it wasn’t important, given the situation, but it was still interesting.
    “We will also start evacuating everyone we can through the portal, but it takes no more than several at a time, so it would be an impossibility to save everyone that way,” Conlan said, lines of strain clear on his face.
    “Riley and the baby must go,” Quinn said immediately. “Are they even awake?”
    “Yes, I sent to her to grab whatever she needed for the baby, and Marcus, my captain of the guard, will escort them here in a few minutes,” Conlan said.
    “You will go with them,” Alaric told Quinn. “If I have to throw you into the portal myself.”
    “I’m not leaving if there is anything here I can do,” she said. “I can help organize the evacuation. I’ve had a lot of experience with large groups over the past ten years.”
    Alaric’s eyes glowed such a hot green she was almost distracted from their argument. “Don’t your eyes get hot when they get all glowy like that? I’d think it would fry your eyeballs. You’re going to get cataracts or something. Also, haven’t you learned by now that you can’t order me around?”
    Alaric snarled—actually snarled, like a feral animal—and she was only saved from whatever he’d been about to say when the portal suddenly flared into existence.
    “What is this?” Conlan took a step back.
    “Did you call?” Alaric asked.
    Conlan shook his head. “No. Riley’s not here yet.”
    That same deep, resonant voice she’d heard before spoke from the heart of the portal. “You have need, Quinn Dawson?”
    Quinn’s mouth fell open. “What? No, I don’t need you. Thanks, but I’m going to stay and help out—”
    The rest of her words were cut off as the portal swept Quinn into its center. The last thing she saw was Alaric leaping after her, reaching for her, before he crashed to the ground as both she and the portal vanished in a vortex of swirling light.
    All she had time to think was
Oh, he’s going to be so pissed off
, before the portal abruptly dumped her onto a street that looked vaguely familiar.
    “Oh, how did she do that? Is she part of your act?”
    Quinn blinked in the early light of what she realized was dawn. They’d somehow spent the entire night dealing with the Trident, at