Warriors of Poseidon 01 - Atlantis Rising

heart?"
     
    Conlan blurred into motion and caught her, his arms steel bands around her. "Everyone leave us," he barked out, eyes feral with rage.
     
    She shoved at his chest, tried to get away from him, crying now. Hard, wrenching sobs that felt like they'd rip out her throat.
     
    He'd already ripped out her heart.
     
    She dropped in his arms, dead weight, hoping he'd let her go. Unable to force her legs to hold her up. He went to the ground with her, falling to his knees in front of her, still holding her. She felt the waves of his anguish buffeting her. The waves of his emotion pushing at her, peddling their false claims of honesty and truth.
     
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    She screamed. "Get out of my head! It's all lies. You are going to marry… what's her name?"
     
    "I don't—"
     
    She snarled in his face, driven to jealous anguish beyond anything she'd thought she had in her. "Tell me her name!"
     
    Conlan dropped her arms, released her. Shoulders slumping, he looked her right in the eyes. "I don't know her name. We've never met."
     
    She fell backward, mouth falling open. "What? I don't understand. Why—"
     
    "Why, indeed?" Conlan said, visibly drawing power into his body. His skin glowed with a faint blue-green iridescence and the flame was back in his eyes. "If I'm fit to be the king, then I should act as king, should I not?"
     
    With that, he took Riley's hands in his and looked back over his shoulder at Alaric, who'd never left the room. "As king, I should have the right to choose. Because the ancient breeding program has been the way of the Seven Isles since the beginning does not mean it must continue as such."
     
    Conlan looked at Riley, who sat, tears still streaming down her face, wondering what he was talking about.
     
    Wondering why she cared.
     
    Though she told herself she hated him, she could see the royalty in him, even kneeling on the floor. A position that would have rendered any other man subservient did nothing to diminish the kingliness in him.
     
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    The command.
     
    She tried to breathe through the weight pressing on her chest—through the knot lodged inside her throat.
     
    His next words knocked any remaining breath out of her.
     
    "I, Conlan of Atlantis, high prince of the Seven Isles, therefore decree that the ceremony of mate-choosing shall no longer apply to any who do not wish it. And I renounce it. As king, I will choose for myself."
     
    The gasps from behind her were louder this time, and her own echoed them. Alaric went dead white and clutched the edge of the table with both hands. Riley noticed it all only on the periphery of her senses; Conlan's face filled her vision.
     
    She couldn't form a single word.
     
    He stood, drawing her up with him, and put one arm around her waist. "I make my choice now. I choose her. I choose Riley Elisabeth Dawson, aknasha, human, to be my lady wife and queen."
     
    He turned to Riley, joy fierce in his gaze. "If she will have me."
     
    Before Riley could say a word, Alaric cut in. "No, you do not. You renounce nothing. Or else you doom Atlantis and the human world to a second Cataclysm."
     
    Alaric smiled bitterly at her, then swung his gaze back to Conlan. "And your human will die."
     
    As if to echo his proclamation of doom, the crashing sound of thunder ripped through the room and a lightning bolt of energy smashed into Alaric.
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    Conlan gasped and dove on reflex across the room toward Alaric as another bolt of energy scorched through the air at the priest.
     
    "What in the nine hells?" he shouted, but he wasn't fast enough.
     
    The pure green burst of fire smashed into Alaric dead center. The priest lit up as though electrified, arms jerking like some demonically possessed marionette.
     
    Conlan heard Riley screaming behind him, but he was trapped in the elemental current driving through the air and into Alaric.
     
    It lasted for hours, or for mere seconds. There was no way to tell. Time suspended itself on the cusp of energy gone rampant.
     
    Then, as suddenly as it had come, the paralyzing beam of power vanished. Ven and Justice ran into the room, shouting, as Conlan leapt forward and caught Alaric as he fell.
     
    He lay the unconscious form of the priest on the table and turned, breathing harshly, to help Riley.
     
    She stood, trapped, between Ven and