Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

each blossom was the size of a dinner plate. The blooms covered the dark green-leafed bushes surrounding a small white gazebo. The visual contrast was stunning, and she wished with a fresh stab of pain that her sister Deirdre were there to share it with her.
     
    Atlantis Awakening – Warriors of Poseidon 02
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    She'd slipped out of the spacious room assigned to her in the palace and found a door to the outside; fresh air and the space she craved. Now she stood alone for the first time in the several hours since they'd arrived in Atlantis, surrounded by the wild and delicate fragrances of a cascade of flowering beauty.
     
    "Atlantis," she whispered, tasting the syllables. Atlantis. A land born in myth, lost in legend. Yet, somehow, here she stood. It was impossible, but the impossible had become her reality.
     
    The opals on her fingers sang out to her, warning her of his presence mere seconds before iridescent mist shimmered down in front of her. The sunlight—sunlight?—fractured into a prism of sparkling diamonds, and suddenly he was there.
     
    Ven.
     
    "Somehow I knew I'd find you here," he said, bowing slightly. "Are you well?"
     
    She stared up at him, not trusting the warmth she'd felt when he appeared. The feeling of safety. Of home. She did not know this man, regardless of what the rings on her fingers might be telling her. And it might be petty, but it didn't help that he looked so damn good in his white shirt and jeans, with his wavy hair hanging loose to his shoulders. Actually, it kind of ticked her off.
     
    Her emeralds sang again, and the opals chimed in on harmony, and she gritted her teeth against hearing their song. What do gemstones know, anyway? Useless hunks of rock.
     
    "I'm fine," she finally replied. "Other than the whole part where you dumped me into the frigid waters off Whidbey Island, expected me to believe some magical doorway was going to let me into the mythical lost continent of Atlantis, then brought me to the palace drenched and looking like a drowned rat."
    Atlantis Awakening – Warriors of Poseidon 02
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    She narrowed her eyes at him. "Perfectly fine, thanks for asking. And how is there sunlight down here however many miles under the sea?"
     
    He blinked, then a slow and dangerous smile spread across his face, and her heart started dancing to a rapid beat. "I'm sorry about the freezing water and the drenched part. The portal almost always sends us through dry. But it does have a mind of its own and likes to play practical jokes sometimes. Certainly my brother is not the type to stand on ceremony, in any case."
     
    She rolled her eyes. "Yes, I noticed that you came through perfectly dry, in spite of being right there in the water with me. I just figured it was a royalty thing." Not to mention that she'd been too busy fighting her gemstones and their reaction to him to shield in any way.
     
    "No, trust me, the portal has no particular respect for my princely genes," he said, laughing. "It very nearly let me drown the last time through."
     
    She gasped a little. "Really? Then why do you use it? It's pretty obvious you've got enough power or magic or something to be able to figure out another way in and out of here."
     
    "You'd think so, wouldn't you? But when you have a source of magic that does a job for more than ten thousand years, sometimes you quit looking for alternatives." His voice was grim, and the shadow that crossed his face made her wonder if this was a conversation he'd had before. He held out his hand to her. "Shall we walk?"
     
    She lifted her hand, and the emeralds in her rings trilled out a sharp, clarion call. She jerked her hand back and took a step away from him. His eyes widened, and he lowered his own outstretched hand to his side. "What is that song, Erin? What is that music I hear when I touch you or even come close to touching you?"
     
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    She took another step back, even as she realized flight was futile. She was standing on the lost continent of Atlantis, maybe miles below the sea's surface, and "nowhere to run"
    took on a whole new meaning.
     
    "Tell me, Erin. Tell me what it means to be a gem singer."
     
    Ven's mind kept returning to the vision he'd had when the bomb had been close to detonating. Funny how the last thing the mind conjures up when the body is getting ready to be blown to hells and back kind of stays with a man. In his vision, Erin had