Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

life.
     
    Maybe even the rest of his.
     
    Although that would be a neat trick, considering the substantial difference between their relative life spans. Riley and Erin entered the room just then, and he tabled that miserable thought somewhere in the back of his mind. Erin took a seat near Riley, across the room from where Ven stood watching her, but he was reassured by the way her gaze sought him out.
     
    Maybe he wasn't the only one caught up by powerful forces he didn't know how to handle. She smiled at him, and heat rushed through him, burning his skin and nerve endings with sizzling flames. All he could think of was how much he wanted to be inside her, and he put every bit of that longing into the slow smile he gave her, then felt a brief moment of fierce triumph when she blushed and clutched the arms of her chair. She wanted him, too, and that had to mean something.
     
    It must mean something.
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    Justice sauntered in, trying for nonchalant, even though Ven could tell that he was shaken by what had happened at the Temple. Ven's first instinct was to block Erin with his body, but the warning in her eyes stopped him.
     
    For the moment.
     
    "Hey, the Scooby gang's all here," Ven said. "What do you say we figure this all out."
     
    "We're not all here yet, Ven. Marie is coming," Conlan said, then nodded. "Here she is, right on time."
     
    Marie walked through the door, looking around curiously. Ven figured it was the first time she had been in this part of the palace. None but Conlan, Alaric, and the warriors usually saw this room.
     
    "Who wants to start first and explain the half-Nereid part to me?" Conlan looked from Justice to Marie and back again. "I knew your mother, Justice. She was a lovely woman, but she was no sea goddess and, as far as I know, she did not have forty-nine sisters."
     
    Brennan spoke up from his position against the wall. "He speaks the truth. When we were children together, your grandparents used to feed us treats. I do not recall their names being Doris and Nereus."
     
    Justice smiled, but it was an empty gesture that did not reach his eyes. "My adoptive parents. You met my adoptive parents, who were so thrilled to take in a child that they asked very few questions. Especially considering the circumstances."
     
    "What circumstances are those?" Ven asked, leaning forward.
     
    "I can't tell you."
     
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    "You mean you won't tell us," Alaric said.
     
    "I mean I can't tell you," Justice repeated. "You know that old saying? I'd tell you, but then I'd have to kill you? Well, in my case, it's the literal truth."
     
    Ven and Conlan rose to their feet. "Are you threatening us?" Ven asked the question first.
     
    Justice waved a hand. "No, I'm stating a fact. It's ageas that was laid on me as a baby. I literally cannot speak the circumstances of my birth, no matter how much I might want to," he said bitterly. "If I do, I am forced by a powerful magical compulsion to kill anyone who might have heard me."
     
    Alaric studied him, eyes narrowed. "Who could have laid a compulsion so powerful that it lasted for centuries?"
     
    Justice looked him right in the eyes. "It was laid by the best, Priest. It was laid by a god."
     
    Riley lifted her hand and touched Conlan's arm. "He's telling the truth."
     
    Ven shook his head. "We can't know that. He's been lying to us for centuries."
     
    "Hello? Aknasha here, remember? I can feel his emotions. He is absolutely telling the truth."
     
    Erin finally spoke, for the first time since they'd gathered in the room. "Why did my amber tell me he was using death magic? I don't understand any of this. If he's half-Nereid, why did the Temple Goddess freak out like that?"
     
    Marie replied before Justice could answer. "I don't know the answer to that. He's the first blooded Nereid to enter the Temple in millennia, as far as I know. However, he has Atlantis Awakening – Warriors of Poseidon 02
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    been there before, and there was never any issue. I think your gems called the warning to you when our Goddess recognized one of her own, and you processed it as a warning of death magic. It's not as if you had any other way to translate it, not having met a lot of Nereids in the past."
     
    Erin nodded, although she didn't look fully convinced. "It does make sense, I guess.
    Now that we're out of the Temple, my amber isn't