Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

work."
     
    He nodded and pressed a brief kiss to her lips. "More coffee?"
     
    "Yes. I hope you brought a lot."
     
    As Ven gathered the pot and bag of coffee, he glanced back at her. She'd rolled up her sleeves and was choosing another gemstone. "Sing to me, damnit," she muttered, and the grin quirked at his lips.
     
    If anybody could lay the magical smack down on a hunk of rock, his money would be on Erin.
     
    Erin sat half covered by the sleeping bag, surrounded by Ven's unique spicy scent, and watched him pace the tiny cabin floor. "This isn't easy for you, is it? Being inactive?"
     
    "No. I think I'd rather be stabbed than sit around waiting."
     
    She curled her arms around her knees and sighed. "I'm sorry I'm holding us up, I really am. But I needed time to rest. My magic is drained. Plus, I have to study the scroll and the book of the Fae that Gennae gave me, to see if there's any way I can be prepared to Atlantis Awakening – Warriors of Poseidon 02
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    find and then deal with a gemstone as powerful as the Nereid's Heart. I'm worried that it will knock me out or something, because I don't know what I'm doing, and then you'll be surrounded by attacking vamps with an unconscious witch on your hands."
     
    He crossed over to her and touched her hair. "I wasn't criticizing you in any way, please know that. You are braver than any of us have any right to expect." He clenched his hands into fists at his side, and then forced his fingers open, but not before she saw the suppressed rage in the movement. "If there were any way I could retrieve the jewel without you—"
     
    "You can't, so forget it. Marie said the Heart would destroy anybody who wasn't a gem singer who tried to touch it. You do hear it, though? I'm not going crazy?"
     
    He nodded. "I do hear it, but very faintly. More like a quiet reverberation that I feel under my feet than a sound, really."
     
    "I think it's the gem singer thing. I'm attuned to it, so it blasts through me every time it starts up. It's more frequent now, did you notice? More like every forty-five minutes."
     
    "As if it recognized your presence and wanted to make sure you noticed it?"
     
    She forced a smile. "Yeah, well no worries there. It would be hard to miss."
     
    He began pacing again, and she tried to think of something that would distract him before he went nuts with the enforced idleness. The slight soreness between her thighs gave her an idea, but she wanted to actually talk to the man, not become some lust-driven bimbo. The thought made her laugh. If any witch in the history of the Craft had less likelihood of becoming a bimbo, lust-driven or otherwise, she'd like to meet the woman. They could form a club: only the grim and dedicated need apply.
     
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    "That's an interesting smile. You wanna share that joke?" Ven had stopped pacing and was leaning against the wall near the door, his arms folded across his chest.
     
    "No, that was definitely an inside joke," she said, reminding herself to work on her poker face later. If she had a later. "Tell me about yourself. Tell me about Atlantis. What does it mean to be the King's Vengeance? Is Ven a nickname from that title, or your real name? Exactly how old are you?" The questions tumbled out as fast as she could think of them. Anything to keep the calculation of probabilities associated with later at bay.
     
    "The King's Vengeance is my title from birth, as the second son to the prince and heir.
    But it is only an honorary title until I have earned it by battle challenge."
     
    "What does that mean? You had to challenge the old King's Vengeance to some kind of duel?"
     
    He smiled. "Not exactly, not like your movies with the swords or pistols at dawn. But there is a component of the position being passed down from uncle to nephew. My uncle served as King's Vengeance to my father, but after—" His smile faded so quickly that she knew his uncle hadn't merely stepped down from his job.
     
    "Was it bad?" She asked hesitantly. "I saw some of your past when we… with the soul-meld. But I didn't want to pry into your privacy, especially when I know how those memories can burn."
     
    "It was obscene," he said flatly, all warmth and humanity leached from the vast, icy darkness that looked out at her through his eyes. She shivered, and the movement seemed to bring him back from some faraway place, but the iciness in his expression remained. "My