Warriors of Poseidon 02 - Atlantis Awakening

while he considered her words.
    "You don't believe that anymore?" He finally asked.
     
    "I don't know what to believe. I know that my intentions are good. I know that I would fight against the dark magic with everything in me. But I also know that—right or wrong—I just killed a human being. A woman who was like family to me."
     
    "That was self-defense. She would have killed you. She told you she was going to kill you. She killed your sister. She also killed Berenice—sacrificed her for the death magic.
    There's nothing of the dark inside you, Erin." He struggled for persuasive arguments, Atlantis Awakening – Warriors of Poseidon 02
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    but didn't know how to convince her of what he knew to be true. The most basic law of nature—kill or be killed—had struck home with her in a brutal way, and her emotions were blocking out reality to protect her.
     
    It was rational, but not particularly helpful, considering their circumstances.
     
    She pulled her hand away from him and jumped up, then started pacing the small space. "How do you know that? How do I know it? How can Iever know it? Isn't that like insanity? The truly insane people never guess that they've lost touch with rationality, do they? So, maybe you never realize the dark has taken you over until you're entirely submerged."
     
    "Or maybe it's the other way around. Maybe questioning whether you're going crazy or surrendering to the dark side of magic is a tangible sign that you're not," he countered.
     
    She stopped and turned to face him. "I don't know, Ven. All I know is that I'm drowning and can't seem to find my way back to the surface. All I have ever wanted is to destroy Caligula and get revenge for what he did to my family. Now I'm finally about to face him, and so much more is at stake. He has my sister. He may have the Nereid's Heart, which I need to help Riley and the baby. And suddenly I'm easily channeling a type of magic I've been forbidden from using my entire life. I'm playing a game of chess against a master strategist and all the rules have changed."
     
    "Maybe. Maybe everything you say is true. But now you have me. I'll be the knight to your queen. And we have Jack and Quinn for pawns. Or bishops. I doubt Jack would agree to be a mere pawn," he said, imagining the look on jungle boy's face if he heard himself being called a pawn. "You need to rest, Erin. We'll go after him in the morning—in the daylight. And we will succeed."
     
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    He crossed the room and pulled her into an embrace. "We'll succeed, because we have no other choice. Now we need to rest until it's my turn to stand watch. I'd like nothing more than to hold you while you sleep. Will you grant me that gift?"
     
    She tilted her head up and flashed him a mischievous smile. "Really? You'd like nothing more than that?"
     
    He groaned and dropped his hands to her hips and pressed her even closer to him, demonstrating the hardening evidence of the effect she had on him. "I think you know better than that. But you need to sleep, and there's also the problem that a certain rebel leader and weretiger could walk through the door at any minute. Once we've saved your sister, retrieved the ruby and healed Riley, I'll have you safely back in Atlantis. Then I'll show you exactly what I'd like to do more than anything else. In fact, I think I'll show you for several days and nights in a row."
     
    The sound of her low laughter tugged at something in his chest, something he shoved out of his mind. Erin needed a warrior. He was one of the best.
     
    Simple.
     
    Everything that wasn’t simple could wait until he'd had the singular pleasure of slicing Caligula's head from his body. Ven bent his face to her hair, so she wouldn't see the bloodthirsty expression on his face. He might be a monster, but it took a monster to defeat another. He would find soft words, gentle expressions, and everything she might want when his mission was complete and his woman was safe.
     
    He lifted her into his arms and walked back to the pallet. As she curled up next to him under the blankets, he realized an undeniable truth: no matter who he had to kill to protect her, no matter what he had to do to keep her, he was never going to let her go.
     
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    Quinn shivered with a bone-deep chill that wracked her body. "Look, Jack, I don't have a fur coat and this