Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

hugged him. “Sounds like the perfect resolution to me. Speaking of resolutions, are you ready?”
    He hesitated, then nodded. “Yes. As ready as I‟m ever going to be.”
    Keely glanced across the clearing and met Señor Hector‟s eyes and she nodded. He looked somber, but he nodded in return. They were all set.
    Hand in hand, Justice and Keely entered the temple and walked up to the breathtaking mural.
    Even though they‟d seen it so many times, it still inspired awe and wonder.
    “That people living so long ago could create such beauty in the middle of building their civilization,” Keely said. “It astonishes and humbles me.”
    “Wait till you see more of Atlantis,” Justice said, grinning. “It‟s going to rock your world.”
    She laughed. “Always one for breaking a mood, aren‟t you? Anyway, you rock my world.”
    Turning serious, she pointed to a small crevice in the mural, directly in the center of the eye of one of the fish. “This is it. I‟ve excavated enough for you to use your water power to gently sluice it out with a minimum of damage.”
    “Still can‟t believe Hector went along with this. Or that Alaric and Conlan put up with the delay.”
    “Well, Hector kind of owed us,” she said. “Without you, they‟d never have gotten access to this site again. And don‟t get me started on Alaric.”
    He called water, and a thin, delicate stream spiraled through the air and into the crevice with the precision of a scalpel in the hands of a master surgeon. They waited, holding their breath, and within a minute or two that lasted forever, a shimmer of something appeared at the mouth of the crevice.
    She cupped her gloved hands underneath the opening and water poured into them, followed by a golf ball-sized sapphire that gleamed with the brightness of a lovers‟ moon.
    “Oh, Justice,” she whispered. “It‟s so beautiful. The Star of Artemis. At long last.”
    “I still cannot believe Conlan and Alaric did not forcibly smash through the mural and take the Star,” Justice said, his lips quirking at the memory of that argument.
    “Well, they owed you one, too,” she said fiercely.
    “And you are so quick to defend me, mi amara .”
    She held out the Star. “Now we can discover what it really does. If it heals fractured minds.”
    He stared down at it for a long time, then slowly shook his head. “No, my love. My mind is no longer fractured, and I have no desire to perhaps learn that the Star would rend me in two again.”
    He leaned down and pressed a brief kiss to her lips. “Your love has healed everything that was broken in me, and I have no need of this rock. Now or ever.”
    Keely touched her necklace and closed her hand around the tiny fish. “I can‟t believe that this little fish showed me the face of the man who would become my universe. You‟ve healed everything that was broken in me, too. I cannot imagine a life without you. Now or ever.”
    Their words carried the resonance of vows. Keely realized that centuries of battle, honor, and courage, combined with the horrors of his childhood, had unleashed not only one but two beasts in Justice. Now, through the power of their love, the beasts were joined together to form one whole. The man she would love forever.
    She twined her arms around his neck and kissed him, the promise of an eternity of love on her lips. Seconds or minutes or hours later, Eleni‟s impatient voice came from the entrance to the temple.
    “Come on , already,” she demanded. “I want to play ball, please.”
    Laughing, Keely and Justice pulled apart and, hand in hand, walked out into the sunlight, toward their child and their future, together.
     
    Turn the page for a special preview
    of the next book in the
    Warriors of Poseidon series
    ATLANTIS UNMASKED
    By Alyssa Day
     
    Available July 2009 from Berkley Sensation!
     
    Leaving regional rebel headquarters, St. Louis
     
    “It‟s almost impossible to shoot a bow while driving.”
    Grace Havilland clenched her fingers around the steering wheel of the Jeep and waited for the Atlantean warrior riding shotgun to respond to what she thought had been her very reasonable point.
    Waited. Waited a little longer. She‟d met Alexios months ago and seen him sporadically since, but she‟d never been in such a small space with him. It felt like being trapped in a cage with a lion that‟d just eaten a full meal. Deadly, dangerous, and exhilarating, but maybe—just maybe—you‟d live through