Warriors of Poseidon 03 - Atlantis Unleashed

strange lethargy spread through her limbs. Always analytical, her mind studied her reaction as though at a distance. Was this how prey reacted to the sight of the predator bearing down upon it, claws unsheathed and fangs bared?
    She snapped her head left and then right in an attempt to shake off the odd lassitude that gripped her. Then she realized Conlan was speaking.
    “Decide now,” he snapped. “We don‟t have time for this, Ven. If Erin cannot channel the Wilding magic to try to open this entryway, the only other way is through death magic. And if it comes to that, I pledge myself for our brother. He saved my wife and child—I can do no less.”
    A shocked silence fell. Even Keely, a stranger to the culture, instantly realized the significance of what the high prince had just said. He would sacrifice himself to rescue her warrior . . . no, not her warrior, the warrior . . . who was evidently trapped in this Void.
    “No! You‟re meant to be king, you idiot!” Ven shouted.
    “And did you forget the baby on the way? If anyone‟s dying here, it will be me. He‟s my brother, too, and he sacrificed himself to the vampire goddess for me.”
    The two of them—two of the deadliest-looking men she‟d ever seen, although that seemed to be fairly common down here—squared off, looking ready to fight for the right to be the one who died. They were so alike they could nearly be twins.
    The exact same dark fury clashing in two nearly identical pairs of eyes.
    The exact same hardening of two identically chiseled jaws.
    The exact same tensing of heavily muscled arms and shoulders, as they readied to spring at one another.
    “Cut it out, you idiots,” Erin shouted, sprinting up next to Keely. “What good does this do for any of us, especially Justice? We need to solve this. Nobody dies today.”
    Keely felt a wave of dizziness threatening to topple her from her feet. In the space of an hour, she‟d gone from her nice, calm, bland office at Ohio State to a place where crazy people were fighting over who got to kill themselves to rescue more crazy people, who were running through a place that couldn‟t possibly exist, because of a vampire goddess who couldn‟t possibly exist.
    “Of course, I am standing in Atlantis,” she said out loud, staring up at the dome over her head.
    “Either that, or I‟m having some sort of psychotic breakdown.”
    Erin patted Keely‟s arm. “It‟s okay. It affects all of us poor humans that way at first.”
    Then, her actions completely contradicting her words about being a poor human, Erin lifted her arms into the air, threw her head back, and began to sing. The song was wordless, with a melody so layered with darkness and power that it seemed as if it couldn‟t be coming from a human voice.
    The notes almost physically plucked at Keely‟s emotions, calling forth long-hidden memories of pain and despair. Bleakness washed through her; the hopelessness of a life lived uselessly—potential unrealized, opportunity wasted. Regret and sharper pangs of guilt poured through her, lapping at her defenses through the waves of the song‟s currents. Every hurt she‟d inflicted—every hurt she‟d sustained —swirled around her in a miasma of remorse and misery.
    She wanted to die. She deserved to die. Why were they all still taking breath? She found herself clutching fists full of grass that had shaded from vibrant green to dullest gray, like the colors of her pitiful, pathetic world.
    A harsh voice sliced through the fog that gripped her soul in greedy claws. “Enough! Erin, that‟s enough. Your song is having no effect on the Wilding, but a harsher one than you realize upon everyone standing here in its vicinity.”
    Keely blinked as the song faded, coming back to some semblance of herself. She realized it had been Alaric who‟d spoken, because he was gripping Erin‟s shoulders and gently shaking her. Silvery blue light surrounded the two of them, but as he stepped away, Keely realized that the light had come only from Erin.
    Erin had somehow sung despair into reality. Hello, and welcome to Fairy Tale Central.
    Keely stumbled to her feet from where she‟d landed on her knees. She looked around and saw that the reinforcements had arrived. Another dozen or so warriors, but they‟d all fallen to the ground as well. As she started to turn back toward the portal, she realized that one of the newly arrived warriors, a look of harsh determination on his face, was leaning on his