Warriors of Poseidon 06 - Atlantis Betrayed

middle of the museum, put an arm around Fiona’s shoulders and turned his back on them, grinning at the hissing sound of rage coming from Fairsby.
    “Shall we dance?”

Chapter 18
    Fiona felt like events were swirling around her that she hadn’t a clue how to decipher, and she didn’t like the feeling. At all.
    “Are you insane? You can’t threaten my friends. They’re going to call the police any minute!”
    “They won’t. They’re Fae. They want nothing to do with the human police,” he said flatly. “Also, stay away from her. Don’t accept any favors from her, ever. Don’t even say thank you. In fact, don’t even say hello.”
    “Look, partner, you can’t dictate to me what I do or do not do with my friends,” she said. “I—”
    “Let me guess. She told you to stay away from me. That I’m not human, right?”
    That stopped her dead. “She did, actually. Why would she say that?”
    He shook his head. “She said it because it’s true. The better question is how would she know that, if she were human herself? Did she explain that?”
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    “No she didn’t,” she said slowly, revisiting her conversation with Maeve. Her eyebrows drew together. “I never knew Fairsby was Maeve’s cousin, either. There are an awful lot of Fairsbys running around. Also, stop dragging me. I’m getting a little tired of being pulled all over the Great Court.”
    “Cousin. That’s one way to put it,” he said grimly, maneuvering them out onto the space cleared for a dance floor. A small orchestra was playing something light and with a down-tempo beat suitable mostly for ninety-year-old dancers. She and Christophe must be the youngest on the floor. Or maybe not.
    Several things he’d said and done suddenly presented themselves in a new light.
    “Just how old are you?”
    He threw back his head and laughed, causing several heads to turn their way. “I quit counting at three hundred.”
    “Three . . . hundred? You—wait. This is like Atlantis, right? I believe it or not? You don’t have any actual proof?”
    “I don’t have a birth certificate, if that’s what you mean.” He twirled her gracefully around an elderly couple she thought she recognized. The Hadley-Radfords, perhaps.
    “I believe a record of my birth exists in the scrolls in Atlantis.”
    She sighed. “Of course it does. Is that where you learned to dance like this? I expected you to be stepping on my toes long before this.”
    “I learned it from my dance tutor, in the palace. It was required training for all warriors. Not all battles are fought on battlefields, Princess. Some are played out in ballrooms.”
    He smiled down at her and—for just an instant—Fiona gave herself permission to believe she was on a date. A first date with a fierce, unflinching warrior who seemed to be willing to protect her from all danger. It didn’t make sense.
    She didn’t care.
    “What did he want with you? Lord Fairsby?”
    “Lord Fairsby, as he’s calling himself now, and his cousin are Unseelie Court Fae. Very powerful, very bad news. The Unseelie Court is the dark side of the Fae, not that the Seelie Court is all flowers and little woodland creatures playing flutes. He has something to do with Vanquish disappearing, I’d put coin on it.”
    His arms tightened around her. “He is very, very powerful, Princess. Magically powerful, and with his official Scotland Yard position, he has the weight of human bureaucracy behind him. He could make things difficult for you.”
    “The British have been making things difficult, as you call it, for the Scots for a very long time.” She lifted her chin. “I’m not the first in my family, and won’t be the last, to kick their arses.”
    He grinned down at her. “It makes me hot when you talk tough, did I mention that?”
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    Her pulse sped up, but she managed a shrug. “Everything makes you hot.”
    “When you’re wearing that dress, yep. There go Fairsby and Maeve, heading out. We’ll give them a few minutes before we leave. I don’t want to give them a chance to get near you again.”
    He twirled her in a quick loop and then bent her down into a dip. Several of the people standing nearby started clapping, and she could hear the murmurs.
    “Isn’t that Lady Fiona Campbell? The book author?”
    “Making a spectacle of herself—”
    “That’s the man who was on TV with her