Warriors of Poseidon 06 - Atlantis Betrayed

she must. “They knew what?”
    “They knew the murderers were Fae and that they’d kill my parents. They didn’t want to know, so they ran, but they knew.”
    He fell heavily onto her bed and the crimson flame vanished. “I could see, you know. I never told anybody, but I saw it all. They told me—the warriors who came for me, later, more than a year later when they finally found me—they told me that my parents had gone away to the Summer Lands.
    Silverglen, where Fae danced and animals talked and all manner of beings lived in peace and harmony forevermore.”
    “They lied? How could they do that? Who was it? I want to have a stern talking to with those men,” she said, fisting her hands on her hips.
    He smiled up at her, just a hint of a smile, but it was encouraging in the midst of this horrible story. “So fierce, mi amara. So fierce on my behalf. I truly am blessed among men.”
    “They told you, in effect, that your parents had abandoned you,” she said gently. “That’s a horrible thing to do to a child. Trust me, I know.”
    “No, it didn’t matter,” he said, shaking his head. “I knew what had happened. The Fae sucked the life force out of them until my mother and father were nothing but dust on the dirt floor of our barn. Dust mingling with dust. Of course, the symbolism was lost on a four-year-old child.”
    “What did you do?” She came to kneel at his feet and covered his clenched fists with her hands.
    “What could I do? I was a terrified little boy. I lost control of my bladder—still to this day I remember how ashamed I was that my father would know I’d wet my trousers. Then I curled up in a ball and closed my eyes, wishing as hard as I could that it was all a nightmare and we were still in Atlantis with my grandparents.”
    Atlantis Betrayed – Warriors of Poseidon 06
    Page 106 of 188
    Hot tears traced lines down her face and he followed their path with one finger. “Don’t cry for me, Princess. It was long, long ago, before even your grandfather’s grandfather’s day, more than likely.”
    “If not me, then who?” She leaned forward and put her arms around his waist, resting her head in his lap. “I think I’ve earned the right to cry for that little boy.”
    “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to add sorrow to your heart,” he said, and he found that he meant it. He cared more for what pain he was causing her than for what relief the telling might bring him.
    Possibly his first selfless thought in centuries.
    The gods were definitely laughing at him now.
    “What happened to you next?”
    He sucked in a long breath. “I must have fallen asleep. When I woke up, the woman who’d discovered us that morning was staring down at me, and her face was twisted up like a monster. When I opened my eyes, she screamed.”
    “At a tiny child? What did she do?”
    “She spent the next year of my life trying to beat, starve, and torture Satan out of me. She came close to killing me, but even then, even so young, I knew I wouldn’t give her the satisfaction. She would never break me.”
    Fiona made a sound, and he realized he’d clenched his hands around hers so tightly he must be hurting her. He released her hands, pulsing a bit of magic into them to soothe any small pain.
    “You were incredibly brave,” she said, rising to sit next to him on the bed.
    “I was a fool,” he said, even now shuddering at the memory. “She broke me the first time she put me in the box.”

Chapter 23
    A discreet knock sounded at the door.
    “Not now, please,” Fiona called out, her arms wrapped around Christophe. He wasn’t making a sound, but his body was shuddering so hard the bed was shaking underneath them.
    “I’m afraid the lady insists,” Hopkins said. “Lady Maeve Fairsby is here to see you and claims it is quite urgent.”
    Christophe’s head snapped up, and all sign of the pain he’d been reliving had vanished, replaced by cold, deadly contemplation. “She may have news of why we were attacked. We need to see her. If nothing else, we can hold her hostage against her cousin.”
    He jumped up and began attaching daggers to his sheaths.
    Atlantis Betrayed – Warriors of Poseidon 06
    Page 107 of 188
    “We can’t take my friend as a hostage, even if she is Fae.” Fiona stood up, wondering which of him was the real Christophe—the terrified boy who’d seen his parents murdered or the lethal warrior who so calmly spoke of abducting her friend.
    Both, of course, the answer