Warriors of Poseidon 06 - Atlantis Betrayed

his teeth. “You may want to learn that to accuse an Atlantean of being Fae is a serious insult.”
    “You may want to learn that Scottish women don’t appreciate being threatened,” she snapped right back at him.
    Alaric put his elbows on the table, rested his head in his hands, and groaned. “Here we go again. I just know it. Poseidon’s balls, here we go again.”
    “I hate to point this out, but isn’t that blasphemy?” Fiona said. “Perhaps you aren’t the best person to lecture me about insults.”
    Ven grinned. “I think I’m going to like you.”
    It came to her that she was sitting with the crown princes and princess of Atlantis and she was insulting their god’s highest priest. She felt about two inches high.
    “I beg your pardon, Your—ah, Conlan. And yours as well, Alaric. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed right now, but it shouldn’t make me forget the courtesies due to my hosts,” she said.
    Alaric flashed a smile that probably made sharks cry. “I liked you better when you were putting me in my place.”
    She laughed. “Noted.”
    “Perhaps we can get on to the point of this?” Ven said. “I’m thrilled Christophe finally became a real boy and found a girlfriend—hopefully you can keep his ass in line, Lady Fiona—but why are we in war council over it?” He aimed a mock glare at Fiona. “Is Scotland planning to declare war on Atlantis?”
    Atlantis Betrayed – Warriors of Poseidon 06
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    She didn’t know what to answer first, but her cheeks were burning over that “found a girlfriend”
    comment.
    Christophe beat her to it. “My love life is none of your business, King’s Vengeance or no. But if you’d like to meet me in the arena to discuss it—”
    “Oh, pipe down,” Fiona said. “Don’t we have enough problems without you fighting amongst yourselves?”
    He snapped his head around to glare at her, but then his gaze softened and he raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles.
    When she turned back to the table, every face but Riley’s reflected varying degrees of shock. They were all staring at Christophe like he’d grown another head.
    “Moving on,” she said pointedly. “We’ve had a busy few days since we met in the Tower of London the night we both tried to steal the same jewel.”
    It took a few minutes for the questions and comments to quiet down, and then Christophe and Fiona took turns telling the rest of them everything that had happened since they’d met, leaving out nothing except their . . . personal interactions. At some point during their recounting, people brought food in, and they all fell to, but they kept at it, one talking while the other ate, and then trading off.
    “There is, unfortunately, nothing at all we can do about Denal. He went willingly with this Fae, and is gone for as long as she chooses to keep him. Nothing short of a full-scale assault on Silverglen would gain us the slightest hope of even finding him, and that would put us at war with the Unseelie Fae.
    Possibly the Seelie Court, as well, since we’d be invading the Summer Lands,” Alaric said.
    Christophe slammed the table. “No. He was under my care. I should be the one to retrieve him.”
    Conlan shook his head. “Christophe, the truth is that Denal is a grown man and a warrior, much as we all still treat him as the youngling we met all those years ago. The Fae cannot tell a direct lie. If she said he spoke willingly, then she hadn’t enchanted him. He wanted to go, and he went. Perhaps he simply needed a respite. The gods know he’s been through enough lately.”
    Fiona noticed that Riley’s cheeks turned pink, but the princess’s eyes were sad.
    “I wish—well, I wish I could have done something. I wish I’d known Maeve was Fae, or even known Fae existed, or . . . I don’t even know what I wish,” Fiona said. “I’m sorry my friend took yours. I hope she’ll bring him back soon. She really is a kind person. I’ve known her for more than ten years. You can’t fool somebody for that long.”
    “The Fae can keep up a simple deception for one hundred times ten years, or even more if they so desire,” Alaric said.
    “It’s true, though, that the Fae was different with Fiona,” Christophe said. “Talked about how much it meant to have a friend who liked her for herself and not for her position, that sort of thing. If Maeve na Feransel actually cares about any human, it is Fiona.”
    Atlantis Betrayed – Warriors of Poseidon