Heart Of Atlantis by Alyssa Day Page A

come to life? Check.
    One kiss? Not such a huge deal in the scale of things. She almost involuntarily raised her fingers to her swollen lips, though. Alaric’s eyes darkened as he watched, and he bent down as if to kiss her again.
    “Alaric, get your priestly ass out here, or I’ll kick it for you,” Ven roared from somewhere in the maze of caves and corridors. “We have an emergency.”
    Alaric tightened his arms around her for a moment, but then he sighed and leaned his forehead against hers. “When is it ever
not
an emergency?”
    “It never stops for people like us,” she told him. “You know it, and I know it. World-bending kisses don’t change reality.”
    He lifted her into the air until they were at eye level to each other, and the slow smile that spread across his face was nothing but pure masculine satisfaction. “World-bending?”
    “Yeah, don’t let it go to your head,” she muttered. “And put me down.”
    He lowered her to her feet and then kissed her again, hard and fast, before turning toward the bellowing sound of one seriously outraged Atlantean prince.
    “World-bending,” he repeated. “Those may be the best two words I’ve heard in five hundred years.”
    With that, he strode out of the room, leaving her to follow on still-shaky legs. She consoled herself for her weakness with the excellent view of his very fine ass.
    Jack, still in tiger form, slouched into the corridor and head-butted her, grumbling some kind of cat complaint.
    “Eye candy,” she told the tiger formerly known as her best friend and co–rebel leader. “Pure eye candy, in the form of an absolutely delicious backside, wasted on a man who doesn’t even realize he’s beautiful. Stupid Atlantean.”
    He snarled, and she decided to take it for agreement.
    Ven rounded the corner, saw them, and belted out a string of what she was sure were the choicest Atlantean swear words. “Finally,” he said, breaking into English. “Where in the nine hells have you been?”
    Then he glanced behind Alaric at Quinn, and stopped short. “Oh. Ah, yeah. You two were . . . uh . . .”
    “No, we were not,” Alaric snapped. “Though not for want of trying, not that it’s any of your damn business.”
    Quinn felt her face flush with heat, but she clamped her mouth shut against the retort trying to bubble up.
    Ven’s mouth fell open. “Did you just say— But you— Ah, okay. I don’t have time to go all Oprah with you. We’ve got a big problem.”
    “When do we not?” Alaric sliced a hand through the air. “What is it, already?”
    “We’re too late to retrieve Poseidon’s Pride. Some lunatic who calls himself Ptolemy Reborn has taken it, Alaric.”
    “That’s impossible. No human, even a powerful wizard, would have the magic to be able to touch that gem,” Alaric said.
    “What about a vampire?” Quinn asked. “Or shape-shifter? Their magic is different from yours. Maybe—”
    “Impossible,” Alaric repeated. “Only an extremely powerful Atlantean could touch the tourmaline. It’s the crown jewel, so to speak, of Poseidon’s Trident.”
    “That’s just it,” Ven said, his face grim. “Old Ptolemy is claiming to be the king of Atlantis.”
    Alaric’s face hardened, and his eyes flashed so hot that Quinn was surprised that twin laser beams of emerald light didn’t incinerate Ven where he stood. “He claims
what
?”
    “Ooh, boy, Conlan and Riley do not need to deal with this,” Quinn said, her own anger rising at the thought of more trouble for her sister, who’d almost died at the hands of vampires and then nearly lost her baby during a particularly difficult pregnancy and childbirth.
    Riley would be queen of Atlantis, but at what cost? Quinn glanced at Alaric and wondered if she could ever be as brave as her sister and risk everything for love. A hot wave of shame washed over her, leaving bitterness and bile in its wake. Not that Alaric could ever love her, when he knew what she’d done. What