Nethilos called the meeting to order.
“I apologize for the delay,” he announced. “The council has been discussing your proposal for the past couple of hours. I’m sure you realize there is much at stake in this decision.”
Zael nodded soberly. “I do, my friend. Brynne and I both realize that.”
Nethilos’s brow drew together. “This council had been prepared to give you our agreement today. However, we received new information just moments ago. Troubling information that we cannot ignore.”
Brynne felt Zael’s blood run a bit colder in his veins. Hers did, too, her veins freezing over in dread as she glanced at Tamisia and saw her drop her gaze to her lap as Nethilos continued to speak.
“You lied to me, Zael. You lied to this council when you neglected to tell us that you and this Breed female are lovers.”
Oh, God. Brynne briefly closed her eyes, her heart sinking.
“We have a witness who reported seeing you together at the cottage,” Nethilos went on. “This witness saw her drinking your blood, Zael.”
Brynne felt sick. Guilt and alarm flooded her, along with Zael’s sharp stab of shock. She felt the clawing sharpness of his dread…and the bite of his rising fury.
“Was it you, Sia?” His demand rumbled with outrage. “Damn it, did you do this?”
She glanced up now, her beautiful face stark as she shook her head. “No. I swear it.”
Nethilos rose from his seat. “There will be no alliance. There cannot be, not under the terms you’ve proposed, Zael. Not while your loyalty appears to be swayed toward the Breed and the Order.”
“What are you saying?”
Another of the elders, Baramael, the male with the bicolored eyes, fixed a disapproving look on Zael. “The colony needs insurance that you will act on our behalf—in our best interests—should the Order one day come to us for our help in standing against Selene.”
“And especially if they come to us for our crystal,” added Anaphiel. She had seemed the most amenable to the alliance during the first meeting, but now the soft-spoken black Atlantean female looked at Brynne and Zael in obvious mistrust.
“You say insurance,” Zael murmured. “What does that mean?”
Nethilos glanced to his colleagues before he spoke. “The council has decided that the only way we can enter this alliance with the Order is under one condition. That is if you agree to remain behind at the colony.”
“For how long?”
Zael’s question hung in the sudden quiet of the chamber. He looked at Brynne, and she had never felt so anguished or alone. She had pushed him away yesterday, but she hadn’t really felt she’d lost him forever until right now.
He knew it too.
His blood hammered with the understanding of what he was being asked to do.
“You mean indefinitely,” he replied woodenly. “Stay here at the colony for the rest of my life.”
Nethilos inclined his head in a grave nod. “That is this council’s decision, Zael. There will be no alliance without your commitment to our terms.”
CHAPTER 34
When he arrived in the council chamber that morning, Zael had been prepared to walk away from it all. Away from his people, and away from the only place he considered home.
After Brynne had pushed him out of the cottage yesterday—out of her life, he’d feared—it had forced him to examine his aimless, long-lived existence. More to the point, it had forced him to consider an interminable future without her.
What he had concluded was that a life without her was no life he wanted to endure.
And if that meant following her to the ends of the Earth to convince her of that, he damned well intended to do it.
But he’d been wrong when he said the alliance between the Breed and the colony didn’t matter to him. It did. Because without the potential of peace—without the assurance that Selene would not be able to have the war she seemed so determined to ignite—Zael knew that no one he cared for would ever be safe.
Not him. Not the people of the colony. Not the Breed or the Order or anyone else who should be unfortunate enough to stand in the way of the Atlantean queen’s vengeance.
And, most important of all, not Brynne.
As he’d paced most of the night in the confines of the home he kept on the island, he understood that above all else, the alliance had to happen. No matter the price.
He sure as hell hadn’t anticipated this.
“You can give the council your answer whenever you’re ready, Zael.”
At Nethilos’s proclamation, the rest of the elders stood, then followed him out of the chamber.
Brynne stood motionless as they left. Utterly silent. He wasn’t even certain she was breathing.
“Are you okay?” he asked her, his concern focused wholly on her despite the endless ramifications of what had just occurred. “Brynne, talk to me…”
“This is all my fault.” Her words were toneless, but the sob she choked back was ragged with emotion. “Zael, I’m so sorry. I told you what we did yesterday was a mistake. Now, I’ve ruined everything.”
“No. Not you. Don’t think that. We both were in that bed together.”
He wanted to reach out and stroke his thumb over her quivering lips. His fingers itched to sweep away the lone tear that slid down the side of her lovely, guilt-stricken face. But he didn’t know if she would want his comfort now.
And until he found a way to fix everything that had just gone wrong, he had no assurances or promises to give her.
As for the council, he didn’t need to delay another moment.
He had his answer for them.
He only had to convince them to accept it.
“Stay here,” he told Brynne. “I need to find Nethilos and talk to him privately.”
At her nod, Zael dashed out of the chamber. He ran to his friend’s personal office in the council building, but the elder was nowhere to be seen.
As Zael stepped out, Tamisia nearly crashed into him in the passageway.
He could barely contain his rage. “Get out of my way, Sia. If you know what’s good for you, get as far away from me as you can right now.”
“Zael, I’m sorry.” Her face collapsed in what appeared to be a damned good imitation of remorse. “I didn’t know.”
He halted, too suspicious to ignore her, no matter how viciously he vibrated with the need to explode. To rage. To punish.
But he couldn’t blame anyone for how he felt about Brynne.
He couldn’t condemn the council for their decision to disapprove of what he felt for her—even if that decision held the power to destroy his life.
“What didn’t you know, Sia?”
She shook her head, misery in her eyes. “Elyon. He came to me last night, outraged after spying on you and Brynne down at the cottage.”
Anger boiled through Zael. “He was there? That son of a bitch was there on that beach?” A curse erupted off his tongue. “You’re telling me that Elyon was skulking around, peering in windows while Brynne and I made love?”
And while she drank from him.
The most intimate moments they had ever shared together, and Elyon had invaded their sanctity like a goddamned thief. He’d cheapened a private, sacred experience and wielded it as a weapon.
“He’s crazy, Zael.” Tamisia shivered as she said it. “He’s been talking about the two of us returning to the realm together, but I never wanted that. He wouldn’t let it go. That’s why I asked you to help me leave.”
Zael cursed. “You should have told me why, Sia. You should have told someone, damn it.”
“I know.” Her regret was obvious. As was her fear. “He was furious to see you arrive here with talk of an alliance with the Order. I think he’ll do anything to prevent that from happening.”
Zael’s mind was churning. He reflected back on the sentry who had once been among Selene’s most loyal soldiers. Elyon had been an Atlantean patriot before the fall of the realm. Had his loyalty rema
ined secretly intact all this time?
Worse, could that loyalty now turn him against the colony as a whole?
From what Tamisia was saying, the answer seemed obvious.
A cold foreboding settled on Zael as he considered Elyon’s betrayal of him. If the sentry was willing to do anything to stop the alliance, then he wouldn’t be willing to stand by and let the council thwart him by giving Zael a chance to repair the damage.
“Where’s Nethilos?”
Tamisia shook her head. “I don’t know. I haven’t seen him since the council adjourned.”
“Damn it.” Zael started walking again. “If you see him, tell him he could be in danger. Tell him I need to speak to him at once.”
She nodded. “I will.”
As he strode through the council building, Zael slowed his thoughts down, centering his focus on the energy that lived in every Atlantean. He searched for his friend using his mind and his senses.
He couldn’t locate him.
Holy hell.
If his old friend was in possible danger from Elyon, what about the crystal?
The colony kept their power source in the top floor of the building he was in now. Zael teleported there, disappearing in a burst of light, then materializing in the chamber that held the colony’s Atlantean crystal.
He got there just in time to find Nethilos lying in a pool of blood on the floor of the chamber. His head was severed from his body, having come to rest next to a gore-streaked, long Atlantean blade. The kind Zael and the rest of his legion comrades used to carry.
Ah, fuck. He recoiled at the grisly sight of his peace-minded friend. The savagery of Nethilos’s killing rocked Zael, but he pushed down his horror and pain so he didn’t lose his grasp on the lethal fury that boiled up on him.
Because there was Elyon, standing in front of the crystal. The bastard had removed the protective glass cover and was just about to lift the egg-sized, silvery object from its marble pedestal when Zael’s booming voice startled him.
“You cowardly fuck. Get away from the crystal.”
Elyon wheeled around at the unexpected intrusion. His gaze flicked to the blade he’d so carelessly dropped after he committed his crime.
The razor-sharp blade Zael now held in his hand, ready to strike.
He advanced judiciously on Elyon, forcing him to forfeit his position near the crystal in order to avoid the striking range of Zael’s lightning fast sword arm.
Elyon chuckled. “Been a long time since you wielded Atlantean steel, captain.”
“Not so long,” Zael returned, demonstrating with a jab that nicked the other male’s shoulder. “How long have you been planning to take the crystal back to Selene?”
Elyon’s blond brows rose. “You knew?”
“Not until I spoke to Tamisia a moment ago.”
“Tamisia.” Elyon sneered as he said her name. “I’ve been trying to convince her to come with me, back to the realm. She wouldn’t do it. Beautiful, that one, but she has no sense.”
“She had sense enough to turn you down.”
He scoffed. “I would’ve made her come around. I could have persuaded her. But then here you come, back to the island after years away. Talking about defying Selene. Talking about allying with the Order, for fuck’s sake. I can’t let that happen, Zael.”
“It’s happening,” Zael assured him. “I won’t rest until it does.”
Elyon shook his head. “We never should’ve defected from the realm. Living in hiding on this rock, all of us isolated from the rest of world and forbidden to come or go.” He chuckled brittly. “Well, all of us except for you, Zael. And now here you are, asking us to put our fate in Breed hands? Never. We should go back to Selene before we trust any of the Breed. We’re better off with the devil we know.”
The male was getting agitated, and that meant he would soon be unpredictable. Zael edged him farther away from the pedestal that held the crystal, keeping him distracted with short bites of the blade. Finally, he had Elyon pushed toward the center of the chamber, Zael standing between his opponent and the crystal.
But Elyon wasn’t finished berating him. He glanced briefly down at Nethilos. “I tried to convince him, but he refused to listen. Why would he? I’m a lowly soldier, only fit for guarding the gates, not breathing the rarefied air of the council chamber. Again, unlike you.” Now he grinned, his gaze too avid to be fully sane. “What makes you so damned special? Nothing. Tamisia was no better than Nethilos. With her, I was good enough to fuck, but not good enough to be heard. Not good enough to obey. Well, no more.”
Light exploded from Elyon’s hands. Even though Zael braced for the impact, the sudden blast of power crashed into him like a freight train. The other warrior had always been strong, but this immense force was something different.
Bloody hell.
The crystal, Zael realized.
Elyon hadn’t had the chance to remove it before Zael interrupted him, but he had been close enough to touch it.
And the power he’d siphoned off that brief contact now gave him the strength of ten Atlantean warriors.
The force of Elyon’s light blew Zael off his feet, sent him hurtling across the chamber. He lost his grasp on the blade as he slammed into the stone wall of the chamber, bones shattering on impact. White-hot pain exploded all through him.
Elyon’s laughter was madness as he raised his hands in front of him and prepared to unleash another punishing blast on Zael.
CHAPTER 35
He was in agony.
Brynne felt Zael’s sudden, unbearable burst of pain echo through her blood as if it were her own bones breaking, her own skull ringing from a sudden, savage assault.
“Oh, no.” A jolt of panic—of marrow-deep terror—gripped her. “Zael.”
Her bond to him told her where he was.
She followed the beacon of that connection, moving through the council building and up the stairwell at the fastest speed her Breed genetics would allow.
“Zael!”
She smelled blood even before she reached the top floor of the structure.
So much blood.
The barred door to the chamber was no match for her otherworldly strength. It flew off its hinges as she smashed inside the room.
Streaks of blinding light collided between Zael and his attacker, the blond sentry she recognized from her arrival on the island. Elyon’s face was twisted into a mask of rage as he battled Zael. The sentry’s eyes were wild, his expression murderous.
Zael roared when he spotted her. “Brynne, get out of here!”
In that split-second of distraction, Elyon unleashed another blast of power at Zael from the centers of his glowing palms. The bolt arced like lightning, hitting Zael square in the chest. He flew backward on a shout of agony, held down by the force of Elyon’s blast.
Brynne screamed—not only because of her shared link to Zael, but out of fury for his attacker. Her bellow tore from somewhere deep inside her, morphing into an unearthly, alien sound as her transformation overtook her.
Her vision flooding with amber rage, she leaped on Elyon. She took him down, her black talons sinking into flesh and bone as she tore at him, tumbling the larger male onto the floor.
She was animal in her violence, but the Atlantean’s strength was immense.
Powerful light exploded in her chest and skull.
Elyon threw her off him and got to his feet. He glared at her as she tried to shake off her pained daze, his wounds already starting to heal.
“You stupid Breed bitch,” he seethed at her. “Now, you die too.”
He raised his hand, a fireball of energy swirling in its center. Just when he would have unleashed it, Zael came up on one knee on the other side of the room. He had something grasped in his closed fist. His other hand was engulfed in light—light he now blasted on Elyon.
Instead of going after Brynne, the sentry swung the full breadth of his power on Zael in defense. Their light clashed and held, its colliding force illuminat
ing the chamber with the heat and brightness of ten suns.
Brynne saw her chance to act. A long blade of blood-stained steel lay just out of her grasp. She lunged for it, then came up swinging.
The sword connected at the base of Elyon’s skull. The Atlantean’s head went flying.
More energy poured out of him now, bursting from his flailing hands and his severed neck. The body crumpled to the floor, Elyon’s immortal life—and his destructive light—extinguished forever.
“Brynne.” Zael was at her side in that next instant.
She could still feel his physical pain—broken bones and light-seared organs that were slowly healing, thanks to his Atlantean genetics. She could also feel his relief as he wrapped one hand around her nape and pulling her against him as he brushed his mouth over hers in a fierce kiss.
Part of her wanted to resist his nearness—if only because she wasn’t sure she could trust herself under the yoke of her transformation. Although she didn’t feel her sanity slip as it did all the other times she succumbed to blood thirst or fury, she recognized the beast within her.
Her blood pounded ferociously in her temples, her vision swamped with amber and still thrumming with the power of her rage. She was Ancient now. Still seething and unearthly.
Hideous.
Yet Zael had looked at her with pure affection. With love.
She tasted no fear in his kiss—not for what she was, anyway. Only the fear that they might have lost each other today.
And the soul-deep relief that they had both come through the fight intact.
Together.
“Oh, Zael,” she gasped against his parted lips. “I was so scared.”
“I know, love.” He kissed her again and again, as if he couldn’t bear to stop. “It’s okay now. It’s all over.”
Brynne’s relief was so overwhelming, she didn’t realize they were no longer alone in the chamber.
Not until she felt Zael’s pulse spike with renewed alarm.
They broke their kiss, both of them glancing toward the smashed, open door of the room where several Atlantean elders and a dozen or more colony inhabitants now stood.