Chapter 4
M y limbs remained frozen, the soles of my webbed feet rooted in the sand beneath me. The Heir lay in my King’s lap, completely immobile—her long dark hair soaked and spilling on the ground. Her human clothing hung from her shoulders and stuck to her slender frame. Her lovely muscular legs draped over Cathan without a single scale in sight. The exposure of so much skin made my heart race. She was so very humanlike.
Yet, so perfect.
“Commander Eliron, we need you to head to the Above World immediately. I fear there may be more than just the two Fire Fae that tracked Asherah to her home,” I heard Myles say, but I couldn’t bring myself to take my eyes off of the Heir, and I desperately needed to remember who I was and what I had been called to do.
I cleared my throat. “It will be done.” Myles—with a face that reflected the seriousness of the situation—fled toward the palace. I turned to my regimen. Their widened eyes and faces full of confusion wouldn’t be the last in Atlantis. Dax was the only other Guardian who had any knowledge of the Heir’s existence, and even Dax was unaware that I knew of her despite being my mentor and friend. It was a secret I guarded with my life and grasped close to my heart. No one could know of the Heir. I’d made sure of it. “Guards, our Queen has summoned us to the Above World. Her life is in peril. We must hurry. There’s no telling how many there are or if this is the work of the Fire Fae, the Akani, or both.”
“And what of the Heir?” I heard one of the males toward the back ask. “Who is to stay here and guard her?”
“I will,” Mayana said, sliding through the crowd of Guardians.
My brow lifted. “Major Yaralyn, I’m surprised. You want to miss a good fight?”
Mayana flung the hair of her midnight-black braid behind her back. The nostrils of her broad nose flared, and her charcoal eyes scanned me from head to toe with offense. “I know this may come as a surprise to you, Commander, but if the Akani have made their move on our Queen, the Heir will need protection here in Atlantis. I do not trust anyone else to guard her, not with those rebellious assholes on the loose. So, it would be my duty and my honor to protect her.”
I should’ve chastised her for speaking to me in such a condescending manner, but that was never my style. Mayana Yaralyn was one of my most trusted Guardians. I’d never seen anyone, male or female, work as hard as she did—something I appreciated since my work ethic matched hers in kind. Mayana was an elite warrior. The thought of her protecting the Heir brought me a sense of relief I wasn’t permitted to verbalize or show.
I nodded. “Very well. The rest of you, we head out.”
One by one, the guards with tridents gripped tightly in hand marched through the golden gates of Atlantis, piercing the wall of water that led into the ocean. The force of the intrusion caused it to ripple in their wake. My cautious steps took me forward to Cathan and the Heir. “Your Highness?”
The King lifted his head. I didn’t think the red rim of his eyes was due to any saltwater; the despair on his face all but confirmed it. This was the look of a man who had his world ripped from him, a world I knew he and our Queen worked tirelessly to hide. “Please, Draevyn. Please, go save them.”
I noted the lack of formality; my first name was called in a plead from my King. As a sign of my eternal reverence, I placed my trident across my chest. “I promise to do everything in my power to bring them home.”
A tingling sensation began in my chest, and my gaze shifted back to the Heir. The most beautiful aquamarine eyes peered up at me, staring right into my soul.
“She wakes.”