He raised an eyebrow at her high-handedness, but he drank the water. Either that or the non-magical thinking must have worked, because he started to dim, little by little, until he was almost back to his normal self, only glowing a little around the edges. He promptly grabbed her and kissed her again, and this time when she finally pulled away, breathless again, he pointed silently at her hands.
Which were also glowing.
“Oh, boy.”
“Human lightbulb,” he said, and it took her a minute to realize he was actually joking about job opportunities.
He started laughing, and she shook her head.
“Wow. Sex must be really, really good for you. Have I ever heard you tell a joke? Ever?”
“Tour guides equipped with our own flashlights for all the midnight ghost tours,” he replied, and she nearly fell over. Two jokes in one century? From Alaric?
“Hey, nobody but me gets to touch your flashlight, buddy,” she quipped and was rewarded with another easy smile, almost as if he were at all used to smiling. It was kind of like a minor miracle.
She had to grin at the idea of Alaric giving a guided ghost tour, though, but then she thought better of it when an awful truth hit her. “Ghosts? Are there ghosts, too?”
“You’ve seen vampires, shape-shifting giant monkeys, and demon kin from another dimension, and you’re going to quibble over ghosts?” As he talked, he pulled on fresh clothes from his apparently limitless selection of black shirts and black pants, and she spared a moment to mourn the loss of the view.
All that lovely, muscular, naked man. And all hers. She felt like purring.
“Ghosts?” he repeated, probably wondering why she was staring at him like a lovesick cow.
“It’s just that ghosts are dead people, and quite honestly I’ve seen enough dead people to last me a million lifetimes.”
Alaric took her in his arms and held her tightly. “Never again. We’ll be ordinary and boring together. No battles, no dead people, no flying monkeys.”
She laughed a little. “Let’s go see this thing. How often do you get to watch the most famous lost continent in the history of the world actually rise?”
Alaric’s smile faded.
“Hopefully, rise without being destroyed,” he said grimly.
“I could have lived without thinking about that.”
Alaric and Quinn walked into the palace gardens, and he was amazed to see that while the two of them had been . . . resting, the whole of Atlantis had been transforming the gardens into a giant banquet facility. Tables were everywhere, spread with snowy white linens and set with what looked like every dish and cup on the Seven Isles. Baskets of hot bread and fresh fruit, and heaping platters of eggs, meats, potatoes, and fish promised enough for a hearty feast.
As they looked around for a place to sit, Conlan noticed them and waved them over. He hugged Quinn and grinned at Alaric, but he didn’t say a word about where they might have disappeared to.
I appreciate your discretion, Alaric sent to Conlan.
Conlan grinned even harder. Did you know your ears are glowing?
Quinn murmured an excuse and hurried away to find Riley, and Conlan grabbed Alaric and pulled him into a fierce hug, with much back pounding.
“You did it,” the prince said.
“We all did it. It took more than just me. Christophe, Myrken and the acolytes, Serai—so many gave so much for this to be accomplished.”
Conlan threw his head back and laughed. “I was talking about you finally taking Quinn to your bed. Sounds like it was awfully crowded in there.”
None too gently, Alaric elbowed his friend, the high prince soon to be king, and together they went to find their women. Their family.
“Hey,” Conlan said, throwing a companionable arm around Alaric’s shoulders. “Guess what I just realized? We’re going to be brothers-in-law.”
“You can imagine my joy,” Alaric said dryly, but Conlan just laughed and proceeded to introduce Alaric to everyone they met as his new brother-in-law. This confused most of the Atlanteans, who knew full well that Alaric was Poseidon’s high priest, but it made the warriors laugh really, really hard.
Conlan looked out into the sea of faces. His family. His friends. His subjects, no matter how uncomfortable he was with the demands of kingship. He knew he had to say something to mark the momentous occasion, but he was drawing a blank.
“How about, one small step for Aidan, one giant leap for Atlantis?” Riley offered the suggestion as she watched their son like a hawk while he charmed everyone in sight, being passed from lap to lap to lap.
“That has a certain ring to it.”
She started laughing. “No, no, no, you can’t use that, I was kidding. It’s already been used.”
Conlan reached for his dagger. “Who else is giving speeches about our child?”
As she walked away, still laughing, he realized he never would fully understand the human woman who had won his heart. He glanced across the table at Quinn and Alaric, and he knew that it was okay. Complete and total understanding would make life dull, and the gods themselves knew that neither he, nor Alaric, nor any of his warriors would ever have to settle for that. He scanned the long table of laughing people and named them, these men and women who had forever had his back and would forever inhabit his heart:
Ven, brother and protector. Jokester and deadly warrior. Paired with Erin, his gem-singer witch, he was happier than he’d ever been.
Bastien, who had undervalued himself for so long. The panther shifter Kat Fiero had opened his mind and his heart.
Marie, first maiden of the Nereid Temple. She had given so much of her long life to aiding in the childbirth of others. She deserved the happiness she’d found with the panther alpha Ethan.
Justice, only recently discovered to be Conlan and Ven’s half brother. Deadly and always forced to walk the balance between his dual natures. If he hadn’t found his archaeologist and object-reader love, Keely, they would have lost him to his darker impulses. Together they and their adopted child, Eleni, formed one bridge to Atlantis’s future.
Brennan, so long burdened with the curse that none of them thought he’d had a prayer of recovering his emotions, until he met and nearly lost Tiernan, whose own truth-teller gift had helped Brennan find his way.
Alexios, so fierce with his scarred face, rock star hair, and killer instincts. Only another warrior would do for him. Grace, with her archer’s bow and deadly aim, had never stood a chance against him. And soon, their daughter would add her own guidance to Atlantis’s future.
Christophe, their problem child. All attitude and arrogance until he met the infamous cat burglar, the Scarlet Ninja, otherwise known to only a select few as Lady Fiona, famous children’s book author and illustrator. Fiona and her little brother had curbed some of the wildness in Christophe. Not all, Conlan amended, remembering that he had heard about more exploits of the Scarlet Ninja only last month when he’d gone to London. Just enough.
And Serai, ancient Atlantean princess, held in stasis for so long that she’d nearly died trapped in a crystal box. Daniel, her eleven-thousand-year-old vampire consort. They’d met before Atlantis had ever sunk beneath the waves, and only found each other again recently, after so many millennia of each believing the other dead.
Now, finally, Alaric. Conlan’s best friend for nearly five hundred years had met his true mate. The soul-meld had caught them both, and Conlan truly believed they would be the better for it, as he and his own aknasha had discovered.