He gave a vague shrug. “A handful of years. But time is measured differently by my people. Years pass as days after you’ve lived for many centuries. Or longer.”
“How long for you?”
“My age? I was there when Atlantis fell.” Some of his wry humor returned to his deep voice now. “Suffice it to say I stopped counting the centuries a long time ago.”
“So old,” she said, returning his grin. “You don’t seem a day over a thousand.”
He gave her a sensual smirk that sent a lick of heat through her veins. “Don’t tempt me, or I might change course just so I can make you eat those words.”
She nearly begged him to make good on that threat. But as they spoke, she noticed how the sunshine that had followed them the entirety of their sail had started to become lost amid the curtain of thickening mist they were passing through now.
No, not quite a mist, Brynne realized.
It was the bank of clouds that had seemed perpetually floating just beyond the bow of the boat. They had finally reached it. Sailed directly into the heart of it, in fact.
And now that she was paying attention, she saw that the waves had begun to gentle beneath them. Instead of slicing through the water, the boat had slowed to nearly a stall.
Zael let go of the wheel and stepped out of the cockpit. Brynne followed warily, mesmerized by the stillness of the sea as it lapped gently against the hull. The cloud that enveloped them was cool against her face as she walked carefully to where Zael now stood at the bow of the boat.
“What’s happening?”
He didn’t answer. He glanced at her, no trace of levity or flirtation in his eyes anymore.
Only sober purpose.
Raising his hand—the one bearing the silvery Atlantean amulet at his wrist—Zael closed his eyes and went very still for a moment. As he did, the small crystal on the leather thong on his wrist began to glow.
The foggy mist hanging in the air began to swirl and dissipate before Brynne’s face.
When it cleared, she found herself looking at a gleaming, sun-spangled island paradise.
A pristine stretch of pearly white beach ribboned the perimeter of the land, which was resplendent with soaring, lush green hillsides dotted with flowering bushes, vineyards, and citrus orchards. Staggered rows of snow-white stucco cottages with sunbaked, terra cotta tile roofs overlooked the water as they followed the land’s incline and flanked the narrow passages of meandering footpaths and cobbled streets.
It was breathtaking.
Magical.
The most beautiful place she’d ever seen.
When she tore her gaze away to look at Zael, she found him studying her unabashed awe.
“Welcome to the colony, Brynne.”
CHAPTER 27
“Zael,” Brynne murmured warily, nodding toward the highest hill. “Up there.”
“Yes. I see them.”
He’d spotted the four Atlantean sentries the instant the sailboat had cleared the mist. He’d felt their energy even before he and Brynne approached the colony’s veil—as his fellow Atlanteans had most surely felt his. The three males and one female stood on the promontory of the hillside scouting the water, observing as the sailboat entered the protected domain.
Beside him, Brynne drew in a sharp breath. “Zael, their palms.”
Light glowed from the scouts’ hands, the combined power holding the boat suspended in the water. Because they knew him—two of the sentries having served with him in Selene’s legion before the fall of the realm—his vessel was merely stopped on the water, not immediately driven back… Or worse.
“It’s all right,” he told Brynne. “They don’t mean us harm. Not unless they decide we pose an immediate threat.”
He lifted his hand to them, his own palm glowing dimly in greeting. Inside the protective veil provided by the colony’s crystal, Atlanteans could use their light freely, without the threat of betraying themselves to anyone on the outside.
As he held his hand up to the lookouts, the sea started to churn and bubble between the boat and the beach. Brynne gripped the railing, a look of astonishment on her face as a platform of smooth stone rose up from the surface of the water to meet them, forming a temporary dock that led to the shore.
“That’s amazing,” she gasped, her eyes filled with wonderment.
Zael dimmed his light and gestured for her to follow him. “Here we go. Let me do the talking when we reach the shore.”
She nodded and stepped in behind him as they disembarked and headed across the wet stones toward the beach. The four sentries materialized on the sand, forming a physical barrier at the end of the path.
“They aren’t carrying weapons,” Brynne remarked quietly. “That must be a good sign, right?”
Zael didn’t reply. He kept his gaze trained straight ahead, knowing all too well that his comrades wouldn’t need weapons to disable Brynne and him if they felt they posed a threat.
Hard stares greeted Zael as he strode up onto the beach with Brynne at his side.
One of the two former legion soldiers gaped at him in outrage. “What the fuck is this?”
“Elyon.” Zael acknowledged the sentry with a nod. “I’m here to see the council of elders.”
“Bringing an outsider with you?” The sentry scoffed. His brows shot up, his blue gaze incredulous under the crown of his golden curls. “Have you lost your mind, Zael?”
The other of his former comrades, a craggy-faced, dark-haired behemoth named Vaenor, stared at Brynne. “What’s the meaning of this, Zael? Does this human understand you may have just sealed her death warrant by bringing her through the veil?”
Zael didn’t correct the error, nor did Brynne. She stood silent, didn’t as much as flinch under the harsh glower that used to make seasoned Atlantean soldiers quiver in their boots, nor the grimly issued warning.
Pride swelled in Zael’s chest, along with a dark, vibrating current of protectiveness that made him fully ready to take down all four of these guards if any one of them dared an untoward move against her. For all of the many reasons he should have been reluctant to bring Brynne to the colony, this was the one that settled upon him most heavily now.
He would destroy anyone who sought to harm her, even his own people.
Even if it meant losing his place with the only home he still had.
After a long moment, Vaenor’s scowl slid to Zael. “I knew sooner or later you’d wear out your welcome here. This move is ballsy, even for you, captain.”