Shades of Atlantis (35 page)

I glanced at his face. His eyes glistened and flashed with curiosity. My heart jumped, and I had to resist the almost overpowering need to be nearer to him. I inhaled deeply to steady myself, catching his scent again, which didn’t help.

May I? Samuel’s hand was outstretched to receive the folder. I gave it over to him and placed my now-free hand on Caleb’s knee, watching as Samuel carefully untied the leather string.

He opened the flap and took out the folder’s contents cautiously papers, some very old and yellowing, and some newer pieces.

What is it? What does it say? Caleb inquired, his brow creasing.

Joshua moved his stool nearer to his father’s, trying to decipher some of the words on the pages, scraping the stool’s legs across the tiled floor. I watched Samuel’s eyes widen with excitement as he sifted through the pages; his eyes flashed over each page before precisely placing it on the counter.

What? Joshua asked excitedly.

Shush, Samuel snapped. Then he muttered, I was right. It makes sense now. His tone was severe, and he stared at me in awe.

It wasn’t lost on Caleb, who moved even closer and placed an arm protectively around my shoulder. His expression was anxious and a little curious.

Please, I asked urgently I squeezed Caleb’s knee. What is it? But it wasn’t Caleb’s voice that answered. It was Ben’s. It’s a royal bloodline.

Bloodline

We all turned to Ben, standing beside Annice at the door. I looked back to Samuel who was staring at me again, startled. Ben moved further into the room.

I want to apologize for my behavior earlier. It was out of order. His face was completely sincere as he took the seat the other side of mine from Caleb’s, glancing in his direction. The anger seemed to have evaporated from him.

What does it mean, Ben? I asked, my voice a little higher than usual.

Where did you get it?

Samuel and Annice exchanged a meaningful look. Samuel nodded slightly, and Annice turned to me with the same awed expression on her face that Samuel had worn.

Ben smiled reassuringly at me, running his fingers through his hair.

Lewis gave it to me, he said. He and Carmel have known all along. I felt Caleb’s fingers tighten on my shoulder. Samuel continued to sort through the pages in the folder.

Joshua told me you know some of the history of the Guardians, Ben said, looking at me questioningly.

I nodded, unable to speak.

What you probably won’t know, he continued, is that Dagda believed that combining the bloodlines was the key to returning to Utopia. When his children were killed off, he suspected some of his own people. They did know one of his Guardian lovers was pregnant with his kid. Before the birth, the first Council killed Dagda. The child, a girl, was kept hidden. She carried the royal blood, and each generation after her was kept secret from the Council, the pregnancy kept hidden, and the child raised by trusted humans. The first child’s mother had the gift of foresight and wrote down what the future would hold for the descendants of the child. She foretold that one day the Guardians and the humans would be brought together. I didn’t like where this was heading, and my stomach began to knot. I looked to Caleb for reassurance, but he was engrossed in Ben’s story. His brow furrowed in concentration.

Lewis is a blood relative, Ben continued.

I laughed nervously. But we’re not human.

Our father was.

I turned to Samuel, but he kept his eyes on the pages. Your mother was a Guardian, and your father was human, he said gravely. I wished he would look at me.

Panic was threatening to consume me; beads of perspiration pricked the back of my neck.

You are the first born in the latest generation of the royal bloodline, Samuel said, finally looking at me in amazement. The child of a Guardian and a human. The prophecy it’s about you. His eyes darted to Caleb’s frozen form. These papers contain records of Ben and Triona’s bloodline as well as pages from the prophecy I’m sure the Council has never seen.

No, no, no, I mumbled. I didn’t want to accept any of it. How did I go through my entire life and learn none of this before? On top of everything else I had been told about Caleb, demigods, and magic, now I was expected to believe there was a secret prophecy about me?

It’s your destiny. Ben’s excited tone was unwavering.

I turned to Caleb. I I don’t want this, I stuttered, my heart racing uncontrollably. I don’t believe in destiny. Annice stood behind us, placing one gentle hand on my shoulder and one on Caleb’s. It seems destiny believes in you, Alitriona.

What? I choked out.

Your name. She stunned me with a brilliant smile. It means defender of mankind.

I leaped from the stool, almost knocking it over, and with a sweep of my hands sent the papers fluttering into the air. My heart thundered and blocked out all other sounds around me. Joshua staggered backward, his hand flew to his face as a yellowing sheet whipped him across the cheek.

Caleb’s fingers wrapped tightly around my wrist, and I turned my face to him, twisting my hand to loosen his restraining hold. His eyes tightened, and his eyebrows pulled down in a worried frown. His chest heaved with each sharp breath, and I could see he was as shocked as I was by my part in the prophecy. But for me, it was the latest in a long line of revelations reshaping my life, and I didn’t have any room left in my overloaded brain to worry about his feelings right now.

Triona, he pleaded, attempting to calm me in that familiar soothing voice of his. It didn’t work.

I twisted my wrist and jerked my arm away from him. No, I snapped, my voice strained.

None of it was possible. I was in a realm of fantasy. Just a few days ago I was standing under a tree with John, sheltered from the rain, and now not only would I live for hundreds of years, they expected me to be their returning queen because of some papers written thousands of years before I was born. It was all so absurd. I couldn’t be royalty; I just couldn’t be. I couldn’t lead who knows how many; I couldn’t make decisions that would affect so many. I was the girl who couldn’t decide what to have for breakfast.

I was the one who couldn’t even travel to another country without my best friend and brother conspiring behind my back to watch over me. I couldn’t change anything for anyone.

I bounded from the room, brushing past Ben. He attempted to block my exit, but Annice pulled him out of the way. I ran to Caleb’s bedroom and dropped heavily on the side of his bed with my head in my hands, my breathing a deep rasping. I scrunched my eyes shut, trying to barricade myself against all the information that had been thrown at me. I looked up, startled, when a small hand delicately touched my shoulder.

I hadn’t heard Annice come in or notice any movement of the bed when she sat beside me. Her hand stayed at my shoulder as she quietly waited for my breathing to return to normal. It took several long minutes.

Tell me what you’re feeling, she asked kindly.

I didn’t answer. I was still trying to gain some control of the words whirling around my scrambled brain.

Her hand rested on top of mine on my knee, soft and smooth but un-yielding. I realized I had been rubbing my leg. With a flick of her head, she swished her shining blond hair over her shoulders, filling the air around us with her aromatic fragrance. Her scent was cinnamon and vanilla, comforting.

Well? She smiled reassuringly, urging me to speak.

Everything is so surreal, I said. Since the day I met Caleb, everything in my life changed, and it keeps changing. I feel as if I’m constantly spinning around and every time I try to grab onto something solid it just disappears. She laughed light-heartedly. Was she laughing at me? I narrowed my eyes to examine her expression, but she appeared genuine.

How can you be so calm? I accused. I tried to keep my voice from breaking but failed miserably. You’re acting as if all this is nothing to you. Annice removed her hand from my knee and swept an invisible piece of dust from her own.

I’ll admit all this is a little easier for me. I’ve had a long time to get used to our world, and I am blessed. She inclined her head, motioning toward the house. I met my soul mate early and have two wonderful sons. I’ve had some amazing people in my life. Her eyes flickered with pain for an instant. I’ve seen the good in being part of a race like ours as well as the bad. There is more good, I assure you. So yes, I am able to remain calm, but no, I don’t see any of these changes as nothing. Samuel and I refuse to think of this as the end of everything we know. We believe in a bigger plan.

Destiny, I grumbled dismissively.

She nodded.

Do you think I’m part of this bigger plan?

She hummed quietly as if considering, her bottom lip pushed out just a little further than the top, and then smiled. I believe so, yes.

And Caleb, do you think he has a role in this great destiny you imagine for everyone and everything that has happened to now? You think that was all some plan to bring us to this point? I clenched my jaw tightly, almost painfully, as my life and everything that had happened up to now flashed through my mind: losing my parents, going to live with Carmel and Lewis, meeting Caleb and losing him again. My mind raced through all the times my friends and family watched out for me, always being around if I was ever in the slightest danger or I hurt myself. Was that some part of a bigger plan to keep me safe? Did people watch over my best interests because destiny made them do it? I thought of the night of the fire and the terrible thing Caleb was forced to do to protect me.

Of course, each and every one of us has a role to play, Annice began.

Was it destiny that made Caleb kill Seth?

Her silver eyes flickered again, but her expression remained unchanged.

Yes, she stated confidently, I believe it was.

I scrutinized her expression. It gave nothing away to contradict her words.

I exhaled hard as I got up and walked to the door, crossing my arms over my chest before turning back to her. Did she really believe that?

When it happened, she explained, it changed Caleb. He found meaning in his life that he didn’t have before and strength in his need to protect you. Strength he will need now. Seth didn’t die in vain. I couldn’t believe what Annice was saying. Was she really trying to justify the fight to the death that had cost the life of her adopted son?

Why don’t you hate me? I asked her. Why don’t you hate my family? They could have told Seth and Caleb that I wasn’t human. It felt like a confession.

She brushed her shining hair from her face with the back of her hand.

It wouldn’t have changed the outcome, she said simply. It would have confirmed to Seth that there was truth in the prophecy, except instead of it being about your child, it is about you.

But he could have been convinced I wasn’t about to destroy the world! I protested, hugging myself as I thought about all that Caleb had sacrificed his deal with the Council, his killing Seth, who had been like a brother to him. Caleb wouldn’t have had to do what he did. Annice lowered her eyes for a moment and then returned her stunning gaze to me. Nothing could have swayed Seth from his path, she said firmly.

He couldn’t have been convinced. His parents turned him away because of his dangerous obsession with the prophecy and with humans. He badly wanted to be a Council member, but his parents wanted nothing to do with the Council or his aspirations. They wanted no part of the Council’s beliefs, and it made him very bitter. He felt betrayed by them. She closed her eyes again.

Samuel and I thought we could show him a new path within our family, but there was no new path for him. As for the Council, they would have used your lack of birth records to procure the same outcome.They would have made a hidden bloodline seem like a conspiracy against them and all of us. I sat down beside Annice again. It seemed that no matter what I threw at her, she would never blame me or allow me to blame myself for Seth’s death or Caleb’s decisions.

All I ever wanted was a normal life, I sighed.

She smiled, and it was consoling to see Caleb in her eyes, the way they creased in the corners.

I wanted to travel, I continued, eventually settle down and maybe even have a kid one day. Nothing out of the ordinary. It was never in my plans to change the world.

Who says you have to? Annice asked, raising a perfect eyebrow.

The prophecy, I muttered, confused.

The prophecy is just the beginning, not the end, she said firmly. Samuel and I have long believed the prophecy spoke of a new race, human and Guardian, in one bloodline that will unite us all, she said gently. Anyway, the prophecy is only part of who you are, not all of what your life will be.

Do you really believe that? The others

Men! she interrupted, laughing. Always so quick to presume. Annice gently rubbed my arm, and it felt strangely soothing. Do you love Caleb? she asked directly.

Yes, I answered immediately. More than I ever thought possible.

Do you want all those things with him?

Yes. My eyes tightened, reinforcing the conviction in my voice.

She took my hand and held it between hers, looking deep into my eyes.