Royal Heiress (21 page)

“I agree,” Athena replied. “This city must be
eliminated. In order to do that, you have to set it to
self-destruct. The instrument that does that will be located near
the replacements. Your magic will enable you to do this, but I ask
that you wait for everyone to get on the spaceship first. The city
will only take a few minutes to eliminate all the technology. Once
that is destroyed, then Atlantis will self-destruct.”

“Katherine and I can help you get your
companions into the spaceship,” Jake offered, looking at Katherine
to see if she agreed.

She nodded. “We don’t have anything else to
do.”

Athena turned to Pallid and Amanda. “We will
come for you at the building where the replacements are when we
finish moving everyone into the spaceship.”

Pallid and Amanda indicated their agreement
and left.

***

Pallid and Amanda left the arc. Hordes of
locusts and giant snakes ran amok through the city. Worse than
that, the harsh wind and sheets of rain made it more difficult to
navigate their way through the streets. Thunder and lightning lit
up the sky, emphasizing the doomed atmosphere.

The wind wrapped Amanda’s hair around her
face so that she couldn’t see anything. She struggled to move her
wet hair away, but it was no use.

“Here. Let me help you,” Pallid said as he
put his cane safely in a doorway where it wouldn’t blow away.

She stopped fighting the wind and rain and
let him take care of the situation. She was relieved as he
succeeded in pulling her hair back into a ponytail.

“There. Now you shouldn’t have any problems,”
he said as he picked his cane up.

“Thanks,” she replied, smiling.

A large snake slithered towards them.

“You don’t want to get near them,” he warned
as he pulled her into a doorway. “They will wrap around you and
suffocate you.”

As the snake neared them, he pressed into the
doorway with her. Her face flushed as his body pressed against
hers. Good grief. They were in a dangerous situation, and all she
could think about was how much she wanted him? She was the Queen of
Raz. She had more important things to think about.

“Stay still,” he advised. “The snake is
pretty stupid. If you don’t move, he won’t pick up on your
vibration.”

The green and yellow snake inched by them,
looking in all directions for any intruders it could kill.

She held her breath as it passed them. It was
so large that it was up to her waist. She cringed at the thought of
one of those things suffocating her.

After it slid by them, she released her
breath. “Thank goodness,” she replied.

“It’s one of Hades’ specialties,” he said.
“Not friendly at all and effective in keeping unwelcome visitors
out of the Underworld.”

“You know this from personal experience?”

“Yes, I do. One of them almost killed
me.”

“That must have been awful.”

He turned away from the retreating snake and
looked at her, as if seeing her for the first time. Her breath
caught in her throat as he brushed her cheek with his fingers.

“Adrian,” he whispered.

She furrowed her eyebrows. “What?”

“My name is Adrian.”

His heartfelt confession was so unlike his
cold exterior that she didn’t know how to react. Fortunately, he
saved her from having to make the decision.

He cleared his throat. “Come. We need to find
those replacements.”

She reluctantly followed him as he walked
down the street.

“The building we need is two blocks away,” he
yelled over the roll of thunder.

She nodded, trying to ignore the swarm of
locusts that surrounded them. She cringed as their wings fluttered
angrily against her face and hair. These things were nasty, and
there were so many of them that it was difficult for her to
concentrate on her task. She didn’t blame the Earthlings for
evacuating this city as soon as these monstrosities came out.

He took her hand and led her through the
street. They turned onto another street where more locusts came
after them. All at once, they began to sting her. She screamed at
the painful sensations. Pallid yelled at the insects and waved them
away.

She wondered why they were only stinging her.
Then it occurred to her they were used to him since he had lived
here. She was the foreigner, and they had undoubtedly been
programmed by Hades to get rid of anyone who wasn’t a native of the
city.

Finally, he managed to fight them off so that
they were no longer stinging her, but the damage had been done. She
didn’t know what was in their stingers, but she knew it had to be
some type of poison.

“Amanda,” he said. “Are you alright?”

His voice sounded strangely far away. Before
she could respond, she fell to the ground while a numbing paralysis
crawled through her body.

Adrian was telling her something, but none of
his words made sense. Finally, she felt him put his cane in her
hand. “Hold it!” Though he screamed in her ear, she could barely
make out what he was saying. “It won’t work if you don’t hold
it.”

She forced her fingers to wrap around the
cane, which was oddly cool and comforting to the touch. Her vision
grew dim, and she lost consciousness. The moment seemed to suspend
for an eternity as death engulfed her. She found that it was a
rather pleasant experience, despite her fear of it.

And just as she gave into the sensation, it
disappeared as another sensation washed over her. It was the
strangest thing she’d ever experienced, but now she knew what he
meant when he had talked of it. She was being regenerated to her
original condition of health, and she was aware of every cell and
organ in her body as they resumed their normal functions. As she
became more aware of her surroundings, her grip on the cane
tightened.

She heard him utter a word of relief but was
still too weak to respond. He picked her up and carried her the
rest of the way to the building before another swarm of locusts or
a snake could attack her.

Once they were inside the building, he gently
laid her on the floor.

When she could manage it, she opened her
eyes.

He smiled at her as she continued to gain her
strength back. “That was close,” he softly said. “You are almost
fully healed. Hold onto the cane until you are.”

“You’re right, you know,” she whispered,
hardly able to speak. “That is the weirdest feeling in the
world.”

He laughed. “It’s good you keep a sense of
humor. I have to find the replacements and see what I can do about
remembering the password. Stay here until you are well enough to
stand up.”

She nodded and closed her eyes as her body
continued to heal. Adrian, she recalled. He had told her his name.
She smiled to herself in satisfaction. He did love her after
all.

***

Jake stood in the library, staring out of the
window in awe at the beauty of the city. Despite the raging storm
and swarms of locusts in the air, the buildings still sparkled in
an array of different colors.

A shiver ran through his body as he recalled
having seen this before, except he was in Cincinnati when he saw it
the first time. He’d seen it in that strange mirror Pallid had
shown him. It was odd to know parts of his future before it
happened. It felt unnatural, but at the same time, he could
understand the appeal in it. No surprises. No wondering what would
happen next in life. No making the wrong decisions.

He thought back to the day when the lawyer
produced his mother’s letter. He still didn’t agree with the way
she had tricked Clark into marrying her and making him think that
Jake was his son, but he realized Clark did love him as if he were
his son, even after finding out the truth.

Clark never would have permitted him to go to
the Underworld. He would have done everything he could to keep him
above ground. It was pointless to dwell on what his real father had
failed to do. He would never respect that man, but he could be
grateful his mother found a man who made a good father. He was sure
fear motivated her to create the lie that she otherwise would never
have made.

“Forgive me,” she had whispered before her
death.

Yes, he could finally forgive her.

And he could forgive his real father. If
nothing else, if his father hadn’t been as greedy as he had been,
he never would have come to Atlantis, and he never would have met
Katherine. Katherine. Just the thought of her made him believe in
the goodness of people. The way she cared for others made him
realize that, despite a person’s circumstances, they could rise
above them. He was thankful he got to meet her.

Katherine entered the room and walked over to
him. “Athena says Ares parked the spaceship in the back of this
building. We can start taking the gods to it now.”

He looked at her and nodded.

They walked out of the library and down the
hallway.

Athena was waiting for them by the entrance
of the elevator built into the wall. “Zeus, Hades, Poseidon, and
Demeter are unconscious in their offices. We will have to carry
them to the spaceship.”

They began to descend the steps toward Zeus’
office when Ares ran up to them. “My robots are coming back here,”
he warned them, out of breath.

“Then we have succeeded in driving all the
Earthlings from Atlantis,” Athena replied. “That’s good.”

“It’s more than that. They are no longer
under my control.”

“Explain.”

“They aren’t coming to protect the original
six leaders. They are now protecting the replacements.”

Katherine gasped. “Are the replacement
leaders already awake?”

“Not yet, but they will be soon unless the
Infer stops their development,” Ares replied. “They will kill the
original leaders.”

“Ares and I are in no danger,” Athena told
them. “They won’t come after us, but we still have to protect Zeus,
Hades, Poseidon, and Demeter. I am assuming Hera and Hestia are
dying on Olympia as we speak. We must hurry!”

“Do any of you know how to use a gun?” Ares
asked Jake and Katherine.

“I do,” Katherine replied. “It was part of my
training on Raz.”

“I don’t,” Jake confessed.

“But you are strong enough to carry the
people out to the ship,” Athena reminded him. “You can do that
while we fend off the robots. Ares’ guns are the only kind that can
defeat them. Ares, where are they now?”

“They are on their way here, and they are
going to be coming in the direction of the spaceship,” he informed
her.

Athena nodded. “We’ll form a triangle around
the ship to protect it from their invasion. Jake, you start
bringing the gods to us, and we’ll prevent the robots from reaching
you.”

Jake nodded and ran down to Zeus’ office
since it was the closest one. He entered the office and grabbed
Zeus, who lay on the floor, halfway between life and death. He
picked the leader up and ran to the elevator. He was suddenly
grateful for the years he’d spent working out at the gym.

After he dropped Zeus in front of the
elevator, he went back for Poseidon, who was in the next office
down from Zeus’. He would gather each of the gods one by one, put
them into the elevator and go to the spaceship where he would load
them in one at a time. This was the quickest way to accomplish his
goal. He just hoped that the others could fight off the robots when
the time came to get them onto the ship.

Chapter Twenty

Present Day

Atlantis

Amanda finally recovered from her injuries
and brought the cane to Adrian who was busy putting the panels
together.

“
I didn’t realize they came
off the incubators when I first saw them,” he said as he placed
them on the table nearby. “There are six pieces altogether. It’s
like putting together a jigsaw puzzle.”

She walked up to one of the incubators and
peered into it. She gasped at the likeness of Hera who was almost
fully developed. She wouldn’t have been able to tell the difference
between the original and her replacement. The replacement was
breathing, and as Amanda studied her more closely, she noticed the
replacement moved her fingers.

“She’s moving,” she told Pallid. “She’s
alive.”

“And I’m having trouble figuring out how this
puzzle fits together. Why didn’t Athena just come out and say the
password all those years ago?”

She noted the irritation in his voice.
Wishing to help him, she went over to him and studied the metallic
silver pieces. It made little sense to her, but she knew it fit
together somehow.

He had three pieces together already and was
busily working on putting a fourth piece anywhere it would fit.

“There,” she pointed. “I think it goes
there.”

He put it in and smiled. “Thanks.”

She shrugged. “It’s the least I can do.”

The next piece was easier for him to find and
the next one fit immediately.

“Atlantis,” one of the replacements
spoke.

Amanda turned, alarmed she could hear them
through their incubators.

“Forever,” Adrian whispered.

Focusing on him, she gave him a questioning
look.

“That’s the password. Forever. And the
question Athena asked so we’d remember it was ‘What holds the key
to immortality?’ And this is a picture of the key she would show
us. You can see the letters encrypted into the image. Well, if you
could read the language, you’d see it.” He shook his head. “I can’t
believe I didn’t understand it sooner.”

Without another word, he ran over to the
incubators where the replacements were beginning to open their eyes
and typed the password into the side panel.

The effect was immediate. One by one, as he
punched in the password on each incubator, the replacement quickly
turned to dust right in front of Amanda’s eyes. She felt a minor
twinge of remorse over the fact that lives were destroyed, but she
knew it must be done to save the lives of the original leaders.