Turbulent Waves, page 21
“I can never fully repay Kai and her people for what they’ve done for me, and I was able to walk with Viv when she and Kai joined in Atlantis. But hey, for the wedding up here, that’s your job, Dad.”
“Please accept my apology about that,” Kai said. “We should’ve had this conversation sooner, so you and Cornelia could’ve attended. I can tell you my mothers will be here for the ceremony you’re planning.” She reached into her pocket and took out the three shells she’d brought with her. “I talked with my mother Galen, and she wanted me to tell you the truth because you deserved it. The other reason is that what happened with Pontos, or Steve as you know him, might not be over. You have to be aware of the danger you might be in until we figure out what that threat is.”
Winston still looked bemused, and she waited for Cornelia to move back to her seat.
“I remember looking out there and thinking Steve had lost his mind. The thing he shot at Vivien’s truck was something I couldn’t wrap my head around, and then he did the same to you. It killed something in me when I thought you were dead because I knew how my child felt about you.” Winston sounded so sincere, and she could see what kind of father he would’ve been without her intervention in their lives.
“Honey, come on, stop already,” Vivien said.
“What are you talking about?” Marsha asked, appearing more than bewildered.
Vivien explained how she and Frankie had learned by trial and error how to use the shells and how that had changed once Kai came back and taught them how to channel the power of the bond. Marsha listened, glancing at Frankie every so often as Vivien explained how much better that connection became when you found your mate. She could read Kai’s thoughts as easily as having her own.
There was a long moment of silence as all they’d said settled in. There would be a million questions, and Kai was happy to answer them. But she’d provide information as it was asked for, rather than dumping it on them all at once.
“What happens now?” Cornelia asked.
“We’re trying to pinpoint the threat, but what’ll happen next is our ceremony here in New Orleans. I’ll have to ask one thing, though,” she said, showing them the shells she’d taken from her pocket. “This isn’t about not trusting you, but we need to take some steps to keep who we are a secret from the world.”
“And those will do that?” Marsha asked, looking at the shells with some suspicion.
“They’ll do more than that.” She looked into Marsha’s eyes and put a few things into her head about her childhood. “You can learn to do that if you allow me to give you this gift.”
“What else will it do?” Winston asked.
“It will shield you from saying something you shouldn’t. Like the shell around Frankie’s neck shielded you from the truth of his healing. He’s still the same man, only now he can walk. It hasn’t changed who he is, but the legs would be hard to explain to anyone who’s not cognizant of our advances.” She waited to hear if they’d agree. If not, she’d have to leave it to Oba and her team to do something that would prevent them from saying something that would put them all in danger.
“Will we be able to communicate with you like that?” Marsha pointed at Kai’s head, then hers. “Will I be able to hear Frankie’s thoughts?”
“With practice you will, and I’m thinking Frankie will help you with that. Each shell is unique to the person, and it holds different gifts. How you expand those gifts is up to you. These will be your connection to Vivien, Frankie, and myself.” She closed her fists over the shells and felt their mental agreement. “If you need us, all you need to do is send out a call with your mind. I promise you, we’ll hear it.”
“All we want is for Vivien and Frankie to have a good life. This isn’t exactly what I had in mind,” Winston said and laughed. “Not one thing in my life would’ve made me believe something like this existed. I’ve given you my blessing, though, and I’m not going back on that.”
She nodded, handed Frankie a shell, then opened her hand so Vivien could cover the other two with her hand. Frankie held her other hand and Marsha’s shell. They’d reviewed how to carve the shells, and this time it was important to have Vivien and Frankie put themselves into the lines because this was their family. Like their shells, the three they were making would have to have a strong connection with the siblings for them to truly work.
They spoke the old words, and their connection, the golden lines, was again visible from shell to shell. When they were done, Frankie threaded a leather strap through each shell, knowing instinctively which one belong to whom.
“Don’t ever take them off,” Vivien said.
“Thank you for sharing all this with us,” Cornelia said, holding her shell in a closed fist.
“I hope you know how sorry I am I wasn’t able to share this sooner. My vow to my sisters, as well as to my mothers, is important to me.” She was prepared to answer all the questions they had, but Winston shook his head, almost as if he’d read her mind.
“I’m just glad I wasn’t crazy. Let’s eat, and you guys can go home so we can all think about all this. Tomorrow, we’ll get through the wedding list. When are your parents getting here?” he asked. He looked at Cornelia and shook his head. “The queens of Atlantis.”
“They’ll arrive a few days before the ceremony, and we’ll put them up. I’m sure, though, that they’ll enjoy spending some time with you, so maybe I can put together a family dinner.”
“Let me do that,” Cornelia said. “Our place is bigger, and they can bring whoever they like. We’ll be family, after all.” She took a deep breath. “I assume they can be here, like you? On land?”
“Thank you for asking. Yes, we can all be on land without an issue.” She felt Cornelia’s relief. “My aunt and grandmothers are also coming, so I’m sure they’d love to join in. Thank you.”
They sat down to dinner, and the only one who seemed a bit pissed was Marsha. It was like she couldn’t accept she’d been cut off from the truth, and it made her angry. But her anger seemed to be directed at Kai, not Vivien or Frankie. Once they were done, she invited Marsha outside to sit on the side of the fountain where they’d first met.
“What’s the problem?” She put her hand up and shook her head. “It’ll be easier if you cut the shit and tell me.”
Marsha crossed her legs at the ankles and frowned. “You know how I feel about Vivien, and I’m in love with Frankie. Why in the world would you not tell me all this, especially if you’ve put them in danger? If you knew that you were putting them in that position, why’d you come back?” Marsha was nearly yelling, but Kai didn’t stop her. What Marsha was going through wasn’t resentment against her, so much as her worry for the two people she loved.
“You’re right, and that’s why we’ve given you the shells and let you in on a secret that has kept my people safe for thousands of years. You all need to know there’s a threat, and now that you do, we can protect each other.” Kai smiled when Marsha looked a little mollified. “I came back because I fell in love with your best friend. Doing that wasn’t what anyone wished for me, but my heart chose her. She’s my match, and because I love her and she loves me, we bonded and created a life that’ll be the beginning of our family.” She spoke from the heart and sent Vivien a message not to come out as she was getting ready to do. “If I thought for one minute leaving was what was best for Vivien, I would’ve, and she’d have never seen me again. The heart is a funny thing, though, right? We wanted a life together, and I couldn’t deny either of us when it came to that.”
“We’ve known each other since preschool. She should’ve told me.”
“It’s a few months too late, but we did. If you want to be mad at someone, pick me. Viv doesn’t need the stress.”
“And have her hand me my ass for getting mad at you? I don’t think so. Viv loves you, and I’m glad she does. It’s something that she’s been looking for proof of all her life, and I think it’s because of that afternoon she saw you as a girl. It changed something in her, and her best explanation is she’d found the one person who saw her for who she is. I believe with everything I am that’s true, and I’m glad you’re here. You’d better do everything you can to keep her safe. My godchild deserves to know both of you.” Marsha poked her in the chest and wasn’t gentle about it.
“You can count on it. I love Viv more than life, and I’m going to give her everything I can to make her happy.” She smiled when Vivien ignored her and came out. “She’s lucky to have a friend like you.”
“That’s what people always say when they’re trying to calm someone down. I hate that, and if you step out of line, or something happens to Vivien, I’m going to kick your ass.”
“There’s the Marsha I know and love.” Vivien walked up behind her friend and put her arms around her. “The same threat goes to you, sunshine. If you hurt Frankie, you won’t find a place to hide I won’t find you. I’m just glad that my two favorite people ended up together.”
“I’m glad too. Frankie might be a few years younger than us, but until recently I never knew he realized I was alive. He’s the most handsome thing I’ve ever seen, and he has a heart to match. We’re both lucky.”
“He didn’t want to burden you before, but he’s always been in love with you. Now take him home and tuck him in, so Kai can do the same with me. Remember not to take this off,” Vivien said, tapping the shell.
“Got it, and you’d better talk Frankie into getting on one knee. After all this I’d better get a ring out of it. I’ve been waiting for years for him to get with the program.”
Kai had to laugh and thought about Marsha meeting her family. Her aunt Clarice was going to love her. “Good night, and we’ll see you tomorrow.”
They went back in for a minute before the driver took them back to Vivien’s. There wasn’t a lot of talking as they undressed each other and went to bed. She had to admit she felt better after sharing who she was with Vivien’s family. It had seemed disingenuous to marry Viv without them knowing the truth.
“Let’s hope that’s all the crap we have to go through until we go home,” Vivien said as she pressed up against Kai.
“They’ll be fine. I think people do better when there are no secrets. When you try to hide something, it only gets more complicated. It’s not like we could say we were moving to Florida or something when we had to go home.”
“What happens if we have another battle like the one Pontos brought to my father’s door?”
“I’ve been thinking about that, and I don’t really have an answer. If Sol sends someone else, we’ll face them, and I’ll do my best to keep it as controlled as possible. If we lose control, it’ll have far worse consequences than people knowing we’re here.” She kissed Vivien, then pressed up behind her and put an arm around her. “Losing control means we might be losing the fight, and humans will have a lot more to worry about than the truth that we’ve been here for centuries.”
“Do you think they’ll be okay with what we said tonight?” Vivien sounded tired.
“It’s going to be fine. Go to sleep, baby, and trust that my moms aren’t going to stop until they have answers.”
She closed her eyes and decided to wait to call her mom in the morning. The sense that something was coming to hurt them was growing. The visions alluded to it, and she had to have faith in who she was and her ability to protect her nation. Her prayer to the goddess was simply that her trident should be true if it came to that. For now she joined Vivien’s dreams through their link and enjoyed the calm waters they were swimming through.
Chapter Seventeen
Bella moaned and hung her head as Daria stood in front of her with the small whip she’d been using for hours. Daria didn’t doubt Bella would’ve told her everything she needed to know without the torture, but she wasn’t giving her that out. Pain was always an excellent motivator, and she’d allowed some of her team leaders to watch. It was good that they understood how she operated.
“So, tell me again.”
Bella took a shuddering breath. “Vivien Palmer lives in New Orleans. It’s north of here, and that’s where her family is as well. If Kai is still with her, that’s where you’ll find her. Let me live, and I’ll show you. Grabbing anyone in the Palmer family will draw Kai out if she’s not there.”
She drew her arm back and brought the whip across Bella’s chest. “Do you see yourself in a position to give me orders? If I ask you where she is, you’re going to tell me. What I do with the information you give me is not up to you.” She hit her three more times and had to lift her head up by her hair to deliver a final slap. “Tell me.”
In a broken voice, Bella gave her the coordinates and an explanation of how they had to travel to get there. She hung by her restraints when Daria was done with her, and she signaled someone to take Bella down. “Clean her up and feed her. If she thinks this is over, she’s wrong.”
She went to get something to eat. The fish here tasted so much better than on Atlantis, and she was enjoying the meals. It was an inane thing to think about, but she was going insane thinking of only the coming battle.
“Find out where this place is that Bella mentioned,” she said to Frem. The meal was laid out, and Frem stood to serve her.
“It’s not far from here, and if you want to go, we can start tonight.”
“Set a course, and make sure our people know to keep Bella alive. It sounds like she ran with a few other people, and it’s time to make contact with them. We can use the numbers, even if the force is minuscule. We’ll also need them to fit in. I don’t want to arouse suspicion until it’s necessary.”
She finished eating and went out on the deck. There were some boats in the distance with nets attached to their sides, and she dismissed them as simple fishermen. It would be easier to hunt in the water and drive the fish into their nets, but these weren’t an evolved people. Right now, simple sounded good. If she’d been born to a fisherman or a servant, her life would’ve been shit, but at least it would’ve been cut-and-dried. She’d have gotten up every day and done the same damn thing until someone like her came along and killed her. It was hard to remember all the people her father had killed for some small perceived slight. Big fish ate little fish. It was the way of things.
She’d take over this planet or die trying. She didn’t have enough backing, and while the humans weren’t advanced, Pontos had said they had some military capability. Faced with that and having to defeat Galen and her people, she felt as small as one of those pathetic servants who waited for the day her father would put them out of their misery.
That was the last thing she could admit to anyone, especially Frem, but the old fears still crowded her head like eels. It was either win or run, but where was there to run? She went back in, then into the room where they’d put Bella. The room was quiet except for the whimpers Bella still had the strength to make. One of her eyes was swollen shut, and the shirt they’d put on her was wet with blood from the cuts the whip had made.
“Tell me about her.” Her voice made Bella flinch.
“About who?” Bella didn’t face her and didn’t add her title. It was an outright provocation to kill her, she was sure, but Bella wasn’t going to get that lucky.
“One of the things my father taught me…” she said, pressing her finger into one of the cuts. Bella tried to move away, which made her press harder. “Was that if you were patient, you could do this for months, and the person wouldn’t die. They would wish for death, but death could be put off if the person was young and healthy. You’re young, and you seem healthy enough, so release is a long way off.”
“I’m sorry,” Bella said, breathing hard.
“Are you?” She laughed and sat on the bed, lifting her hand off Bella. “The other hard truth is when someone displeased him, my father would keep them alive and slowly strip away their pride. That led to begging. That never worked, so eventually the person started to hate my father, and in a strange way it made them hang on longer.” She laughed again at the thought of some of those prisoners, who seemed to cling to life only to hurl curses at her father while he skinned them. “I promise you, Bella, that you’ll come to hate me, and you’ll cling to life so you can curse my name.”
“All I wanted was to please you. Francesca wasn’t my mother, so I didn’t know much about her when my mother Wilma joined with her. You didn’t even ask my mother before you drove a trident through her.” Bella cried fresh tears, but Daria wasn’t moved.
“Tell me about Kai.”
“Kai is Galen’s only heir—”
“Only heir? Why?” That was interesting.
“The queen had complications after Kai’s birth. Our doctors are good at their jobs, but they couldn’t stop or reverse what had happened, so Kai is an only child. She’s been trained by the nation’s best warriors, and she’s good with a trident, but she’s also highly intelligent.” Bella wiped her face and stared up at her. “She is beloved by my sisters, and from what the priestess Susan said, she drove a trident through Pontos’s chest.”
That really made her laugh. “Are you trying to provoke me?”
“I’m doing what you asked. Princess Kai is the daughter of Consort Hadley. Before her marriage to Queen Galen, Hadley was on track to be the leader of the queen’s guard and leader of the queen’s forces. She and her friends poured everything they know into Kai, and my sisters know she’ll be the best protector of the realm they could hope for.”
Bella’s regretful tone was irritating. “How did you get out? Or a better question is why did you get out? If Galen and her spawn are such wonders, why leave?” She already knew the answer, but she wanted Bella to admit it.
“Francesca came into our lives, and she hated Galen and Hadley because she thought them to be weak. She was the one who found the connection between our families and told me I’d be a fool not to pursue it.” Bella cried as if the story of her life was too much to handle. “I found out later, when Francesca’s friend came to tell us she’d been killed, that she’d previously been imprisoned for theft. Francesca had been turned down from military service, even though they have no need for soldiers, and didn’t want to work at anything else. She was bitter and wanted revenge for the perceived slight.” She choked on a sob. “But I believed her. That the royal family weren’t doing the best for our people.”
