Atlantis, the palace war room, half an hour later
Fiona swallowed past the lump of awe that seemed to have permanently settled in her throat. First she"d had fruit and juice with the princess of Atlantis, who offered her the use of the palace gardens for her next book any time she wanted, so long as she promised to autograph a book for Prince Aidan.
Then Christophe had come to find her, told her she was needed at a war council, and she"d walked through the palace-a cla.s.sic concept of mythology turned historical fact. Now she was sitting at a scarred wooden table that was probably older than Scotland. Surrounded by unbelievably gorgeous men who were all cut from the same genetic cloth as Christophe. Tall, dark-haired, and muscular. High cheekbones and sensual mouths. Men to make women sit up and notice.
They were almost as devastatingly attractive as Christophe. She only hoped devastating devastating wasn"t the operative word. wasn"t the operative word.
"Shall I make the introductions?" Riley briefly rested a hand on Fiona"s shoulder before taking a seat on the other side of the table. Without waiting for a response, she began, pointing to the various people as she named them. "Everyone, this is Lady Fiona Campbell, currently of Campbell Manor, Coggeshall. She also has a secret ident.i.ty, but I think I"ll let her tell you about that."
Fiona flushed, wondering why in the world she"d revealed her secrets so easily to Riley. There was something about the princess, though, that invited confidence.
"This is my husband, Conlan." A tall man with a distinct air of command bowed to Fiona.
"Your Highness." She tried to rise from her chair, which wasn"t that easy with Christophe holding her hand, but Conlan shook his head.
"Please don"t. We"re pretty informal here, as you"ll soon notice. Please call me Conlan, Lady Fiona."
"Just Fiona, please."
"This is Ven," Riley continued. "My partner in crime in the love of B movies. He"s also Conlan"s brother."
"Pleasure to meet you," Ven said, his eyes lit up with definite amus.e.m.e.nt. "Especially with Christophe."
Christophe narrowed his eyes but didn"t release her hand.
"We spend way too much time in here, by the way," Ven grumbled. "I"m leaving after this to join Erin in Seattle at her witch"s coven meeting."
Fiona"s eyes widened until she was afraid they"d pop out of her head as Ven described what Erin was doing with her coven. Very powerful magic designed to aid the human rebels, from what she could glean from his brief description.
"His wife is a very powerful witch. Human," Christophe said quietly.
"Is it some kind of rule? That you marry humans?"
Christophe laughed. "No. Until Conlan met Riley, it was a rule that we couldn"t."
Ven wound down his report and Riley pointed to a man, dressed all in black, who sat at the far end of the table. "That"s Alaric, Poseidon"s high priest and head of the Temple of Poseidon."
Fiona gasped. "But-that seat was empty. Are you Fae, too?"
"I certainly am not," Alaric said, his lips curled back from his teeth. "You may want to learn that to accuse an Atlantean of being Fae is a serious insult."
"You may want to learn that Scottish women don"t appreciate being threatened," she snapped right back at him.
Alaric put his elbows on the table, rested his head in his hands, and groaned. "Here we go again. I just know it. Poseidon"s b.a.l.l.s, here we go again."
"I hate to point this out, but isn"t that blasphemy?" Fiona said. "Perhaps you aren"t the best person to lecture me about insults."
Ven grinned. "I think I"m going to like you."
It came to her that she was sitting with the crown princes and princess of Atlantis and she was insulting their G.o.d"s highest priest. She felt about two inches high.
"I beg your pardon, Your-ah, Conlan. And yours as well, Alaric. I am feeling a bit overwhelmed right now, but it shouldn"t make me forget the courtesies due to my hosts," she said.
Alaric flashed a smile that probably made sharks cry. "I liked you better when you were putting me in my place."
She laughed. "Noted."
"Perhaps we can get on to the point of this?" Ven said. "I"m thrilled Christophe finally became a real boy and found a girlfriend-hopefully you can keep his a.s.s in line, Lady Fiona-but why are we in war council over it?" He aimed a mock glare at Fiona. "Is Scotland planning to declare war on Atlantis?"
She didn"t know what to answer first, but her cheeks were burning over that "found a girlfriend" comment.
Christophe beat her to it. "My love life is none of your business, King"s Vengeance or no. But if you"d like to meet me in the arena to discuss it-"
"Oh, pipe down," Fiona said. "Don"t we have enough problems without you fighting amongst yourselves?"
He snapped his head around to glare at her, but then his gaze softened and he raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles.
When she turned back to the table, every face but Riley"s reflected varying degrees of shock. They were all staring at Christophe like he"d grown another head.
"Moving on," she said pointedly. "We"ve had a busy few days since we met in the Tower of London the night we both tried to steal the same jewel."
It took a few minutes for the questions and comments to quiet down, and then Christophe and Fiona took turns telling the rest of them everything that had happened since they"d met, leaving out nothing except their . . . personal interactions. At some point during their recounting, people brought food in, and they all fell to, but they kept at it, one talking while the other ate, and then trading off.
"There is, unfortunately, nothing at all we can do about Denal. He went willingly with this Fae, and is gone for as long as she chooses to keep him. Nothing short of a full-scale a.s.sault on Silverglen would gain us the slightest hope of even finding him, and that would put us at war with the Unseelie Fae. Possibly the Seelie Court, as well, since we"d be invading the Summer Lands," Alaric said.
Christophe slammed the table. "No. He was under my care. I should be the one to retrieve him."
Conlan shook his head. "Christophe, the truth is that Denal is a grown man and a warrior, much as we all still treat him as the youngling we met all those years ago. The Fae cannot tell a direct lie. If she said he spoke willingly, then she hadn"t enchanted him. He wanted to go, and he went. Perhaps he simply needed a respite. The G.o.ds know he"s been through enough lately."
Fiona noticed that Riley"s cheeks turned pink, but the princess"s eyes were sad.
"I wish-well, I wish I could have done something. I wish I"d known Maeve was Fae, or even known Fae existed, or . . . I don"t even know what I wish," Fiona said. "I"m sorry my friend took yours. I hope she"ll bring him back soon. She really is a kind person. I"ve known her for more than ten years. You can"t fool somebody for that long."
"The Fae can keep up a simple deception for one hundred times ten years, or even more if they so desire," Alaric said.
"It"s true, though, that the Fae was different with Fiona," Christophe said. "Talked about how much it meant to have a friend who liked her for herself and not for her position, that sort of thing. If Maeve na Feransel actually cares about any human, it is Fiona."
"Time will be the only answer to this dilemma," Conlan said. "We must move on to the matter of the Siren. We can a.s.sume it is in dangerous hands-but whose?"
"I"m betting the vampires," Christophe said. "The plan to enthrall shifters is in full swing in Europe, the same as everywhere else on the planet. What we know of the Siren is that it gives its wielder vast power over shifters and can even force them to shift back and forth between their animal and human shapes."
"Perhaps the shifters stole it," Riley said. "You"ve already mentioned the possibility that the Tower robbery could have been an inside job and that some of the Tower guard are wolf shifters. What if they took it, to keep it out of vampire hands?"
Alaric drummed his fingers on the table and then made a flicking motion with his right hand and sent a trail of tiny, perfect triangles of blue-green flame tumbling down the center of the table. They rolled over the fruit bowl and then vanished when they fell off the other end. n.o.body else but Fiona paid any attention to them, so she guessed the little magic was the high priest equivalent of when she tapped her pencil while thinking.
"We must find it," Conlan said. "Christophe, you"re obviously stirring things up, so you continue to do what you"re doing and even step it up. How much help do you want?"
"Let me do the reconnaissance on my own, and then I"ll call in the troops," Christophe said.
Fiona cleared her throat. "Excuse me, but why do you want this gem so badly? Are you planning to use it against the shifters, yourselves? I"m sorry, but I can"t go along with that."
"Remember when I said that without the Siren, Atlantis couldn"t rise to the surface again? I wasn"t joking," Christophe said. "More than eleven thousand years ago, the elders of Atlantis took the Seven Isles to the bottom of the ocean. Before they did, they removed the seven gems of Poseidon"s Trident and scattered them to the corners of the world. We"ve recently learned that unless and until we restore them, we"re trapped here. If we attempt the magic to cause Atlantis to rise to the surface, we"ll be destroyed."
Fiona looked from face to face. They were dead serious. "The actual Trident belonging to the sea G.o.d Poseidon? Brother of Zeus, that that Poseidon?" Poseidon?"
"Yes. He takes an active interest in Atlantean affairs, you might say," Christophe said wryly, tapping his shoulder. She remembered the tattoo.
"The question, I believe, is why you you want the gem, Lady Fiona," Alaric said. "We know you"re a thief, by your own account. Nevertheless, Christophe appears to hold you in high esteem. So please grant us the favor of explaining your own interest." want the gem, Lady Fiona," Alaric said. "We know you"re a thief, by your own account. Nevertheless, Christophe appears to hold you in high esteem. So please grant us the favor of explaining your own interest."
"Watch your mouth, priest," Christophe growled. "We never have gone head-to-head, but if you insult Fiona again, you"re going to find out just how strong I"ve become."
She put a hand on his arm. "It"s fine. He has a point. I mean, you need it for the safety of your whole continent, and I only wanted it for the money."
"The money you use to provide support for so many charities I can"t even count them all," he said.
"Yes, I have heard that reported," Alaric said. Fiona wondered if there was anything the priest didn"t hear about or know. The man was scary.
"I have also heard that the Scarlet Ninja only donates a sum equal to precisely half the value of any stolen item. So what do you do with the rest of the money? I imagine you have a very nice home." Alaric opened his hand and an image of Campbell Manor appeared in the air.
Christophe shot up out of his chair, but Fiona grabbed his hand before he could go after Alaric. "Stop. Please."
He slowly sat back down. "You don"t have to answer any of this, if you don"t want to. You"re a guest here-my guest-not a prisoner to be interrogated."
She leaned up and kissed him. "No, it"s okay. I"d wonder, too, if I were them." She turned to address Alaric and the rest of the group. "Fifty percent of the value is correct. Of course, from any fence, even my most trusted ones, I"m lucky to get sixty percent of an object"s recorded value. In theft, as in the corporate world, there are unfortunately a great many middlemen."
"And the rest?" Conlan asked gently. "To support yourself and your family?"
She shook her head. "No. I have never once kept a single penny of any proceeds from one of the Scarlet Ninja"s heists. There are many charities we support that are desperately in need of funding but they can"t accept money if they know it comes from the proceeds of crime. Those, we funnel through my offsh.o.r.e accounts that my computer genius of a brother and my very talented butler a.s.sure me are virtually untraceable. Of course, a few others are happy to receive anything the Scarlet Ninja has to offer, and they appreciate the intrigue of it all. They count our donations, given through intermediaries, as anonymous and laugh all the way to the bank."
"I knew I liked you," Riley said, smiling across the table at her. The princess glanced over at Alaric. "She"s telling the truth. Her emotions reflect nothing but absolute sincerity."
Fiona blinked, startled. "But I thought you were human?"
"You, too, are human, but have a secret Gift, don"t you? Mine is emotional empathy, or what the Atlanteans call being aknasha aknasha. I can read emotions. My sister can, too." Riley"s smile held a hint of sadness. "I miss her. She"d like you."
"My brother would like you, too," Fiona a.s.sured her. "Actually, he"d go stark raving mad with excitement over all this. I"d love to be able to bring him someday. Hopkins, too."
"Your butler?"
"He has been like a father to me since my own died," Fiona said. "He"s an amazing man."
"Keeps threatening to shoot me, though," Christophe said.
"I like him already," Alaric said.
"Why the Scarlet Ninja?" Riley asked.
"I don"t exactly know how to explain it. I guess I"ve never said any of this out loud before." Fiona thought for a little while, took another drink of water, and continued. "I want-no, I need-to help restore to the people of Great Britain a sense of hope. The prosperity we enjoyed before the vampires declared themselves."
"That"s a lot to take on all by yourself," Conlan said quietly.
"One person can make a difference," she said. "Especially if each one of us determines to be that person."
"Amen," Riley said. "That"s what I had to believe when I was a social worker, or I would have given up in utter despair."
"Turns out that the majority of the aristocracy have some vampire branches of the family tree. In retrospect, it makes a lot of sense. As far as I know, we didn"t, but not for my grandfather"s lack of trying. He was still trying to bribe his contacts to turn him when he was murdered. I have the feeling they didn"t want him around for all eternity." She shuddered. "He was a horrible man."
"So when the vampires revealed themselves, you were suddenly back to the bad old days where lords and ladies ate off gold plates and drank from jeweled goblets while the peasants starved and died in the streets?" Alaric"s eyes were shadowed.
She wondered briefly if he"d seen any of those bad old days in person, but she wasn"t about to ask him.
"Yes. That"s exactly it," she said, holding up the st.u.r.dy but plain gla.s.s that held her water. The same type of gla.s.s that the princes, Riley, and the high priest had at their place settings. The plates were simple stoneware, although she recognized neither the stone nor the glaze.
Riley caught the direction of her gaze. "Our housekeeper does try to insist we use the special dishes sometimes, but we"re not very fancy," the princess admitted.
"Social worker? So you weren"t always a princess."
Riley laughed. "Oh, heavens no. Getting used to the palace and servants has been a trial for me and them. You should have heard how the cook scolded me when she caught me doing my own dishes after we had a midnight snack."
Fiona was fascinated. She"d never had the opportunity to wash a dish in her life. "Did you stop doing the dishes?"
"Yes, but I worked a deal that I can cook our own dinner at least once a week, and I get to throw a big bash once a month and everybody has to come. House staff, guards, everyone." She grinned at Fiona. "I usually make the warriors clean up."
"That sounds so lovely," Fiona said wistfully. "Our staff won"t eat with us. Not from any cla.s.s issue, I think their lives are just too busy. Sometimes it gets lonely."
"But not now," Christophe said, squeezing her hand.
"No. Not recently," she said, smiling at him.
"Your grandfather worked with vampires? Was he a thief?"
"Yes, although he called it business. His corrupt dealings with vampires in Scotland, long before they ever outed themselves to the rest of the world, got my father killed. A revenge plot, Hopkins finally told me, years later. Grandfather stole money from vampires, can you imagine?"
Christophe raised his eyebrows.
"Right, yes, I see where you"re going, but I have anonymity and some measure of recourse," Fiona answered his unspoken question. "Now that vampires have proclaimed themselves citizens of the European Union, they have to follow our laws. Back then, they killed with impunity, and they used my father to prove a point to my grandfather."
She realized her voice was trembling, and she took another sip of water. "They were fools. He didn"t care that my father was dead. He only cared that he lost everything else. They took it all away, and then they killed him, too. They probably would have killed me and Declan, too, but Hopkins took us away and hid us. After they killed Grandfather and had stolen all of his lands and money, they didn"t care about a couple of kids all that much, I guess."
"Where was your mother?" Christophe"s voice was unbearably gentle.
"She died when Declan was born." She saw a reflection of her own grief in his eyes and realized that his empathy and sympathy ran far deeper than the surface, since his own past had been visited by the same horrible tragedy. "She left the house in trust for us through Hopkins. She knew enough before she died to realize that Grandfather would find a way to steal it out from underneath us if she didn"t."
"So you became the Scarlet Ninja, and you"ve spent your lifetime stealing back everything they took from you," Christophe said, touching her cheek. "But you give it all away. How can you possibly be real?"
She looked deep into his eyes, and everyone else in the room vanished from her awareness. Only he and she remained, captured in a crystalline moment of perfectly shared understanding. "I feel that way about you," she whispered. "It"s like you stepped out of my dream of a hero and came to life just for me."