Darlings of Paranormal Romance (Anthology) (13 page)

The mers caught the Cytherans by
surprise and attacked the sailors from the surface with their
spears. The Cytheran fleet was astonished once they realized there
was an unknown threat upon them. They had to quickly change their
strategy.

Through the chaos, a couple of the
Cytheran biremes made their way to the Atlantean shore where they
debarked the ship and were now loose on the island.

***

As Straton watched the sun rise and
the naval battle ensue, the biremes landed on the pristine
Atlantean beaches. They seemed to extend to the ends of the earth.
The treasures that lay beyond the beaches were well worth the
campaign that was underway. Riding high on the tide, the helmsmen
were able to beach the biremes with half the hull resting on the
shore. This was critical to the battle plan of the
Cytherans.

The Emperor knew that the Gods favored
their cause and that his soldiers would be victorious. For added
measure however, Straton ordered the ships to be burned once all of
the soldiers had exited the biremes. In doing so, he would send a
clear message to his warriors and those of the awaiting Atlantean
Empire. Cythera would not retreat.

With the easterly breeze at his back,
the Emperor also knew that the burning of the ships would act as a
smoke screen and allow his army to advance without fear of
immediate attack from the Atlantean archers.

As the Cytherans approached the first
line of Atlantean defenders on the beach, the sound of sea horns
began to fill the air. In a sea of bodies, blood was shed with
precise and deliberate violence. Men fell but the battle continued
and the Cytherans pressed forward. Each army maneuvered to outflank
another, each equally unsuccessful. The resolve of the attacking
force was met in kind with that of those defending their homeland,
their families, their customs, their traditions, their
everything.

***

Leading his soldiers, Crehon was
advancing his most trusted men into the heart of the attacking
force. He knew that if successful in reaching the center of the
main wave of attacking Cytherans, he and his men would disrupt the
advance and be one step closer to victory.

Moments from achieving his desired
tactical position, Crehon heard a female call out, a voice he
recognized immediately. As he turned, he saw Magna and Carnaxa
racing towards the surf, a small group of Cytheran soldiers chasing
them. He froze. As his mind raced to find the options he had to
keep them from getting hurt, or even worse— killed, the soldiers
caught them.

***

Atargatis and the third wave of mers
approached the surface to continue the fight.

The water separated around him as he
broke the surface. With his Narwhal tusk spear in hand he quickly
assessed the situation around him.

While his lower ranking guardians were
below keeping the sharks at bay, Hekili and the rest of his guard
had the Cytheran ships surrounded.

Blurred waves were rolling across the
top of the water and slamming into the ships’ hulls. The mers that
had the ability to use their sonar waves were efficiently attacking
the fleet.

Large chunks of wood planks were
crashing into the ocean depths. The hulls were beginning to cave
and crumble under the pressure of the obscure waves being omitted
from his guards’ chests.

He heard a woman cry out and his
attention snapped to the beach.

Across the waves, he was able to see
the panic on Crehon’s face. He stood frozen with sword in hand
while men from both sides fought around him. But what truly caught
his attention was the women. They were there on the beach being
held by four of Straton’s warriors. They were crying and struggling
to get loose. He heard Crehon pleading with the soldiers to let
them go and take him instead.

The men pushed the women to their
knees. Crehon charged forward, his sword raised to kill. As he did
so, one of the Cytherans rushed towards Crehon, his sword aimed
directly at his back.

Atargatis pulled his spear out of the
water and positioned it to slay the Cytheran warrior.

As Atargatis released the spear, he
felt a razor sharp heated pain in his left side. He writhed in
agony and the spear’s trajectory veered off course of its intended
target.

His vision greyed and everything went
black.

***

Crehon flew forward, intent on murder.
In that moment, he could think of nothing else but saving the lives
of his wife and unborn child.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw
one of the Cytheran warriors bearing down on him. Crehon lunged
around to face him, swinging his sword to block the warrior from
impaling him. He continued his swing up and around, cleanly
severing the attacker’s head.

As the head fell to the ground and the
body collapsed upon itself, Crehon turned back to his
wife.

Burning rage overtook him. With speed
born of fury, he raced the last paces to his wife and swung his
sword into the side of one of the warriors. Then in a sweeping
motion, he pushed the sword forward and impaled the other warrior.
Blood splattered across his wife’s lifeless body.

He dropped to his knees next to her in
the sand. He heard Carnaxa crying, as if from a great distance, but
all he could see was Magna as she lay there with blood pooled
beneath her. Tears formed and ran down his face as he stared into
her blank eyes. His gaze slid slowly down to her belly and the
spear protruding from her stomach.

He recognized the helical tusked
weapon in an instant and knew who it belonged to.

ATARGATIS
!

In a single act of fate both his wife
and his child were gone forever…

Epilogue

Atlantis was the victor that bloody
day. It would never be forgotten. That day changed the course of
life as everyone knew it.

When the mers attacking his ship left
to aid Atargatis, Straton and Hektor retreated back to Cythera with
the only ship and the few remaining men he had left. Straton
pledged to have his vengeance.

Crehon was left a shell of himself.
Unhinged by Magna’s death, his rage took over and he annihilated
everyone in his path, Cytheran soldiers and mers alike.

Carnaxa disappeared while Crehon was
slumped over his wife’s body. He swore to find her and seek revenge
for her betrayal with Hektor. In his wrath, he vowed the
destruction of Oceania and to kill Atargatis for taking away his
life.

Atlantis and Oceania were no longer
allies and all contact with each other ceased.

When Atargatis recovered, Naia told
him that he had killed Magna and that Crehon had slayed some of his
men in retaliation. Because of Oceanic law, Atargatis had no choice
but to seek punishment against Crehon for what he had
done.

The war between Atlantis and Oceania
had begun...

Glossary

amora
:
Atlantean word for love

bireme:
smaller, faster, and more
agile ship consisting of a

hundred man crew

eiar:
ancient Greek word for
spring

Hoplite
Warriors:
at age 25, boys officially
became

hoplite warriors. While in training,
they lived in the

barracks. They were a heavily armed
foot soldier or

infantry soldier of ancient Greece.
Wore bronze or leather

helmets, breast plates, and greaves or
shin-guards.

Carried round shields, short swords,
and a long spear,

about nine feet in length

trireme:
large
warship

Coming Soon

Talin’s Echo

(Warriors of the Atlantean
Empire)

Book One

C. L. Pardington

Chapter One

“
Father, you can’t force me
to marry him!”

King Atargatis watched his oldest
daughter, Echo, float before him, her arms crossed in defiance. Her
flowing white hair swayed across her pale face and down along her
arm, hiding her markings. She had always been strong-willed and he
usually let her get her way. Not this time.

“
You
will
marry Aramis and that’s final! Do you hear me?” he shouted
back, harsher than he intended.

Echo balled her hands into fists, fury
burning at her insides. “Why would you make me marry him when I
don’t love him?”

“
Your mother and I’d like
for you to have an heir or two, to take over the throne someday.
And at the rate you’re going—”

She cut her father off before he could
finish. “If you think for one minute I’d ever let him touch me,
then you have clearly lost your mind!” A chill ran down her spine.
What a disgusting thought, to have Aramis’s hands touching
her.

“
I will not have you speak
to me like that!” Whether or not he was her father, he was also the
Ruler of Oceania. He couldn’t allow someone to swim in on their
heated exchange and overhear her speak to him in that
manner.

“
If
you’re going to force me to marry Aramis against my will, then I’ll
speak to you however I choose!” She gave him one last look through
narrowed brown eyes before she flicked her tailfin and swam as fast
as she
could out of the
royal cavern
and
far away from her father.

Streaks of sunlight from the surface
beamed through the holes in the coral rocks which made up the
palace walls, casting a beautiful reflection of waves throughout
the entire room as Naia entered. Frowning, she watched from the
doorway as her husband held his forehead against the palm of his
hand. He sat on his gold throne across the vast room which was
filled with ornate items that had been collected throughout their
kingdom’s history. The coral walls were filled with life. Small
groupings of anemone lodged themselves sporadically throughout the
room, and protecting themselves within the security of the
anemone’s venomous tentacles, were small percula
clownfish.

At that moment her attention was drawn
to a small school of yellow tangs passing through. She loved
watching the surrounding sea life thrive. It meant all was well in
the kingdom, even if all was not well at home.

Naia turned her attention back to her
husband and gave out a long sigh while looking at him. The passing
years had been very good to him. He was still as ruggedly handsome
as the day he made her his queen. She loved the way his gold crown
complimented his dark tan complexion. The way the sunlight
shimmered on the golden brown scales of his tailfin sent shivers
down her flowing pink fin.

She swam over to him and brushed a
strand of his white hair away from his face, then cupped her hands
on his cheeks and looked into his brown eyes.

“
Before I came in, I heard
your conversation with Echo through the door. You can’t expect her
to abide by your commands instantly this time. She’s always dreamt
of falling in love and having a family of her own. Being told to
marry someone she’s obviously not in love with can’t be easy for
her.”

The lines hardened across Atargatis’s
forehead. “She has no choice! And neither do we,” he growled.
Staring back into his wife’s shimmering brown eyes, he couldn’t
help but soften his expression. Nearly whispering now, he said,
“How much longer am I supposed to hold my patience with her? Echo’s
almost twenty-eight years old for Triton’s sake! That’s nearly
three years past when she should’ve mated. We can’t postpone this
any longer.”

Dropping
her hands from his cheeks Naia settled onto her own throne. “Well,
you already know how I feel about
this
situation,” she said with
disappointment in her voice. “You shouldn’t have promised our
daughter to Hekili’s son in the first place. Giving him a position
in the Guard would’ve been reward enough.”

She
didn’t feel Aramis treated their daughter with respect. And she
definitely didn’t see love in his eyes when he looked at
her.
No,
in Naia’s
opinion, Echo was merely a means to embed himself deeper into the
family in an attempt to further his position in the
Guard.

She knew
her husband would
never
allow that to happen! The only position above
Captain was General; that rank was only
held by someone from their bloodline. Their oldest son, Sian,
held that privilege. Even if something were to happen to Sian,
their other son, Finn—who currently held the rank of Guardian—would
become the new General, skipping right over
Aramis.