Defy the Dawn

To Brynne as well.

This Zael was a courageous man. A noble one, the kind who would risk everything to protect the child of a dead friend from an enemy with cold, far-reaching power. Jordana had described a hero—not the first word that leaped to Brynne’s mind when she thought of him.

She didn’t know what to do with this new information.

She also didn’t know what to do with the softening of her regard for the man she so desperately wanted to despise.

“Our lives would all be emptier if you weren’t part of them,” Tavia said as she tenderly squeezed Jordana’s hand.

“It’s true,” Carys agreed. “And we also wouldn’t have the Atlantean crystal your father hid away from Selene all these years.”

The odd reference pulled Brynne out of her unwanted musings about Zale and that troubling kiss they’d shared.

“What do you mean, a crystal? What are you talking about, Carys?”

“Ah, that is a whole other story,” Tavia said. “We’ll explain everything to you, Brynne, but let’s do it over breakfast. You’ve had a very long night and I’m sure you must be starving.”

CHAPTER 8

“Have you thought any more about what I asked of you the last time you were here?”

Had he thought about it? Zael grunted at Lucan’s question. “You asked me to consider betraying my people, Commander Thorne. I assure you, it’s been foremost in my mind ever since.”

The two of them had left the conference room to talk alone, and because Lucan had something to show Zael, he’d said. They strode the labyrinth of corridors that snaked past smaller meeting rooms, training facilities, and Gideon’s high tech lair of computers and communications equipment where the eccentric Breed male was already deeply engrossed in his work on half a dozen touch-screen monitors filled with scrolling code.

“I haven’t asked you to betray anyone, Zael. What I asked was for your trust. For your confidence as the Order attempts to learn all it can about your queen and her intentions.”

“Selene hasn’t been my queen for a very long time.”

“You served her for centuries as one of her legion,” Lucan reminded him.

“Yes. And more than a hundred years ago, I left the realm a fugitive. For as long as I’m alive, to Selene I’m merely one more defector with a price on his head.” Just like his comrade, Cassianus, and the small number of other Atlanteans who’d escaped to begin again in a new place, without fear of a volatile ruler.

“But your loyalty is still intact?” There was weight in Lucan’s question, and its implication.

Zael answered honestly. “I don’t serve Selene, but I can’t condemn her completely. She was good once, but she’s a vengeful, powerful woman. Her heart iced over when Atlantis was destroyed by your Ancient ancestors.”

“That’s a damned long time to hold a grudge.”

“She’s immortal, Lucan. Her heart may never thaw. It went even colder after her only child was dead and her sole heir was stolen away.”

“Along with the crystal Cass took at the same time,” Lucan added.

“Yes, along with the crystal.” Which was now in the Order’s hands. Not that Zael had actually seen the treasure to verify that fact.

As crucial as their newfound alliance was, Lucan Thorne had been reluctant to let Zael anywhere near the crystal Jordana had received from her father and entrusted to the Order. For that, Zael had to respect the Breed male.

The crystal was one of five that the realm once possessed. They were each a source of immense power and versatile uses. Put into the wrong hands—the hands of an Atlantean whose motives were less honorable than Zael’s, for instance—and the outcome could be catastrophic.

Lucan paused in the corridor and faced him. “When we met here a few days ago, I asked if the Order could count on you as an ally.”

Zael nodded. “And I told you that as long as I was confident we both wanted to achieve the same thing—lasting peace for all—that you would always have my trust and confidence.”

“So you did.” After a moment, Lucan motioned him forward.

Zael instantly recognized the huge chamber he was brought to. He’d been there on his first visit to Order headquarters just a few days ago, and he would never forget the vast archive room. Or the remarkable woman responsible for it.

“Hi, Zael.”

“Jenna. Hello.” He smiled as the lean, short-haired brunette set aside a journal she was recording and came over to greet him.

“Have you had a chance to see Dylan yet since you arrived?” Jenna asked. “She’s come by here a couple of times already, hoping she might find you.”

“I haven’t seen her yet, no,” Zael answered, feeling a pang of regret—and affection—at the mention of the other Breedmate. “I’ll make sure that I do.”

Lucan cleared his throat. “We’ll all have plenty of time for reunions, but right now, I wanted Zael to understand where things are progressing with your visions, Jenna.”

Even knowing her history and the astonishing cause of the Breed dermaglyphs that tracked all over Jenna’s human skin, it was hard not to stare. But her outward appearance wasn’t even half as interesting as the other thing that made Jenna unique.

After surviving a horrific attack by the last living Ancient—the savage fathers of the Breed race—Jenna was now gifted, or cursed, some might say, with the dreamlike memories of her attacker. The journals she’d been filling for the past two decades were a staggering chronicle of the Breed’s history, as seen through the eyes of that now-dead predator.

She glanced at Lucan. “Did you tell him I’ve been seeing more details of the attack on Atlantis?”

“We were just getting to that,” Lucan said. “I’ve decided it’s time to show him.”

Zael was about to ask for an explanation, but since he’d entered the room his temples had begun to fill with a persistent and distracting buzzing. His chest and limbs felt increasingly warm…as if a furnace had been turned on inside him.

“The crystal.” He swung an incredulous look on Lucan. “It’s here in this room.”

He wasn’t asking for confirmation. He didn’t need to ask. Every cell in his body was responding to the close proximity of the otherworldly power source belonging to his people.