Atlantis Rising

Table of Contents

 

 

“Alyssa Day creates an amazing and astonishing world in
Atlantis Rising
[that] you’ll want to visit again and again.
Atlantis Rising
is romantic, sexy, and utterly compelling. I loved it!”

—New York Times
bestselling author Christine Feehan

 
“An amazing new world you don’t want to miss and you won’t want to leave. Alyssa Day delivers chills, thrills, and your fill of sexy Poseidon Warriors.”

—USA Today
bestselling author Kerrelyn Sparks

 
“Wow! Alyssa Day writes marvelous paranormal romance.”

—
USA Today
bestselling author Susan Kearney

 
“Alyssa Day’s characters grab you and take you on a whirl-wind adventure. I haven’t been so captivated by characters or a story in a long time. Enjoy the ride!”

—
New York Times
bestselling author Susan Squires

 
“There’s nothing more evocative than the world of Atlantis. Alyssa Day has penned a white-hot winner!”

—Gena Showalter, author of
The Nymph King

 
“An appealing heroine with a sense of humor and a sexy hero.”—
Library Journal

 
“Characters that will win your heart!”

—
New York Times
bestselling author Suzanne Brockmann

 
“Holliday does it again! The reader won’t be able to put down this . . . story filled with colorful and heartwarming characters.”

—
Romantic Times
(4
¹
⁄2 stars)

 
“Excellent . . . fast-paced.”—Lori Avocato, award-winning author of The Pauline Sokol Mystery series

 
“Delightful, delicious, and just plain fun.”

—Susan McBride, author of The Debutante Dropout Mystery series

 
“Fun.”—Susan Wiggs, author of
The Ocean Between Us

 
“Well-written, fast-paced . . . [I] was hooked from page one.”

—
The Best Reviews

 
“Simply fantastic.”—
Affaire de Coeur

 
“Charming characters come to life immediately. This is without a doubt in the top ten books of the year.”

—
Huntress Book Reviews

THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada
(a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.)
Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.)
Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia
(a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.)
Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India
Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Mairangi Bay, Auckland 1311, New Zealand
(a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.)
Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa

 
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England

 
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

 
ATLANTIS RISING

 
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author

 
PRINTING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / March 2007

 
Copyright © 2007 by Alesia Holliday.

 
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without
permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of
the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.

eISBN : 978-0-425-21449-7

 
BERKLEY SENSATION®
Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
BERKLEY SENSATION is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark belonging to Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

 

 

To the best editor in the world, Cindy Hwang,
who lets me try new things
and always roots for my success.
A
good
editor is worth her weight in gold—
Cindy is worth her weight in
diamonds
.

 
To LCDR Judd,
for more reasons than I will ever have words.

 
And to Michelle Cunnah,
who saves my life
at the eleventh hour
on every single book.

Thanks, always, to Steve Axelrod, who makes me laugh, makes great deals for me, and says nice things when I make my once-a-book “aarghhh” phone call.

To my wonderful friends Christine, Cheryl, Kathy, and Val of the Starfish Club for encouragement, and to all my incredible friends who listen, are patient, and offer wonderful advice: Lani Diane Rich, Michelle Cunnah, Barbara Ferrer, Eileen Rendahl, Whitney Gaskell, Beth Kendrick, Cindy Holby, and Marianne Mancusi. To Megan Emish, for the Warriors of Poseidon symbol. To my terrific Web people, Deb and Tara at
RomanceDesigns.com
, who should have been thanked earlier.

To Suz Brockmann, Ed Gaffney, Eric Ruben, Virginia Kantra, and Cathy Mann, who are brilliant and generous, and to the folks at the
Into the Storm
weekend for sharing their enthusiasm with me and listening to the first-ever reading from this book.

Jenny Crusie and the Cherries, who are funny, cranky, and amazing in exactly the right proportions.

And
always
, of course, to my children, who ate a little too much pizza and watched a little too much TV during the last two weeks of this book, but never once complained. You’re the
best
.

Dear Reader,

 
Thank you for coming along with me on my journey to Atlantis. Be sure to visit me at
www.alyssaday.com
for free screensavers and to sign up for my members-only mailing list!

 
Alyssa

In this island, Atlantis, arose a great and marvelous might of Kings . . . But in later time, after
there had been exceeding great earthquakes and
floods, there fell one day and night of destruction; and the warriors . . . were swallowed up by the
earth, and in like manner did the island Atlantis sink beneath the sea and vanish away.

—Plato,
Timaeus
, dated at approximately 600 B.C.

 
One can hardly doubt that significant shifts of the
earth’s crust have taken place repeatedly . . .

—Albert Einstein, in correspondence to Charles Hapgood, May 8, 1953

Capital City of Atlantis, 9600 B.C.

It was the time before the Cataclysm, forced upon Atlanteans by the greed of humanity. In Poseidon’s Temple, in the soul of the seven isles of Atlantis, a group of warriors met with the sea god’s high priest. He divided them into seven groups of seven and assigned each a sacred duty and an object of power—a magic-imbued gemstone. Some were to sink to the bottom of the world, shielded from prying eyes and envious lusts by the waters that nurtured them. Others were to join the lands of humans at assigned locations—all high grounds that would protect the lineage in the event of severe flooding.

All would wait. And watch. And protect.

And serve as first warning on the eve of humanity’s destruction.

Then, and only then, Atlantis would rise.

For they were the Warriors of Poseidon, and the mark of the Trident they bore served as witness to their sacred duty to safeguard mankind.

Hell is empty
And all the Devils are here.

—William Shakespeare,
The Tempest

 
 
Capital City of Atlantis, Present Day

Conlan waved a hand in front of the portal and briefly wondered whether its magic would even recognize a warrior who hadn’t passed through its gateway for more than seven years.

Seven years, three weeks, and eleven days, to be precise.

As he waited, up to his chest in the healing water, death taunted him—flickering at the edges of his vision, shimmering in the deep blue ocean currents surrounding him, pulsing in the scarlet blood that dripped steadily from his side and leg. He laughed without humor, propping himself up with a hand on his knee.

“If that bitch-vamp Anubisa couldn’t break me, I’m sure as hell not giving up now,” he snarled to the empty darkness surrounding him.

Iridescent aqua lights flashed as if in response to his defiance, and the portal widened for him. Two men—two
warriors
—stood at guard, widened eyes and parted lips mirroring identical expressions of shock as they stared through the transparent membrane of the portal. He shouldered his way through the portal’s opening, which enlarged to fit whatever or whoever it deemed worthy of passage.

“Prince Conlan! You’re alive,” one said.

“Mostly,” he replied, then stepped into Atlantis. He drank in the first sight in more than seven years of his beloved homeland, lungs expanding to taste the freshness of sea-filtered air. In the middle distance, the gold-veined white marble pillars fronting Poseidon’s Temple glowed with the reflected hues of artificial sunset. Conlan’s breath caught in his throat at the sight of it.

A sight he’d been sure he’d never experience again.

Especially when she’d laughingly proposed taking his eyes.