Free Siren's Surrender by Devyn Quinn Page B

table. She seemed a little calmer now, less agitated. “And that was all you were going to ask? It had nothing to do with Jake or”—choking up, she faltered for a moment—“the accident?”
    Blake nodded again. “That’s all we wanted to know.” He lifted the cup he held, still half full of hot black coffee. Kenneth had used so much instant he was surprised the bottom hadn’t melted away. “To tell you the truth, I didn’t plan for it to take more than twenty minutes. Tops.”
    Frowning deeply, Gwen cleared her throat. “Looks like you’re going to be staying a little longer than you anticipated.”
    Despite the pain in his arm, Blake couldn’t help grinning. “Does this mean you’ll be holding my room? Looks like I’m going to be late checking out.”
    Gwen blushed. “Of course,” she mumbled, coughing discreetly into the back of her hand. She looked every which way but at him.
    Blake’s stomach rumbled, reminding him that he hadn’t eaten since last night. “Guess we’re not getting breakfast, either.”
    Tessa started to stand. “I could make you something,” she offered. “We’ve got provisions.”
    Blake waved her back down. “I’ll think about my stomach later—after I find out what’s going on here.” He paused, pulling bits and pieces of the previous conversation out of his memory. “Now, back to Ishaldi. Am I correct in assuming you located some sort of ruins?”
    Pulling up a chair, Kenneth sat down beside his wife. “Yeah, Jake was right. It did exist and we did locate some of the wreckage from an island that used to be in the area.”
    Blake nodded. “I see.”
    Closing her eyes, Gwen folded her arms protectively across her chest. “Oh, goddess,” she mumbled through tight lips. “Here it comes.”
    Tessa slipped her hands around her cup, holding it tightly as if trying to draw warmth from the liquid inside. “It’s hard to explain, but among the ruins we found some sort of a temple under the water. But it wasn’t entirely submerged. It was whole—and something inside it was sealed. Jake—he thought it was some sort of tomb.”
    “And this tomb,” Blake prompted. “Did you open it?”
    Guilt flashing across her face, Tessa nodded. “We did.”
    Kenneth took up the story. “But it wasn’t a tomb, it was some sort of—”
    “Wormhole,” Tessa filled in,
    Kenneth nodded. “Yeah, some kind of a dimensional doorway.”
    Blake kept his face impassive. Since joining the A51, he’d heard his share of lunatic stories. He’d even encountered a few crazies wearing aluminum hats and talking into tin cans. He could tell the difference between those who were certifiably insane and those who were telling the absolute truth as they believed it.
    Had a section of his arm not been fried to a crisp, Blake would have wondered what color Kool-Aid these people had been drinking. As it was, he doubted he’d hallucinated the injury. “And where did this portal lead?”
    Kenneth and Tessa shared a look between them.
    “To Ishaldi,” Tessa said. “But it isn’t all ruins. There is a city there, and another race of people.”
    Kenneth eyed Blake’s injured arm. “And they aren’t exactly friendly toward humans.”
    Blake’s stomach rolled. “I think that’s pretty clear.”
    Kenneth laced his fingers together and laid his hands on the table. “I just wish it didn’t sound so insane coming out of my mouth,” he answered, giving Blake a rueful smile. “Honest to God and I’m dying if I’m lying. There is a portal under the Mediterranean Sea and we accidentally opened it.”
    Digesting the information he had, Blake thought a moment. “I’m no scientist, but the opening of a wormhole would jibe with a sudden surge in electromagnetic activity,” he ventured slowly.
    Surprise colored Kenneth’s face. “You say that like you believe us.”
    Blake nodded. “From what I’ve seen, I’m starting to.” He leaned forward in his chair. “Can you tell me more about the