Free Lords of the Sea by Kaitlyn O'Connor Page B

shiver—as in chill—but she couldn’t delude herself. “I don’t know why you bothered to question me if you could tell what I was thinking,” she said resentfully. “You must know I’m not hiding anything and that it was just an accident that we came here.” She thought that over. “It was the blue glow. Mark wanted to know what was causing it.”

    His expression turned thoughtful. “You saw that before you came below?”

    “We saw that, or at least Mark did, before I noticed the freak storm surrounding us.”

    Nodding, he moved toward the door.

    “Are we done now?” Cassie asked hopefully, pushing up from the chair.
    “For
    now.”

    She stared at the watery door when he’d left. After a few moments, she turned to look at the bed speculatively. Shrugging, she moved toward it and felt the surface. She shouldn’t have been surprised that it felt dry when the chair had, but she was. Whatever materials they used either dried very fast or shed water.

    Maybe Jimmy had been right and they were aliens? The place looked like an ordinary building, an old one granted, but like a structure that might be found anywhere.
    Nothing in it, however, was the least bit ‘ordinary’—certainly not the inhabitants, she reflected, still smarting over the fact that she’d been drooling over him in her head and he’d caught every bit of it!

    If she hadn’t known better, she would be wondering about her sanity.

    Even if they were aliens, it still seemed bizarre that they could change forms at will and breathe water as easily as they could air.

    And hear people’s thoughts.

    Maybe that part actually made sense, in a weird sort of way. They’d have to be able to communicate under water, she supposed.

    And what had he meant by saying they had no hair?

    What was that growing out of his scalp if it wasn’t hair?

    It looked like hair.

    She struggled with it briefly, but decided she was just too tired to analyze any of it. Settling on the bed, she pulled the cover over herself, shifted around until she felt comfortable, and closed her eyes.

    As soon as she did, she remembered that, when she’d asked him where she was, he’d seemed to imply that this was Atlantis. That didn’t make sense to her, though. She only had a vague idea about the legends. She’d heard bits and pieces of it, but she knew it was a very, very old story.

    Which was harder to swallow? That this was Atlantis? Or that these merfolk were actually aliens?

    40

    That was a tough one. Neither one seemed believable or likely.

    Actually, she decided, what she’d seen outside looked like it could be old enough to fit the story. But what about the people of Atlantis? The story had seemed to indicate that it had been destroyed. So they could breathe water and it hadn’t mattered when it sank? Why would they have been living on the surface to begin with if they were merfolk?

    And how could this enormous thing have been here all this time without anyone discovering it?

    Even considering how huge the ocean was and the fact that very little of it had been explored it seemed unbelievable that this place could have been here all this time and no one had ever found it.

    Unless the people who had just hadn’t returned to tell the tale?

    That thought sent a shiver through her.

    Raen hadn’t seemed threatening—unnerving, yes—especially when he’d been strolling around stark naked—but not threatening. Surely she would’ve felt ‘vibes’ if he actually meant them harm?

    It wasn’t until she was hovering on the brink of sleep that it clicked in her mind that these people had heard everything that had been discussed—everything, including Linda’s suggestion that she try to seduce Raen and distract him to give them an edge.

    And then they’d arrived, five women, and three men, and separated all of them.

    Had they decided it seemed like a good suggestion? To seduce them and discover what they could about them?

    Maybe, but that theory