Free Royal Heiress by Ruth Ann Nordin

wished for this for many centuries,
and I’m finally back. It’s amazing.”
    “Send us back,” Katherine told Amanda.
    Amanda shook her head. “It’s not safe to go
back yet. I requested to be taken to a safe place. And right now,
this is it.”
    “Are we stuck here forever?” Jake asked, not
looking pleased with the idea.
    “No. Just until it’s safe for us to go back.
At that time, the magic I used will transport us back to the
correct time.”
    Katherine took a deep breath, understanding
that Amanda’s plan was a good one after all. “We probably won’t be
here for long.”
    “In the meantime, we should enjoy ourselves,”
Pallid said, smiling widely. “This is a once in the lifetime
opportunity you don’t want to miss.”
    Not sure if she would agree, Katherine joined
the others as they followed him into the busy city.
     
    ***
     
    Present Day
    Ivory Palace
    Planet: Olympia
     
    Zeus looked at Hera, Demeter, Hestia, Hades,
and Poseidon.
    “Have you talked to an Augur?” Hades asked,
his dark mood even worse after hearing the news. “They were made to
protect us.”
    “Hera and I did talk to Gaius, their current
leader,” Zeus said. “They said our replacements are forming as we
speak. It will take roughly seventy-two hours for them to be
complete.”
    “Three days?” Demeter shivered despite the
warm breeze floating into the spacious ivory living room.
    “That doesn’t give us much time to act,”
Hades sourly noted.
    “We need Ares to help us design a plan of
attack,” Hera said. “We need to reach those replacements before
they wake up.”
    “But how can we get into their protective
environments without the password?” Demeter wondered, now openly
shaking with fear.
    “We need to find the Infer,” Zeus replied.
“There is one Infer still alive. He must have found another Stone
of Immortality and kept it.”
    “That’s good news,” Poseidon said.
“Thankfully, ours wasn’t the only one hidden in the
Underworld.”
    “I don’t recall a male Infer ever coming to
my domain,” Hades grumbled. “They would have had no need to live
down there.”
    “He must have been in search of something,”
Hera replied. “Whatever the reason, he found the stone but
apparently never stopped by to see you.”
    “I didn’t even know he was near my domain. In
hindsight, it’s a good thing he was or else there would be no hope
for us now.”
    “Unfortunately, we never told the Infers
about our backup plan in case we didn’t make it out of Atlantis
alive.” Zeus sighed. “He may have the memory of the password, but
he doesn’t know what it’s for. That’s why we need to go there and
talk to him in case Queen Amanda doesn’t find him in time. The
Augurs said several nations on Earth are interested in ruling
Atlantis. There is bound to be a war.”
    “They would never survive against our
replacements,” Hades said. “They have no idea what they’re up
against.”
    “It’s worse than that,” Hera added. “This
will end up with everyone blowing each other up. That’s essentially
what happened on Atlantis the first time, except the rest of the
world wasn’t involved so the rest of the nations survived. The
people on Earth have become too connected.”
    “The best answer is to destroy Atlantis once
and for all,” Zeus decided. “The people on Earth can’t handle the
technology there any more than we could.”
    They glanced at each other and slowly nodded
in agreement. They would notify the Augurs of their decision.
    “In the meantime, we will need Ares’
expertise in battle plans and Athena’s wisdom in not going
overboard with them. We can’t afford to mess this up,” Zeus
concluded.
    Since the others agreed, Zeus went to get
Ares and Athena.

Chapter Nine
     
    Thousands of years in the past
    Atlantis
     
    Pallid led Jake, Amanda, and Katherine
through the city, still excited to be back in the city he loved so
much. After all the time of feeling like a stranger in the