Compete (78 page)
Authors: Norilana Books
Tags: #ancient aliens, #asteroid, #space opera, #games, #prince, #royal, #military, #colonization, #survival, #exploration
It’s a smile I can see from all the way across the room, and it destroys me completely.
I am numb, barely breathing. . . .
The Assembly is filled with whispers, the High Court especially.
The Imperator watches with a satisfied smile.
Aeson looks at Lady Tiri.
And then he
resumes
walking.
I feel my heart pound in my chest as I watch Lady Tiri’s expression go from confident triumph to slow fading confusion. She frowns and stares in Aeson’s wake, as he continues to pace slowly down the red path, glancing leisurely on both sides of him.
He passes the Middle Court section and keeps walking.
There are more whispers everywhere. . . .
And then Aeson Kassiopei comes before Consul Denu, standing at the corner of the Low Court section. He glances at the Consul and then his composed gaze falls upon
me
.
I catch my breath, and my face must reflect a million things in that moment.
Suddenly Aeson’s eyes come wide open and they are
wild
.
He takes an aggressive step forward and he reaches out for me and
grabs
my hand.
I almost stumble at the shock of contact, but there’s no time, because suddenly I am being pulled forward and
dragged
along, as Aeson Kassiopei has me in a painful iron vise that compresses my fingers. . . . And all I can do is half-stumble, half-run after him as he rapidly walks back up the red path toward the Throne, taking me with him, while my mind is in shock.
A few steps from the dais, we stop. I see flashes of stunned faces on both sides of the aisle, and most of all, I see the Imperator suddenly frozen in his golden chair, his expression turned to stone, a frown gathering.
The Imperator is looking at
me
.
But before anyone can speak, I hear the loud ringing voice of Aeson Kassiopei at my side, and he is using a
power voice
of command.
“I have chosen my Bride and Imperial Consort and her name is Gwenevere Lark of Earth!” he exclaims, at the same time as he raises our clasped hands up for everyone to see—in the process pulling my arm up painfully, because he is so much taller than me, and I don’t think he’s fully aware of what he’s doing right now—or for that matter, I don’t think he is in his right
mind
. . . .
Or maybe it’s
me
—I am not in my right mind, and I am about to fall. . . . Or I
would
if he wasn’t clutching my hand and forcefully keeping me upright right now.
And then Aeson turns to me and faces me, and he still holds me tightly but no longer enough to crush my fingers.
“Gwen Lark,” he says in Atlantean, and then repeats everything in English for my sake, all the while staring into my eyes with his lapis lazuli own—wild, completely raving mad with unspeakable emotion and violent intensity. “I take
you
as my Imperial Consort. . . . I claim you as my Bride. . . . I open you and seal you as my Wife! Let it be Known and Witnessed as my Immovable Will before the Imperial Court of Kassiopei!”
“What?” I gasp. And my voice sounds tiny and faint in the stunned silence of the great chamber.
But Aeson releases my fingers and now takes my upper arm, pressing my flesh forcefully as he draws me to him, so that now I stand directly before him, chest-to-chest, looking up into his eyes with absolute shock and disbelief.
“Gwen. . . .” he says, starting to lean in closer.
At first I think he is about to whisper something in my ear. But then he keeps going and turns his head slightly so that I feel the wash of his hot breath on my cheek. . . .
And suddenly, there is no more space between us, or between our breath.
Aeson Kassiopei kisses me,
hard
.
He opens my mouth with his and enters me, and it is like a live circuit closing, life force connecting with another source of life force, coming together as one, flowing between us in a stream and then a circulating ocean.
In that moment of shock I feel a stab of explosive indescribable
desire
pass through me. It
hurts
and burns and tears into me, rendering me into nothing . . . and it expands and fills me, like an empty vessel, so that I come
awake
at last.
This is what desire feels like
. . . .
There had been no kisses before this one. That gentle, sweet flowing honey, the sensual lassitude I’ve felt with Logan, even the breathless euphoria—all of that was but a poor faded ghost, a shadow of the real thing that is happening to me
right now
, as suddenly I burn.
When he releases my mouth at last, and stands back from me, I gasp, pulling in air for the first time, and meet the intimate gaze of his eyes.
“The Sacred Opening of the Mouth has Sealed us, Gwen Lark, as it is written in the Book of Life and the Book of the Dead,” Aeson says softly, yet his voice carries with power across the multitude of the great chamber. “My lips have kissed no other, and from this day forward I will kiss no other but you, my earthly Bride.”
And then Aeson Kassiopei, the Imperial Crown Prince of
Atlantida
, takes me by the hand again and turns us both to face the wrath of his Father, the Imperator.
In that perfect moment, nothing can
compete
with us or conspire against us—neither Imperial wrath nor all the forces of the universe united against us—in that moment, we are one spirit.
And it soars and sings like a lark.
The End of COMPETE: The Atlantis Grail, Book Two
The story continues in . . .
WIN: The Atlantis Grail, Book Three
Coming soon!
While you wait . . . for a change of pace, try the intensely romantic historical epic fantasy
Cobweb Bride
. . . or the madly hilarious
Vampires are from Venus, Werewolves are from Mars
.
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Lords of Rainbow
Dreams of the Compass Rose
Salt of the Air
The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration
The Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass
Mayhem at Grant-Williams High (YA)
The Duke in His Castle
After the Sundial
Mansfield Park and Mummies
Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons
Pride and Platypus: Mr. Darcy’s Dreadful Secret
Vampires are from Venus, Werewolves are from Mars:
A Comprehensive Guide to Attracting Supernatural Love
Cobweb Bride Trilogy:
Cobweb Bride
Cobweb Empire
Cobweb Forest
The Atlantis Grail:
Qualify (Book One)
Compete (Book Two)
(Forthcoming)
The Atlantis Grail:
Win (Book Three)
Survive (Book Four)
Pagan Persuasion: All Olympus Descends on Regency
Thank you for your support!
Vera Nazarian
is a two-time Nebula Award® Finalist and a member of Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. She immigrated to the USA from the former USSR as a kid, sold her first story at 17, and has been published in numerous anthologies and magazines, honorably mentioned in Year’s Best volumes, and translated into eight languages.
Vera made her novelist debut with the critically acclaimed
Dreams of the Compass Rose,
followed by
Lords of Rainbow
. Her novella
The Clock King and the Queen of the Hourglass
made the 2005 Locus Recommended Reading List. Her debut collection
Salt of the Air
contains the 2007 Nebula Award-nominated “The Story of Love.” Recent work includes the 2008 Nebula Finalist novella
The Duke in His Castle,
science fiction collection
After the Sundial
(2010),
The Perpetual Calendar of Inspiration
(2010), three Jane Austen parodies,
Mansfield Park and Mummies
(2009),
Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons
(2010), and
Pride and Platypus: Mr. Darcy’s Dreadful Secret
(2012), all part of her
Supernatural Jane Austen Series
, a parody of self-help and supernatural relationships advice,
Vampires are from Venus, Werewolves are from Mars: A Comprehensive Guide to Attracting Supernatural Love
(2012),
Cobweb Bride Trilogy
(2013), and
Qualify:
The Atlantis Grail, Book One
(2014).
After many years in Los Angeles, Vera now lives in a small town in Vermont. She uses her Armenian sense of humor and her Russian sense of suffering to bake conflicted pirozhki and make art.
In addition to being a writer, philosopher, and award-winning artist, she is also the publisher of Norilana Books.
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To Zinaida Nazarian, my Mother
With all my Love
In Memoriam
1932-2015
And to Tanith Lee
With all my Wonder
In Memoriam
1947-2015
There are so many of you whose unwavering, loving support helped me bring this book to life. My gratitude is boundless, and I thank you with all my heart (and in alphabetical order, cause in any other way lies madness)!
To my absolutely brilliant first readers, advisors, topic experts and friends, Jeanne Miller, Jeremy Frank, Susan Franzblau, and Susan Macdonald.
To the lovely and wonderful group of Vermont writers and friends, Ellen Jareckie, Lina Gimble, and Valerie Gillen.