Page 29 of Violet Legacy

Aadya folded her hands in front of her. “The Anki were truly godlike and immortal.” Aadya paused as she looked around. “Our gifts come from their bloodline.”

It was as if she was staring back into the past, and Dante was just a speck on the wall. He didn’t dare move, lest he break the spell she was under.

Aadya opened her palms; small sparks jumped from her fingers. He’d known Aadya was gifted, but never the full extent of her power. It had been centuries since she had manifested any objects or stories. And in his presence, it had always been fleeting.

A beach appeared out of nothing. Pure-white sand stretched to the horizon. The water was deathlike in its stillness. The blues of the sky were almost violet without a cloud in sight, and a bloodred sun burned through the sky. A shadow appeared in the distance. Humanoid. But larger than he was expecting.

“They were the first. And will be the last,” Aadya whispered. She spoke a few more words, but he didn’t understand the dialect. “We worshipped them as gods.”

The shadow moved across the beach, like liquid silver as it walked toward the water. Large bumps protruded from its shoulders.

“What does the O’hurani have to do with Vandana?”

Silence greeted his question. Aadya didn’t move as she sighed. The sound was far more articulate than any words she could have used. She was tired.

“The O’hurani married Vandana. As the Atlantean heir, her marriage to him reinforced our allegiance to the gods and strengthened our bloodlines.” Aadya frowned.

The image changed. A red sky replaced the violet hues. Once-white sand turned to scarlet as waves crashed against the beach. Metal armor glittered among the rocks as weapons lay scattered between the prone, mutilated figures. It looked like a bloodbath. “The truce lasted five hundred years before the war began.”

Dante stared at the scene. Everything he thought he had known about their history was a lie. How did their ancestors rewrite their origin story?

History is written by the victors.

Aadya closed her palm, and the image vanished. “Vandana was said to have led the armies that stood against the O’hurani. For centuries, Atlanteans and the Anki slaughtered anyone who shared their bloodline as a precaution, lest they chose the wrong side. Men, women, and children. No one was saved from their fate.” Aadya swallowed. “The slaughter almost decimated the Houses.”

“How did it stop?”

“Vandana stopped the king,” Aadya said. “It ended the senseless deaths. The price was the destruction of House Atlas and Atlantis. Without the head of the snake, it forced the Anki deep underground, where they have slept for the last eleven thousand years. And we were forced to leave our home.”

The light flickered on the wall, casting them in darkness before it brightened. The glint of Aadya’s dress was almost blinding. Dante didn’t move. “How do you kill an immortal?”

A faint grimace crossed Aadya’s features. “You cannot. Not without slaughtering all those Atlanteans and humans who carry a drop of Anki blood. It is an automatic death sentence. Vandana ensured there were no records of the war, and the O’hurani and Anki were wiped from our living and written record. Until they no longer existed even as a myth among our people. It is her greatest legacy.”

Dante let Aadya’s words wash over him. There was so much he did not understand. The snippets of stories from his father were threading together and adding color to the anecdote Aadya had just told him. “Did my father know the legend?”

“He discovered the story when he was but a boy—swore that it had been told to him by Vandana’s descendant. A beautiful woman with eyes so pale blue they appeared white.” Aadya stood up, the swoosh of her skirt echoing loudly. “I laughed at his foolishness.” There was a hint of regret in Aadya’s tone.

“And now?”

“There are ramblings of sightings of creatures that should no longer exist. Whispers on the wind of Atlantean factions who have returned to the worship of the old gods with macabre rituals that haven’t been practiced since the destruction of our home,” Aadya sighed. “Talal was adamant that finding Vandana’s tomb was the key to stopping them from rising again. I thought he was following a foolish idea. But I am unsure now.”

Dante leaned against the chair, letting the silence grow between them.

“What does the seer dream of?”

Sypha only told him snippets of their visions, but the dark circles under their eyes and the way their hands shook after sleepless nights told him far more than any words could. “Death.”

“And the role of your guest?”

The urge to protect Rieka was violent as it surged through him. “She may play a pivotal part in finding the tomb.”

The light flickered behind them again as the silence grew between them.

“What do you know of your hybrid?”

Fiercely loyal. Intelligent.Mine.

The thought slammed into him and stole his breath away at the sheer magnitude of the realization. It had been just an inkling beneath the surface of his skin before now. Something he’d ignored because he was so focused on finding the tomb. But the need to protect Rieka came from instinct, the same instinct that he had always trusted, and he wasn’t about to stop. He just hadn’t put the two together.

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