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  “Your mother will never allow it,” Tyvin said.

  “I don’t care what my mother wants or what she thinks. During this journey I’ve learned that all three of you are amazing men and all of you bring something different to the table. You’re all so kind to me, and you all get along with one another. The thought of giving myself to one man for the rest of eternity doesn’t sit well with me. I want all of you to be my mates,” I said.

  “This is definitely one weird day,” Adam sighed, putting his palms against his eyes.

  “If one or all of you don’t want this, and you don’t want to stay, I won’t stop you. We can finish the trade deal, go back to Terrandale, and you can find a woman to spend your life with. No hard feelings,” I said, standing strong, even though it killed me to say it aloud.

  “How would this work? You know, with everything,” Aidan asked.

  “You three will have to share me and understand that part of it. As the woman I’m in charge, and once you commit yourself to me and to this harem then that’s it. We’ll be bonded one way or another, whether Telerius does it spiritually for us or not,” I said confidently.

  “I will devote myself to you,” Tyvin said after a moment, taking me by surprise. “I know you are the woman for me, and whether that means I have you to myself or share you with others, I want to be with you.”

  I walked over to Tyvin, grabbing the front of his robes, pulled him close, and kissed him. I felt both the softness of his lips and of his soul as I tasted him and felt an overwhelming feeling of butterflies deep within myself. I was hoping he would say yes.

  “I’ll join,” Adam said, shaking his head. “I never thought I’d say that, and this is definitely not how I expected this evening to go, but I feel the same for you as Tyvin does. You are the strongest, wittiest, most beautiful woman I have ever had the pleasure to know, and being with you, even if I have to share you, will make me the happiest I could hope to be.”

  Smiling, I walked over to Adam and wrapped my hands around the back of his head, my fingers lacing through his hair, before I pulled him down and kissed him. His tongue slipped into my mouth, flickering against mine, before I bit his lower lip gently and pulled away. “That was nice,” he said, smiling.

  I looked at Tyvin, but there was no trace of jealousy on his face. It was going perfectly, and I didn’t know what I was so afraid of.

  “I’m not sure,” Aidan said, rubbing the back of his head.

  He looked concerned, and a little bit pissed off, if I wasn’t mistaken. I wanted him with me, providing the fire that I knew my heart desired. My mother married a fire elemental, my father, and for good reason. There was something about a warrior that sent shivers up my spine.

  “We’ve agreed, why not you as well?” Tyvin asked.

  “Because my entire life I’ve seen myself with one woman, and not with two other guys lingering around,” Aidan said.

  “They won’t be lingering around,” I said, defending them. They were both now my mates, and even though I had feelings for Aidan and wanted him as well, I wouldn’t let him talk down to the others for their decision. If anything, they were showing more bravery by taking this chance than he was by sulking alone.

  “So what, we all sleep together at night or something? How the hell would this even work?” Aidan asked.

  “It will have to be something you three work out like men. You’ll switch nightly or weekly, and each of you will have the chance to have me to yourself, while other times I’ll want you all at once,” I said, standing tall.

  “I guess I didn’t think the time at the inn was going to be something we did more than once,” Aidan said.

  “If I’m not good enough for you, then that’s fine,” I said.

  “I need the night to think about this,” Aidan said, standing up abruptly.

  “Take it,” I said, shaking my head as he walked out of the room.

  “Well, that was tense,” Tyvin said. I took Aidan’s spot on the couch. It was warm, very warm, as if his anger fired him up and I was now feeling what he did.

  “Come here, both of you,” I said, and the guys came over to me.

  I leaned up against Adam, falling into his side, as Tyvin’s hand rested on my thigh and began to rub. I was starting to feel something more than lust with them, though I couldn’t help but feel like a piece of the puzzle was missing too. I wanted Aidan in my harem, and I needed to make sure he didn’t say no.

  •••

  “Kira,” I heard, with a knock at my door the next morning.

  “Yes? Come in,” I said.

  “Aira is here,” Tyvin said, before she walked in the door. So that’s which one you are, I thought to myself.

  “Good morning, princess, I’m sorry to wake you,” Aira said.

  “No, you’re fine, I was already awake,” I said.

  “If you would like to get ready and come downstairs, we would like to take you on a tour of the kingdom today. King Janius would like for you to see what we produce in the kingdom,” Aira said.

  “Okay, that sounds wonderful. I’ll get changed and come down,” I said, smiling.

  Aira closed my door as I sat up in the bed and stretched my arms. I hadn’t slept as well as usual, and for fairly obvious reasons. I felt bad about Aidan, and part of me wondered if I’d been a bit too blunt last night. I didn’t know if I’d made him feel less wanted with the way I went about things. I thought that behind that brooding, scarred face and body, he was secretly a softy.

  I slipped on my clothes, opting for a leather jacket and pants rather than a glittery dress. Out of habit I sheathed my sword, feeling naked whenever I was without it. Surely they would understand.

  “I’m ready to go,” I said, walking down the stairs.

  “Is that your sword?” Tyvin asked.

  “I just miss having it on me. I’m so used to it and it has a very special history to me. It was passed down in my family,” I explained to Aira.

  “I certainly understand, princess,” she said, smiling.

  “You can call me Kira, and thank you,” I said.

  “Well, I’m taking mine, then,” Adam said, and his hammer flew across the room into his hand. “I love this thing.”

  “It’s so amazing you can do that,” Tyvin said, chumming it up with Adam now that they were together in my harem. It was like that locked them together as best friends or something.

  “I put in an earthen core. You know, I wasn’t sure about it at first, but it really has worked out. I would love to make you a new staff when we get back to Terrandale,” Adam said.

  “That sounds lovely,” Tyvin said.

  “Okay you two, stop falling in love,” I said, laughing. “We have to go.”

  Aidan came with, falling back a little and not staying as close to me as usual. I looked back at him as we got into a cart, before turning forward and being shocked. There were seahorses pulling us.

  “Aren’t those seahorses?” I asked, confused.

  “Of course,” Aira said, without skipping a beat.

  “But,” I said, stumbling my words.

  “Magic,” Tyvin whispered, nudging me.

  “You know, sometimes I forget about that,” I replied.

  “Ah, Kira, I hope your stay last night went splendidly,” Kelvin said, as he walked into the open-air cart and sat across from me.

  “It was, thank you so much,” I said.

  “King Janius has personally asked me to show you around the kingdom properly so you may see a bit about who we are and what we do here. I would love to show you our agriculture, our science labs, and just around the kingdom as a whole,” Kelvin said.

  The cart began to move quickly, the seahorses bouncing up and down, as the driver held onto ropes attached to their bodies. We quickly left the main part of the kingdom, the shopping district where we’d been staying, and moved into a more remote area, filled with fields perched above the coral, where crops were sprouting in perfect symmetry.

  “Here is our bio-
agricultural growing area,” Kelvin said, as the cart stopped. “We can grow any crop down here that you can grow on the surface. We import rich volcanic soil, and mixed with the fresh oxygen we harvest from the ocean outside, we create a perfect environment for our crops to grow. With this, we are completely self-sustainable on the food front, allowing us complete independence from any other kingdom.”

  “This is pretty great. The soil must be rich,” Adam said, leaning over the edge to examine it more closely.

  “Do you always produce the same crops?” Tyvin asked.

  “We cycle our crops and growing locations, making sure to keep the soil rich and the tastes of our citizens ever changing. It’s important to us that we provide not only great food, but different food seasonally. The food you had last night was all grown here,” Kelvin said.

  The cart began moving again, and we left the countryside and moved somewhere more industrial, yet not dirty at all. It was weird, the individual sectors and ecosystems of the kingdom were quite small, yet all of them were completely separated and organized. There was no confusion in where we were.

  “Atlantis prides itself on its scientific achievements,” Kelvin said, as we entered a laboratory. “We have been able to keep ten steps ahead of the mortals above, crafting gadgets and medicine beyond their wildest dreams.”

  As he spoke, a man began to hover on some kind of vehicle as bright blue lights glowed underneath the craft. He moved around slowly, within the limits of a tether tied to the back of it and into the ground, before safely landing on the lab floor. “That’s amazing,” Tyvin said.

  “How does it do that? Magic?” Adam asked.

  “Actually, quite the contrary. This particular vehicle has no magic in it at all. We’ve mastered cold fusion, a clean energy source that has provided our kingdom with many, if not all, of our scientific achievements. The mortals haven’t quite gotten to this level yet,” Kelvin said.

  “Are you willing to trade with them?” I asked.

  “No, I can’t say we are. Mortals are too bloodthirsty, and if they knew about us down here they would come looking. While we are a strong people, there are many, many millions more of them than there are of us. Sadly, we need to remain a secret, including our technology,” Kelvin said.

  “What about us?” I asked, smiling.

  “We would be willing to share our findings with the fae,” Kelvin said, smiling. “There is always a possibility in that.”

  Most if not all of the inventions and products in the laboratory didn’t use any magic at all. The Atlanteans didn’t have much in terms of magic, definitely nowhere near as much as mages, not even as much as us fae. At least we had light magic; they just had their water mastery. Maybe that was part of the reason they’d reached out to us. They wanted something we had.

  “Aris talked last night about his antiquities,” I said, as we walked alongside Kelvin and Aira out of the laboratory.

  “Yes, those are kept inside the palace,” Kelvin said, his hands clasped together in front of him.

  “I think all four of us would love to be able to visit there and pay our respects. It would be quite the honor,” I said.

  “I will have to ask both Aris and King Janius, but if they permit it then we will most happily allow you to see our collection,” Kelvin said, as we loaded back into the cart.

  “Excellent,” I said, smiling.

  17

  I walked up the palace steps with a smile on my face the next day. The four of us were going to see Neptune’s Gem. It took a day, and some more convincing, but both Aris and King Janius allowed us entry to see the antiquities, likely as a gesture of goodwill. I think they just didn’t want to offend me by saying no, and I was completely fine with that.

  King Janius was absent from the throne when we walked in and were ushered immediately to the left, up a spiraling staircase that climbed to the top of the palace. We went a few stories up to the fourth floor, where Aris was waiting. “Good morning, princess,” he said.

  “Good morning, Aris. Thank you for taking our audience inside your sacred chambers. We promise to be on our best behavior,” I said, smiling, as I looked back at the guys to make sure they’d heard me.

  “I have no worries at all. Please, come in,” Aris said, before placing his hand against the door. The door began unlocking, the switches inside coming undone, before he pushed open the door and my mouth dropped.

  We had magical artifacts and antiquities back home, a lot of them, but this was on a different level. Everything in Atlantis was gilded and marvelous. What the kingdom lacked in size, it made up for in gold, silks, gems, and magical artifacts from the world over.

  “This is amazing,” Tyvin said, the gold in front of him glistening in his eyes.

  “It is,” Aidan replied.

  “Where do we begin? There’s so much!” I said.

  “I believe you want to see Neptune’s Gem,” Aris said.

  “What? Why would you think that?” I asked nervously.

  “Well, when I told you about it the other night, you seemed to take interest in it,” Aris said.

  “Oh, yeah, I did! We would love to see it,” I said, hoping I’d saved myself.

  We walked a few hundred feet across the room, towards a shrine of some sorts recessed into the wall near the back, but nothing was on it. It was an empty shelf. But then Aris put his hand on a pillar just in front of it and the entire thing began to glow.

  Lines of blue light began forming geometric designs all along the wall and shrine, and it opened up from below, the gem being hoisted up on golden prongs. It sparkled, the most beautiful shade of blue I’d ever seen. I watched until it stopped, my breath taken away.

  “There she is, Neptune’s Gem,” Aris said.

  “It’s beautiful,” I said, shaking my head.

  “So every Atlantean gets to use it?” Adam asked.

  “While every Atlantean is blessed with the ability to breathe underwater from birth, a citizen doesn’t receive mastery of water until their eighteenth birthday. The tradition is sort of like your feats and spirit bonding,” Aris said.

  “So they turn eighteen and get it, huh?” I asked, looking the gem up and down.

  “Well, it’s not that easy. Just like the fae, Atlanteans mate for life as well. We have a ceremony wherein the recipients bond at the same time, getting their mastery,” Aris said.

  “So they just bond, and they get it? Seems good,” I said.

  “First the bond must be consummated,” Aris said.

  “What?” I asked, choking on my own spit, and Adam patted my back to try to help me.

  “In our culture, a person does not reach adulthood until they are sexually matured and their bond is consummated. For the gem to take hold and give them their mastery, they must first consummate their relationship and then the gem will bestow them with their mastery. There is a ceremony where the kingdom takes watch as the gem blesses them,” Aris said.

  “Has anybody, say from outside the kingdom, ever taken part?” I asked.

  “I beg your pardon?” Aris asked, confused.

  “Say someone, like a fae, wanted to be blessed by the gem. Would that be possible?” I asked, wincing a little.

  “Princess Kira, are you asking for yourself to be blessed? I am quite confused. As I understand it, you are descended of water, and will receive your fae elemental powers once you spirit bond with your chosen mate after your journey here,” Aris said.

  The awkwardness and tension in the room could be cut with a dull knife. I knew that being blunt had to be the best option here, and that even though it would be uncomfortable for everybody involved, these questions needed to be asked. I needed those powers, and this was my chance.

  “I do not intend on picking one mate. Adam and Tyvin have already committed themselves to me, and if Aidan does as well, I will have three partners,” I said.

  “Does your mother know about this?” he asked.

  “No, but she will, in due time,” I said.

&nb
sp; “May I ask your reasoning for abandoning your tradition?” he asked.

  “I care for all three of these men in a way I never thought I could, especially after not knowing them for long. They are kind, caring, and strong men, and all of them please me in different ways. I want to be with all three of them, no matter what,” I said.

  “I must say, even though your desires go against both Atlantean and fae tradition, I admire your tenacity and willingness to stick to your principles. I will talk to King Janius about granting you permission to receive Atlantean water mastery, especially given the present circumstances. I take it you aren’t a virgin?” he said.

  “Uh, well,” I said, scratching the back of my head awkwardly.

  “If you are to receive our blessing, you must first consummate your relations with these men. Every man you intend to bond with must be present, and must take part if the ceremony is going to succeed,” Aris said.

  “I understand,” I said, nodding.

  “Same,” Tyvin and Adam said, and Aidan nodded a little.

  “Aira is downstairs and can escort you back to your villa. I will request an audience with the King now and will send for you once a decision is made,” Aris said.

  “Thank you, Aris, for all that you’re doing. I know this goes against everything you know, but I will never forget what you’re doing for both myself and my people,” I said.

  •••

  “Are you sure you want to do this?” Aidan said, after we reached our villa.

  “I’m sure,” I said.

  I could sense he was on the fence about the entire thing. Maybe he still thought there was a chance just he and I would bond and that we’d run off together into the sunset, but I cared for Tyvin and Adam as well. It wasn’t that easy, no matter how jealous he might get.

  “I’ve been thinking a lot about everything that has happened, both last night and today,” Aidan said, stroking his stubbly chin.

  “Have you made a decision?” I asked.

  “I have,” he replied.

  He paced around the room. It was just he and I, as the other guys were in their rooms resting from the day. I hoped giving him my full attention now would show him he would get the special care from me that he desired.