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Return to Atlantis
Lost Daughters of Atlantis 10th Anniversary Novella
When a girl is forced to seek revenge…
Pressured by her father, sixteen-year-old Crystal must avenge her family’s name. She infiltrated the Royal Atlantean Palace of Merta as a servant and awaits direction while being watched by her father’s network of spies. When the perfect opportunity to appease her father is presented, Crystal kidnaps the royal baby.
But revenge is a bitter pill to swallow.
Crystal immediately regrets her impulsive decision and decides to return the baby princess. Until she’s knocked unconscious. When she wakes up in a boat, she can’t remember her name, that she lived under the ocean, or that she’d kidnapped the royal princess. Will Crystal realize who she is and what she’s done before the royal guards discover her or will an old nemesis take advantage of the situation?
This novella takes place ten years after the first Lost Daughters of Atlantis book was released. The main characters are new with their own adventure while providing updates about characters in the series.
Other books include Atlantis Riptide, Atlantis Red Tide, Atlantis Rising Tide, Atlantis Tide Breaker, Atlantis Dark Tides, Atlantis Twisting Tides, and Atlantis Glacial Tides.
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Books In Series Lost Daughters of Atlantis
Atlantis Riptide (Book 1)
Atlantis Red Tide (Book 2)
Atlantis Rising Tide (Book 3)
Atlantis Tide Breaker (Novella 3.5)
Atlantis Dark Tides (Book 4)
Atlantis Twisting Tide (Novella 4.5)
Atlantis Glacial Tides (Book 5)
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The pretty, pretty princesses prepped in front of a large mirror as if appearances were all that mattered. When others suffered and died. When I and my father suffered.
Bitterness singed my soul.
I kept my face blank trying not to display my true feelings. For if I did, my charade would end and I’d lose my opportunity for revenge.
Princess Pearl, who’d grown up performing in a circus of all things, married a human named Chase and now wore a crown of Atlantis. They had four children.
Princess Coral, who’d searched for her two lost sisters, married one-time Separatist Finn and both of them wore crowns. They had two children.
Princess Maris, who’d believed she was human until she joined her high school swim team, had found love with Cuda, a royal spy, and left her human world behind to wear an Atlantean crown. And had three children.
And then there was Princess Sky.
My nose scrunched and my lip curled. I controlled an angry and fearful tremble. She was the reason I was in my current situation.
Part Atlantean and part sea monster, Sky didn’t deserve the title of princess. She’d won the heart of Prince Reef of Merta and today was their first child’s Naming Ceremony.
The ceremony dressing room was a bizarre mix of natural seashells, moss, and scavenged items from sunken ships. Mirrors lined the walls so the royalty could see themselves from every angle. Trunks filled with natural and manmade clothing. And a locked door which was the focus of the room, leading to the Ceremonial Corridor.
Spotting myself in the endless mirrors, I took in my reflection so different from the princesses, and grimaced. The ugly brown uniform of one-piece swimsuit with a long skirt that tangled between my legs because of the water current. My long, red hair wrapped in a secure bun so the ocean current couldn’t mess the strands, and my icy blue eyes so similar to my imprisoned father’s.
But prison didn’t stop him from being a looming and threatening presence.
Princess Sky signaled me again. “Crystal, would you mind take baby Marilla.”
“Yes, Princess Sky.” I bowed and picked up the baby who fussed in a clam shell lined with soft moss. I was the nanny.
Princess Adriawearing an elaborate swim skirt with a sparkling design swam in. Swimming beside her, Prince Kai with wild, shoulder length hair, trim frame, and devastating grin.
My chest pounded. Even when I was a child of six, his smile had curled in my center. Before becoming a prince, he’d resembled a teenage god and been friendly to me. Unlike so many others who’d worked at the duchy. I’d dreamed of marrying him someday, until my fantasy collapsed when he’d married Adria.
I crushed a shell beneath my bare foot. My stomach tightened and I stared at the sea floor. Would Kai recognize me?
“Where is the baby?” Adria squealed. “I can’t believe I’m an aunt.”
An absent aunt. Adria and Kai had been gone for almost a year traveling the kingdom, while I’d been a servant assigned to Sky. I’d stayed by her side throughout her pregnancy. Fetching what she needed, rubbing her feet, helping her stand near the end. I’d called the doctor when it was time for the birth and was one of the first to meet the baby outside of immediate family.
“If you hadn’t gone traipsing across the ocean with Kai, you would’ve been here for the birth.” Prince Reef grabbed his sister around the neck in a wrestling hold and yet with a loving touch.
“There’s so much to work to be done throughout our kingdom.” Kai took his prince title and duties seriously from the reports I’d overheard.
My heart bumped. He’d worked his way up the ranks at the duchy and then had switched sides, against my father, after meeting Adria. She’d changed him. And the crush I’d had on him turned to hatred.
The two approached me and I clamped my mouth shut. I couldn’t speak of any of these things. I’d done a good job hiding my past.
Adria took the baby from me, and emptiness weighed in my hands. I had more right to be called auntie than her.
Keeping my mouth shut, I glanced at Kai. He focused on the baby and his wife. I wanted him to look at me. If he’d had any feelings in the past, he’d recognize me. I wanted him to remember and at the same time I didn’t. Because if he knew who I was, he’d alert the guards.
“She’s beautiful.” Adria stroked the baby’s cheek.
Kai leaned toward his wife. “Not as beautiful as you.”
His whispered words were a mallet to my ego. He’d never regarded me in that way. Of course, I’d been a kid.
Adria giggled and lifted her hand to caress his arm.
Frowning, I controlled the green traveling though my veins, electrifying every part of my body like an angry eel. She could touch him whenever she wanted. She was free to roam the underwater Kingdom of Merta and Atlantis. She was an Atlantean princess with all the benefits. And not only did she have Kai, she had a large family who loved her.
Kai took the baby and rocked her. Someday he’d be holding his own child. His and Adria’s. He’d make a great father. I knew because he’d treated me kindly when I was a kid.
“Thank you.” He handed the baby back and finally looked at me.
Really looked at me.
I held my breath.
Giving me a simple nod, he pivoted away and took Adria’s hand.
All the breath I’d been holding deflated. My shoulders sagged. I was nothing. Less than nothing. Invisible. I’d once told my father I wanted to marry Kai because he let me play with his pet penguin. Now, I wanted to stab him in the back because that’s what he’d done to my father.
My father was in a small cell because of Kai and Adria, and this entire family. My gaze narrowed as I watched their happiness. I was a servant. I had no plans and no future.
Except to avenge my father.
Besides Kai, none of them knew I existed. My father had kept me a secret even though he was supposed to marry Adria. No one knew of his daughter. So when they’d arrested him, I’d escaped.
Well, escaped from the authorities. My father still ran my life.
“You should go and take your seats.” Prince Reef ordered everyone out of the room as if he was already king. “Sky and I can handle things.”
“Like you did at your Commitment Ceremony.” Adria teased although there was an undercurrent of tension.
Reef frowned at his sister. “Not my fault you tried to save Sky and play the hero. You should’ve told me what was happening.”
Adria had gone through the royal tunnel to warn Sky about a potential kidnapping and Adria had been kidnapped instead. A jolt rushed through me.
Great idea, Adria.
My pulse skyrocketed even as I tried to keep my calm expression in place. Thoughts and ideas boomeranged in my brain. Could this be a plan? My lips curved holding back a smirk. I could take a page from my father’s playbook…
…and kidnap baby Marilla.
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