She nodded. "Your father."

A grimace twisted his face. "Yes, if you like. Not that the man ever showed me anything but loathing. In any event, you know about the geas-the curse-upon me never to reveal the circumstances of my birth."

"But you did, didn't you?" she said, piecing together everything she'd heard from the others during the craziness at the portal. "You told them, when you sacrificed yourself to save your brother and everyone else."

"Sacrifice is too noble a word. I did what anyone would have done, after taking the measure of the situation and developing a strategy."

"Right. Of course. So many of us would voluntarily turn ourselves over to a . . . What was it? A vampire? No, wait, a vampire goddess. To save the lives of other people. Yeah, you're right. That's not noble. I do that every day before breakfast. Twice on Fridays."

He narrowed his eyes. "Don't think I don't see what you're trying to accomplish."

"Oh, good. I so rarely even know what I'm trying to accomplish myself, so it's good that you can see right through me," she said, widening her eyes in mock innocence.

It made him laugh, which inexplicably made her very, very happy. She decided not to overanalyze it. "Go on. You're not noble, you're off with the goddess, and then?" An oddly unpleasant thought crossed her mind. "Goddess, huh? I bet she's pretty beautiful."

"She is possessed of a terrible beauty that is almost inconceivable to human imagination," he said grimly. "Every inch of her is a study in dark and glorious perfection."

"Great. Goddess. Inconceivable beauty and perfection. We could probably move on now." Okaaay. That's one way to measure up short in the comparative looks department: go up against a goddess. She'd thought it was bad when one of her dates had been obsessed with Jessica Alba.

At least Jessica was human. Ish.

Justice was clutching the end of his braided hair so tightly his knuckles were white. "You don't understand. Her attraction is like the flame to the moth, or the snake to its prey. She is death and despair and madness, somehow packaged in the dark fantasies of a deranged mind."

Any childish thoughts of jealousy vanished in the face of his obvious struggle to explain it to her. "Is yours? Deranged, I mean? What did she do to you?"

His face hardened and he almost imperceptibly shook his head. "No. I won't tell you that. I won't tell anyone that, ever."

Justice was silent so long that she thought he'd changed his mind about talking to her. But then he nodded, as if coming to some internal decision.

"Breaking the geas shattered my sanity. The curse was such that I always assumed I'd die if I ever broke it, but maybe something in the Void changed its nature. I don't know. I just know that Anubisa wanted . . . She wanted me. She wanted me to do . . . things. Unspeakable, hideous things. But my mind fractured into a thousand pieces when I was unable to fulfill the geas and I came very near to dying. She wouldn't let me die."

The lump in her throat made it hard to talk. No one should have to endure so much as he had, centuries of life or not. She forced out the words. "And then? When you didn't die?"

A smile so terrifying spread across his face that she almost physically recoiled from it. "Then she cast me into the Void, and said that she would take my brother in my place."

"Do you have another brother? Besides Ven and the high prince?"

"No. She held Conlan prisoner for many long years of torture, so I know she's planning to go after Ven again next. But now I'll be here to stop her."

She didn't point out the obvious: that there wasn't much they could do stuck in the cave. More and more she was starting to believe that they would make it out.

She was starting to believe in him.

"Will you be able to overcome the damage from breaking the geas? I mean, you do reference yourself in the plural sometimes," she ventured.

"My mother was a Nereid, Keely. You saw her. She gave me qualities and, evidently, powers from her lineage. Powers that I don't know anything about, yet. I think when my sanity fractured, it somehow let loose the Nereid side of my soul. He battles me even now, because he wants-"

He broke off, and a dark flush swept over his face.

"He wants?" she prompted, even though she was suddenly sure she didn't want to know what the Nereid wanted. Not when it made Justice's face turn to icy marble like that.

"He wants you," he said flatly. "He wants to strip you bare and get you under him, whether you agree or not. He wants to take you, Keely, and I'll die before I let him."

Her gasp echoed in the silence between them, and she nearly tripped over her own feet stumbling to move back and away from him.

Anguish tightened Justice's features, and his eyes darkened to black as he sat, perfectly motionless, watching her. "So now you know, at least some of it. You know the darkness, the death, and the despair. There has been light, as well, but I would judge that you won't be able to hear of that now."

Some part of her responded to the pain in his voice and wanted to comfort him, but the reality of just how isolated she was-trapped with a self-confessed madman-was coming back to the forefront of her awareness. No matter what sympathy or even empathy she had for him, she couldn't do him any good if she were dead.

Or brutalized by the evil side of his nature.

It took every ounce of her skill and training, but she managed to speak calmly. "Of course I would love to hear about the happy times, but you're right. Now isn't a good time. We should work on finding that way out of here, don't you think?"

As he rose gracefully to his feet, she was extremely proud of herself for not flinching. When they escaped this cavern, after this experience, she'd be able to face anything.

If they ever escaped this cavern.

Firmly silencing the foreboding voice in her mind, Keely turned toward the cavern walls again. There had to be a way out, and she was going to find it.

Chapter 22.

Justice roamed around the cavern, searching in vain for a way out. Whatever power he'd managed to call on earlier to transport them was silent, as if mocking him. An option had occurred to him, of course. But he wasn't yet willing to unleash the Nereid trying to possess his mind, just so they could discuss strategy.

It might come to that, though. Hells, it probably would come to that. But for now, with he and Keely at least fed, he'd try one more time for a passageway he'd missed before. Desperation didn't feel quite as sharp-edged with a full belly, even though he'd scared her into silence. Now she avoided him entirely, and he couldn't blame her for it. But truth had seemed the best option at the time.

Even though now he regretted it, fiercely.

He glanced over at where she sat on the floor, the dishes pushed aside and a collection of jade figurines from one of the compartments spread out with mathematical precision on the tablecloth. To one side of the figurines, the collection of gems he'd tossed aside earlier were lined up like toy soldiers awaiting their general's command.

She'd tied that wealth of hair back away from her face, and a little furrow had appeared between her silken brows as she concentrated on the objects. She hadn't spoken in quite some time. Perversely, even though something about her fierce concentration appealed to him, he found himself resenting the ease with which she could dismiss him from her mind.

It would have been impossible for him. Every step he took, every thought he had, was wrapped in the knowledge that she was nearby. The flash of resentment had a now-familiar effect: the Nereid strained against the shields in his mind, growing stronger with every passing hour.

The cavern lay directly underneath the temple of his Nereid ancestors, and that half of his soul continued to cry out that it would not be denied. Justice shoved his hand through his hair, wondering how to defeat one side of his very nature without destroying his entire psyche.

Had he escaped the Void, only to find that its madness had followed him? Dwelt within him? Pharnatus's sacrifice must not be in vain.

Frustration spiked into helpless, irrational fury. Keely could ignore him so easily, and he couldn't even ignore a voice inside his own head. The realization flared inside him-a flash fire of rage-no less powerful for being unreasonable.

Pain caught his head in a vise grip. Steel spikes drove through his temples, heralding the Nereid as it broke through his shields. She casts you aside like you are nothing, Atlantean . If we had taken her, she would be tied to us forever.

Justice shook his head, denying it, but the movement only worsened the headache squeezing his skull, and he gasped. "No. We will not . . . I will not force her. I promised her."

Then I will not share with you the Nereid art of using matter transference, and we will remain here, trapped, until we die.

Matter transference? But even as he turned the phrase over in his mind, he knew. It was the method by which he'd brought the food; stolen, no doubt, from very surprised and hungry people.

Far more important, it was how he'd brought Keely with him to his long-forgotten hideout.

Yes. The way in, and the way out. Simplicity itself, when you know the key, the Nereid whispered seductively.

Closing his eyes, he waged a brief but furious war with his other half, to no avail. He was seriously considering pounding his skull against one of the gem-covered walls to bash the information loose, when Keely called out to him.

"Justice? I may have an idea of how we can get out of here."

Keely sat cross-legged on the floor, contemplating the figurines. Priceless objects, all of them, and incredibly important to any serious study of the Atlantean past. Even through her gloves, the sheer age of the carvings pressed on her mind and sizzled along her nerve endings. What she was considering was unbelievably self-destructive. Possibly suicidal.

But she was trapped between the proverbial rocks-of the cave-in-and a very hard place.

Justice didn't know how to get them out. He didn't even understand how he'd brought them there. Fine. She'd been inside his past, through the sword vision, and she knew enough of him to know his integrity. His honor. Even the pain he kept so tightly controlled.

He wouldn't lie to her. He'd die before he let the Nereid hurt her. She would accept those facts as proven hypotheses.

So it was up to her.

He crossed the room, resembling nothing so much as a sleek panther, muscles flowing in a graceful, deadly stride. He took her breath away and muddled her neatly ordered, scientific thoughts.

She should be more afraid, especially after what he'd admitted to her, but somehow she trusted Justice enough to feel safe.

Kneeling down across from her, he retied the loosened piece of leather cord at the end of his braid. The cord probably came from one of the compartments, used to tie off yet another bag of gems. She shook her head, amused at herself. Here she was, sitting inside a treasure trove that would be a jewel thief's wet dream, and all she could think about was escape.

Practical, pragmatic Keely.

Except, staring at Justice, wishing his strong hands had been on her skin instead of in his hair, she didn't feel at all practical.

"If you continue to look at me like that, I will allow myself to entertain fantasies of what I would like to do with the remaining maple syrup and your lovely, lovely body," he said, voice husky and nearly growling. His smile was strained and a muscle jumped in his clenched jaw. "There is much difference between a forcible taking and a willing surrender."

As the hated blush swept up from her chest to her cheeks, she bit her lip and tried not to do it. She really tried, but she couldn't help it. She just couldn't.

She looked at the syrup.

This time he really did growl, and the primal ferocity of the sound unleashed a primitive yearning in Keely. Liquid heat spread from the center of her body, and she had to fight against squirming where she sat. Suddenly her pants were too tight and the lace of her bra rubbed unbearably against her sensitive nipples.

If he could do all that to her from a growl, she was in trouble if she ever got him naked.

"Focus," she gasped out, deciding to put it out on the table. Or floor. Whatever. "I don't know what this crazy attraction is between us, but we need to focus. I don't want to trigger your . . . your problem, either."

He froze and then carefully changed position to sit, cross-legged, a cautious distance away. She took a deep breath, lifted her chin, and confronted the issue directly. Ready to discuss the problem logically.

But his dangerously potent smile and the sheer masculine arrogance that shone from his eyes played havoc with her intentions. "You admit it, then," he said calmly. "The attraction, as you call it, though I would name that a very tame word. This has nothing to do with the Other inside me, Keely. This is the desire that surges like a tidal wave between destined mates."

She caught her breath at the heat his words evoked. "I'd have to be a fool or a liar to deny it. At least the desire part.

But it's simply a reaction to a stressful situation. An adrenaline-based hormonal reaction."

He raised an eyebrow, and those fascinatingly changeable eyes flashed from black to palest green. "I think not, my Keely. I will prove it to you. Count on it."

Trying to ignore the heat that sizzled through her at his deliberately provocative words, she asked the question she'd been wondering about for some time. "Your eyes. Liam's did that, too, the eye-color-change thing. Does Atlantean eye color correlate to your emotions? Like a physiological mood ring?"

He stared at her for a long moment before answering. "Perhaps. What colors have you seen in my eyes?"

She shrugged. "I haven't exactly been cataloging, but they've gone from black to midnight blue to a glowing teal, and now they're this beautiful pale green that reminds me of spring. Oh, and sometimes when they're black, they have an intriguing little blue-green flame at the very centers of your pupils."

His mouth dropped open a little before clamping shut into a thin line. The irises of his eyes darkened to black as she watched, like night falling suddenly on a lovely spring day. She nearly smiled at her own whimsy. Maybe she should have taken more poetry classes. She could write "Ode to an Atlantean's Eyes."

"Just now, for example," she pointed out, trying to suppress her grin. "They changed from a vivid green to black when I made that comment about the flames."

"Well, do not panic or jump up and pace the cavern again, please, but it would appear that you have been claimed by both halves of my nature, Keely," he said, drawing the words out slowly as if she'd torn them out of him. "You may be in more trouble than I thought."

She opened her mouth to make some wisecrack, but then she realized that in no way was he joking. Ice shivered down her spine, which worked wonders for that focus she'd been wanting to find. "Both halves of your nature. I'm guessing that has to do with the 'we' persona you go into and the Nereid?"

Before he could answer, she shook her head. "No. Not now. When we're out of here, I promise you, we'll talk about all of this. I won't run screaming for the hills for at least an hour or two."

His face darkened, and he narrowed his eyes. "You won't run away from me, Keely," he said, steely command in his tone. "There is no place you can go that I will not follow. Know that now."

"Yeah, well, you should know that I'm not so good at taking orders," she fired back. "Instead of fighting about it, though, why don't we do something productive? Like escape?"

She selected the largest of the sapphires and lifted it to show him. "I think I have a plan."

Placing the gem carefully back down on the cloth, she decided the time had come. "There's something I need to tell you. About the vision I had when I touched Liam's sapphire."

"Liam?" It was just one word but it carried a wealth of danger. Suddenly he was the feral predator again, and she didn't know why. Perhaps he and Liam had bad blood between them. Now wasn't the time to go into it, though.

"Yes, Liam, but he's not important. You need to know my vision. I was in the room with your high priest Nereus and his wife, Zelia, while they discussed the Star of Artemis."

"That's impossible. Your vision must be wrong. I know this name, Nereus, but he couldn't be married. Poseidon deemed that his high priests could never marry. If they don't remain celibate, they suffer an enormous loss of their powers. Nereus was one of the most powerful priests in our history, so he could not have wed."

She shrugged. "Maybe the marriage records got lost in the files somewhere. I've lived with these visions since I was a child, and they are never, ever wrong. Nereus was married to Zelia."

She recounted the story of her vision of Nereus and Zelia, and what they'd said about the Star of Artemis. As she concluded her tale, an important detail struck her. "Justice, it has the power to heal fractured minds, they said. Maybe you could-"

Horrified at what she'd almost blurted out, she cut herself off mid-thought. She had no right. No right at all.

Justice's clenched fists rested on his thighs, but when he spoke it wasn't to tell her to stay the hell out of his business, like she expected and, to be honest, richly deserved.

"He knew? Liam knew this experience would harm you and yet he sent you into it with no warning?" The tone of his voice had changed-went deadly.

"Well, no, he-"

"He is a dead man," he said flatly. "Each breath he takes is a debt owed to the nine hells."

A shiver raced down her spine at his words, which weren't delivered as a threat but more like a known fact. Keely spared a sudden sympathetic thought for Liam. "Well. That's very poetic, but not fair in any way. He had no idea that the vision would affect me so strongly."