Read Warriors of Poseidon 01 - Atlantis Rising for Free Online Page A

madness.
     
    He would smash them for her. Drive the water to strip the flesh from their bones.
     
    Enjoy every last minute of it.
     
    "No! What are you? Stop! You'll kill us!" she screamed up at him, defiant still, in spite of the terror she projected.
     
    Atlantis Rising – Warriors of Poseidon 01
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    Beyond reason, beyond compassion, he raised his arms again, then slashed them down, commanding the wall of water to crash down on the shore. To crush the men, where they lay bleeding and groveling.
     
    He drove the wave toward the shore.
     
    Her voice, broken, tentative, sounded in his head. Stop! Please don't kill me! My sister…
    I'm all she has. And… don't kill them. Please. Enough death.
     
    Conlan marveled at her goodness, her courage.
     
    Her light.
     
    Even as she thought death was crashing toward her, she spared a thought for the garbage who'd tried to attack her.
     
    He followed her thought back along its path to her mind. I would never hurt you. Trust me.
     
    Or was he a damn fool? Maybe she was just a talented actress. Nobody that compassionate could be real.
     
    But the red haze lifted, receded. Somehow her mental touch lent him calm. A measure of peace. He was inside her mind—she was projecting emotion. There was no deceit—no evil. Nothing but compassion wrapped up in terror. Sorrow.
     
    Conlan focused his power at the water and the men in its path, speaking a single word.
    "Abate."
     
    In perfect symmetry, the water pounded the shore in an exact spherical shape around the place where she stood, leaving her untouched by a single drop. He felt her shock Atlantis Rising – Warriors of Poseidon 01
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    and wonder at the spectacle and could almost taste her awe as she reached out to touch the wall of water surrounding her.
     
    She gasped—made a choked sound of laughter. Broadcasted her thoughts: All I can think of is the parting of the Red Sea, but you're definitely not Moses.
     
    Conlan crushed the water down on the little pricks, reining it in at the last possible second. He'd mitigate.
     
    For her.
     
    They might get a little broken, but they'd live. The wall of ocean pounded them to the sand, but left them with enough oxygen in their lungs to survive it.
     
    Which didn't make him all that happy.
     
    As the waves receded, leaving the men crying, babbling, and damn near shitting themselves, Conlan stepped forward and raised his arms again. The waves eagerly leapt to do his bidding, and the surf boiled in anticipation of another strike.
     
    He got a vicious pleasure out of watching them cower the way they'd wanted to see her cower.
     
    Yeah, I can be a bastard that way.
     
    He spoke with every ounce of rage in his body bubbling to the surface, arm muscles clenching with the strain of holding back the wall of water. "I command you to leave this place and never return. You will not attempt to harm another, or I will track you down and serve up the justice that only this woman's compassion saved you from tonight."
     
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    He swept them with his gaze, dropped out of formal speak. "In other words, you'll be dead sons of bitches. We on the same page?"
     
    They babbled their promises in broken voices, then ran off, stinking of fear and piss, when he gestured them away. His gaze only tracked them for a moment, then he turned, inexplicably drawn back to the woman. She had guts, or she had a death wish.
    Either way, she'd seen him command the ocean, and yet she was unafraid enough to stand her ground.
     
    Trained warriors had cowered in front of him with less cause.
     
    How the hell did one small human have such courage?
     
    A fierce curiosity burned through him. He wanted, no, needed, to see her face, which was shadowed by her hair and hidden in the darkness. His fury was disproportionate—it didn't make sense. The thugs were buffoons, easily enough cowed.
     
    But for some reason, he'd wanted to slice the