Chapter 1

CHAPTER ONE

" I hate Christmas," Penelope said, gazing out at the dark indigo sea. Stars blazed overhead, looking down on them as they lay on the deck of the boat, a soft blanket underneath them.

Alexis tangled his long fingers with hers. "We promised Zo," he replied softly.

"I know." Penelope glared at the night and then sighed. "Maybe this year, with you all, I won't hate it."

Alexis knew when there was something she needed to get off her chest. He settled in, ready to wait until she needed to open up.

After a few long moments, Penelope rolled onto her side to face him. Some days, just looking at the sprinkle of freckles across her nose and the gleam in her bright hazel eyes knocked the breath from his body.

Not only had they survived the fight against their ancient enemy, but he had somehow gotten to keep her too. His smart, beautiful, passionate Penelope. So full of new power from the gifts she had been given that she all but hummed with magic.

Reflecting on the blessing Poseidon had gifted her across time was enough to make her one of the most extraordinary magicians Alexis had ever encountered. Sometimes he worried what other secrets the Living Language and Poseidon's blessing would bring out from inside her.

But first, the secret at hand.

"Tell me, cara, " Alexis cajoled, lifting their hands so he could brush her fingers to his lips.

Penelope huffed out a tight breath of frustration. "You're going to think it's dumb."

"Nothing upsetting you this much could ever be considered merely dumb." His light kiss on her fingers turned into a playful nibble. "You know you will feel better once you talk about it."

Penelope closed her eyes. "In short? My parents are dicks, but they get worse at holiday time. To the point that I actually envied the Catholic kids who had all the special days of singing and ritual and midnight masses. My parents wouldn't even let me believe in Santa for a little while. They were both too logical for any make-believe."

Alexis frowned. "So what did you get at the solstice instead?"

"Insufferable work holiday parties with academics or my parents’ literary friends. Dad especially used it as a time to network and suck up to rich old people for donations to fund his studies or whatever department he was working in."

Penelope's hands clenched, and the waves around the boat gave a small shudder in reaction to her distress.

"I was paraded out like a trained poodle. I had to wear special party dresses I couldn't get a single mark on, and Dad would be all, 'Look at my Pen! Ten years old and is picking up Ancient Greek like a star. Show them, Pen!' And then, I would quote some passages from The Odyssey by heart, or as I got older, Plato's Timaeus just to piss Dad off about my Atlantis fixation."

Penelope chewed on her bottom lip before her eyes bruised with memories. "The worst part? He always paid the most attention to me at those dumb parties and would pretty much ignore me for the rest of the time. Christmas was never about fun or family. Whatever the fuck 'family' means. Carolyn and I used to have a BBQ together as we got older, and she would do her solstice rituals. It's weird to think about that now because she proved she never believed in the magic she was doing anyway."

Carolyn and the loss of her friendship were still a sore spot for Penelope. She had given her friend the chance to be a part of their world of real magic and secret histories, and Carolyn couldn't handle it.

Alexis had taken Carolyn's memories, and Penelope had all but lost her. He knew intimately the pain she was feeling. It had happened to him more than once in his long, long life. It had made him cautious and closed off for centuries, hiding who he really was because so few could handle the truth and reality of him and the other magician's life or history.

Alexis put an arm around Penelope and drew her close to his chest.

"I think it is time we both made some new memories. We will go home to Venice, where Zo will fuss over you, and we will eat too much of his baking, and that's all the solstice needs to be, cara ," he said against her dark curls.

"I've never had a real winter Christmas before," Penelope said and kissed the curve of his collarbone.

"I have no doubt the Archives will be missing you too," Alexis replied, in case she needed extra incentive. It earned him a sharp nip of her teeth.

"That's cheating."

"That's the truth. You are their Archivist, and we have been on this boat in Greece for months."

Penelope lifted her head. "Sick of me already?"

Logically, Alexis knew that she wasn't able to fully understand the depth of his loneliness before she stormed into his life. He had spent lifetimes wishing he could connect with anyone the way he was now connected to her. She was such an incredible blessing, and he didn't know how to convince her of that except by loving her as much as he could.

Alexis moved to kiss her full lips. "I'll never be sick of you. I just think we all need a celebration because we never really marked our victory over Thevetat. We all scattered like we had been before. I don't want us to fall back into that habit again. We need each other." He kissed the tip of her nose. "You brought us all back together, Penelope Bryne, so you have no one to blame but yourself."

Penelope traced his cheekbones with her fingers, her expression turning thoughtful once more. "I still haven't found what's been calling to me down under the waves."

"It won't go anywhere, cara . It hasn't in over ten thousand years," Alexis replied. He wasn't sure if he liked that an artifact was sentient enough to be calling out to her at all. Atlantis had many magical objects that had been drowned by the waves, and he didn't know if finding them again was a good idea.

Alexis had been thinking a lot about Atlantis and the times after it fell since the battle with Thevetat. Revisiting those memories didn't hurt as much when he faced Penelope's enthusiasm and joy whenever he mentioned them to her. Those memories sparked the idea to work on his special present for Penelope for the solstice. Now, his memories were giving him another excellent idea.

Penelope kissed him, drawing him out of the past and back to the present.

"Okay, let's go back to Venice," she said, laying her head against his chest. Her clever fingers slipped under his shirt, and she pressed her palm over his heart, making the moira desmos that bound them sing. "And I have the best part of Atlantis right here."