Sherrilyn Kenyon - Acheron

She'd taught him to finally embrace who and what he was. Woe to the rest of them. Because he was now the Harbinger not just for his mother, but for a slip of a woman who held his heart.

For her, he'd do anything.

Even end the world.

Two weeks later

New Orleans

Even though Ash trusted Tory, his gut was in a knot as he followed her toward the lecture hall at Tulane where she was going to give another speech on Atlantis. "Why won't you tell me what you're planning to say?"

The obvious answer was she wanted to torture him, which she'd been doing for days.

Damn, she could give Artemis lessons on it.

She gave him that same, warm smile that only served to scare him more. "It's none of your business. But if you start in on me and my reputation like you did in Nashville, you're going to be living in your own apartment again. Alone. Remember, I get Simi custody. Right, Sim?"

"That's right." Simi grinned proudly as she skipped along beside him. "Relax, akri. Akra-Tory won't do nothing to make you angry. Only the Simi does that."

He laughed even though the knot in his stomach drew tighter with every step they took closer to the room.

"You still haven't answered my question," Tory said, returning to the topic she'd started on their way over here. "What was Julius Caesar really like?"

He shrugged nonchalantly. "The man was brilliant, but he cheated at dice."

She let out an impressed breath as she tightened her shoulders dreamily. "I can't believe you met him and Alexander the Great."

"Well, Alex was an accident. I was chasing a Daimon who ran into the town where he was staying and after I killed it, he tried to get me to join his army. I told him I was leading my own and didn't have time to unite."

Tory never grew tired of hearing the memories of Ash's past. He'd done so many fascinating things and had witnessed the history that she'd only read about. He'd been there during the first sack of Rome. Had stood on the Wall of China just days after it'd been finished. He'd debated philosophy with Confucius and had eaten dinner with Kublai Khan and attended a feast with Buddha when he'd been just a young boy. He'd walked in Egypt when the Giza necropolis was being built. He'd played games with the dauphin when the boy had been a toddler and eaten dinner with the real King Arthur… it was just incredible the life he'd lived.

And he made her wonder what future historical events the two of them would share together.

"What about Jesus?" she asked, dying to know. "Did you ever meet him?"

"I heard him speak on several occasions. Again, he was brilliant and fascinating. There was just something about him that made you pay attention."

"But you didn't meet him?"

He shook his head.

"Why not?"

"For the same reason I never officially met Gandhi. I didn't feel worthy enough. I just liked to listen to them speak." Ash opened the door to the lecture hall.

Tory froze as she saw the gathered crowd.

Ash put his hand on her arm to steady her. "It'll be all right. Simi and I will eat anyone who so much as blinks at you in the wrong way."

Still she wasn't comforted. "I don't know about this."

"Then let's leave. My bike's outside, fully fueled."

She glared at him before she shook her head. "At least my pages are numbered this time." Taking a deep breath for courage, she forced herself to enter the room where the people looked more like sharks to her than historians, students and archaeologists.

But at least this time she had Ash with her. And Simi.

Ash stayed by her side until he reached the first row. He set his backpack down then took a seat. Simi flounced down beside him and smiled encouragingly.

Tory felt like her heart was going to leap out of her chest as she approached the podium. The crowd here was almost as large as the one in Nashville.

God, how she hated speaking in public.

As she readied her pages, the door opened to admit Kim and Pam who waved at her before they came forward to sit beside Simi. Grateful for their support, Tory adjusted the microphone. And just as she was about to start her speech, Artemis opened the door.

She went cold at the sight and what it might mean. Not to mention, she saw the way Ash visibly tensed as if waiting for Armageddon to start.

Without a word to anyone or a glance to Ash, Artemis moved to sit in the back row, away from Ash and the crowd.

What the devil did she want?

Clearing her throat, Tory forced herself to ignore her. Artemis wasn't the important one here.

"Um, hi everyone," she said, speaking lightly into the mike. "I wanted to say thank you for coming today. I know some of you were there in Nashville to witness the debacle of my extreme humiliation…" she narrowed her gaze at Ash who had the good grace and sense to look sheepish and contrite, "but as you know, my team, a couple of weeks ago, excavated a large section of the underwater ruins we believed to be Atlantis."

A hand went up from a man she recognized as a historian, but she couldn't recall his name. She pointed at him.

"I heard that among the things found were conclusive artifacts that date back to 9,000 BC. If you can confirm this, you do know that you will have totally rewritten the historical record?"

Before she could respond the doors opened one more time to show her a UPS delivery man. Oblivious to the fact that he was interrupting her lecture, he headed straight for her. "Dr. Kafieri?"

"That would be me."

He handed her an electronic pad to sign.

Confused, she nervously looked around. "Please excuse me," she told the room as she signed her name, then took the small package from his hands. Frowning, she opened it to find Ryssa's final journal, the one that Artemis had had her men steal along with Ash's backpack.

It was the conclusive proof that would rewrite history and make not only her name but that of her father and uncle legends in their field.

This was the moment she'd always dreamed of. Ever since they'd laid her father to rest, her sole goal in life had been redeeming his name.

Her heart hammering, she looked at Ash whose face was now pale. He met her gaze and she saw his fear fade.

"Go ahead, baby. I know how much it means to you. Give your father back his reputation." Only she could hear Ash's deep voice in her head.

Those words brought tears to her eyes. She knew what that would do to Ash. The men and women he called friends would know exactly how ugly his past had been. While she was sure many of them wouldn't care, she knew enough about people to know that not all of them would feel that way. Some of them would never see him the same way again. They would laugh and they would mock.

Most of all, they would never forgive him for a truth that hadn't been his fault. They would make him feel the same way Artemis had for all these centuries.

And that would crush him.

"I'm sorry, Dad," she whispered under her breath before she put the book back into its envelope and returned to her speech. She cleared her throat. "Yes, we found quite a few items that are quite old. Unfortunately, none of them date back to what I believe to be the time of Atlantis. More than that, the ruins we found appear to be nothing more than a small Greek shipping village. I fear that the experts are correct. There is no Atlantis in the Aegean. After all these years, I've come to understand that my family and I have been on the wrong path.

"That being said, my team is currently heading to the Bahamas to rendezvous so that we can look more closely at the Bimini Road find. If there is an Atlantis, which I now doubt completely, that might be the key to it."

She swallowed as she looked around the room and saw the scowls on the faces of her peers. "I wish I had better news for everyone and you can all read my report on our findings in my upcoming paper, as well as on my Web site once I get it finished. In the end though, my quest for Atlantis did teach me something. In all our pasts lie our futures. By our own hands and decisions we will be damned and we will be saved. Whatever you do, put forth your best effort even if all you're doing is chasing a never-ending rainbow. You might never reach the end of it, but along the way you'll meet people who will mean the world to you and make memories that will keep you warm on even the coldest nights. Thank you all for coming."