Sara was so surprised to see Xanthus, that she sat frozen with her mouth agape. As surprised as she was, he looked a hundred times more shocked.
“Xanthus,” Sara said and swam straight toward him.
Xanthus enveloped her into his strong arms. “Sara,” he said. “Great gods of Olympus, you’re alive.”
Sara felt his trembling body surround her and she began to cry.
“Shh, Moro Mou.” His voice was low, tormented, and aching for her. “Don’t cry, Mou.”
As if she could stop. She hadn’t let herself truly embrace the reality of her situation until now. It had all been too frightening, too terrifying to face head on, but now that she was safe in his arms, she was overwhelmed with relief. Somewhere deep in the subconscious of her mind, she had believed she would never see him again. Now, tight in Xanthus’s embrace, breathing in his warm, masculine in scent, she couldn’t hold back the tears. A miracle had occurred and he was here.
Sara found her attention was turned a few minutes later when she couldn’t breathe. Xanthus was squeezing the breath out of her. “Xanthus, you’re holding me too tight,” she gasped. He lessened his grip, allowing her to breathe again.
When Sara was recovered enough to think, she pondered her great fortune. This was his family. She couldn’t believe she was here with his family. What were the odds of that?
His sister whispered in Atlantian and Xanthus jerked back. “What? You’re injured? Where? Show me.”
Sara looked down. There was a barely noticeable seam just below her belly button. She lifted up her shirt at the seam to show her belly and blanched at her own injury. It was long, red, and stitched with many stripes of black thread. “I guess any future of me being a bikini model is gone.”
Xanthus was not amused by her jest. He looked enraged. “He did this to you?” he asked. Sara guessed he was talking about Gael, but didn’t want to alert his family about his brother’s involvement.
“Yes, he was trying to get the sharks to attack me. But they didn’t.”
“No, they didn’t,” Adelpha whispered with wonder in her voice. “The sharks brought her to us.”
“What?” Xanthus and Sara said together.
Adelpha nodded as her eyes darted back and forth between them, “It’s true. It was the most amazing thing I’ve ever seen. What do you think it means, brother?”
Xanthus looked at Sara, narrowing his eyes as he studied her. Then his eyes flew open wide, as if he’d just had an epiphany. He paused a long time before speaking. “I think I know, but I can’t speak of it yet.”
Xanthus shook his head as if shaking himself back to reality. “We need to move. Adelpha, Mother, we need to get Sara to the tunnels. It can’t be a coincidence that she ended up in my home. Others will be coming.”
Xanthus towed Sara down the hall to a huge room. It looked to be sleeping quarters. Given the immense size of the room, it had to be the master bedroom. He swam over to a stone picture with a landscape scene of a tropical island. Just below it was a border of scrolled carvings. He pressed down on a raised swirl. Sara felt the soft compression in the water as a section of the wall collapsed in, and then slid open without a sound, revealing a dark tunnel.
“When was this tunnel constructed?” Adelpha asked, surprised. Obviously, she hadn’t known about it until just now.
“The same time as the others,” Xanthus said. “I just never told anyone about it. Lucky I didn’t. I never knew I’d need it to hide someone from my own family.”
