Proven (Daughters of the Sea #1) by Kristen Day Read Free Book Online Page B

sideways glance and he looked over his shoulder playfully as if I was referring to someone else.
    "I'm just glad you're back," Phoebe broke the silence with a giggle. "Comatose Stasia wasn't a lot of fun. Especially when you were trying to kill us."
    "You can say that again," Carmen added with a stabbing motion to Phoebe's chest; instantly lightening the mood and causing everyone to visibly relax. "I was sleeping with one eye open every night."
    Finn and I sat opposite the girls and began filling our plates with steaming food as I surveyed the room for Maera. Our only company in the hall consisted of two nicely dressed waiters, standing guard at the kitchen door in case we had any requests. Natasha continued to pace, this time along the back wall of windows that overlooked an outside sitting area.
    "So tell me what happened," I prompted Sebastian with a nod. "What did you find?"
    "Nothing." He appeared to be juggling the sting of failure along with the stunned realization that it was actually possible. His eyes focused on something far away and his frown deepened. "Absolutely...nothing."
    "We searched that beach for hours," Finn clarified. "Turned over every rock, every boulder... But they weren't there. We even found the passage Selene and Menoetius used to escape the collapse, but it was completely vacant; just leading to another empty beach."
    Natasha sighed from the windows and continued solemnly, "Which means that either Fallon and Olivia are somewhere lost on their own, or Selene has taken them...which is my assumption."
    "Tonight we're searching the surrounding islands as well as Cyprus, in case Selene retreated back to Eventide." Sebastian's shoulders flexed as he leaned forward and put his head in his hands.
    "Tonight? And when do you plan on getting any sleep?" I drilled them with disapproval. 
    "You've been up for two days straight," Avery observed between bites. "Your coordination and judgment will be the first to go."
    "I'll rest when everyone is safe!" Sebastian argued vehemently; a conviction my own stubbornness could agree with. He peered around the table to make sure no one else decided to try and persuade him. "No sooner."
    "Bullheadedness must run in the family," Carmen mumbled under her breath.  Before I could decide if I heard her correctly, Maera breezed into the dining hall like a breath of fresh air. Two streaks of red, laughter, and energy tumbled in after her and set to running laps around the dining hall. Their unruly crimson hair had been tamed into a long, intricate braid running down their backs; baby's breath woven within to match the floor length, satin white dresses they wore.
    "Eva! Chara!" Seraphina plunged into the hall after them; sweat running down her brow and a disapproving frown pulling at the wrinkled corners of her mouth. "I must secure your crowns! Stop running and come here!" One stern look from Maera convinced the girls to listen before she was forced to step in. She watched them walk back from the opposite end of the hall, daring them to misbehave. They stopped to stand before their nanny in silence. Once her daughters were reined in for the moment, Maera turned her attention to her guests, instantly regaining her calm composure.
    "Welcome back." She nodded respectfully to Natasha, Finn, and Sebastian, but her next words were lost on me as my eyes greedily drank in her appearance. Somehow, the whole of Atlantis had been collected and reconstructed upon the single majestic woman standing before us. Hugging her lean body was a strapless dress made of...moss. Its dark green, velvety texture supported her breasts with tenderness before flowing down the curvature of her hips and cascading into a subtle train, pooling behind her as she moved.
    Two antiquated golden cuffs adorned both wrists, and from a single chain hung an inverted gold triangle with detailed etching around the edges, a single crystal nesting in its core. Her striking emerald eyes complimented the hue of the dress and