Page 54 of The Void

It had been a full day now since they’d returned to Earth, to her family home outside of Atlanta.

Leaving the Void—or what she now thought of as Kòngbái, the great city of Atlantis—had been hard.

Before they had left, she’d broken Feng’s last hold on the city. The Kri was no more. Now all creatures could come and go if they chose to. Even the Athaki could leave the city if they chose.

Gone, too, was the restriction Feng had put in place about her creations not having children.

Mia didn’t know how to lift all the rules Feng had created, but that one small thing she could do. Soon, Atlantis would be filled. Generations from now, they were going to need each and every shiny building and maybe more. This world was no longer a void.

She and Lucas had made promises to return soon and very often. It seemed as if everyone was happy that the darkness of invisible restraints had been finally lifted from them. She could tell instantly that everyone felt different. Instead of living in the one building in the center of the city, several groups of people had already spread out to other buildings before they had left. Two of them, including Jessup, had decided to explore beyond the city walls and had packed up and set out on their own.

She wondered what great things they would discover. What adventures they would have.

“Mia.” Her mother waved her towards them, breaking into her thoughts.

Smiling, she walked into the group hug.

“Thank you,” Lei said softly, “for not giving up on me.” Then Lei shocked her by waving Lucas towards them.

Lucas shook his head, but Mia and Lei pulled him into the hug and laughed when he just stood there, awkwardly.

“If it wasn’t for you, we wouldn’t be here,” Lei said to Lucas.

Mia watched her parents’ reaction and then smiled when they wrapped their arms around Lucas as well.

During that first day back on Earth, while her family had traveled from the city, Lucas had locked himself in the room he’d used before they’d left. She’d heard him on the phone a couple times.

When she asked him if everything was all right, he’d informed her that in his absence, thankfully, Scott had been running the business, Forge International.

Now that they were back, everyone in Hidden Creek was expecting them. He informed her that Selene and Scott were happy she was okay.

“They want us to be there in less than a week,” Lucas said. “I’ll need some time, a day or two, to straighten things up in New York, if you’re up for the trip?”

She’d grown thrilled about that possibility. She’d been to New York a few times, but the possibility of seeing Lucas’s world, where he lived, where he worked, his parents, was exciting.

Since she hadn’t shown up for her job at the coffee shop, she doubted she still had it. Then again, now that it was apparent that she’d retained all of her new abilities, she figured she could be persuasive if she really wanted it back. Something told her she didn’t.

She and Lucas had yet to talk about their future together. She wondered if Lucas was going to be okay with moving out of New York. Not that she was opposed to moving there, but something told her they were needed more in Georgia. Since returning, even she had felt the draw to the small town of Hidden Creek.

Something was there. Something they needed. Or would need. Whatever it was, she knew that the longer they delayed the trip, the more the danger would build.

When her parents had arrived and seen Lei, her heart had ached at the knowledge of how much of his life they’d missed.

She wished more than anything she could take that pain away, but while they all sat around the dinner table, eating the pizza they’d had delivered, she understood it wasn’t possible.

Lei was who he was thanks to the shadow creatures taking him in and raising him. Feng had created them to destroy, yet they had taken him in as one of their own. Her brother talked about them as if they were his family.

She’d even agreed to take Lei back to the other side of Kòngbái so he could visit them whenever he wanted.

She sat next to Lucas while her parents grilled him on his life, everything from his job to his family.

She’d heard how Lucas had been adopted by the older couple, Leif and Leslie Romano. Lucas explained how he’d just recently met his sisters, Selene and Tara. He left out the part that the three of them were triplets and the children of Rhea, the Mother of Gods, and Typhon, the Father of Monsters.

Still, Lucas was smooth enough that by dessert, her parents and grandparents were in love with him themselves.

“My parents freaking love you,” she told him when they were alone in her room after everyone had cleaned up and gone to bed.

“Everyone loves me,” he said, leaning back in her bed and crossing his arms behind his head.