THE REVENGE OF ATLANTIS, Mary Claire Garcia [best short novels of all time txt] 📗

THE REVENGE OF ATLANTIS by Mary Claire Garcia
“I love Atlantis but I really can’t bring myself to…destroy your world either”


11, 000 years ago….
“Leave now, Plato!” I screamed to him.
“No! I won’t leave you!” he shouted to me.
He pulled me into his arms and tears fell from my eyes. The sun was setting. Our doom would come to us this night and I was powerless to protect my people. If we were lucky the angel would only seal us off and not totally kill us. The humans were the true monsters, not us. I looked at my human lover. He was not like them. He was not narrow-minded and he completely accepted and loved me as I am. Pain was tearing me apart inside too but I was a queen and I had to be strong for my people. I would not abandon Atlantis.
“I am sorry but I must do this, my love” I whispered to him.
I opened my wings and I let him gaze at me with awe. I closed my eyes and began to dance. Mother had taught me this dance. She said to me that if I dance this, all of the humans would not have memories of us anymore on the next sunset. I had told Plato about this and he knew what I was doing but it was too late. Once the dance was started, I must not stop. The price for this kind of spell was the dancer’s life.
“Cleito, stop it! I beg of you!” he shouted.
Even if he wanted to, it was impossible. The magic circle for this dance was unbreakable. I continued to dance. I felt music deep inside me which he could not hear. I continued the deadly dance for Atlantis. Light resonated from the ground I had danced on. Light filled my faerie wings and I knew my body was shimmering also. I opened my eyes and a bitter smile crept on my lips. Plato was just watching me. His eyes never left my every step and twirl.
“So beautiful,” he whispered.
I finished the last step. Light exploded. The memory of Atlantis would be erased on every human mind on the next sunset. I felt all my power leaving me then the light vanished and I saw the setting sun once again. I screamed as my wings shattered. Pure pain filled my whole body. I collapsed on the soft grass beneath my feet. Plato knelt beside me and pulled me close to me. My head rested on his chest and I knew I was crying.
“You would no longer exist to me on the next sunset,” Plato said as though he could still not believe it.
But I did believe it. I knew that I was slowly dying already.
“Would you like to remember me?” I whispered.
Plato looked at me surprised.
“I can still do that but your memories will…be changed very much,” I explained.
He shrugged and smiled at me sadly.
“Do it. I’d rather remember you as my cat or something like that than completely forget you,” Plato urged.
I shook my head and kissed him on the lips.
“No, you’ll remember me as Cleito, as a mortal woman who the god of the sea fell in love with. I would still be special. I would become a myth,” I whispered and my best efforts still did not stop my tears from falling.
I placed my right hand on his forehead and did the spell on him. He lost consciousness at once and I summoned the ferry man to bring him off to his own land. As soon as he was gone, my three sisters came to my side. So they knew what I had done.
“A millennium will come when four season faeries are born on the same season. They will give life to Atlantis once again. My prophesy is never wrong”
I smiled weakly and my eyes closed despite my best efforts for them not to. I heard their cries. I did not feel the excruciating pain anymore. If the palace walls could speak, they would tell the story of the queen’s childhood. They would tell the sad story of her love with the kind-hearted human. They would tell the story of her last dance, her prophesy, her last breath, and the disappearance of Atlantis on that beautiful sunset.

Publication Date: 06-01-2012

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