Ever My Merlin

chapter 22 – CAMELOT

He was a conqueror, fashioned by the sea. Arrogant and merciless, yet also containing the essence of life itself, and he’d saved us all. Gentle surf tickled my feet. I recognized the beach. It was the one where I’d let the monster heal me. I didn’t know quite where we were, but I knew we hadn’t gone far.

We were still on Earth. I knew by the two suns hovering in the sky, one yellow and one red, one to stay and one to fade. Kronos’s Fury had passed. Yet, the blood spot of the supernova would remain in the sky for months until like a scab it healed. The memory of the Fury would remain burned in our minds, until it, too, would wane. But for today, the world was saved.

We’d done it. And we’d come home.

I hoped my family was all right. Grey. Gia. Matt.

I looked down at Vane. He lay still on the beach. I lay on top of him. Where I wanted to be. I watched the breeze play with his hair. I watched his chest rise and fall and I hoped.

He was alive. We were together.

“Together, does that mean you have a thing for me?”

I nearly shrieked when his voice sounded in my head.

Hazel eyes popped open. I smiled. Probably a really idiotic smile, but I couldn’t help it. My fingers dug into his shoulders. His slid into my hair.

“Am I alive?” he said huskily.

A cold wave slapped our feet to answer. I moved to sit, my knees dug into the sand. Vane pulled me back down to cover him. “Don’t go. Ever.”

“How are you talking to me?”

Vane reached into the pocket of my cargoes. A hand tickled a small hole in the pocket. I squirmed. With a wicked grin, he pulled out the Kronos Eye. Its odd shape had solidified into green crystal. Vane’s hand glowed with faint green, and it shrank even more.

He held it out in his palm as a promise. “I always wanted to make you an amulet. It seems as if you could use a new one.”

I touched my neck. The wind had taken the Dragon’s Eye. Like Excalibur, it lay somewhere between the mist and the stone circle. I moved to take the Kronos Eye. With a baiting smile, he tried to close his palm on it, but I was faster. I gave him a triumphant look. He returned it with a smug one of his own.

Life would never be dull with him. I sighed, though all I really wanted to do was smile even more idiotically. I asked, “How did you make this? The monster…” Is gone.

Vane inclined his head. “A bit of him remains. It’s not tangible, but I feel stronger. I doubt I’ll be able to move mountains, but a bit of Poseidon will always be within me. I am a mermaid, after all.”

Behind me, a wave rose up high and danced as if it agreed. It hurtled forward onto the beach. I tensed. The wave stopped suddenly, as if it hit an invisible wall. It dissipated and fell harmlessly back into the ocean.

I looked down at Vane. Amused hazel eyes watched me.

Godlike powers. He was going to be trouble.

“Oh, yes.” Sensuous lips curved. “You could use some trouble.”

“Matt gave the power back to you. To save you.” A tight feeling came over me. I glanced around the beach. We were in a cove. In front of us, a rocky hill rose into woods. On either side, black lava rocks formed sheer cliffs. I saw not one person.

Vane tugged at my hair, drawing my attention back to him. “He’s alive. I would know if he weren’t.”

“Then where is he?” I scanned the cliffs.

The shadows where he’d stood before remained dark.

Vane stared at the same cliffs. “It’s done. The story is done. Merlin has to find a new one. Seems this one was meant for me after all.”

I looked down at him. “Will you ever call him Matt?”

White teeth flashed in an unrepentant grin. “It’s one and the same.”

His grin turned wistful. He asked, “Will you always love him?”

“Almost as much as you will.”

He gave me a very male look. “I don’t think I like you knowing me so well. I will have to work harder to distract you.”

I repressed an urge to melt onto him, and instead traced a finger along the hard length of his jaw. “How did you know the Lady accidentally told Matt about the other way?”

“I didn’t. I remembered what Poseidon and I took a chance. She was with Merlin a long time.”

Took a chance. As I had done. “But why did you do it? Why let me take the risk with the apple? Matt wouldn’t.”

“It was what you said in Westminster. We’re human. It’s what we do. And I finally realized, it’s what you would do.” Vane smirked. “I told you I would save you.”

“I saved you.”

Mischief danced in his eyes. “Don’t get cocky.”

He’d said the same thing the night of our first kiss in the basement. I had no intention of listening to him—then or now. I arched a brow. “Then, don’t fall for me.”

“Too late, Dorothy.”

Dorothy. The name rolled off his tongue like the sweetest caress. My lips curving up, I turned to gaze out at the ocean, an open expanse of never-ending water. “Where do you think we are?”

“Home. Camelot. As long as I’m with you, I don’t care.” Catching my hand, he brought it to his lips and kissed the back in an old-fashioned gesture. Just when I began to surrender, he shocked me by sinking his teeth lightly into the skin.

I shivered and looked up at the yellow sun. Our sun. Vane understood me well. Camelot had always been here. At Home. A figure lurked in the shadows. It pushed back green fronds at the base of the cliff and walked slowly down to the beach. He came closer. I cried out happily. Grey.

He waved at me. I moved to get up.

Fingers wound tightly in my curls. Vane’s legs tangled around mine, holding them in place. “You belong to me.”

“Yes.”

With a tug, he flipped me over. I sunk into damp sand. His muscled body completely enveloped mine, and lips grazed up along a tender column of my neck. He bit an earlobe, causing me to buck under him. He demanded, “Tell me you love me.”

My heart filling at the hint of urgency in his voice, I said, “You know I do.”

He added, “Vane.”

I put my hands on his stubbled jaw, reveling in the way the rough bristles prickled the soft skin of my palm. It was real. He was real. I replied, “I love you, Vivane.”

He smiled, a sweet smile. It held a hint of the boy in the cottage, the one beneath all those red-stained layers who still survived. I pressed closer to him.

He would never be alone again. And neither would I.

***

I lost her. I watched them from the shadows.

I got my brother in return.

That I didn’t regret the exchange may have been why I lost her.

I shrank back when she glanced in my direction. Under me, Grey walked from the base of the cliff and onto the beach. He’d go to her instead.

Beyond him, I saw others. An upside down truck—its passengers shaken but unharmed. Regulars, wizards, mermaids, and gargoyles wandered the woods. I suspected some of those drawn into the tornado had crossed the mist to another world, while some were dumped here. Like lost ducklings, a few of those wandering below would seek the beach and wait to be shepherded back. Others would turn and find the city on the other side. I glanced over rainbow-covered mountains, painted surfboards on crowded sand, and a resort’s well-maintained beaches. I recognized the spot. A picture of this place hung in Sylvia’s study. Ryan looked at it sometimes with wistful eyes when she thought no one watched. I did.

I was up on the cliff. For the moment, I was alone.

She had Vane.

And I was free. The weight of my brother was lifted.

He forgave me for planning his death. I forgave him for being the source of my guilt. As much as it killed me to see him with her, I also wouldn’t have her with anyone else. The two who filled me, but completed each other more.

I would miss them.

I would see them again. Someday. When the time was right. When I could be with them without this savage jealously wrenching through me.

Vane understood.

I saw his piercing eyes fix on my spot. He knew time healed. It would be slow. Turning on my heel, I walked into the tropical jungle. Just beyond the stretch of green trees, the outline of a high-rise resort rose above the horizon.

On the other side of the gate, after we’d left Elysium, I’d glimpsed the kingdom in the mist. More than anything I’d wanted to fling myself toward it. Ryan wouldn’t have gone. Her Camelot would always be here. In a sense, she was right. This was the moment. Camelot had to be made.

Every day and with every fight.

As much as I’d wanted to, I hadn’t crossed the mist to the other world. My place was still here. With her. With my brother. Our lives finally together. I looked up at the twin suns. It would pass and the Earth would have one sun again soon. We saved the garden. The cradle of life.

I would live, too. Someday I would breathe again.

Until then there would be a lot of questions. The Queen would need me. I was not meant for obscurity. I had a lot left to do.

A world to right.

And maybe I would look for the second apple.

After all, my name has always been Merlin.

But now, I was Matt too.