Ever My Merlin

chapter 2 – THE BARGAIN


Matt Emrys. Even the name evoked mystery. I sighed.

Other girls, a mixture of lower and upper classmen, sat at the plain, flat table with me, giving me curious looks. The wide cafeteria of Acton-Concord High School was packed with the usual lunch crowd. Juniors weren’t allowed to go off campus, and although I was a senior, several of the girls on the lacrosse team weren’t; so here I sat, with my brown lunch bag of a hastily assembled cucumber sandwich and celery sticks.

“Arriane Morganne Brittany DuLac,” Alexa said, her model-perfect face reflecting the lines of a keen strategist. “Are you even listening? We’re only trying to decide your future.”

From across the table, I gave her a look. She rolled her sky-blue eyes. Alexa loved to use my full name to annoy me. Honestly, what was my mother thinking saddling me with that impossibly long name? It was so pretentious, a name for a princess. So not me.

Alexa tapped a manicured finger on the table. Only six months younger than I, she fell pretty fast and quite easily into the role of little sister. My annoyance melted a bit at the words “little sister.” I never had a sister, brother, or anything until this year. Now I had both. It was the one bright glimmer in the dark hole I found myself.

My stomach knotted and I pushed the uneasy memories back down. Sometimes I missed my mom so much I wanted to bite my own knuckles until they bled… just to feel the pain somewhere else.

“I think we’re all in agreement that Prom was completely awful last year. I don’t know how the class went broke by the end of the year, but Ryan won’t let that happen to us,” Alexa continued. She turned with a fanatical gleam in her eye. “Now that Ryan’s been elected student president, she’ll fix it.”

I sat up straight at hearing this. “What?”

“This is going to be the best prom in the history of Acton-Concord High,” Alexa declared.

I grimaced. I never signed up to fix Prom. Actually, I didn’t want to be student president at all but somehow got nominated after spending a year coordinating all of the school’s charity drives and volunteer activities. Being the new girl at school last year, I thought throwing myself into various school programs would help me make friends. It worked a little too well. Not to mention, when someone asked for help, I couldn’t very well say “no.” With every “yes” I kept getting asked to do more, and with every “yes” I found it harder to say “no.”

Then, my aggressive campaign manager (Alexa) took over, and shortly thereafter, I’d found myself up on the winner’s throne after a landslide election. If becoming president was a popularity contest, I’d won because of Alexa’s.

She chattered on, “We’ll organize fund-raisers. There are plenty of parents we can guilt-trip into spending some extra cash. Sponsorships. I don’t care if we have corporate logos as table centerpieces—we can do it tastefully on the sides of vases of white roses—”

“I always thought white lilies would be better for Prom,” squeaked a varsity girl from our lacrosse team. The other girls at the table looked at her with surprise and respect. It was hard to stop a steamroller like Alexa after she got started.

Alexa beamed at the girl. “Great idea, Christine. White roses are so overdone.”

Ruddy-faced Christine glowed under the praise.

I chewed on my celery stick. “You’re a junior, Alexa. Why do you care about Prom?”

“Who are you going with, Ryan?” asked Ramanajan, a slender girl with braided, ebony hair, sitting beside Alexa. “Grey?”

“Ew,” I replied. “He’s my brother now.”

“Good,” Ramanajan said with satisfaction.

Alexa looked at me, rolling her eyes. I suppressed a laugh.

“But, Ryan, you barely know him and you’re going to be adopted, right? No blood relation.” Christine sighed. “Grey is so adorable. I slipped in the hallway once and he carried my backpack all the way to class.”

Alexa snorted in disgust. “Never say that in front of him. His ego is big enough.”

But she wouldn’t be distracted. Mischievous eyes fixed on me with determination. “Ramanajan is right. We have to find Ryan a date. She never even looks at any of the guys panting after her. How about one of Grey’s friends? Brian thinks you’re smoking hot.”

My stomach twisted. It was okay to look at guys from a distance, but I didn’t actually want one in my life. I pictured a boy lying on the floor of my Texas townhouse… his letterman jacket smeared with blood, his head ripped from his body, the cloying smell of iron and meat. He was murdered along with my mother. Somehow, I survived. Guilt bore down on me.

The dark memories must have colored my expression because Alexa reached out with her hand, a calming presence, and held my white knuckles.

I gave her a tight smile. “No letter-jackets.”

“Fine,” she sighed with exaggerated noise. With a little squeeze, she let my hand go. “But you’re severely limiting the pool.”

“Maybe you need to take another look at the pool,” I said.

“Really?” A perfectly arched, sandy-brown eyebrow rose. Alexa purred, “Methinks the girl may have a Prince Charming in sight. Now who could persuade our Goldilocks to even think about the ball?”

“You’re astonishingly bad at fairy tales, Lexa,” I muttered. “Goldilocks stole porridge from the three bears’ house. She couldn’t care less about Prince Charming.”

The girls at the table giggled.

Alexa took a big slurp of the lemonade she was drinking. “Well, this bear can tell you’re hiding something, sis. Never fear, I’ll figure it out. You can’t keep a secret from me—” A shadow crossed Alexa’s face for a fleeting second before she masked it with a grin. “I know things.”

The hairs on the back of my neck stood up. I turned my head to find Matt staring straight at us from the lunch line across the room.

Following my gaze to Matt, Alexa made a sound. “Ooh, is he new? And way better than Prince Charming.”

“Stop trying to dodge the question,” I said quickly. “Why are you interested in Prom?”

Alexa sniffed and flipped her shoulder-length hair. “If you must know, Grey’s friend, Joey, asked me to go.”

“Joey?” Ramanajan giggled. “Maybe you should drive, Lexa.”

Alexa elbowed her. “Don’t be such a snob.”

Another girl laughed. “Yesterday, he started his car and I swear, it let out so much smoke I thought a volcano just erupted.”

“It wasn’t that bad,” I muttered. Although, it was. Alexa was talking to Joey when it happened. We were both sitting in her car. I nearly gagged before Alexa hurriedly rolled up the windows.

“I wouldn’t mind the new guy driving me. A friend of mine saw him roar up into the parking lot this morning on this completely hot bike,” Christine whispered to me. I followed her gaze straight back to Matt, who now stood at the head of the lunch line. I agreed. I wouldn’t mind him driving me either, and I wasn’t talking about on a bike.

“You’ll never even make it into town in that thing, Alexa,” Ramanajan continued. We lived in Concord, Massachusetts, a small outlying city about forty minutes from the heart of Boston.

Alexa’s eyes narrowed as she opened her cherry lips to retort. She never got the chance.

“Halloo, sis,” Grey Ragnar said as he sauntered over to us. He led a group of his football buddies. Ramanajan beamed at Grey. Her eyes roved over the pack of guys, all in resplendent blue-and-yellow varsity letterman jackets. Grey tossed a bottle of chocolate Yoo-hoo back and forth in his hand. “I need your house keys, Alexa. I forgot mine. I’m going to be late today. Coach has us staying because he thinks some new guy might be worth looking at.”

“Hello, ladies.” Joey, tall and gangly, rushed forward. His eyes glued on Alexa, he walked straight into Grey. The bottle Grey was tossing around flew out of his hand. The cap must have been loose because it started to erupt in the air. Most of the liquid came spraying straight down at me.

Then, somehow, my chair was yanked out of the way, and I tumbled to the floor. A hand caught me around the waist. The plastic bottle landed on the table with a thud. The lacrosse girls all yelped and jumped up from the table. Gooey chocolate milk ran from it and dripped over the sides onto the floor beside me. At least it wasn’t all over me.

Finding myself bent over backwards, resting on his arm, I looked up into the eyes of my rescuer. For a second, I thought I saw a faint glow of blue on the hand before I blinked and the glimmer of blue vanished. I looked up. Matt Emrys.

Amber eyes smiled down at me. He held a palm out in silent question. Gingerly, I put mine in his, and his warm hand closed around mine. A sizzle like an electric shock went through me. A hint of forever blue flared in his dark eyes. It asked me to reach out and embrace its endless expanse, to allow it to wrap around me like a safe blanket.

For a long second, everything stood still. Around us, the cafeteria hushed into whispers as I heard the blood pumping and thumping through his heart along with the accelerated rate of mine. In that moment, I flew like fierce wind across the top of the steepest cliff. So full of life, I burst with it the need to seek expression, and I tumbled off the cliff into the rocks below.

“Grey, apologize!” Alexa patted her shirt where a few drops had fallen.

I blinked and the cacophony of the cafeteria came back into jagged focus. The blue in his eyes ebbed, returning them to a comfortable brown. My heart sighed as I watched the brown become a beautiful amber. I wondered briefly if being near Matt Emrys was turning my mind into mush. His hand tightening on me, he yanked me up.

“Th-thanks,” I said, wincing. Why did that sound so embarrassingly breathless?

“You’re most welcome.” His words came out in a caress of rolling tones. He had a heavy accent that sounded oddly like a blend of southern US and British.

All my befuddled brain could do was give him a goofy smile back. Alright—so it wasn’t really a life or death situation to be saved from a splattering of chocolate milk, but my nerves remained standing on end from the adrenaline rush.

“Ry,” Grey started. His hand reached out to as he took a step toward me, but somehow, he slipped on the chocolate mess all over the floor. Matt caught him by his jacket. Grey gave Matt an annoyed look and shook off his hand. Grey straightened up.

“How agile,” Matt said, his tone biting. “You could at least apologize to her.” Grey’s annoyance turned into a full-fledged glare. Then, Matt dug his hole even deeper. “If you’re an example of agility here, I think I’m going to enjoy this practice.”

“You’re the new recruit?” Grey said.

Matt raised a brow in a perfect arch. “Figured that out all by yourself?”

Grey’s expression bordered on livid. He took a step toward Matt, pulling his fist back in a swing. Matt didn’t move or blink.

“Grey Ragnar!” Alexa hissed. “Do you want to get suspended again?”

Grey got expelled last year for fighting. His mother was not happy about it, and it landed Grey in a pricey anger management therapy program. I think the torture of having to attend it was doing more for him than the actual program. Grey controlled himself. “You have a lot of words, Emrys. Let’s see how good you are on the field.”

Grey turned on his heel as he stormed out. The other football guys shrugged at each other before following him.

Joey looked at Alexa, mumbling, “Sorry,” as he hurried to join them.

Matt stared after the group with a strangely speculative expression. He turned back to me, and his eyes cleared. “So that is Grey Ragnar. Rather volatile, isn’t he? I hope you don’t have to bother with him again.”

I suppressed a smile at the new guy. “Grey’s my brother.”

Matt’s eyebrows rose. “I suppose it’s going to be complicated, then.”

“Complicated?”

Sensuous lips curved up into a half-smile. All-knowing eyes met and held mine. “To know you.”

My lips curved up in response.

A shadow crossed over the cafeteria.

Matt’s smile froze in place. The whole cafeteria, and everyone in it, froze in place.

Sound stopped, as if someone had muted the scene with a TV remote.

Fluorescent lights darkened.

A loud clapping echoed across the eerily quiet room. I straightened up and pulled away from a frozen Matt. Across the cafeteria a figure stood near the doors. My heart skipped a beat. He watched me with cold amusement. His well-muscled form, clad in a dressy ensemble of form-fitting red shirt and black trousers, leaned back against the wall in a rebel-without-a-cause pose. But this was no rebel. He would never settle for anything less than being emperor.

Vibrant green eyes blazed. God-like green. Vane.

I blinked at the sudden appearance of my ex-boyfriend. I never had much luck with boyfriends.

“How adorable,” he drawled. “Is this how he became your hero? You have low standards, DuLac.”

What is happening? I reached out to touch Matt. My hand went straight through his shoulder. I turned to look at Alexa. Her face paused in the middle of a scowl. Beside her, the other girls of the lacrosse team also sat completely still. I walked toward her, stepping right through the middle of the solid wood lunch table.

Either I was a ghost or it was.

“Yes, DuLac, work it out,” said Vane. “We are in your mind. This is a manifestation we’re seeing through the Dragon’s Eye. You are on the rooftop in India.”

He snapped his fingers. Everyone in the cafeteria disappeared. The tables were empty, and the chairs were tucked neatly back into place. Lights across the wide room dimmed until Vane stood under the lone spotlight, beneath a high window. Outside, the sun faded. The last remnants of light revealed the slanted lines of Vane’s harsh cheekbones and kept the shadowy mantle that hovered behind him at bay… for a few more fleeting moments.

I took me a second to recenter. To remember I was no longer that girl in the cafeteria, the one who knew nothing about wizards and swords. The one who didn’t ache for the twisted being that stood in front of me.

While I stayed a safe distance away from him, my heart jangled nervously in my chest. My muscles itched with the impulse to leap into his arms. The ice encasing those mermaid-green eyes stopped me. The Vane I knew burned hot. These eyes could have frozen an erupting volcano. My stomach clenched, and for a brief moment, I wondered if I had truly lost him. I dismissed the thought. I refused to believe it. But I also didn’t try to move any closer to him.

I demanded, “Why are you here?”

Vane raised a brow. “You haven’t found Merlin yet. You only found a memory.”

“What have you done with him?”

“You’re not going to find him in nostalgic trips to the past. Merlin is not here. Only I am, and you should be glad.” Vane straightened away from the wall, but didn’t move any further. “Because I am here to answer your pleas, not him. Only I can save you from this disaster.”

Tsunami. The word brought me abruptly back to the present. I reached up to touch the Dragon’s Eye at my neck. I was inside. Outside, I pictured Grey, Gia, and Blake on the rooftop, staring at the ominously calm waves, waiting for it to turn on them. “What are you saying? How can you stop a tsunami?”

“I am the Fisher King, a vassal of the Earth Shaker and all that.” His lips curved into a smile. Not the kind that invited play. His promised only pain.

“I suspect you like a little pain,” he said arrogantly.

The amulet let him read my surface thoughts. I retorted, “Get out, Vane.”

“Never.”

“What’s the catch?” I asked aloud. “For your help.”

A brow rose. “Why should I bother to make the effort?”

“Because you need me. If I die here today, Excalibur will be lost—”

Dark hair glinted in dim light as he inclined his head. “You are right. I do need to rescue… Excalibur. Someone must, I suppose, since you seem to have the uncanny ability to invite danger.”

I stared at his smooth expression. It was too easy. One of things that always disturbed me about Vane was how complex his games could be. Now, he possessed a bit of Poseidon inside his body. A destiny he took from Matt.

I picked through his words carefully until I found the flaw in them. “Can you save everyone?” I added carefully, “Not just me. All of us. Sri Lanka up the coast to Chennai. Kolkotta. Around to Thailand and Indonesia. This whole area.”

Vane’s lips curved into a chilly smile. “I rather hoped you would ask. Alas, to do that, requires a great expenditure of magic, even for the Earth Shaker. I would have to relieve pressure at the fault lines of two massive tectonic plates. You’re asking me to move a mountain of rock.”

“Can you do it?” I repeated.

“If I do, you can rest assured, this entire region would be safe.”

I gazed over the gulf that separated us, merely a few feet in this imaginary hallway, but a grand canyon of ulterior motives. “In exchange for what, Vane?”

Hunger sharpened his smile. “You know me too well.”

The smile set my teeth on edge, even as it strung an already tight chord inside me.

“Merlin,” he said. “I want his magic. All of it.”