Ever My Merlin

chapter 3 – THE LIBRARY

“You are unbelievable!”

He shrugged.

I strove to calm myself. I failed. “It’s impossible!”

“I always thought so, but now that I have the Earth Shaker’s insight—the answer seems so simple. Imagine magic as one layer of a golden onion. It surrounds us. I have the ability to strip it off him and layer it on myself.”

“You want to skin him?”

“It won’t kill him,” Vane said.

I shook my head. “It’s not my choice to make. Matt—”

Vane moved so quickly I only had time to blink before he was standing directly in front of me. He caught my wrist and pulled me back until I stood toe-to-toe with him. “Merlin is no longer your crutch. This is your decision, sword-bearer. Do you have what it takes to make it? Do you want to stop this tsunami? Or will you allow millions to die because you can’t make a move without Merlin holding your hand?”

He spat the words out and they fell on me like blows. His fingers gripped the vulnerable part of my arm, fingers that, until quite recently, held me with care. The fingers around me now, though, felt like steel manacles. These fingers would just as easily snap my bones as mend them. The truth was, I didn’t know. While I did depend on Matt, I’d always thought I made my own decisions. After Vane, I wasn’t sure. Had I listened to Matt too much?

I looked at him steadily. “I don’t trust you.”

Vane dropped my hand as if it burned him. I let out a breath—of relief and sorrow. I missed him so much even his touch hurt. Watching me, his eyes flashed for a brief second. Then, the mermaid hue of green hooded them again and his expression blanked.

“You shouldn’t trust me. However, I won’t kill him. Taking his magic won’t give me Merlin’s knowledge so I still need him alive.” He retreated, putting some distance between us. “We are on the same side for the moment. Your friends don’t have long, DuLac. I need your answer now.”

Mentally, I pulled myself away from him and focused on what was happening. “Why do you want Matt’s magic? You already have more than enough power.” I didn’t expect him to reply. Ideas tumbled around in my head until one stood out. “You need his ability. The Lady said the power of the Earth Shaker would show us what is to come. She meant visions. But she meant for Merlin to take Poseidon’s power. To enhance it. Only Merlin has visions. Not you. When you took it, Poseidon’s power didn’t grant you anything new, only enhanced what you already possessed. Therefore, you will never be able to have visions. You have ultimate power, but no ability to use it as we need.” My head jerked up to meet his shadowed gaze. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

Vane said, “Ten points to my star student.”

“You’re not my teacher anymore, Vane. I’m sure you’ve been fired by now,” I retorted. Vane was the European History teacher at Acton-Concord High. We’d been missing from school for nearly a month. I’d probably been expelled by now too. “Not even you could charm away that long of an absence.”

“Is that a dare?” He chuckled a hollow laugh.

My chin jutted out, but I didn’t reply. He was a predator, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Could a predator keep his word?

His eyes narrowed. “I see you need convincing that I’m powerful enough. If that is what you require, you shall have it.” He walked closer again. “The Earth Shaker enhanced my magic to the extreme. All my magic, but especially the one I’m strongest in—persuasion.”

Before I could blink, he took my hand from my side. His hand enclosed mine, our palms touching. As soon as he did, a sizzle of electricity shot up my arm, straight into my chest, speeding up my heart, and beyond my abdomen until it curled my toes. It left me achy, breathless, and completely wanting.

“Please,” I whispered. I would have done anything to be near him.

“You see—I don’t even have to speak anymore,” he said in a silky tone.

The Dragon’s Eye amulet flared against my skin. He pushed past it. The amulet cooled and I realized I had no defense against him. Transfixed, I stared into his eyes and all I saw was a deep abyss. His grip tightened, a thumb pressing into the back of my hand with hard pressure. It filled me with an overwhelming need. I wanted nothing more than to agree to whatever he asked. “Bend to me,” his voice whispered in my head, a soft suggestion that lingered inside my eardrums until I neither heard nor thought of anything else but him.

I was drowning.

All I had to do was say okay and he would save me. I opened my mouth to do just that. If he’d asked me to drop to my knees and beg him, I would do just that.

Vane let me go. Suddenly bereft, I shuddered a black emptiness left me exposed. I needed him to fill it. I shook my head and backed away. Even though he released me, the desire to please him stayed strong. I gulped, trying to swallow the longing down.

“Convinced yet? Or do you need more?” He took a step toward me.

I held up my hand to stop him. I didn’t want him to touch me. I didn’t want to be that much out of control. Pulling together my bruised pride, I scowled at him. “You made your point.”

“Good.” The predator watched me. “We are running out of time. What do you say, Ryan? Will you choose Merlin and allow your friends to die? Or will you give me what I want?”

I stared at him.

In reality, my body was on a rooftop and the tsunami was coming. Within my mind, through the Dragon’s Eye, I faced the tsunami already upon me. Vane.

I bit my lip, debating.

I knew he could fix this. Yet how I could pay his price? To pay with something that was not mine to offer. To give Matt to him when I couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t get hurt. I took a slow breath. “Even if I agreed, it wouldn’t matter. I came here looking for Matt and he’s not here.”

Vane’s gaze dropped to my amulet. He watched it rise and fall against my chest. “Have no fear, DuLac. I can fix that too.”

I ground my teeth. He’d used the amulet to read my thoughts again.

I pictured smacking him in the face.

Shadows deepened the slanted lines of Vane’s cheekbones as he gazed back at me with cold expressionless eyes. My insides twisted. The idea that he would want to do this to Matt, his brother, reminded me that he was not the Vane I knew, the one who held on to life with both hands. This Vane wanted to destroy life. He had become a monster, one I helped create. I took a deep breath. “I’ll do whatever you want if you save them.”

“You’ll do everything I want.”

“Let’s see you find him first.”

Vane’s brow rose. “Do you agree to my terms?”

“As if I have a choice.”

“That’s my girl. Always eager to sacrifice.” The drawl to his accent emphasized the sarcastic edge to the words.

I jerked away and put more distance between us. “I could really hate you.”

Vane didn’t blink. “Do so. It only binds you more to me.”

I ground my teeth harder. Another thing that always annoyed me about Vane—how I couldn’t seem to win one single argument with him.

Vane strode to the cafeteria exit. Holding the door open, he crooked his finger at me in command. “Shall we, DuLac?”

Wishing I had something to throw at his head, I trailed after him. We crossed an empty courtyard to the largest of the plain rectangular buildings, the main building of the school. He seemed to know exactly where he was going. It took me a few minutes to figure out. We went down a shadowed hallway lined on either side with tall, metal lockers.

We turned a corner. Vane went straight up to a set of grey metal, heavy double doors and heaved them open. I followed him and paused just beyond the threshold. One whiff of the musty scent of books inside and I knew immediately that Vane brought us to the right place.

The school library opened to a lobby area with ten low tables. Long, waist-high bookshelves surrounded the central lobby and made up three sides of a square. The fourth side, just to the right of the entrance, was a high bar that enclosed the librarian’s checkout area. Behind the lobby at the back of the room, row upon row of bookshelves fanned out, filling up the space. The bookshelves extended from floor to ceiling. Glass windows stretched up the back wall and let in a bit of light from one wall to breathe life onto the stacks of dusty paper, wood, and other secret worlds.

While the rest of the school was a cluster of warehouse-type buildings, the library retained the essence of Boston, the birthplace of the American Revolution. History and blood lived inside its closed tomes. Its mark on this world so deep, it escaped the confines of the page and permeated the air. It was the one room in the whole school in which Matt felt safest. His brother knew him well.

“Yes, I do know him well.” Vane tugged me farther into the room. I stopped at one of the low tables. We spent hours in here studying before the one day that changed everything in my life. I sighed.

“We don’t have time for sentiment,” Vane said, his eyes roving over the maze of bookshelves. “The longer we’re in here, the closer the tsunami gets.”

“You don’t need to remind me,” I said.

“This is taking too long,” Vane muttered, ignoring me. He extended a hand and pointed it at one of the tables. Making a fist, the table exploded with a loud boom. It burst into a million pieces, sending off a small shockwave that threw its six companion chairs across the room. One chair flew straight at me. I narrowly avoided being clobbered. Moving out of its way at the last second, I body-slammed into Vane.

He caught me. Rigid arms wrapped around my waist and prevented us both from falling. His hot breath washed over my face.

A loud growl filled the room. I turned around in Vane’s arms to face the center again. Out of nowhere, a lion leaped from the library stacks and landed on top of a table a few feet in front of us. Rather than terrifying us, the thin lion sported a ragged, auburn-colored mane. Its patchy state gave him a look of desperation... and hunger.

I groaned. “Not again.”

I saw him in his lion form once before, after Lelex, the former mermaid king, tortured him. He had to retreat into the form to protect himself.

Vane’s hands grabbed my hips, keeping me in front of him like a shield. He pushed me forward. “You’re up, DuLac.”

I stayed where I was. The lion watched us with tired eyes.

“What am I supposed to do?” I hissed to Vane.

“Get close to him. You’re the only one he’ll allow. Look for something that shouldn’t be there. A discoloration of some kind. When Lelex took him, he planted a sickness inside his mind that’s been festering and growing. Like a virus, it keeps reproducing and making him weak. I didn’t see it before until I broke through the block on your amulet. It’s why he never fully recovered from the ordeal, despite his strength.”

I frowned but kept my eyes trained on Matt. “He’s sick? You want to help him?”

“I want his power,” Vane said harshly from behind me. “Saving him will get me that.”

I wanted to look at Vane, but I didn’t dare. My heart jangling in my chest, I took a step toward the hungry lion. “Matt? It’s me, Ryan.”

Enormous jowls moved and he made a low sound in his throat. Yet, a spark lit his gaze. He looked straight at me with unfocused eyes. My heart squeezed inside my chest and I wondered if he was blind. I took another step. The lion’s ears twitched. He tensed. Suspicion colored his brown eyes, but he remained in place.

“I’m not going to hurt you, Matt.” With another slow breath, I took one last step until I stood directly in front of the beast.

For a second, I thought he would swipe a massive paw and shred me like I was no more than lunchmeat. His hot breath blew in my face and halfway down my body. I tried not to gag. As surprisingly clean as the lion looked—a little fact that told me this was Matt and not a real lion—his breath still stunk. His teeth protruded from the rough, yellow fur on the sides of his mouth. My left arm still stung at the sight of them. Once before, I had reached out to touch him when he was in lion form and the result hadn’t been pretty. I had scars up and down my arm to prove it.

I looked down the length of Matt’s lion body. I could see most of his back and sides from where I stood, but there was no discoloration.

“Hurry up, Ryan,” Vane commanded.

“Stop nagging, Vane,” I muttered. Not like he was the one standing less than a hair’s breadth away from being eaten. Although this was all happening strictly in our heads, the things that took place here would affect our bodies in the real word. In other words, if I got killed here, I would be just as dead in reality. The lion sensed my agitation and his hackles rose. He stood up and let out a great, big roar. I stumbled backwards, falling on my butt.

On his underside, I spotted the discoloration. Vane was right. Lelex had infected Matt. A black grid of veins was visible in the lion’s long underbelly.

“It’s there,” I said aloud.

“Where?” Vane asked.

“From his heart down—” I didn’t get a chance to say anymore.

Vane moved so fast I barely had a chance to blink before he reached the lion. The lion roared and raising his massive neck, exposed his belly. With one powerful thrust, Vane plunged a green, glowing hand straight into the lion’s chest. The skin ripped open. Blood gushed out. Vane broke through the brittle barrier of his ribcage and tore open the surprised lion.

Matt screamed and started to thrash.

“Zyayat,” Vane commanded. Green magic spread from his hand to Matt. “Hold still or you’ll just make this worse.”

The lion froze in place.

“You said you weren’t going to hurt him!” I jumped up from the ground, emerging from my own stunned paralysis. I had no idea how to help Matt, but I wasn’t going to passively stand by. More than anything, I wished for Excalibur. I had to slay the monster in front of me… and I wasn’t talking about the lion. Out of nowhere, the sword appeared. The silver blade fell to the floor between Vane and me. I blinked. Of course, this was all in my head. I snatched up Excalibur and held the sword in front of me.

I had as much power here as Vane.

Vane turned cold green eyes toward me. “Not quite as much power.”

“Zyayat,” he commanded again. A familiar wind buzzed against my ears as his magic wrapped around me and secured me in place. I tried to move and found I couldn’t. He’d frozen me, too.

“I told you I wasn’t going to kill him. Stop panicking,” Vane said calmly.

Matt roared, but under the freeze spell, it came out as a low, desperate mewl. Vane’s hand dug deeper into the lion’s chest. The metallic stench of iron in his blood made me want to gag. Yet, all I could do was watch. From under a crown of rough mane, the lion’s enormous head turned slowly toward me. Huge, amber-brown eyes—Matt’s eyes—locked on me for a moment. They were saying goodbye.

Vane yanked out the lion’s heart. With a satisfied grunt, he stepped back and the lion fell in a heavy heap to the floor. Without another glance at the fallen beast, Vane turned to me. He held the beating muscle in his hand. Blood dripping, Vane turned Matt’s heart over in his hand. He looked at the dying organ with dispassionate eyes.

Still frozen in place, I could only let out a suppressed cry. Closing my eyes, I pictured myself unfrozen. I opened them again and tried to move. Nothing. Even in my head, I couldn’t break through Vane’s grip.

Vane held up the heart. Black veins crisscrossed the red flesh in a tight web, strangling the vulnerable muscle. “The infection is here. No one would think to pull this out. Lelex was clever.”

Lelex, the mermaid king held Matt captive for fifteen days. Fifteen days, which passed as slowly as fifteen years. Days we’d never forget.

“No one who cared about Matt would pull it out,” I managed to say despite the freeze spell.

“We have little time for care. It takes twenty seconds for him to die if he has no heart.” Vane looked at me steadily, ice chilling his irises. He squeezed the heart with his palm. Green fire flared in his hand and surrounded the organ. Vane opened his hand. The black veins disappeared from the bloodied heart. He strode to the lion and knelt on the floor. Reaching deep into the lion’s mutilated chest, he put the heart back in place. Fire flowed from Vane’s fingers and he reconnected organ and tissue like it was a broken clay sculpture, not blood and bone. He worked outwardly, and within seconds, Matt’s ribs and chest were sewn together. Still, a mark of the trauma remained. A jagged sunburst scarred the lion’s chest.

My throat dry with fear, I ached to go to him. I almost fell on my face when the spell winked out with an abrupt “snap!” I rushed closer and knelt just above the lion’s reclining head. I ran my fingers through his rough, tangled mane. The lion lay still. Too still.

I murmured, “C’mon, Matt.”

Vane put a hand to Matt’s now-healed chest. He looked at me. “It’s your turn.”

I swallowed. “What do I do?”

“Nothing.” He stood up and snapped his fingers. The Fisher King’s trident appeared in his hand. “You do nothing. You will not fight back.”

My fingers tightened in Matt’s thick mane. The ends bit into my palm. Doubt filled me again.

“Agreed, champion?” Vane mocked.

My palm itched to connect with his face. I took a bracing breath, and said, “I will do nothing. I will not fight you.”

Vane’s glacial green eyes flashed with satisfaction. It wasn’t enough to get his way. He wanted to grind me down at the same time. He aimed the trident at Matt. “Adhikaram karoti.”

I jumped a little when a stream of green fire blasted out, hitting Matt directly in the chest. The lion’s body shuddered under the attack. A film of blue formed around Matt. Blue was the color of Matt’s magic. My hand in Matt’s mane burned with such intense heat that I had to yank it away. The fire coming out of the trident intensified. So did the blue. The room vibrated as the two wizards fought, one conscious, the other unconscious. That Matt still had enough magic left in him to fight Vane, even though weakened, filled me with hope. Then, Vane turned the trident on me.

I cried, “What are you doing?”

“It’s time.” He shouted, “Adhikaram karoti,” once more.

Green fire blasted me. A blue shield winked around me before it could make contact. Still, I felt the attack like a wallop to the stomach.

I looked at the lion. His eyes were open. Matt’s eyes were open! With effort, the fallen lion expended what little strength he had to turn so that he lay on his belly. His massive head rose up off the ground. Blue magic flowed from him to me. Matt was trying to protect me. All I had to do was hold on to Matt’s magic.

Vane said, “The lives of everyone, the fate of this entire region, rest in your hands, Ryan.”

My body shook under the trident’s assault. My eyes locked on Matt’s, and I knew what Vane wanted from me. My heart ached with the decision.

“I’m sorry,” I thought to Matt, and instead of holding on, I let go. As soon as I did, the lion let out a roar. Green magic greedily gobbled blue. It peeled away from me and was reabsorbed back into itself… back into its owner as Vane stripped Matt of his magic. Matt let out another pained roar, but Vane didn’t stop.

Seconds stretched into infinitely long moments of time. When Vane finished, my body shook. My palms and knees dug into the coarse fibers of the carpet. Even on all fours, I struggled not to collapse completely. Matt let out a low moan. His head lowered to the ground. I crawled over to him.

With extreme effort, I pushed myself up into a sitting position and cradled the lion’s head in my lap. His eyes were closed again. He lay still. I put a shaking hand on rough, yellow cheeks and to my relief, felt a hot, steady breath. He still lived.

“I told you he would,” Vane said, reading my mind.

I blinked away the film of tears that obscured my sight. I looked up at him. The Fisher King stood tall. The trident, which he held like a staff, rested confidently in his hand.

“Did you finally get what you wanted?” I spat at him.

Vane crossed over to me. For the first time, the ice in his eyes shrank back. Around my neck, the Dragon’s Eye heated. Ignoring Matt’s head in my lap, Vane knelt down on one knee. He caught the back of my head with one hand, his fingers tangling in the dark blond strands, tugging and straining the follicles on my scalp.

His lips twisted into a small smile. “I haven’t gotten everything. I’m working on that part.”

He jerked my head so that my face tilted up to his. He gave me a hard kiss, one that didn’t promise pleasure, only possession. One laced with icy control, except that it sparked heat wherever it touched me. My body yearned to press closer. It didn’t care that there was no respect in the act. It didn’t care that he made me betray someone I should have protected. It just craved his touch. The knowledge startled me, shamed me, and quickly sprouted into anger.

I bit down on his lip. Vane pulled back. Fresh blood beaded on his bottom lip.

I had to stop myself from putting a hand up to the cut. “You don’t own me.”

His eyes flashed. He wiped the blood with a thumb. Reaching down, he grabbed the Dragon’s Eye gemstone and smeared blood across the gem. Then with casual arrogance, he said, “It’s only a matter of time.”

I looked at him steadily. “We have a deal. It’s your turn. Save them.”

He smirked. “As you wish.”

With those words, Vane disappeared. I sat in the library all alone with Matt. I closed my eyes. Around my neck, the ruby gem of the Dragon’s Eye glowed with green magic. I realized with a sinking feeling that the amulet was still bound to Matt’s magic; and now that Vane possessed Matt’s magic, it bound me to him without any barrier. From somewhere off in the distance, I heard Vane’s dark laugh.

“Worry later, Dorothy,” he said. “Right now, you need to wake up.”

***

Opening my eyes, I found myself back on the rooftop. I was smack in the middle of the battlefield with a sudden heart-pounding jerk.

“Sword-bearer,” Hari shouted at me. “It is coming!”

Hari, Gia, Blake, Grey and the remaining fifty or so wizards all ran to the edge of the rooftops. The air shifted once again. Another eerie pall fell over the beach. Water receded rapidly in anticipation of the colossal wave. The hand of a higher power pulled back the water and became poised once again to teach us a humbling lesson. I jumped up from the cot.

“Ryan,” Matt said weakly from behind me.

I turned back to him. “Are you all right?”

He struggled to get up. I moved to help him. I touched his shoulders. He flinched. Then, with a shake of his head, he hauled himself up. He asked, “What’s happening?”

“Another tsunami,” I said.

He looked out at the ocean. His body moved sluggishly, like someone who’d just woken from a long sleep or coma. The lines on his face had deepened, making him appear older than he was. His shoulders drooped just a bit from the weight of the world that still seemed to rest on them.

“Merlin!” Blake exclaimed. He, Gia, and Grey turned to us. Gia gave a happy cry at the sight of Matt standing. Blake rushed to us. I felt a little disheartened when Matt quickly moved to lean on Blake for support.

Hari grinned at Matt. “Our prayers are answered. Master Merlin, what should we do?”

“Hold it off,” I answered. “We hold it off for as long as we can. It’s the only thing we can do. We hold and hope for a miracle.”

Hari looked at Matt for confirmation. Matt nodded. Hari took off and shouted across the adjoining rooftops to the other wizards. “Master Merlin says we hold.”

They passed the word along, and the thin rainbow of bright cotton shirts and tanned faces turned resolutely toward the impending doom of the ocean. They started to line up again along the ledges of each rooftop.

Matt said to Blake, “Take me to the ledge. We’ll line up again to make the shield. We have to hope Vane works fast.”

He was pissed. I took in a sharp breath. “You remember.”

Matt’s lips tightened in an unhappy expression. He didn’t look at me. “I remember everything. We’ll talk about it later.”

He urged Blake to take him forward.

I watched Matt hobble along at his loyal companion’s side. Something I could no longer call myself. I closed my eyes. My hand tightened around Excalibur. For the first time since losing Vane, I was completely alone. But there was no time to dwell on the feeling. If Vane didn’t come through, I doubted I would even survive long enough to feel guilty about the cruel blow I’d dealt Matt.

It took another minute before we were all in the same position across the rooftop we’d been in before the last devastating wave. I held Excalibur in front of me and waited.

I didn’t have to wait long. In an instant, the air turned sinister; the grey in the sky darkened and became black in color. The sharp scent of algae combined with the silent screams of the underwater creatures that were unable to escape. The wave hurtled down on us with ferocity. Unanimously, we all took a step back. We couldn’t help it.

This wave looked twice as high as the last one. Where the last one touched the sky, this one penetrated the heavens. It scraped the bottoms of clouds as it threw itself against us.

“Sphara,” the wizards cried. With clasped hands, the magic whip lashed through me and into Excalibur. A green magical shield rose to block the massive, oncoming wave.

My eyes widened at the color. I glanced at Matt. He had his eyes closed, and sweat beaded on his forehead. Then, I didn’t have any more time to wonder. The magic intensified and I had to hold on to Excalibur again with all my strength. My teeth felt as if they would be ground to dust under the pressure. A giant battering ram of water pounded the shield. I felt Excalibur wobble.

“Hold on,” Matt’s faint voice sounded inside my head. “Just—”

“Enough!” Vane’s voice shut out Matt’s. “Are you a champion or not, DuLac? This isn’t difficult.”

I tightened my grip on Excalibur, expending every fiber of my being into holding the heavy blade upright, knowing that any slip was equal to the plight of a million souls. It was the only means of providing protection to the whole city and I struggled to balance it.

“Hurry up,” I said to him.

“I’m underwater now, DuLac,” Vane replied. “Need I remind you that you’re the one who insisted on me moving around this whole wretched ocean? I’m working as fast as I can.”

“So much for being the Fisher King,” I said grumpily. “What… are you moving one stone at a time?”

Excalibur wobbled in my hand once more. My grip loosened. The shield wobbled and the tenacious water closed in on us until the wall of water was brushing our noses.

“DuLac, shape up,” Vane shouted again. “If I have to come rescue you, our deal is off and the rest of these unfortunate souls will drown. Hold the line.”

Taking an unsteady breath, I pulled myself up straighter. The shield strengthened and pushed back the water just a fraction. I begged Vane, “Hurry.”

I closed my eyes. A picture of him flashed in my mind. He was swimming underwater, trident in hand. I felt myself going underwater, almost as if I were beside him, even though I knew I wasn’t. Two sides of the sea floor, the fault lines of two plates, slowly met and slipped past each other. To relieve the strain, the ground rumbled. Vane used the trident and magic to suppress the rumble. He aimed the trident at two parts of the sea floor that moved to rub against each other. Then, emitting some kind of warbling song, he extended his hand and let loose a stream of green magic, which managed to move the rock, piling it high. The new rock formation was the beginning of a new mountain range.

“I’m directing it south,” he told me. “Out into the Indian Ocean, instead of at the coastlines.”

I watched him blast away with the trident in awe.

“It’s like you really are Poseidon.” The thought leaked out before I could stop it.

Vane laughed. “How do you think we’re going to survive what’s coming if not with the power of a god? Now, go away, DuLac. You’re distracting me.”

He blasted another expanse of rock with the trident and simultaneously pushed me away. I opened my eyes and found myself back on the roof, Excalibur faltering in my hand. The giant wave pressed down on us. For a moment, the water pressed so close, a mere breath of wind would have brought the violent force crashing down on us.

Then, as suddenly as it came, the giant wave pulled back. We all stumbled forward with relief as the weight eased against the shield. The shield winked out.

I stood up, panting, my arms heavy with the weight of Excalibur. I lowered it slowly. My body would have easily dropped the burden, but after all the mental energy I invested to keep it upright, it took a while for my mind to let go.

As the first daring rays of sun peeked through the clouds, I glanced to my left across the line of rooftops. To my relief, most of the remaining wizards were either kneeling or standing. I glanced to my right. I said to Matt, “Vane did it. He stopped it.”

His expression was unreadable as he stood up. “Hari. Call around. Let’s find out if the tsunamis have indeed dissipated.”

Hari sat on the other end of the roof, holding a dazed Sangeetha in his arms. On Hari’s other side, Raj took his phone out of his pocket and handed it to his brother. Hari’s worn expression cleared. He swiped a thumb across the touch screen. “Kolkotta reports the tsunami has abated. I’ll check the other disaster centers.”

Wind fluttered and ruffled the wavy ends of his longish hair. He stared out across the rooftops at the long rainbow of faded, colored sheets still covering the wizards who sacrificed themselves in the defense of their city.

Hari typed rapidly on the phone. “The other centers are reporting the same. The tsunami warning will remain in effect, but no alerts are going off. They are only seeing small tremors, no quakes worse than 3.0.”

“Vane kept his word,” I murmured.

“At what cost?” Matt said.

I took a step toward him. “Matt—”

He didn’t look at me. His eyes fixed on the wizards who lost their lives to save the city. “Hari, we will have to leave them.”

Hari nodded. “I will inform their families. I’m sure they will want to claim them. The news media will no doubt speculate that it was some kind of suicide pact.”

Beside me, Gia got up. “That doesn’t seem right.”

“I agree.” Blake rose and pulled her close. “We can’t have their families thinking that of them. They gave their lives for us.” Fierce eyes peered over stylish black frames. “People should know the truth. They should know who died while protecting them.”

Matt shook his head. “Now is not the time. We don’t have the resources to handle such an undertaking and we can’t get caught up in the spectacle. We have more important things to do.”

“Master Merlin is correct.” Hari rose up. “The end is coming. We must ask you to concentrate on that, or none of this will matter anyway. We must prepare.”

Grey snorted. “Prepare for what? Do you think if something like this is coming, we can do anything about it?”

I looked out at the ocean. Its waves were soft and tranquil again, disguising the danger that lay beneath them, out of sight and out of mind. My hand tightened on Excalibur. “We can do something about it, Grey. That’s why we were given the sword. That’s why Vane did what he did—”

“You’re being blind, Ryan.” Gia snapped as she stood up. “Vane wanted power. Now he has it. If he really wanted to help, he should have allowed Merlin to take it instead.”

“What’s done is done.” Matt sighed, rubbing his forehead. He turned toward the roof access door, a concrete staircase that occupied the middle of the rooftop. “It’s been a long day. Right now, we need to get to a safe place. Then, we can figure out what to do next. Vane is too close here—”

“What do you mean close?” Grey asked.

“He pushed back the tsunami,” I told him. “He was in the middle of the ocean.”

“Yes, but he started off here in Chennai, I would wager,” Matt said. “He wouldn’t have been able to talk to you otherwise.”

Grey frowned. “Talk to her? How?”

The Dragon’s Eye amulet felt heavy around my neck. No one besides Vane and Matt knew that the small charm linked our minds. Vane and Matt both wanted to keep it secret, considering it too dangerous for anyone else to know that we were thus connected. Now that Vane had turned though… it was also fast becoming our biggest weakness. Still, the time for secrets was past. I opened my mouth to tell Grey, but never got the chance.

“My girlfriend and I have a special connection,” a voice drawled from the general direction of the ocean behind us. My head whipped around.

“I doubt you can call me that anymore,” I said.

“I can simply call you mine,” Vane challenged.

Beside me, Matt gnashed his teeth.

Vane grinned. He stood perfectly balanced on the rooftop ledge. The red shirt I’d seen him wearing earlier, inside my mind, molded to the hard muscles of his chest. It was a posh exterior that hid the animal underneath. In real life, the sight of him felt even more electric and my body reacted just as swiftly. Every nerve stood on end. Not necessarily in a good way. For the first time since we’d met, a sliver of real fear slid through my veins. Fear for myself and everyone around me.

Green blazed from his eyes. Words sounded in my head. “You wouldn’t have to be afraid, love, if you just listened to me. I am only doing what is best for us all.”

An image of him ripping out Matt’s heart swam in my mind. I replied, “Not going to happen.”

In the depths of his icy irises, the Minotaur stirred. Vane smiled. “I rather hoped you would say that. I do so like a challenge.”

***

He floated off the ledge and landed a few steps in front us.

“Lost your superhero cape, Vane?” Grey said with a small, cynical laugh.

Vane’s hand shot out. A flash of green magic flew at Grey. With a strangled sound, Grey dropped to his knees. Four gargoyles rushed to stand in front of Grey. Vane raised an amused eyebrow at them before flicking his hand. The gargoyles sailed across the roof, their heads smacking hard against the ledge. I could hear their skulls crunch.

Grey got up with a livid expression. Matt warned him. “Don’t. The gargoyles will heal.”

Gia pushed away from Blake’s side with an angry howl. “Why don’t you crawl back under the rock you crawled out from?”

Matt stepped forward, and Blake, ever the loyal to Merlin, rushed to his side. Hari and the wizards on the other rooftops started to gather. The ones farthest away began jumping across the top of the buildings and closed in on us. Matt smiled. “You’re outnumbered, Vane.”

“Am I?” said Vane.

Vane raised his hand. A green bubble formed around our rooftop. A wizard, leaping from an adjacent rooftop to ours, hit the bubble and was repelled backwards. I winced when he fell onto the concrete with a hard thud.

The access door blew open. I turned my head to see a line of armed men streaming through its shattered wood. I immediately recognized their leader. Leonidas. My hand tightened in a death grip on Excalibur. I ignored the urge to hurl the blade at him. We’d already spent the better part of a month hacking each other up. He brutally made sure I suffered through that time. I couldn’t look at him now without wanting to tear him apart.

The mermaids quickly surrounded us. On the island of Aegae, they wore uniforms that I’d only seen in pictures of ancient Spartans—metallic breastplates, red leather skirts, and helmets with red plumes. Now they wore military-style, black cargo pants and black T-shirts. But they couldn’t hide their green-tinted skin. In the dull light, it took on an eerie, ghostly pallor. Dark green gills were slashed across their throats. Vane’s throat also bore the gills, firmly establishing him as one of them.

I lifted Excalibur and held it in front of me. Beside me, the gargoyles changed to show their beast—their foreheads extended and fangs stuck out from the sides of their mouths. We all shared the same feeling. With the unforgiving gazes of savage mermaids penning us in, we knew we were well and truly trapped.

I turned back to face their king. “What do you want, Vane?”

“What I always want—more.” He looked at Matt. “Give me the snake, Merlin.”

Medusa’s snake. The metallic snake held the blood spilt by Medusa on her death, twenty-five-hundred-year-old blood.

Matt gave him a long look. “It is tied to the past. It will not show you the future.”

“You will pardon me if I don’t take your word for it. Once again, you’ve missed the obvious—the Lady led you to it. It worked before, now that I have your power, this will work for me, too,” said Vane. “Where is it, Merlin? Or do I have to tear through you to get it?”

“You’ve done enough of that today, haven’t you, brother?” Matt said in a voice laced with bitterness.

Vane glanced at me with a smirk. I resisted the urge to wince.

“Yes, but there is little time for you to wallow. You will accept what has happened eventually. There is no other choice.” He raised the trident. “Give me the snake, Merlin. I will not ask again.”

Matt crossed his arms across his chest. “I. Don’t. Have. It.”

“Pity.” A shield of ice hooded Vane’s eyes. I had a moment of deep foreboding before Vane fired on Matt.

“Vane!” I moved to block the blast.

Matt instinctively put up a hand to shield himself, but no magic came out. Blake made it to Matt first. He held up a weak shield. Owing to the amount of energy the wizards had already used to protect the city from the tsunami, I knew it wouldn’t hold against Vane’s power. I jumped and caught the blast with the edge of Excalibur’s blade just before it hit the shield. The blast slammed into Excalibur’s unusual metal. It knocked me backwards to the ground and rebounded into Vane. Vane put out a hand and captured the stream of pure energy into his hand. Somehow, he compressed it so that it formed a tight green fireball and bounced it idly in his hand.

My bones jarred by hard concrete, I forced myself back on my feet and shouted, “What are you doing, Vane?”

Thoughtful eyes turned to me. “It seems as if I truly have stripped Merlin’s magic.”

“You knew that!” I said, seething. “You promised not to harm him.”

“I promised earlier. This is later.” Frost firmly obscuring any emotion in his eyes, Vane lifted the trident again at Matt. “I need that snake, Merlin. All our fates depend on it.”

I strode forward, putting myself between Matt and him, and taunted him. “You’ll have to go through me and I know you won’t. You still need Excalibur.”

“Are you so certain?”

He said it so quietly I felt a trickle of unease go down my spine. I raised my chin. I hadn’t given into him when he was being a jerk before and I wasn’t about to now… even if this was a way scarier jerk.

Another figure came out of the door. This one made my stomach clench. He also held a sword. It was the gargoyle king’s traitorous son—Oliver, who’d once been my friend. I’d hoped to never see him again. I wasn’t so lucky.

Oliver mocked, “Am I late?”

He lined up with Leonidas and the mermaids. Disbelief filled me. I’d lost count of how many times the gargoyle had tried to kill me. I turned to Vane. “You’re working with him?”

Vane said steadily, “I needed a backup.”

“You sicken me,” I thought to him.

The Minotaur inside stirred and awoke. Green eyes intensified.

Oliver smiled at me. “I will happily take the sword.”

I spat, “Try me.”

Oliver took a step forward. A barrier of magic blocked his way. Vane said, “We’re not here for that today.”

“Let’s give you a choice, love. Merlin or your friend. Which one will you defend?” Vane’s voice said, except it sounded oddly hollow.

A stream of magic sent Gia flying backwards across the roof. She landed on a ledge. Her head and back collided with the wall in a loud “crack!” Her head slumped forward as she passed out in a sitting position. Instinctively, I took a step toward her.

Vane raised a brow. “Which one will you choose?”

I hesitated.

Vane barked, “Leonidas, take the red-haired witch.”

Sword in hand, Leonidas leapt toward Gia with a feral noise. Grey ran to Gia to intercept him. Everything happened quickly after that. Too quickly.

“No!” Blake yelled. “Aayat!”

A knife extended into a sword in Grey’s hands. Blake managed to conjure a weak fireball, which he lobbed at Leonidas. He and Grey charged the mermaid prince with a sword. Oliver stepped in against them. Close to the edge of the rooftop, the two clashed. I knew Leonidas too well. Blake and Grey didn’t stand a chance.

I ran across the roof to help them. Matt ran beside me.

Out of the corner of my eye, across the long length of the rooftop, I saw Hari, Raj, and about ten other wizards surround Vane and the remaining mermaids. They held swords and fireballs in their hands, with which they bombarded Vane. The small, explosive balls, although magic, lacked strength. Vane deflected the fireballs easily, then imbued them with more strength as he sent them rebounding back. A fast, blazing fireball flew straight back at Hari, hitting him squarely in the chest. With barely a cry, the young wizard sailed backwards. His body collapsed on the rooftop. The sword, now useless in his hand, clattered to the ground beside him.

“No!” Sangeetha, her black braids flying behind her, ran to her husband.

Matt halted midway to Grey. Hari, the young wizard, who was so alive only a few minutes ago, now lay as still as a marble statue. Sangeetha dropped to her knees, letting out loud, harsh sobs. Raj went to her and put an arm around the girl’s shaking shoulders.

“Fall back,” Raj shouted.

The other wizards backed away from Vane. He let them go. Leonidas grabbed Grey. He slammed his head against the ledge. I turned to go to him.

A few feet away, Blake, black hair wild and wiry in the blowing wind, lunged at Oliver. Oliver struck back at him.

“Blake!” I screamed.

The thick blade connected with Blake’s neck with deadly force. Blake never had the chance to make another sound. His head fell to the ground.