Ever My Merlin

chapter 4 – COLD SUMMER

“No!” Matt’s cry rung with grief.

I stopped midstride, pole axed and frozen in place. The rest of the world buzzed around me yet it was an indecipherable sound. All I could hear was the stop and start of my heart pounding against my eardrums.

Oliver didn’t slow down. With the practiced ease of a trained candidate, he turned and ran at me.I lifted Excalibur in return.

“Enough,” Vane roared.

In a flash of green light (Vane’s magic), Oliver went flying backwards. But Vane didn’t glance at us. His gaze remained fixed on Blake’s severed form. Real emotion stirred. For the first time since I’d seen him assume the mantle of the monster, it receded. The green cracked and a glimmer of Vane’s hazel irises peered through. Then, Leonidas walked to his side. Shields dropped over Vane’s expression and all emotion was buried. The mask of indifference slid firmly back into place.

Oliver got up quickly. “I can bring her down.”

“No,” Vane commanded.

Oliver lunged at me.

Vane knocked him a few feet away.

“I won’t tolerate disobedience.” He stood on the other side of the roof. “I’m afraid this association will not work out after all. Leonidas, take the traitor gargoyle prisoner.”

Blake’s head stared at me from the ground.

My fingers tightened on Excalibur. “No, he’s not getting off that easily.”

Leonidas blocked my way. The mermaid prince faced me without lifting his sword. I moved to attack him. More green magic blew at me, knocking me backwards. Hard concrete collided with my tailbone. Vane zapped Oliver too. He slumped to the floor, felled by a sleep spell. Leonidas grabbed Oliver and thrust him at the other mermaids.

I jumped up and shouted at Vane, “Did you ever care about anyone? How can you protect him?”

“I may need him,” he replied.

While his expression wasn’t apologetic, the mere fact that he bothered to explain surprised me. I stared at him through a haze of tears. I didn’t move.

Matt knelt beside Blake. He picked up Blake’s head and set it against his body. Two young wizards left Sangeetha’s and Raj’s side and rushed over to us. In a glow of yellow, the young wizards sealed Blake’s head back on his body and closed the lifeless, unseeing eyes. They bowed their heads.

The wizards on the other rooftops gathered just outside the green bubble that held us captive. Eyes fixed on the body of their fallen leader, they watched, but could do nothing to help. Ignoring the pain in my own worn out muscles, I stumbled over to Grey. A cut bled at the hairline across Grey’s forehead, and I put my fingers to his neck. His pulse was strong.

“He will be fine,” Vane said. “His gargoyle blood will heal him.”

I ignored him. Wiping at my wet face, I checked Gia next. She lay on Grey’s other side. At my prodding, she sat up slowly. She saw me and frowned. By my face, she knew something was wrong. She looked past me and spotted Blake. As realization hit her, I felt its vicious blow again. Gia made a shrieking sound of horror that pierced the air. Loud sobs wracked her body. I tried to pull her into a hug, but she threw me off and crawled toward Blake. She lifted his limp hand and started weeping.

My insides twisted at the sound of her pain. It echoed mine.

Matt got up and walked to me. He said harshly, “This shouldn’t have happened.”

I reached out a hand to him, needing his touch, but dropped it halfway when those amber-brown eyes fixed on me. Something profound flickered in those depths. Something hard.

Vane leaned on the trident and watched the scene from a safe distance. Leonidas stood at his right. At a nod from Vane, their king, the other mermaids moved to protectively surround him. Grey stirred and sat up. The gargoyles moved to band together at his side. Beyond the bubble, the wizards on the other rooftops also gathered. All eyes were fixed on the bodies of their fallen brethren, but there was nothing they could do to help.

Vane played with the trident. “Tell me, Merlin, how many more are you willing to sacrifice today before you give me what I want?”

“No one else is going to die here today, Vane.” Matt stood up. To my shock, he grabbed Excalibur from my hand. Heaving the blade like a lance at Vane, he shouted, “Zikara!”

“Zikara!” The other wizards on our rooftop shouted in unison.

Excalibur flew straight and true across the rooftop.

“Zikara!” The wizards on the other rooftops echoed. One-by-one, the cry spread out like a wave.

It hit Vane just above his heart. With a yelp, he sailed backwards as the blade impaled his shoulder.

In a rainbow of multi-colored magic, a mist, spreading rapidly from the ocean behind us, attacked Vane’s bubble. With Vane now on the ground, the bubble dissipated without much of a fight. Dewy mist solidified into fog as it took over the rooftop. I could barely see the sky above, or the ocean ahead of me. Under its thick blanket, Vane lay still on the ground.

“Vane!” Leonidas said. He knelt down at Vane’s side just before the fog obscured my view.

I couldn’t help it. I took a step toward him. Matt grabbed my arm and stopped me.

“We have to go,” Matt said into my ear.

“No.” I shook my head. “Vane. Excalibur.”

“I don’t want to leave Excalibur with him, either, but we don’t have a choice. Excalibur won’t slow him down for long. He’s too powerful. He was surprised this time, but we can’t win against him right now. If we don’t go, we won’t get out at all.”

“He’s right, Ryan. We have to go while we can.” Grey stepped into view through the thick layer of mist. He held Blake. Gia followed behind him. Her hand stretched out to emit a small bubble of yellow light. It pushed back the mist a few feet from us. Two wizards carried Hari’s body. I glanced back into the grey nothingness that had overtaken the rooftop. It was a very bad idea to leave Excalibur with Vane.

An eerie acapella aria filled the rooftop as the mist started lifting. I saw the mermaids surround Vane. Their mouths were open as they emitted the haunting melody. Vane’s body rose in the air. The shroud of mist began to lift along with him.

“They’re fighting back against the fog,” Matt said. “We leave now!”

We hurried to the broken access door, past remnants of wood still attached to weakened hinges. Climbing through the slats, which hung open like drunken sots, resigned to defeat, we got out.

***

Was this my life now? I wondered a few hours later as I stood in a secluded clearing just beyond the outskirts of the city. Once you left the main drag, the area turned rural rather quickly. The darkened sky thundered beneath charged clouds and streaks of lightning flashed through small gaps. The first storm of the monsoon season threatened to drench us. Not that it mattered. We were already drowning in our own grief.

The ones whose families would want to say goodbye in their own way, were left on the roof. Placed upon a heap piled high with bent and broken wood, Hari was one of the six in the pyre in front of me. Sangeetha stood stoically beside the pyre, wearing a white sari. She watched her husband fade into ash. They’d only been married for six months.

Raj, Hari’s brother and apparently second-in-command, carried the torch, setting the six funeral pyres ablaze. His eyes were red with unshed tears. We stepped back as he said his final goodbye to the dead wizards, his friends, and his brother.

Six. It was not a good number, and I had to wonder at life’s design, which extracted souls so capriciously. My mother. Alexa. Blake.

Blake wasn’t included in the pyre. Matt contacted the First Member of the Wizard Council and Blake’s body was to be rushed home to England by special arrangement. It helped to have connections in the British government.

Tears fell from my eyes for all of them. I didn’t have the energy to brush the drops away. So many had died today, ultimate sacrifices for those they left behind. I pictured Blake’s kind eyes and the way he used to fiddle with his geeky, black glasses whenever he was nervous. How he’d always been there for me. He embodied everything it meant to be a knight.

My hands tightened on the strap of the fabric bag I was holding.

I would not forget this day.

Fierce wind blew dust in my face. I glanced at Matt’s silent profile next to me. He stared, stone-faced, at the glorious blaze lapping at the sky. Light danced across his high cheekbones, shadowing them, in a remarkably similar way to his brother. Despite Vane being slightly older, they could have almost passed for twins. Except for the eyes. Matt’s usually brooded. Today, they just looked bleak.

He didn’t return my look. Instead, he stared at the blazing conflagration. I turned back to the funeral. A wizard, dressed in the wrap-around, white sarongs that priests wore in India, stepped forward, muttering a long phrase. He threw a handful of white rice into the fire as part of a last rites ceremony. Nearly a hundred wizards stood in the clearing, a somber crowd all clad in white funeral dress. I took a deep breath, inhaling heat and smoke. It scorched my nostrils and burned the hairs a bit. Its sharp scent went straight to my brain, leaving me a little dizzy; and although it made me feel somewhat more alive, it did nothing to alleviate the cold, hard weight pressing down on my chest.

I turned and began to walk away. My restless legs refused to hold still anymore. Grey, who was standing just behind me, caught my sleeve. He gave me a questioning look. His skin pallor looked like ash, and and Gia held him onto him to keep upright. The gash on her head was healed, but she still wasn’t okay. She didn’t look at me. Or anyone. Instead, she stared off at a point in space, silent tears streaking her cheeks as she looked for something that was now long gone.

I couldn’t breathe. I swayed in place. Grey’s grip tightened. I let myself draw from his support and straightened. Slipping out of his hold, I kept going. I crossed the edge of the clearing and went down the dirt path to a white concrete house, nestled deep within the woods. The sky darkened over the rectangular house. Two stories high, it had a huge, covered veranda in the front. The SUVs we’d been driving hugged the side of the house. I also noticed a Jeep and several sedans. The place was some kind of safe house for the wizards.

I went up a short flight of steps and hurried past empty rocking chairs that invited you to enjoy the balminess of a sultry evening. I spotted a doorway that led straight into the main part of the house. I stumbled across a tree stump as large as an easy chair and sat down. Inside, open-air seating around a square courtyard revealed more blue sky. Gauzy, white curtains framed the open wall of the seating area. As functional as they were decorative, they would be closed as soon as night fell, to ward off mosquitoes.

Like many traditional houses in India, it was built around a central, square courtyard. At its core, a thick mango tree showed small green fruit starting to emerge from dense branches. I crossed the seating area and went to the next section of the house, where two long, wooden tables took up most of the kitchen. Instead of chairs, benches had been put in place for seating. One table displayed framed pictures of groups of people with garlands around them. I sat down on a bench at the other table and took off the shoulder bag. I stared across the gulf at the smiling faces in the pictures. Most of those wizards were now gone.

I touched my neck. I no longer wore the amulet. Matt insisted that I take it off and I conceded. I reached for the fabric bag and unbuttoned it, drawing out a wadded handkerchief. Matt had wrapped the Dragon’s Eye carefully after we’d left the rooftop. I set the wad on the table. I peeled off the cloth, being careful not to touch the chain or the gemstone. A simple touch would link me back to Vane.

I was surprised I could take off the necklace. Thankfully, Matt had removed the spell that locked it on me while we were in Athens. He never put it back. Biting the inside of my cheek, I debated what I was about to do. I took a breath. I had no idea where I was. It was as safe as it was going to get. I picked up the necklace and put it on. My body sighed with satisfaction as soon as the gemstone touched my skin. Something about it sent a visceral sigh through me.

Immediately, the gemstone heated. I gasped the intensity of the burn and clutched my forehead. Images flashed through my mind.

I was standing on a narrow ledge, surrounded by green hills and brown rock. Beside me, a waterfall cascaded from a rock outcropping overhead. The waterfall continued past the ledge and down into a small pool about fifty feet below. From my vantage point, the pool didn’t look deep enough for diving. Matt walked into the waterfall. With his palms, he felt along the damp earth of the hill. All of a sudden, a blast of water shot out from the rock, like a horizontal geyser. It tossed him into the air and straight across the ledge. I dove after him, but it was too late. Matt went over the side of the ledge.

Panting, my eyes snapped open. Vane was seeing a vision.

“Yes, DuLac, figure that out all by yourself?” Vane’s voice pounded in my head. He sounded out-of-breath and tired. “I told you it would work.”

“Blake is gone, Vane.”

“Yes.”

“He was your friend!”

“Emerson always wanted to be the hero, DuLac. We no longer have the luxury of heroes.” The words were merciless, but I sensed a trace of regret in his tone. His next words confirmed it. “It was not planned, Ryan.”

In the kitchen, I took a relieved breath at the small hint of the real Vane, hoping it meant he fought against the monster. I pushed for more. “How can you be working with Oliver?”

“I agree that was ill-conceived on my part.”

Ill-conceived. What a massive understatement. But it was also a concession. It wasn’t enough. I couldn’t let him dismiss Blake as if he meant nothing. “Vane—”

Vane interrupted, “Emerson—Blake, that is. He…”

Vane stopped as if he couldn’t actually verbalize his thoughts. Yet I could sense the chaos of emotions swirling inside him. In the kitchen, my fingers tightened on the amulet and I dared to have hope.

Vane read the thought. His voice hardened, “Emerson was one of the first, Ryan, and he won’t be the last, unless you stop resisting me.”

A harsh bark of laughter escaped me. “So this was my fault?”

“No.” There was a pause. “This is but merely a taste of what’s coming. We need to figure out what that is.”

“Is that how you justify attacking us?”

Vane made an impatient noise. “I’m not justifying. I’m explaining.”

I pictured the green eyes of the monster. So far, I’d adamantly held onto the belief that I could defeat it. After today, my faith was shaken. “So, this is how it’s going to be?”

“We don’t have to be on different sides.”

“You can’t have it both ways, Vane. I won’t let you do this again.”

“You won’t be able to stop me.”

I closed my eyes. “I will find a way.”

He sighed. “Then you’ll destroy this world. My brother was very clever to use Excalibur against me, but only the sword-bearer may wield it properly. You’ll have to do better, if you want to defeat me.”

I didn’t want to defeat him. I wanted the real Vane back.

“He is gone.”

“Thanks for the tip,” I muttered.

He paused. “Why do you still care?”

The idiotic question didn’t deserve an answer. Not that I would give him one. He’d just use it against me. I only hoped the fleeting glimpse I’d seen of the real Vane meant something good. I rubbed my forehead. “I’m taking off the amulet, Vane.”

“Want to tell me where you are?”

Matt had one of the wizards put me to sleep so I wouldn’t know—a safeguard against Vane.

He groused, “He is too clever. And making things overly difficult.”

“What was that vision?”

“How should I know? It’s the first one I’ve ever had.”

“Great idea, then, for you to steal them,” I retorted.

“Forget the vision. It doesn’t tell us anything right now,” Vane shot back. “I need you to drink the Gorgon’s blood.”

The Medusa snake. Now I understood why he was still talking to me. “Why are you so bent on this?”

“Time is running out. We still have no idea what is going to happen, Ryan. What good is having the power of a god if you don’t know its purpose?”

I said aloud, “Another thing you might have considered beforehand. I’m sensing a pattern.”

“What pattern?” Matt came into the house.

My hand went straight to my neck. With a guilty grimace, I took off the amulet. The gemstone went cold and I knew Vane was gone.

Matt marched up to me, a scowl marring his otherwise supremely aesthetic face. “You’re talking to him.”

I answered evenly, “Yes.”

Matt pointed back in the direction of the funeral. “You still want to save him? Even after all he’s done! After Blake! Can you really tell me you’re happy about how all of this turned out?”

I blinked back tears. Blake’s tousled black hair and earnest eyes swam in front of me. “Of course I’m not happy!”

Matt gave a low laugh. “He’s taken everything.”

I couldn’t disagree. Still I tried to explain. “I saw what Lelex left inside you. It was spreading like a virus. He saved you.”

Matt thundered, “He saved me so that he could take my power. The visions were our one advantage. Now we’ve lost them altogether.”

I ground my teeth. “What was I supposed to have done? Vane didn’t give me a choice.”

“If I had my powers, maybe I could have changed what happened on the rooftop,” he barked. “Maybe we wouldn’t have lost Excalibur. Maybe we wouldn’t have lost…” Matt raked an unsteady hand through his hair. “So many.”

My eyes closed. I forced them open. “I didn’t see another way.”

Matt looked at me impassively. “You should have found one.”

“Really? How?” I took a long breath. “Look, you’re upset. I get it. I’m upset, too. I didn’t want this.” My voice dropped, and I said hoarsely, “It’s killing me, what I had to do, but I’m not going to take it back. I made the right choice to save as many as I could.”

“The right choice today, without a thought of the cost—”

I stood up, shaking. “I am well aware of the cost!”

A hard glint flickered in Matt’s amber eyes. “So it wasn’t without thought. It was with arrogance.”

I sputtered, “A-arrogance?”

“Yes, Ryan. Everything you do has consequences.”

“Is it that? Then, why is it okay for you to make unilateral decisions and not me? I don’t remember you asking permission before you took Excalibur.” I crossed the floor to Matt and poked him in the chest with my finger. “You say you want me to step up. Well, I did. I made a choice. Me. Myself. I.”

“If I hadn’t used Excalibur, we wouldn’t have gotten off that rooftop.”

“You should have found another way.” I spat his words back at him. “You could’ve bargained with the Medusa snake. This battle between the two of you has got to stop. We want the same things—”

“No!” Crossing the short distance between us, Matt grabbed my shoulders. His eyes locked on mine and he stared into them as if he could impress his beliefs onto me by sheer force. “There wasn’t another way, Ryan. There is only enough blood left for one more vision. I would never have surrendered that to him.”

My jaw jutted out. I said his words back, “At what cost?”

He didn’t answer.

“Let me go, Matt,” I said evenly.

“You heard her, Emrys. Back off,” Grey walked into the kitchen. His arm was around Gia’s shoulders, offering her support. “It’s been a long day.”

Gia laughed. It wasn’t a pleasant sound. “Yes, it has.”

Ignoring them, Matt released me. “Understand this clearly, Ryan. Vane is not to be trusted. He will do what it takes to save himself. He always has. If that happens to be what we need to do, then all is good. If it doesn’t, then we’re going to be the ones left paying the price of whatever he does.” He pointed at the door, in the direction of the funeral pyre. “Destruction follows him like a plague. Whatever his choices might be, I assure you they will not be the right ones.”

“Like yours would be. I’m so glad you’re here to save us from ourselves.” Taking a few steps, I moved away from him. “You might be upset that I sacrificed your powers, but that’s not what’s making you so angry. You’re furious because you have no idea what to do next. For the first time in your life, you’re going to have to learn to live without a safety net.”

Matt sighed. “This isn’t about me, Ryan. This is about you. You’ve got to do better.”

Gia added softly, “I agree with Merlin.”

I reeled back from her words as if she slapped me.

“You shouldn’t have sacrificed his magic. We lost too much today.” Red-rimmed eyes faced me, but I couldn’t meet them. My legs, suddenly weak and rubbery, forced me to sit down.

Grey frowned. “Blake wasn’t her fault.”

“No, Grey,” I said. “They’re right. It is my fault.”

Without looking at anyone, I grabbed the bag on the table and pushed myself up. Feeling about a hundred years old, I walked slowly into the courtyard. Outside, the sky was colored in ominous hues of purple and dark grey. I could have marveled at its majesty, but all I could focus on was how glad I should feel to even see the clouds… thrilled to see another day… because of Vane. And yet… what he’d done… He was destruction personified.

I put my fisted hand into my mouth and bit down on it. Doubt, an ugly disease, bore down on me. Every insecurity I ever had about being the sword-bearer rushed back. Who was I to make any decisions? But in truth—there was no one else. When Matt and Vane locked horns, they couldn’t see past themselves.

I took a ragged breath. I had to hold onto the one truth I knew.

I was the sword-bearer. The burden belonged to me.

My hand pressed down on the side of the fabric bag slung across my chest. Inside was the snake from Medusa’s head, a slim bronze artifact about a foot in length. Unbeknownst to me, Matt put it in the bag when Hari picked us up from the airport. The Medusa snake had been in the car the whole time we were up on the rooftop.

Medusa was a Gorgon, who was either seduced or raped by Poseidon, the same god whose power Vane now possessed. Athena, the goddess of knowledge, caught them in the act inside her temple and cursed the poor maiden. Later, after being beheaded by Perseus, Medusa’s blood was saved and bottled. Thousands of years later, we found the blood in Athens. The blood held mystical properties and led us to the mermaids. The mermaids—one of the many secrets the sea kept to herself. I looked at the ugly, black scars on my arm. I got them during my last encounter with the snake, and I’d have them forever.

Biting my lip, I took the bronze squiggly metal out of the bag.

Matt ran down two short steps into the courtyard. “Ryan, what are you doing?”

Probably making another dumb decision. Taking out the snake topper, I saw he’d been right, only a few drops of blood remained inside.

Matt rushed to me. “Ryan!”

He wasn’t fast enough. I put the metal snake to my lips and took a swallow. The last drops of the thick liquid burned as it descended my throat. My eyes watered. I barely felt Matt snatching the snake from my hands. I clutched my throat as I choked and coughed. The blood went down like rotten, maggoty meat. Gagging on it, I spat it back out. And then, spat some more.

I seriously lost respect for all those movies where vampires drank the stuff like sweet nectar. Ambrosia? It wasn’t. Matt thumped my back.

I coughed again. “That is the most disgusting thing I’ve ever tasted.”

Grey hurried out of the house toward me. A furious expression contorted his face as he barked, “Have you lost your mind? You almost died last time!”

I scowled back. “I had to try.”

Matt said, “It didn’t work.”

“The last two times we had it, you drank it,” I said.

“Even in the dungeon?”

I shuddered at the thought of the grisly cell which the mermaid king kept Matt in for weeks. I hoped never to experience that horror again. “You don’t remember, but Vane poured it down your throat.”

Matt stared at the empty snake. “Since Vane holds my power, only he could drink it.”

“Now no one can,” I said, waiting to be chastised. It didn’t come. Matt’s lips curled down, his expression seemingly equal parts anger and desolation. It was much worse than any reprimand. My hand reached out to touch him, but I dropped it halfway. “What do we do next?”

Matt sighed. “We fix this mess.”

Your mess. I heard the sentiment in his tone even though I could no longer hear his thoughts. Would I ever do anything right in his eyes? I wished I didn’t care. Despair jackknifed through my already lowered spirits, and I tried not to let it turn into resentment. It took real effort to stick out my chin. “What brilliant plan do you have up your sleeve?”

“Nothing brilliant,” Matt said with a faraway look. “I intended to find the Healing Cup all along.”

“The Healing Cup? Do you think it really exists?” Grey asked, his voice hopeful. We thought we’d found the precious item once already.

Matt nodded. “Lelex told us the Fisher King came to him. There is no way he could have survived the wound Vane gave him without it. I absolutely believe it exists.”

“Rourke doesn’t have much time left,” said Grey. “We could spend forever trying to figure out where it is.”

My eyes narrowed on Matt. “You think you know where it is, don’t you?”

Matt inclined his head.

“But you’re not going to tell us,” I added.

His expression hardening, he took the now empty metal snake from my hand. “I’ve found that things work out better that way.”

Gia came down the courtyard steps, her long red hair shrouding her face. “Right, Merlin. Nice try. So, where is it?”

“We’ve been over this before,” I said. “This concerns all of us. I’m the sword-bearer—”

“Who no longer has a sword,” he pointed out.

“And you no longer have any magic,” I retorted before I could stop myself.

Matt’s expression froze, closing us all out. Light dimmed above us as night closed down on the sky. Movement sounded from inside the house, and the wizards streamed indoors. I watched the throng of people, their mournful faces as they leaned on one another. Under the expansive sky, however, Matt and I stood alone. Apart.

Emptiness made my stomach hollow. I tried again. “Matt—”

“As you pointed out, I’m sure I will learn to make do without magic.” Turning on his heel, he started walking away. “It has been a long day. I suggest you get some rest. You have a flight early tomorrow. The cars are leaving at first light.”

In a few short strides, he crossed the courtyard and went into the house, while the rest of us could only stare after him.

“I really want to know where we’re going,” Grey muttered.

“I’m pretty sure Marilynn made the arrangements for him,” Gia said.

She and I both winced at the same time. Marilynn did not like either one of us and she worshipped Matt. We wouldn’t get any help from her. For a brief second, I met Gia’s gaze and her demeanor thawed. It was fleeting, and a stony mask fell over her face, shutting me out.

Grey snapped his fingers. “I’ve got it. He doesn’t have any magic. Gia can spell him to tell us—”

“Can you spell the greatest wizard in the world?” she murmured.

I let out a small bark of laughter, edged only slightly with hysteria. “You can today.”

***

“I’m going back inside,” I said, one hour later.

Grey nodded.

Moonlight shone down on the dark house. The power was out. A nightly occurrence in this part of India we were told. The sky still grumbled and rumbled, trying to make up its mind about the storm. In the bubble of momentary peace, we sat out on the front lawn, alongside other wizards. They built a small bonfire in a pit at the front of the house and sat around it, trading stories. Grey, Gia, the gargoyles, and I sat with them.

Sitting on a log beside Grey, Gia continued to stare into the golden flames of the fire blazing before us. In the mystery of the night, in a certain slant of the firelight, I could almost see Blake’s ghost, a shadowy form, sitting on Gia’s other side. I took a hard breath. There had to be something I could do. Fix this mess as Matt declared.

I listened to the wizards telling some exaggerated and some not so exaggerated tales about their departed friends. It was sweet, really. Matt didn’t join us. It made me uneasy. Past an open terrace, a small lamp emitted a yellow glow in the room he’d taken. But I hadn’t seen his profile in quite awhile. The hair at the back of my neck stood up. Following my instincts, I left the campfire and walked up the short steps onto the veranda.

“Sword-bearer,” a voice called from the shadows.

I stopped just before the front door. Sangeetha walked toward me, a ghostly figure in a flowing, white sari. Tears covered her cheeks. I opened my mouth. She shook her head. “No, you do not have to say anything. I do not think I could stand any more condolences.”

I closed my mouth. After a second, I asked, “Can I do anything?”

“Raj tells me the one who killed Hari was Merlin’s brother.”

My insides twisted. “Yes.”

“It is a terrible thing. One brother a savior, the other a murderer.” She swallowed hard. “I know not what comes, but Hari told me Merlin thought the earthquakes were just the beginning. You must help him, sword-bearer.” She took my hands into her icy ones. “I see the way he watches you. Merlin loves you.”

“Not any longer.” The words slipped out.

“He does. You must not allow him to push you away. Hari did not choose me at first, either. He said we were too young, but I prevailed. Now, my only regret is that I waited long than I wanted. Merlin will have to battle this brother. It will be difficult, but with you at his side, he can triumph.”

“Vane’s not himself,” I said. “We may yet be able to save him.”

Sangeetha’s fingers tightened. “You have feelings for the monster.”

I lowered my gaze.

“I saw the coldness in his eyes. Whatever he was before, he is no longer. If you choose his side, you will doom us all.” Sangeetha dropped my hands. Her voice turned hard. “My husband died to save us, sword-bearer. Do not let it be in vain.” In a rustle of white, she seemed to glide off the veranda, like an apparition returning to the shadows. A final warning floated to me through the dark. She whispered, “He was not meant for you.”

The words reverberated inside my head. With effort, I forced my bones to walk. Was I really fooling myself about Vane?

I didn’t want to believe I’d really lost him. I couldn’t believe it. Like I couldn’t explain the blackness bleeding into my soul at the mere thought of it. His hazel eyes as they’d smiled arrogantly at me. His cool breath against my skin as he’d held me, promising nothing would touch me.

I crossed the threshold into the house and started to head upstairs. A rustling from the courtyard compelled me to stop. I ventured out into the moonlit yard. More rustling came from a small door at its opposite end.

Silently, I opened it and peered inside. The door opened to the side of the house and to a row of parked cars. At the front stood a safari-style Jeep 4x4. The Jeep was first in a line of cars. Raj and one other wizard wore white cotton shirts that gleamed under the glow of a high-powered flashlight. They stood at Matt’s side, with Raj holding keys in his hands. Matt spoke to the other one who held the lamp. “You’ll need to give them their flight information. They’ll be upset, but don’t give them a choice. Knock them out if you have to. They won’t anticipate you using magic on them. Make sure they don’t know where I’m going—”

In the dark, my jaw dropped open. He held a bag at his side.

He was ditching us.

I took a step to confront him, but stopped. I had no doubt I would be freeze-spelled before I ever got the chance to make a stand. Without the Dragon’s Eye, I was entirely too vulnerable to magic. I checked out the Jeep. It had no cover. Matt stuck his bag on top of a black tarp, which I figured was the unused cover. Being careful not to make a sound, I slipped into the shadows beside the wall.

“Is everything in place? What is the best route from here?” Matt asked. He, Raj, and the one with the lamp huddled together, studying a map. Raj held his hand over the map and magicked it to show a three-dimensional view of the terrain.

I resisted rolling my eyes. They could have done the same on an iPad, without any fancy spell. I used their distraction to jump from the wall and duck between a set of sedans. I almost knocked over an old radio that was left on the hood of the second sedan. It wobbled, but I caught it before it crashed to the ground. Putting it back on the hood, I went around the side and snuck over to the opposite end of the Jeep from Matt and the wizards.

“Do not worry—the First Member supplied everything you requested. You just need to give them the coordinates. I will take care of anything else that comes up,” Raj said.

“Good,” Matt said. The wizard with the lamp took a step toward me. I ducked lower, next to the Jeep’s back tire and looked frantically for a way to distract them. Grabbing a small rock, I aimed it at the sedan with the radio. The stone hit its target, just as I expected. As a “daughter of Apollo,” I had a voodoo sense of marksmanship that usually tended to creep me out, but it also came in handy at odd times.

The radio fell off the hood and crashed to the ground.

“What was that?” Matt and the other wizards turned toward the sound.

I climbed into the back of the Jeep and slid under the tarp covering the trunk.

Raj saw the mess first. “Sala,” he cursed. “Someone left a radio on the car. It must’ve fallen down.”

Matt refolded the map. “Let’s get going.”

“Take care of them all,” Raj said to the wizard with the lamp.

He and Raj turned back to the Jeep. I pulled the tarp tightly over me when I heard them walking toward me and held my breath. My nose twitched with the smell of Matt’s earthy scent. He grunted, putting his hands on the trunk. He and Raj pushed the heavy Jeep past the back of the house. They rolled it along for a few minutes. Then, coming to a stop, I heard them go around to the front and climb into the seats. I peeked out from under the tarp and saw we’d reached the line of trees that marked the edge of the woods.

The wizard holding the lamp turned back into the house. He closed the door. Raj started the Jeep. The engine rumbled noisily. Under a dull blanket of stars and swaying trees, warm tropical breezes carried the sweet scent of mangoes and other wild fruit as we drove away into the dark.

Grey was going to be so pissed at me.

***

I woke up with a start. My head thwacked hard against the side of an unforgiving metal trunk as we came to a sudden stop. I rubbed the sore spot. I had a feeling my head must have hit the side a few times before I finally woke up. The Jeep rattled along an extremely bumpy road. Only the main roads in the cities were smooth. Once you got beyond them, the potholes were everywhere. Rain pattered down on the tarp.

I heard Matt and Raj getting down.

I pushed aside a corner of the tarp and poked my head out. Low energy halogen lights on the sides of large, curved buildings illuminated an airfield. At a faraway distance, I recognized the huge terminals of the Chennai International Airport. We’d come in through a remote entrance, into a section with several small hangars. Raj stopped the Jeep next to a slim, yet long private plane. The clamshell door to the plane was open with its air stair lowered. Matt must have chartered a flight.

Droplets of rain pinged across metal. Matt and Raj walked up to the wing and were talking to a group of men. Two wore uniforms and another five wore jumpsuits. Pilots and aircrew, I guessed.

“Will it be ready?” Raj said in a loud voice.

“Most certainly. The connection is fixed, but we must double-check all the systems. It will only take another half hour, sir,” one mechanic reassured him.

Raj protested, “We’re on a tight schedule—”

Matt interrupted, “It’s all right. I would rather not take any more risk than I’m already taking by even getting inside this steel bumblebee.”

I suppressed a smile. Matt hated flying.

“There will be no problems, Master Merlin,” one of the pilots said. “We will take off as soon as the systems are checked out. Despite the short notice of your reservation, we have everything in place. We will beat the storm. Meanwhile, we must wait for the last of our crew—your flight attendant. He will be here in fifteen minutes.”

Under the tarp, I sighed in relief. With their attention diverted, it wouldn’t be hard to sneak onboard. A few minutes and several Bondesque moves later, I was safely inside the plane. The interior was nothing short of spectacular. The front held the cockpit and a serving station. The remainder consisted of three long sections—a front seating area, a dining area, with built-in tables already set up with white tablecloths, and a divan area with sectional doors that looked like they closed for privacy. I glanced at the space under the dining table. The long white drape of cloth made it a decent hiding place, but I chose the divan instead. I opened a small compartment under the divan and pulled out a fleece blanket.

I repositioned the partition, separating the section from the dining area, making it slightly closed and lay down on the bench. I had half a mind to march up to Matt and rail at him for his actions. I didn’t think it would work. So I chose the passive-aggressive path and decided to wait until we were actually in the air.

With a sigh, I pulled the dark blanket over me. I was half-asleep when, exactly half an hour later, the plane taxied down the runway and was quickly airborne. As soon as we were safely flying, I peeked out from under the blanket. The neatly dressed flight attendant unstrapped himself and came out of the cockpit area to offer Matt another beer. He took it, and handed the attendant his used sick bag in exchange.

I pulled the blanket completely off my face, but didn’t move to get up. Yawning, I lay on the left side of the plane, just a few feet past Matt. Unlike commercial jets, the private plane didn’t have row upon row of seats. On the right side of the plane, a group of four seats were arranged so they faced each other with a small built-in coffee table between them. Raj sat near the window, diagonally opposite Matt.

I couldn’t see much of Raj, but I had a decent view of Matt’s profile as he sipped on his drink. I stared at him and wondered what I was doing.

When did I completely buy into the “greatest wizard in the world” mystique?

I kept trying to prove myself… to be the great sword-bearer… to be good enough. For him. Was that why it had all gone wrong? I looked up at the sterile ceiling, its curves and bumps, and thought of Blake. Vane may not have meant for it to happen, but it did nonetheless. Another debilitating wave of despair hit me. With a weary effort, I pushed it back.

Could Vane be saved? Did he need to be? I may have failed to stop him, but he’d chosen to become the Fisher King. He’d chosen to be alone. In the back of mind, I’d never been able to let go of the thought that I was a game to him.

The Dragon’s Eye pressed into my skin, piercing through the thin fabric of my linen trousers. Its weight pressed down on my soul even as the cold stone sought to seduce my body. Before I could think about the idiocy of my action, I reached into the pocket and touched the beckoning gemstone. Instantly, it heated.