“Merlin,” Ari said, leaning over him, shaking his shoulders. “Merlin!”
When that didn’t work—when his thin, young face stayed pale and still—she leaned over and pressed her cheek against his. “Wake up, old man. We’ve got a universe to save.”
His eyes fluttered open, and Gwen let go of a huge breath. Together, the girls helped him sit up. They gave him water. When his gaze finally came back into focus, he looked at Ari—and then away, shame turning his cheeks red. “You know now. I chose more power over Arthur,” he hiccupped. “I caused his death. And the cycle. I never—”
“Merlin,” Ari said. “We’re not back there. We’re here now. Together. Gwen,” she turned toward her girl. “Can you bring the others in?”
Gwen nodded and left the room.
Ari put her hands on his shoulders. “Whatever the hell Morgana wanted to happen backfired. I don’t hate you. I don’t blame you. I want to help.” She pressed a hand to her chest. “I want to help Arthur. We’re going to end the cycle. I’m so fucking fired up now, that damn blue witch has no idea. So, what do we do?”
“The steps,” Merlin murmured. “The next step in the cycle is to face the greatest evil.”
“Mercer. Wonderful. And then?”
“Unite humankind.”
“And then?”
Merlin shifted. “I’ve never gotten that far. Not even with the first King Arthur. He died before his vision of Camelot could spread and help others. Well, you saw.”
Ari blew out a huge breath. “So, defeat Mercer. Unite humankind.”
“Ari’s already on her way with that,” Kay said as the room filled with relieved faces. Her brother crossed his arms before the end of the bed. Val pounced on Merlin, smothering him in affectionate squeezes that made his pale skin bloom with the best shades of pink. Gwen came back to Ari’s side and folded herself into the corner of her arm and hip.
Lam and Jordan stood by the door, gorgeous and gloriously different sentinels, one in purple silk, one in silver armor.
“What did you say, Kay?” Ari asked.
“Ari is a damn hero. Isn’t she?” Kay looked at the others, and they nodded.
Gwen sat forward and sort of batted her eyelashes. “Don’t freak out, baby girl, but the situation with Mercer has gotten a little operatic.”
“Oh, I love where this is going.”
“Honestly, this entire situation is a damn miracle,” Val said. “We all could have been arrested by Mercer and sent to Urite.”
Urite. Ari couldn’t help going cold as she remembered the Administrator taunting her about her parents. That felt like years ago, but it had only been a few days, hadn’t it? “Tell me what happened after Morgana messed with us.”
Jordan stood forward. “She disappeared after she attacked you. We had to get you all out before associates descended like carrion flies.”
“Gross, Jordan,” Gwen said, holding up a hand to her knight. “People on Troy came to help us. They carried all of you back to Error and made sure that we could take off.”
Ari could hear the mournful undertones in Gwen’s voice. “What happened to them?”
“They were arrested. Some were killed. But not before sending out these rebellion beacons. They’ve reached every Mercer-controlled system. The entire galaxy is waking up, and they want you to lead them.”
Ari blinked. “Excuse me?”
Val held out his watch. An image leaped forth of Ari pulling the sword from the stone courtyard and destroying the Mercer Company logo in front of the galactic state department. And then the image cut to Merlin throwing magical green fireballs, fighting off Morgana. The scrolling text beneath it read:
KING ARTHUR HAS RISEN. MERLIN HAS RETURNED. RISE UP WITH HOPE.
“Oh!” Merlin explained. “I’ve never made the highlight reel before!”
Ari looked to her magician and found his wide-eyed expression matched hers. “Did you know this was going to happen?”
“I’ve never seen it done so efficiently,” he said. “And while I slept, no less!”
“But it’s part of the cycle,” Ari said, trying to clarify. “I have to do this. To help you.”
“To help everyone,” Gwen added. “We have a chance to break Mercer’s stranglehold. To help billions of people. First we have to—”
“Save Ari’s parents on Urite,” Merlin said loudly.
Kay’s arms dropped, and he stepped forward. “My parents are on Urite?”
“There’s plague on Urite,” Val said, face falling. “It was all over the media on Troy.”
Ari stood and went to her brother. She grabbed his elbows. He was shaking his head, but it was more than that. His whole body trembled with a potent combo of fear and anger. “I know, Kay. We’ll help them.”
“I don’t think that’s a good—” Gwen started to say, but Ari whipped around, causing Gwen to drop the rest of the sentence.
“Think about it!” Merlin said. “You want Ari to stand up to Mercer? An act of resistance for the universe to rally behind? Imagine if we spirit the parents of the new King Arthur away from a Mercer prison! I’ve never had parents, but they’re generally considered important. And Ari’s parents…”
Ari looked to Merlin. She could see in his eyes that he now knew why her parents’ freedom meant so much. They hadn’t just adopted her. They’d saved her from a torturous death in the void. It was time to return the favor. It was a freakin’ quest.
“How?” Jordan repeated. “Urite is inaccessible.”
“Easy,” Merlin said, standing up on wobbly legs. “Drop me off at the next Mercer-controlled colony. I’ll get arrested, and you’ll have an inside man for the job. With magic.”
“What about the plague?” Val asked. “No way.”
“I can’t die.”
Everyone in the room looked at Merlin. “At least, I haven’t figured out how to die yet.”
“Those are two very different things,” Val said.
“Why can’t you die?” Gwen asked, startling Merlin so that he looked at her. Ari had to echo her wife’s curiosity. Why couldn’t Merlin die? Was it his magic? His backward aging? And why did Nin have such a sharp interest in keeping him alive during King Arthur’s final battle? The Lady of the Lake might have been silent since Merlin’s time at Camelot, but she was a part of this. Ari could almost feel her watching. She sent a mental middle finger in the general direction of the being called Nin—and shuddered when an icy laugh clouded her mind.
Merlin found it quite easy to get arrested.
Error dropped him on a tiny blip of a planet. Larger planets loomed bright in the sky as he stood in a city square and raved about the evils of Mercer.
“These corporate greedlords have made themselves indispensable, spreading the lie that you could not possibly live without them!” Merlin’s voice peaked and twirled, fear sending it to new heights as the ubiquitous Mercer associates closed in on the square.
Merlin’s fingers flared up, ready to spark them into a fried state.
“No magic,” he muttered. “Not even a flicker.”
Footage of him slinging fireballs had been shared with the universe, and Ari had made him promise to keep his identity and abilities under wraps. He’d invented a face and a set of fingerprints. Nothing showy. He was now a different teenager, as scrawny as ever, but with nondescript features, short brown hair, and overlarge feet he kept nearly tripping on.
Not looking like himself was strange enough, but not using magic was like putting a muzzle on his heart. He raged against the powerless feeling as large figures pushed their way through the crowd, casting people to the ground, cracking them with heavy sticks, stepping hard on their hands, crunching finger bones for the crime of listening to the truth.
Merlin’s fingers sizzled so hard with magic that he had to suck on them to cool their unspent fury. “There is someone coming to save you all from a Mercer-shaped fate,” he cried. “Her name is Ari, and she is…” Did he dare cry the forty-second reincarnation of King Arthur? Would he lose the crowd?
“Ari,” someone whispered. “The girl with the sword.”