She tutted. “You shouldn’t steal, Merlin. Didn’t your parents ever tell you that?”
“Parents? I was born a few thousand years old in a cave made of crystal.” He slid into a distinctly musical way of speaking that Ari had grown to care for, albeit against her will. “Besides,” he said, his tone sinking, “there are worse things to steal. Like children from their families.”
Ari pulled him to his feet, held him tight. “You’re out of your head, old man.” He clasped her back with a whimper that made his injury even more obvious. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have sent you. I’m so sorry,” she murmured into his ruined hair. “You’re never going to have to do anything like this again, okay? I promise.”
For once, Merlin the magician didn’t fight back. He nodded furiously and kept his face tightly against Ari’s chest.
“I’ve got her! I’ve got her!” Kay yelled, unearthing Captain Mom’s rigid form. He pushed the dirt away from her eyes and hair. Lamarack excavated Mom at the same moment. Ari wanted to run to them, but Kay’s groans kept her locked in place. Or was it Merlin’s arms still around her?
“Fix them, Merlin. Now!” Kay growled.
Merlin took a few deep breaths. He kept one arm around Ari’s waist and wiggled his fingers through the air. Nothing happened. He tried again, leaning even heavier on Ari. Finally, a bit of magic trickled out and struck Captain Mom.
Her stone visage softened until she gasped for breath. Kay didn’t give her a moment to recover. He grabbed her with both arms and sobbed. He was much bigger than Captain Mom, and that was new, wasn’t it? When they had been arrested, he’d still been short.
“Kay,” Captain Mom said. “Calm down, baby. I’m okay.”
He couldn’t stop crying. Couldn’t calm down. Not even when the sirens blasted over the soft melody of the invisibly strumming guitar.
“We have to go!” Lam yelled. They’d pulled Mom out of the sand. She was still stone, and unlike Captain Mom, she seemed to have been frozen on her side, curled up.
Captain Mom and Kay got to their feet. Kay looked at Mom’s tiny, frozen form. “Change her back, Merlin!”
Merlin jumped at the threatening heat in his voice. He opened his mouth to speak—to tell Kay that he was too weak. It was obvious to Ari, but Captain Mom beat him to it.
“She’s safer like that. We should wake her up when we’re away from here. She needs medical attention.” The no-nonsense command in her voice reminded Ari of Gwen, which was strange. Captain Mom straightened her shirt and looked at Ari for the first time. She reached one hand out, and Ari looked at it for so long, remembering that moment in the water barrel.
Finally, she stepped forward and hugged her.
“Look at you,” she whispered in Ari’s ear. “My hero.”
Ari felt frozen pieces cracking off her. “Mama,” she whispered, pulling her even tighter. “We missed you so much.”
Lam cleared their throat, lifting Mom higher in their arms. “The whole planet has been alerted to our presence, and we’ve got to get out of here.”
Error swept low, just visible outside of the dome of brilliant, tropical light. In the next moment, a fiery blast shot through the bubble, breaking the world with furious cold.
“Run!” Ari screamed.
A second blast caught Lam in the leg, and they went down, shouting in pain. Kay shot forward to catch Mom, and Captain Mom helped Lam toward the spot where Error had landed.
“Go!” Ari yelled to Merlin, turning to face the prison guards streaking toward them. “I’ll be right behind you!”
Merlin whimpered as he stumbled toward the ship, and Ari swung around, Excalibur bared to face the guards running at her. The one in front fired, and she swung at the blast as if it were a game. The fire hit Excalibur, turning the entire sword blazingly hot. Ari dropped it, shocked, and was instantly surrounded by Mercer associates who battered her to her knees.
“It’s the one from the vid feed!” one of them crowed. “We’re going to get promotions!”
“Kill her,” another one said. “She’s too dangerous to take alive. We’ll get the same perks if she’s dead.” The guard raised a large weapon and pressed it against Ari’s head.
Ari felt it charging up, crafting impossible heat.
“No!” one of the guards yelled. “She has to be recognizable. Do her in the chest.”
The guard moved the weapon lower, and Ari kicked out, taking their legs out from under them. In a heartbeat, three guards were on top of her, holding her down on the ice while the one she’d knocked over got up, angry and spitting. They stood, pointed the weapon at Ari’s chest, and Ari felt King Arthur come through her, urging her to call out one word.
“Morgana!” she cried.
“Arthur,” a familiar voice purred through the wind, making the guards pause and look around. They could not see Morgana in their midst. But Ari could.
The associates froze as if she’d turned them to ice, and Ari kicked them away. Morgana came so close that Ari felt the specific cold that belonged to this ancient enchantress.
“I hear my brother in your voice,” she said. “He controls you well.”
“It isn’t control,” Ari managed. “It’s alliance.”
Ari picked up Excalibur, fingers numb. She would not die unarmed or without a fight. “Thank you. Although I’m worried you stopped them just so you could kill me yourself.”
“Most likely,” Morgana sneered. Her eyes trailed the long, silver blade, gleaming so much more than the metal ever could. When she came to the deep red spot along the edge, she paused. “My dear, what is that?”
“Merlin’s blood,” Ari said, the words sticking in her throat. She couldn’t feel the residual warmth of Bermuda anymore. She was freezing solid where she stood. Morgana looked ready to laugh. To scream with delight.
And Ari’s mind fractured as Morgana moved through her.
Merlin stared out into a blinding rash of snow. “Ari!” he cried. “Ari?”
Everyone else had run aboard Error. She had to be close behind. And yet waiting another minute gave him nothing but white spots in his vision as the frozen wind cut through his prison uniform and plague-touched skin. There was also the matter of his shoulder, which Excalibur had taken a bite from. Blood was crystallizing in the wound, gritty and painful.
But none of that could stop him from searching for Ari. He’d been stumbling along with Ari right behind him—and then she was gone. Merlin had told the rest of the knights to run onward, trusting his Excalibur sonar to find her when the rest of his senses failed. But he was too sick, too drained.
And Excalibur did not sing back.
“Get your ass in here, magic-boy!” Kay shouted from inside. “And bring Ari with you! They’re about to fire on us!”
The snow cleared just enough for Merlin to see heat cannons revving up—the grown-up versions of the guns that the prison guards carried. They were pointed rather directly at his face. He turned and ran into the ship, seconds before the door slammed closed.
“Where is Ari?” Kay asked, looking around Merlin as if he might have been hiding her.
“I… I couldn’t find her,” Merlin said, the words stirring up all the ways he’d lost Arthur. All the failures Morgana wouldn’t let him forget.
Kay raised the heat gun he’d brought on their rescue mission. This one was definitely pointed at Merlin’s face.
He cringed. He cowered.
It was a horrible showing, and shame paraded through his body. What was worse, he didn’t have any magic to stop Kay from shooting him. And the absolute worst of all? A small part of him believed he deserved this fate.
“Hey!” Val shouted, getting between the two of them. “Shooting the person who just saved your parents isn’t a good look, Kay.” He grabbed the gun by the barrel, yelped at its heat, and tossed it across the cargo den.
Jordan caught it in one hand.
“No time for boyfights!” Lam shouted from where they sat, leg mangled and black. “We have to go.” A blast of heat rocked the ship, as if confirming Lam’s words. Everyone tipped on their feet, and Val fell hard.