by Scott, Helen
“I’m really sorry to hear about that,” I rasped, rapt by her other story and not wanting to seem totally heartless.
She huffed, looking aggrieved by the state of her bathroom—rightly so. “Anyway, that can’t be what your friend was talking about, because it only happened a few days ago.”
“I got the riddle two days ago.”
“And you came here so soon?”
Sheepishly, I told her, “I’m very competitive.” She eyed me like I was the one going Bodmin, and Maker, it was a wonder I wasn’t. Clearing my throat, I asked, “Where is this Mount’s Bay?”
“It’s by St. Michael’s Mount. It’s this little island that’s connected to the land. You can walk to it. If you have time for a visit, I’d definitely recommend it.”
“And I’d be able to see this sunken forest if I went there now?”
She shrugged. “It was in the news just two days ago, so I don’t see why not.”
If the chance of her getting her scent all over me hadn’t been a possibility, I’d have kissed her—the last thing I needed was to entice Marcella’s pursang out to party. Instead, I grabbed her hand, squeezed it, and said, “You’re a lifesaver!”
I rushed out, ignoring her calls about the ticket I was supposed to be buying, and headed toward the SUV that was idling in the lot.
As I hauled my ass inside, I beamed at them and said, “The plot thickens.”
Darius cocked a brow at me, managing to look cool instead of stressed—I could have decked him. “Do tell,” he told me with a sniff.
“There is only one boat, and it’s tomorrow at nine-fifteen, so if this doesn’t work out, we can always book to go to Scilly then. But this place near here, St. Michael’s Mount, it’s a tidal island. At some point, there was a forest in the bay… it’s sunken now, and has just been revealed by some bad storms.”
“That can’t be a coincidence,” Raven rasped, his eyes intent on me.
“That’s what I thought. And get this, it’s supposed to be the place where the final battle went down between Arthur and Mordred.”
Darius’s nostrils flared. “Pull up the GPS. We need to check this out before night falls.”
I did as asked and blurted out, “It’s ten minutes away.”
“Great. Set the map.”
The ten-minute journey took five, and as we raced toward the tiny island that I looked up on Google, Marcella stirred.
“Why are we going so fast?” she mumbled, and her sleepy sensuality, as always, hit me like a smack in the face.
Her power over me should have been irritating, but instead, I was just grateful for it. After almost losing her, and with the threat still prevalent, I’d never take her for granted, that was for damn sure.
“Barclay’s got a lead.”
I twisted in the passenger seat to grin at her. “There’s a sunken forest nearby.”
Her eyes gleamed at me. “There is?”
“Yeah. It’s a couple thousand years old and hidden by the seashore, but there have been some storms recently and the trees have peeped through thanks to a low tide.”
“That would explain what Merlin was talking about,” she murmured softly, her eyes widening as she woke herself up. I watched as she hauled herself higher in her seat, then ran a hand over her face. “He said that something had changed, something that made it more possible than usual for him to get a reading on what the Lady was doing. It probably helped that Cade fucked with her plans and wrenched her out of my body when he turned back time, but maybe that helped too?”
“Because the ocean wasn’t hiding his prison,” Gideon rasped. “Maker, Barc, well fucking done.”
It wasn’t often I earned praise from my brotherhood, and I wasn’t about to lie, it felt fucking awesome.
When we reached our destination, Darius parked the car like the asshole he was sometimes— managing to take up three spaces instead of one. I wasn’t about to bitch, not when I was just as excited as the others.
Rushing out of the car, we approached the shoreline. Behind us was a row of gray stone houses that looked onto the island, and I had to admit, it was strange to behold.
Surrounded by water, atop a low hill, was a castle with dozens of peaks. A path led up to the edifice, and the rocky terrain was tufted with grass before it led to a row of houses that sat on the border of the island, protected by a low wall from the high tide. There was a constructed jetty where boats were currently sitting on sand, and I could easily imagine how epic it would look when the tide was in and the island was cut off from the mainland.
When our feet hit the sand, our shoes sinking into it, I turned to Gideon and asked, “Can you feel anything?”
He was quiet for a second, his head tilted a certain way that told me he was communing with nature. I watched as his eyelids fluttered, flickering open then shut, before he dropped into a squat and pressed his hand to the sand. Where he shoved his fingers wasn’t clean and crisp, it was loaded with moss and traces of seaweed because this, I realized, was usually covered in water. Gross though it may be, it made sense that Gideon would get a better read on it. Sand, moss, and seaweed were three things he could commune with.
A buzz of excitement flittered through me, one that the entirety of the brotherhood experienced because we knew Gideon did shit like this when he felt something other.
After a few minutes, he got to his feet, then said, “This way.”
There was a path that linked the mainland to the island, and though that would have been easier, he didn’t take that route. Instead, he moved us quickly toward the side of the island that was away from the small cluster of houses and the walled-in harbor.
In the blink of an eye, we went from walking to suddenly running full tilt, all of us keeping pace with him until, for no reason at all, he came to an abrupt halt. Beyond us, there were the remains of about forty trees, all covered in sand. Knobby limbs were exposed here and there, as well as root systems sodden from a thousand years of saltwater.
“Let me help,” Marcella murmured, and Gideon turned to her with a nod. His runes lit up, and with a wave of his hand, the sand parted, revealing a world that had been hidden amid the annals of time.
“Is he here?” Cade demanded, his tone eager.
Marcella closed her eyes, inhaled a gulp of brisk sea air, and slowly nodded. “Yeah. He’s here.”
❖
Marcella
I could feel Merlin’s presence like I was standing close to a volcano. Heat radiated out of his prison and toward me as though he was calling to me with it. I grew up in the Pacific Northwest though, and preferred the chilly, rainy weather to this intense heat. It wasn’t like I had a say in the matter though. It was either get close enough to Merlin to figure out how to open his prison or give myself over to the Lady.
Some choice.
My feet carried me forward when I didn’t want to take another step closer to Merlin’s dreary jail cell. The ground had changed from sandy to sludgy within a few steps. Thick, brown mud seemed to grab onto anything that touched it, and I had a feeling I’d be washing it off my body for the next few days.
The next step I took, or tried to take, my shoe didn’t move with my foot, choosing to stay behind in the mud, so I almost face-planted into the viscous dirt. It was only a quick save by Gid that stopped me from losing my balance altogether.
“I’ve got you, love,” he whispered into my ear as he righted me. The sensation made me shiver and an ache formed low in my belly. It had been too long since I’d been with them physically. My need for them was timeless, endless, and I wouldn’t have it any other way—even if it was damn inconvenient.
I felt like my pursang was working against me at the moment. She wanted to cement my ties with my mates, her focus utterly, purely on them and our connection, but here I was, trying to save our ass… She really needed to get with the program.
“Thanks,” I said as I pulled away from him, not really wanting to let go, but needing to focus on the task at hand.
Heaving a sigh that took me from nice thoughts of Gideon and a bowl of whipped cream to our current situation, I mentally pulled up the map I’d made of the area when I’d used Gid’s runes.
The trees, as well as our destiny, were just ahead on the left.
No pressure.
Slowly, trying not to lose any more items of clothing, we made our way through the mud to the cluster of tree trunks that were caked in more sludge and protruded from the ground like the beginnings of a mountain.
The heat was steadily increasing, but when I looked at the others, they didn’t seem the least bit affected by it, so I persevered.
As much as I loved my mates, I never wanted them to think of me as weak or lacking. I wanted to be strong for them, be the rock they could all lean on, but that wouldn’t happen if I couldn’t even handle getting Merlin free. The last thing I wanted was for one of them to have to take over and endure what Merlin would no doubt put me through. If the Maker mentally talking to me from far away made me feel like shit, then I couldn’t imagine how it was going to be up close and personal.
I pushed ahead and tried to reach my awareness, the part of me that I’d felt humming whenever he or the Lady or the Sires spoke to me. The further I pushed, the more it felt like I’d run into a wall. I felt my powers slip from me and circle around it, trying to find a break, a chink in the wall’s armor. After circling around, I went up and over before ducking down, and trying to find my way around the blockage. That was when I realized the ‘wall’ had a shape—it was like an egg. A metaphorical, mental wall was shaped like an egg? That made no sense, right?
As I thought about it, clarification hit. There wasn’t a wall between Merlin and me—there was a prison. The egg-shape was the start of his eternal cell.
It was so alien and yet, it felt right to me too. I was on the right track!
“What’s going on, Chella?” Cade asked as he came up beside me, holding my lost shoe.
There wasn’t a chance in hell that thing was going back on my foot. It would be going straight in the trash as soon as I found a trash can. I smiled at him though, because he really was sweet for getting it, and I knew that sweetness was just for me. He and the others were different with me than they were with other people, even each other, and I loved it. It made me feel special and important, which was something I was still learning to accept, considering I’d been an outcast most of my life.
To some people, it was just a shoe. To me? It meant Cade gave a fuck, and knowing him like I did, Cade didn’t give a fuck about much.
Because, with that teeny tiny gesture he’d made me love him that much more, I reached over and cupped his cheek. The stubble growing there rasped against my palm as I told him, “The prison is just ahead, but it’s…” I pulled a face. “Smooth. I can’t find any weakness in it. I don’t know what Merlin was talking about.”
A blast of heat hit me from out of nowhere, surging over my body like a feverish wave. A cry escaped me as I staggered, falling into Cade who held me up, supported me against the heat, which packed a punch that would make a heavyweight blanch.
“You’re burning up!” Barclay’s concerned voice exclaimed from just behind me.
Gid’s runes flared off to my right and I felt a cool breeze run over my skin. It gave me a brief respite from the heat, but as soon as the chill was gone, it felt like it returned tenfold.
“Help me, Cade,” I rasped, leaning into him and using him as a support as I stumbled forward until I finally hit somewhere that my powers connected with. “Here,” I croaked and gestured to the general vicinity in front of us.
I tried to trace the line of magic with my hand, which, to my eyes, looked like shattered glass, the cracks of which formed the outline of what I could only assume was the entrance.
When I reached out, the prison was actually a tangible thing to my touch, which surprised the hell out of me. Not only did it look like shattered glass but it felt almost like touching glass—warm glass that was kind of squishy. I watched as the guys tried to feel it as well, but their hands simply went through the area, no squishy glass to stop them. I knew it was my heritage, the fact that I was a descendant of the Lady and of Merlin, which was allowing me to touch it the way I was. Now, all I had to do was figure out how to break it.
“Any ideas on breaking a magical ward?” I inquired roughly, hoping that one of them would step up with some kind of easy solution.
The silence that met my ears was answer enough, though. None of us had any idea what we were doing. Fucking typical.
Someone really needed to write a how-to guide that covered this shit.
As I released a heavy sigh that was loaded with impatience, water gently lapped at the area it normally covered, small waves rushing to the shore even though they couldn’t get high enough to surround the prison anymore. It was almost like it was being drawn to the prison itself, making me wonder if it had been surrounded by water when it had first been created.
And it moved in time to my breathing.
My mouth dropped open as I stared at the tide that was waxing and waning in goddamn time to my breath, but as I stared, it gave me an idea.
“Gid? I need to borrow a couple runes, okay?” I asked.
My druid mate nodded and I saw the minute movements that told me he was readying himself for me to overdo it, and call on four or five runes again like I had before. I wouldn’t, not this time, although he did need to get used to using more than two runes at a time. All of my mates needed to get stronger if we were going to try and fight the Lady.
The problem was, when exactly were we going to have time to practice? It wasn’t like everything was moving slowly. This journey we’d been forced into, ever since I accidentally bound myself to them, was going at a breakneck pace and didn’t appear to be slowing down anytime soon.
I tugged on the runes for the ocean, using it to pull more water to me. I didn’t know how I could even do this, but Gideon’s body was like the keys to a piano, and I knew how to play him rather than the runes.
Slowly but surely, I manipulated the water up and over the prison, until it looked like a big blister. I didn’t expect the water to break it, that would be way too easy, but I was hoping it might highlight any cracks that were in the shield. I pulled on the rune that could trigger a chill, freezing the liquid in place until it really began to look like a frozen egg of water.
With as much dexterity as I could manage, I tried to force the ice to get wider, to force any small cracks that were there to open. As soon as I released my hold on it, the water rushed away, returning to the sea as though it was offended I’d used it. I carefully looked at the shield again, feeling all around it with my magic. There was one small crack on the other side. It must have been there before, but was too small to sense.
I pushed at it with my magic and felt the shield heat up even more. Sweat was rolling down my back, and slicking my hair to my forehead and neck as I tried to force it wider. Nothing moved though, and I couldn’t get any closer than I was due to the heat.
“Mate,” Darius rasped, shattering my concentration. “You need to take a break before you push yourself to the point of exhaustion.”
I turned and looked at him, my eyes skimming my other mates on the way, and saw concern etched on each of their faces. “I’m okay,” I said, but my voice sounded hoarse, as though I’d been screaming.
“You don’t sound okay, Chella,” Raven grated out with a frown.
“Can you transfer some of the heat to us?” Gid questioned. He spread his arms wide before continuing, “None of us feel it. In fact, I’d hesitate to say it, but I think the air might be a bit chilly.”
“We can take whatever you have to dish out,” Cade agreed.
It was a good idea, one I should have thought of before I turned myself into beef jerky. “Can one of you touch me?”
Answering grins shone all around me.
“Not like that!” I grumbled with a snort.
Darius was the one who
stepped forward, evidently not trusting the others to keep it PG, at least judging from the glare he shot toward them. As soon as his hand was on my shoulder, I used another of Gid’s runes to transfer the sensations to him. It cooled my brain down and allowed me to think clearly for the first time since we had sensed the prison.
I could feel the heat washing over me and into my pursang mate. It didn’t stop there though, each of them had joined in a line, a hand on the shoulder in front of them, until the heat spread out through all of us. I only hoped I could do the same with the power.
After my trick with the water, the prison seemed to have become malleable to an extent, and I was going to use that to my advantage. I pulled on the power surrounding the cell, using the energy within me that was responding to it as a kind of homing beacon. Everything seemed to roll off me and into the guys, like they were battery packs that were being charged. The more energy I siphoned off, the more it vibrated through me and into the guys, until it almost felt like I was hovering above the ground.
Lightning appeared to erupt out of the prison and cascade into me. That wasn’t something I was going to let the guys feel, so I cut our connection and fell to my knees just before it hit Darius. My own hands splayed out onto the ground in front of me, landing on a stone with a sharp edge. The metallic tang of my blood scented the air a moment later, and the sensation of being struck by lightning made me feel like I was splintering into a thousand shards.
The prison was weakening, that much was obvious. My job wasn’t over though. I had to make the crack just a little bigger so I could get some leverage and split the whole thing open. My blood had triggered something, so without missing a beat, I lifted my uninjured hand and sliced my palm open on one of my fangs.
Growls filled the air behind me and I knew my guys were unhappy to have me spilling blood, but I didn’t see any other choice. My presence alone wasn’t doing enough, so maybe it needed a DNA sample or something?
As I lifted my other hand from the mud, I wiped it on my jeans, leaving a smear of blood and dirt behind. I’d gladly toss all my clothes in the trash after this was over.