by Scott, Helen
I took a deep breath, praying that my plan would work. After I pushed back so I was sitting on my heels, I worked at the cuts in my hands until blood had pooled in the center of my palms, and then I smashed them against the shield.
This time, when I tried to pull the power into me, it came willingly. It rushed into me like a hurricane hitting the shore. I was everything, and for a split second, everything was me. Somewhere in the recesses of my mind, I wondered if this was how the Lady always felt.
As soon as I felt the shields of the prison give me some wiggle room, I forced my own power into it, filling the bubble with my shadows and using them to pry everything apart.
Inch by inch.
Crack by crack.
The walls came down to reveal a grove of perfectly healthy trees, the center of which was so dark nothing could be seen. I knew now it was just a matter of time before Merlin could escape.
We had broken the magic, broken the Lady’s prison, and Merlin could probably free himself of his own accord at this point.
Good thing, considering I was officially pooped.
4
Raven
“Here,” I directed my mate, shoving a bottle of water in her hand.
She eyed it, then me, and frowned. “I’m not thirsty.”
Squinting at her, I demanded, “Where in the rule book does it say you can’t show any weakness?”
That had her rearing back in surprise. I wasn’t sure if it was because she was shocked I was calling her out on her bullshit, or the fact that she was stunned at the accusation itself.
I wasn’t sure why she’d be bewildered anyway. I was a fucking mind reader. The clue was pretty much in the title.
I mean, a lot of the time, I had to physically rifle through someone’s head. But where my brothers were concerned, Marcella too, if they projected loudly enough, I heard.
Most of the time, I usually ignored the others, but my mate? Never. She had a high shield, though, so not much swept through the cracks, but ever since the Lady had pulled that shit on her, her shields were down.
Now, I wasn’t averse to taking advantage of that, but mostly, it concerned me. If I could hear her, then who the fuck else could too?
“What are you talking about?” she rasped, but she took the damn water and sipped it.
“I’m talking about the fact you seem to think you can’t be anything other than strong around us.” She scoffed, but I held up a hand. “Did you think less of Cade or Gideon for being sick?”
She blinked. “Of course not.”
“Well, then. Why would you think we’d think less of you for dealing with—” Shit. How did I paraphrase it?
“This clusterfuck,” Barclay chimed in, ever helpful.
Shooting him a grateful look, I added, “Yeah. That about sums it up.”
Her jaw clenched and she turned her face away from us. Her eyes were glittering though, and while it was a sunny day for the U.K., the sun was starting to dim, so that glitter wasn’t from an outside source.
That I’d made her cry was like a fucking knife to the belly, but this shit needed addressing before it started to fester like an open wound. Marcella seemed to think we needed her to be perfect.
What she wasn’t fucking getting was that, to us, she already was.
I squatted down before her and grabbed her chin. Forcing her to look at me, I growled, “You are our everything, Marcella. When are you going to understand that?”
“I dragged you into this,” she whispered, closing her eyes and pissing me off even more, because I couldn’t exactly push them open, could I?
“No. You didn’t. We were fated to be here with you,” I countered, and feeling Cade drop to his knees at my side, I let him muscle in on this action.
Sometimes, you needed finesse. That was Keiran, Gideon, and Darius. But other times, you needed a goddamn sledgehammer, and that was Cade and me. Barc was a nice in-between. I had no doubt that, for example, back in the ferry office, he’d have come close to charming the panties off the receptionist—whether the office worker was male or female.
But this needed Cade and me. Our unique talent of chipping away bullshit like it was a hunk of marble in need of sculpting was the only thing that was going to save Marcella from herself.
“I mean, if it wasn’t you, then we’d have been stuck with Lily fucking Addams. What the fuck would we do with a Sixth like her anyway? You’d condemn us to that future?”
Cade’s grumble had Marcella frowning, and I knew her pursang was pissed at the mention of the words ‘we,’ ‘Sixth,’ and ‘Lily’ in the same sentence.
Fuck, her possessiveness should have pissed me off, but how could it? How couldn’t I be so turned on that I wanted to fuck her amid the petrified trees of an ancient, sunken forest?
Yeah, that was how much she’d twisted me. I’d take her out here in the wide open, with the sky above us, and the sea at my back, uncaring who could see, only giving a fuck that our connection was rammed home with every thrust of my cock deep into her pussy.
Just thinking that had me clenching my jaw with need, and her nostrils flared as she scented my arousal. Her head tilted to the side and her eyes shuttered, the pinpricks of her pupils telling me how I affected her, and her body changed as the pursang blossomed. It was like watching a small kitten who’d been drenched in the rain stretch into a sinuous puma—beautiful and deadly at the same time.
She’d ride your cock as she drained you dry, and that was my woman.
“None of you should have to go through this and I dragged you into it. You’re all tied to me. If I die, you die, and worse, if the Lady gets to me, then you’re in a half-world. You won’t have me, but you’ll be without me too…” Her mouth worked, unable to speak the words, until she continued, “I don’t even know how that would work, but how could it not hurt?” She shook her head, and the drenched kitten made a reappearance as she released a shaky sigh and raised the water bottle to her lips again.
The movement revealed the palms of her hands to me, and the mess she’d made of her delicate flesh had me grumbling. When she’d finished drinking, I grabbed the bottle, then carefully tipped it over her palms, cleansing them.
As the water and blood mingled, all of us watched almost awestruck at the sight. Blood was life, but it was food and sex. It represented so much to us, so it was no wonder when Cade rasped, “Marcella, don’t you think these things happen for a reason? How the fuck would you have just opened up these dunes if you hadn’t had Gideon here to call on his power? How would you not have died if it weren’t for my abilities? We all serve a purpose, and while the fact you want to keep us safe is cute, you’re not taking into account the kind of males you’ve taken as mates.”
She scowled. “What do you mean?”
“I mean we were taught we meant shit to anyone. Then, we were shoved into a brotherhood and learned that we did mean something to someone, but the love between us was all we ever thought we could expect. What you’ve given us? That’s more than we ever had.
“If we die tomorrow, then we’ve died being loved by someone who was supposed to hate us. You gave us a purpose, made us worthwhile. If you don’t see that then it totally undermines your gift.”
Ouch.
Sneaky shit.
When Marcella’s skin turned peaky, her face blanching at his words, I shot Cade a look and knew he’d chosen each word with a precision that belied my ‘sledgehammer’ comparison. He’d gone for the dagger move and I couldn’t blame him, because it had worked.
“You start trying to hide from us,” I added, “then what we have is a lie. It means I can’t be weak in front of you, the others too. Is that fair? We’re a unit, aren’t we?”
Her nod was hesitant, but deep in her eyes, I could see the desperation, and I knew she needed these words more than she realized.
I reached forward again and cupped her cheek. “All will be well. You’ll see. We weren’t shoved together only to be dragged apart.” I refused to believe other
wise.
She clung to my words as though they were her life raft in a stormy sea, and I was thankful for that. She needed our strength, because whatever the Lady had done, it had decimated hers. Marcella needed time to regroup, but I wasn’t sure if we had any to spare.
A great surge of water splashed us, knocking me back on my ass, and when Marcella’s lips curved and she laughed, I felt like we’d turned a huge corner. Sure, there were many more walls we’d have to knock down, but we’d carry on, we just had to start somewhere.
Every journey started with the first step, and all that crap.
As the water retreated, Gideon sighed. “The tide’s coming in. Any joy with breaking him out?”
Marcella frowned. “What do you mean?”
I shot Gid a look. “What do you mean what does he mean? Nothing’s happened, has it? You opened up the sand but that’s it, right?”
She blinked at us again, and this time, she reached up and rubbed her forehead. “Can’t you see it?”
“See what?” I asked, slightly dumbstruck.
“There’s a grove of trees.” She pointed behind me. “Right there.”
Considering we were in the middle of a bay, I wasn’t entirely sure what she was talking about. Peering over my shoulder, I studied the sandy ground with the petrified tree roots, and said, “I don’t see anything.”
That had her surging to her feet. “You seriously can’t see that?”
“See what?” Darius ground out, but his impatience had Marcella’s temper surging.
Honestly, I’d take that over her sadness any day of the fucking week.
Especially when it was aimed at Darius and not me.
“The fucking trees. There’s a grove.” She scowled at the area where Barclay was standing. “You’re in it, Barc. What the hell? Why can’t you see it?”
“Because they’re not of the Lady’s line.” The voice was a deep rumble, and the words were followed by a heavy sigh. “My, it’s good to be out of there.”
The stranger in our midst had us all twisting around to find him, and when we saw him, I knew I wasn’t the only one lost.
Merlin was there, complete with white hair and long beard, but he was…
“Tell me I’m seeing shit,” Cade rasped.
“Pinch me,” Keiran confirmed huskily.
I reached over and did as he asked, not even smirking when he grunted at how hard I’d pinched.
“No, he’s still there.”
Stuck halfway in the sand, like a father who’d been buried by his kid up to his neck, feet, and hands on a day trip to the beach, was the Maker.
“A little help?” Merlin requested, and it had to be him, because who the fuck else would be stuck in the sand with only his head and shoulders popping out?
Popping out where seconds before there’d been nothing. Absolutely fuck all.
Was this some kind of cosmic joke? It had to be, right?
Barclay cleared his throat. “How are we supposed to help you?” he inquired uneasily. It wasn’t like wizard man’s arms were there for us to haul him out. “You’re in deep and the tide is coming in.”
Merlin heaved another sigh. “I was hoping you boring lot would be smarter by now. Let the druid part the sand,” he instructed.
Okay, so yeah, our brains were officially fried if we’d forgotten Gideon’s ability to do that. But from said druid’s expression, he was drawing as much of a blank as the rest of us. It wasn’t everyday men just poofed out of nowhere, even in our world.
It was starting to feel like some corny magic show in Vegas.
Merlin grunted when we all just gaped at him. “A little help?” he grumbled again, this time sputtering the words as a whoosh of the tide surged up and smacked him straight in the face.
My nostrils flared wide as I tried to contain my laughter, and though I knew it might be the death of me, knew that Merlin might well smote me dead where I stood, I couldn’t help myself.
I laughed.
And the worst thing of all?
The rest of us did too.
❖
Marcella
If looks could kill, then Merlin would have turned us into desiccated corpses on the spot. To say he was not amused would have been a gross understatement. The guys and I, however, were extremely amused by the tide washing in and making him gargle seawater. Not to mention the way his beard looked when it was soggy.
When Gideon was finally able to breathe again, he parted the sand and even made Merlin some steps so he could climb out. The fact that the steps washed away as he was doing so just sent us all into another fit of laughter, which only caused more scowling from the Maker.
The Maker.
All of a sudden, it hit me that we were, for all intents and purposes, laughing at our creator. My laughter stilled in my throat and I moved to help him up.
My voice was croaky as I mumbled, “I apologize. Things have been a bit tense recently, and I think that was the respite we needed. Please don’t be upset.” I wasn’t sure if my words fell on deaf ears or not as the wizard of legend rose to his full height.
He was only slightly taller than me and wearing a loose, red robe. When he released his grip on my arm, a gnarled, old wooden staff appeared from somewhere. Before my very eyes, his clothing transformed, turning into a pair of black tailored slacks, and a red collared shirt with a camel-colored coat that came down to mid-thigh.
That wasn’t the only thing that happened either.
The walking stick shrunk into a fancy cane, and his beard seemed to retract into his skin until it became just long enough to touch the edge of his shirt’s collar. The mustache separated, almost turning into a handlebar style. Finally, his white hair shortened and became almost a buzz cut on the sides while the top was longer.
I looked around at my guys, and saw bits and pieces of inspiration he’d taken from them. The clothes were more Darius, while the beard was more Barclay, since he needed a shave, and the hair was more Keiran in style, even if it was more like Raven’s in its color.
Out of nowhere, the washed-up old dude had turned into a smokin’ hot, silver fox.
The original silver fox even.
Dumbstruck wasn’t the word.
“Nothing to apologize for. Children are known to misbehave. One of the few traits all children have in common with one another.” Merlin’s voice was rough, most likely from disuse, but there was a warmth to it that made me feel immediately comfortable with him. It didn’t hurt that when he smiled, the tanned skin around his eyes wrinkled in a way that truly seemed to depict happiness.
Was it weird that he thought of us as naughty toddlers?
Maybe.
But to him, I figured we were still pretty much embryos, so I’d take it.
Silence descended like a rock being thrown into a pool as we all seemed to take in the moment. I didn’t know what we needed to do next, or how to continuously avoid the Lady, or even what to do about her and the Cavalry. The problems had been mounting up as we searched for Merlin, and now it felt like an avalanche was starting and he was the only one who could stop it.
“So, what’s next?” I asked.
“Food. It’s been so long since I’ve had the pleasure of eating and drinking,” he stated, his eyes sparkling with excitement.
“Do you know much about these times?” Darius inquired warily.
Merlin seemed to think for a moment before saying, “I know enough to get by. My prison may have been underwater from the looks of things, but the trees that made up my grove were connected to all others. I’ve been kept informed by the flora and fauna of the state of the world. I can only hope that we have made it in time to prevent it from being ruined further.”
“But you know what a car is?” Darius clarified.
The Maker nodded. “As I said, I know enough to get by.”
That was more than Arthur had known, so Merlin’s sources of information were apparently better.
Even as I wondered why Merlin made me feel comfor
table and his son, Arthur, had put me on edge, I decided I needed to move. Not only because this situation was weird, but I was sick of the splash from the incoming tide.
Without waiting for any of my mates, I turned and headed back to the SUV, but as I moved, I squeaked when my soggy feet were suddenly dry and I was wearing some kind of duck boots that ran up to midcalf.
Twisting around, I murmured, “Thank you.”
Merlin bowed his head. “My pleasure.”
Knowing everyone else would follow, I turned away and began striding back to shore once more. It was only ten minutes later when we were sitting down to eat in one of the local restaurants—the joys of having a wizard close by? He cleaned us up. I think he even trimmed my damn hair, and the craziest thing? Did a damn good job of it too.
Flustered by the sudden turn of events, the conversation between us was stilted and awkward, but how could it be anything else when you were trying to talk to your creator?
Seeing him in the modern world, I realized that he looked more like our wealthy grandfather than an ancient, magical being who had created all other supernatural creatures. He was cute, too, in a confusing way.
“Nimue won’t be easy to defeat. You’ll need to stay one step ahead of her at all times if you want to avoid her using your body as an item of clothing,” Merlin advised after we had ordered, throwing the words down as easily as he’d requested some local cider.
A low growl erupted from my mates at the mere mention of what the Lady wanted to do to me. I tried my best to send calming and loving vibes through our bonds to ease their fear, but I could still sense it in the air like a bitter tang, even if their growling had stopped. They loved me more than I’d ever thought possible, and part of me just wanted to run away to an unknown island somewhere and hide there until the Lady lost interest. The fact that I was probably thinking about how hot Merlin was undoubtedly didn’t help matters.
Oops.
“I’m afraid she doesn’t lose interest very quickly,” Merlin stated when we just fidgeted like naughty kids, unsure of what to say after being reprimanded by the principal. His eyes gleamed as he said, “I’ve been many things in my time, but never have I been the strict disciplinarian.”