by Sarah Kleck
“And how are you going to do that?” she asked smugly. She dared to come out of Nick’s shadow, stepped forward, and stroked her long fingers over Sally’s cheek. “If we burn, she’ll burn with us.”
“What do you want?” I shouted. “Ruth’s gone—your plan didn’t work. You know we can’t get you the light magic, don’t you?”
“Yes, unfortunately.” She feigned disappointment.
Sally whimpered when the witch pulled her to herself and placed her long fingers around Sally’s neck. Nick skillfully flung his knife into the air, then put it in the inside pocket of his tuxedo.
Helpless rage took hold of me, and I shouted, almost screeched, “What do you want? Jared’s magic? You’ll never get it!”
She had to know that he’d rather die than leave her his magic. He would thrust it with full force into the witch as Merlin once had done. But he would destroy her.
“Nooo,” she replied, drawn out. “Not his magic . . .” Her eyes focused on me with a covetous gleam. “Yours.”
“What?”
“You will accompany me to Avalon and show me where you hid Nimue’s magic. Then we’ll let the girl go.” She gave a sinister laugh.
“Evelyn’s going nowhere,” Jared said, and I knew he’d never allow me to go with Morgana. Even if it meant Sally’s death.
“As you wish,” Morgana said. She closed her fingers around Sally’s throat and effortlessly lifted her into the air. Sally’s bare feet kicked and she clawed her fingers into Morgana’s hand, trying to free herself from the relentless grip. Her face turned red, then blue. Her eyes protruded.
“No!” I screamed in a panic. “Let her go! Let her go!”
Jared let his magic pulse. “If you don’t let her go, I’ll kill you right now.” Only an idiot would have doubted him.
I thought I saw light from the corner of my eye. I looked as the heads of the others turned that way as well.
Ruth? Had she returned? I looked around but couldn’t see her.
Then the light bundled directly before Morgana. It blinded me so much that I had to shield my eyes. When I looked again, I could barely believe it.
Ruth had returned—with Colin.
He didn’t hesitate. He immediately raised the mighty sword and charged wildly at Morgana. Jared ran after him. In a fright, Morgana loosened her grip on Sally’s neck, and she managed to break free. Sally plopped to the ground, wrestling for air. Colin was unstoppable. He swung Excalibur, and it descended on Morgana in a semicircle. At the last moment, she yanked her head away and lifted her arms to protect herself. She avoided decapitation, but Colin didn’t miss. The mighty blade severed Morgana’s right arm at the shoulder. The limb hit the ground with a thud. Her shrill scream echoed over the hill.
Jared had almost reached Sally when Old Nick also charged toward her. Jared thrust his hands forward, sending a curse down on him with the unbridled force of lightning. The demon whirled through the air, spun around, and slid across the meadow. But he quickly regained control, rose, and was back on his feet in midmotion.
Old Nick looked firmly at Jared. His eyes flared. “Not bad for a little guy,” he acknowledged generously, swinging his black cane in a circle. The demon grinned with his pointy teeth. “We’ll meet again,” he promised. He bowed gallantly, clicked his heels together, and was gone in a puff of smoke.
Jared’s curse had made a tree burst into flames. I ran to Sally and pressed her against me at the same moment that Colin raised Excalibur for the final blow. He roared like a bull. Then everything went so fast that I could barely follow.
The sword was near Morgana’s neck when dark shadows flashed across her glowing eyes.
“No!” Jared shouted, but she raised her remaining arm and directed her magic at Colin with brute force.
Running, Jared threw both hands forward and released his unbridled power, brightening the night as if it were day—and struck the witch with full force.
Morgana was dead.
CHAPTER 25
Silence. Indescribable silence. It enshrouded everything.
Then Sally began to scream. The soul-piercing cry of a heart torn from a breast.
Colin lay on the ground. Morgana’s curse had struck him in the middle of his chest. Sally threw herself on his lifeless body.
“Colin! Colin!” Her cry tugged at my heart.
The three of us kneeled beside him. Blinding tears streamed down my face. I felt Colin’s chest and pressed down on it. Pounded on him, tried to get his heart to beat again, tried to force it to beat. Why weren’t they helping me?
“Do something, Jared!” I cried. “Do something!”
Jared took my wrists, firmly gripped them, and forced me to stop.
“I can’t,” he said in a voice that sounded strange. “He’s dead.”
My thoughts drifted, incapable of understanding what had just happened. It was impossible. Colin could not be dead.
Sally’s cheeks were covered in tears, and she desperately stroked Colin’s face, kissed him. Kissed him again and again, as if her lips could bring him back to life.
Jared’s expression was frozen—the grief for his friend, his brother, so overwhelming that he was incapable of letting it out. He kneeled beside Colin and just looked at him. Stared into his brother’s empty eyes. Silent. Motionless.
Hours must have passed while we kneeled beside Colin’s body. Dawn came, announcing the day. Somehow I found the strength to call Enid so someone would pick us up. It wouldn’t be long before dog walkers and joggers swarmed Primrose Hill. When I told her what had happened, she sobbed so loudly and intensely, I was almost unable to understand her.
I hung up and sat down beside Sally.
I only said, “They’re coming.”
Soon we heard footsteps in the grass. It wasn’t who we’d expected.
“Get lost,” Jared said, without looking up. His voice was so cold. Ruth stood next to us, looking sadly at our dead friend.
I whirled around, enraged. “Why did you bring him here?”
“I—I just wanted to help,” she said, her voice muffled.
“Get lost.” I repeated Jared’s command, sounding just as cold. “I don’t ever want to see you again. Go!”
A tear ran over Ruth’s cheek, and then she dissolved into light.
When Ian finally came, he and Jared carried Colin’s body to the car. There were dozens of onlookers. Joggers, barking dogs. Some began to scream at the sight of the dead witch and hundred-plus damnati corpses scattered over the hill.
Jared lifted his arm and made a gentle sweeping motion in the air. A delicate gold rain came down on those standing around. They halted as if they’d just forgotten what they were doing, then went about their business.
We were already at the car when the convoy arrived, a seemingly endless motorcade of Jeeps and hearses. They’d clean up thoroughly, removing every trace of last night’s tragedy. No one would know what had happened. No one would know how Colin had really died. As a hero.
None of us said a word. Sally, who sat in the backseat with me, had Colin’s head in her lap and endlessly stroked his cold face. Jared sat in the front, rubbing his hand over his eyes. Tears even ran over Ian’s normally ever-so-composed face.
Grief pervaded the headquarters. Oppressive, almost palpable. Adam, Gareth, and Colin: three lives, one purpose. Casualties in the war against darkness in this world. My brain still refused to believe I would never see them again.
Sally was completely distraught. She held on to Colin and cried like a banshee when he was taken from her. Thrashed so wildly that Jared had to hold her. When no one managed to calm her, Jared gently engulfed her in his magic and carried her trembling, whimpering body to Colin’s room and put her in his bed. I lay down with her and put my arms around her. Held her tightly and shared the pain.
“Try sleeping a little,” I whispered in her ear. She began to cry again. So I asked Jared to let her sleep as he’d once done with me.
He gently placed his ha
nd on her forehead to let calming waves of his magic flow through her.
“Evelyn,” Sally whispered. “R-remember that I wanted to tell you s-something important when you were in L-London?”
“Yes, of course. What was it? Please, tell me.”
Completely exhausted, she opened her eyes a tiny gap and looked at me. A last tear ran from the corner of her eye.
“I’m pregnant,” she whispered. Then she finally fell asleep.
CHAPTER 26
I had to get out. I had to get some air.
I’m pregnant. The words ran through my thoughts. I walked about aimlessly. Tried to run away from desperation, escape the pain.
“Why?” I cried. “Why Colin? Haven’t you taken enough from me?”
The grief brought me to my knees. I collapsed. Pounded the earth with my fists, screamed, and cried.
I felt Enid watching me from the window. I looked up. Even from this distance I could see her pain-filled, teary face. She gave me a short nod, then walked away.
Strong hands pushed under my arms. Jared pulled me into his arms and held me. We both cried. Grieved for our lost friends.
“The funeral is tomorrow,” Jared finally said in a calm voice. “He’ll be interred with Gareth. Irvin’s preparing everything.”
“They’ve found Gareth?”
He nodded. “The sent a special task force into the tunnel and recovered his body.”
“And Adam?”
“No. Only Gareth.”
I shuddered at the thought of what Old Nick might have done to Adam. I swallowed against the tightness in my throat. We spent several minutes in silence.
“He must have been the one who followed Colin and Sally from Berry’s to her house,” I said. “Not a damnatus. Nick knew exactly where to find her.”
“Yes,” Jared said. We were still tightly wrapped around each other. Jared’s closeness was the only thing giving me comfort. He kissed me, mingling our tears. Then we went into the house.
In the afternoon I went to Sally’s home to tell her mother, Pamela, that Colin had died in a traffic accident and Sally would stay with me for a few days to recover. But Pamela insisted on seeing her immediately. So we packed a few clothes, and I took her to the headquarters. I couldn’t have cared less about the reproachful looks of some members of the Order when, after Ruth, I brought another stranger there. Sally needed her mother, and I was willing to do anything to ease her pain. Jared agreed.
When I entered Colin’s room with Pamela, Jared was sitting by Sally’s bedside, holding her while she cried. The shoulder of Jared’s shirt was soaked with her tears. Pamela sat down, took her daughter in her arms, and brushed over her disheveled hair while incessantly whispering comforting words into her ear. Sally couldn’t stop crying, but she seemed to do better with her mother there.
Colin and Gareth were buried the next day in Rose Hill Cemetery in Oxford. Sally barely managed to stand during the funeral. Jared and Irvin had to support her to keep her from collapsing. The sorrow overwhelmed her. It was difficult for me to imagine how much she suffered from the loss. Sorrow was a feeling I knew too well, but Sally hadn’t lost just her friend and lover, she’d also lost the father of her unborn child—unaware that this child was king Arthur’s last heir.
A few days passed. Pamela moved in with Sally in Colin’s room. Once Sally had recovered enough, she started to ask questions. She wanted to know what that creature was who had kidnapped her in the middle of the night and taken her to the hill. She wanted to know who had killed Colin, how it had all happened. Jared decided to accept both women into Legatum Merlini. There was a ceremony, an oath, and then he initiated them. He told them everything possible about all of us.
Flabbergasted, Sally repeatedly stroked her tummy when she realized what a special child slumbered under her heart. She smiled for the first time in days. I believe this child, this extraordinary child, brought Sally back to life.
Four weeks later Pamela went back to work. Sally was stable enough to manage on her own for a few hours. Normality returned to our lives. Jared, Sally, and I attended classes again. Life continued, and we tried to look forward.
“Isn’t it amazing?” Sally asked one afternoon as we were taking a short walk outside the headquarters. “The world just keeps turning without noticing in the least that someone so important is missing.”
She caressed her belly. A small ball was outlined under her shirt.
“Yes,” I said. “But Colin will always be here with us. In our hearts.”
Tears ran over Sally’s cheeks. She still cried almost every day. Sometimes she retreated for a few minutes, said she had to go to the restroom, but when she returned, her eyes were red and swollen.
“Are you okay?” I asked, squeezing her hand.
“It’s getting easier,” she said. “It lessens each day.”
We went a few more steps as clouds drew up and darkened the sky. Sally rubbed her arms, shivering.
“Dinner’s ready,” Jessie called, sticking her head out the front door.
“We’re coming,” Sally said. Sally had immediately taken Enid’s daughter into her heart. They often sat together on the couch in the evening, and she let Jessie listen to her belly. She swore she felt a kick once, but according to Enid it was too early for that.
“Come on,” Sally said. “It’s going to rain any minute.”
“I’ll be there soon,” I said. “Give me a few minutes.”
“Okay.”
I wanted to be alone for a bit and walked over the lawn, then sat down on a garden bench. Suddenly swirling light dots appeared from the storm cloud above me and moved in. They bundled into a shape in front of me.
“What do you want?” I said without looking up.
“I’ve got something for you,” Ruth said, and pulled a worn notebook from her coat pocket.
“What is it?”
“My mother’s last notes. I’ve just found them. She hid them well.”
I looked at her skeptically.
“I always asked myself why she was so obsessed with Nimue. She never stopped looking for the truth, as long as she lived.”
I hesitantly accepted it. “Why didn’t she ever stop?”
Ruth smiled. “You’ll find the answer in there.” The light dots began to dance around her while she spoke. When Jared came racing over, she disappeared.
“Where is she? Where’s Ruth? I felt her energy.” He turned around, searching.
“Gone,” I said, looking at the book in my hands. “She gave me this.”
“What is it?”
“A notebook of her mother’s.”
I sat down again and brushed over the smooth surface. “She said I’d find the answer here about why Mary never stopped searching for the truth about Nimue.”
He gave me a concerned look, sat next to me, and looked at the brown binding.
I opened it. It was a diary of sorts. A place and date were noted above each of the brief entries.
Oxford, March 15, 2000
Mayflower has published another academic paper. It’s entitled “Excalibur: Symbols of Power.” She shines at conferences with her insider knowledge of the “Merlin myth,” but she’s endangering the entire Calmburry family with her boundless arrogance.
Oxford, May 2, 2000
A damnatus in Oxford. I killed him. Morgana has picked up Mayflower’s scent. I must do something.
Glastonbury, June 5, 2000
The fog is impenetrable. All my attempts to open the portal have failed. I’m not able to make it through.
Oxford, December 20, 2000
I must not give up! Morgana’s bringing so much darkness into this world. I must stop her. The Calmburrys are in grave danger.
Glastonbury, February 25, 2001
It’s futile. The portal won’t open. I can’t make it in. I must lure her out.
Fleetwood, August 19, 2001
It’s hard to find them. There are three of them. Direct descendants. Anna, Zara, and Evelyn Lak
ewood. They have no idea.
Fleetwood, August 20, 2001
The youngest one wears Nimue’s amulet. Can she open the portal? Dana will keep an eye on the Lakewoods for me. Better not involve them, so they’ll be out of danger. But if I find no other way, I’ll try to lure Morgana out of the fog with the amulet.
Oxford, September 25, 2001
My time on Earth is limited. The time has come to initiate Ruth.
Oxford, January 21, 2002
More damnati in Oxford. I was able to do in two, but the third got away. What does he know? God help us all! The Calmburrys are in grave danger.
Fleetwood, February 1, 2002
I’ve decided against involving the Lakewoods. Nimue’s amulet will hide the girl from anyone wishing to harm her. I don’t want to endanger her. Still looking for the source.
Oxford, February 3, 2002
I can’t do it alone. I don’t have a choice. I must warn the Order. Mayflower is far too careless. She must become aware of the danger.
Oxford, February 6, 2002
Mayflower’s arrogance knows no bounds. She is not aware of any failing.
Oxford, April 2, 2002
They are dead. Morgana has found them. They are dead. Burned in a plane crash.
Oxford, April 2, 2002
The boy has survived! Thank God! The boy has survived! Merlin’s legacy has not yet been lost.
Oxford, April 7, 2002
A man was here. He said he has orders to kill me. But he won’t do it. He says his duty is to the Order, not Mayflower. He advises me to disappear. Others will come. They will never stop looking for me.
London, April 18, 2002
I have found her! She’s alive.
That was the last entry. There were only two lines underneath it:
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