Merlin's Children (The Children and the Blood)

by Megan Joel Peterson

  Cole shrugged, and then faltered again when he saw the questions rising in the others’ eyes. “But yeah,” he pressed on. “It was great. Until these Taliesin showed up. I think maybe they were looking for us. But they killed him. Burned the station to the ground. We barely got away.”

  “What was the man’s name?” Cornelius asked, his tone unreadable.

  Cole paused, wracking his brain. “Old Bill,” he said and then winced internally. The name sounded like a character from a cheap western. “But that’s just what he said to call him. I don’t know if it was anywhere close to the truth.”

  Silence followed his words, and he wouldn’t have dared put odds to whether they believed him. Elias and Nathaniel merely glanced to one another while Cornelius kept studying him with a lack of expression that made him feel like a dissected bug. For her part, Ashe just glanced to Lily, and a hint of doubt crept onto her face when the girl wouldn’t meet her eyes.

  Heart rate spiking, Cole shrugged. “What?” he challenged quickly. “You think Lily and I are lying?”

  Arching an eyebrow in a display of affront he knew was theatrical, he tried not to feel a touch of victory when Ashe blinked in surprise.

  “Of course not,” she said. The words were too quick, but with an efficiency he was coming to associate with wizards in general, she instantly buried any trace of discomfort and just glanced to Elias. “So,” she continued, dropping the topic entirely. “South then.”

  Cole drew a careful breath, trying to bring his pulse back to normal. At Ashe’s words, Elias nodded and then raised an eyebrow at Cornelius, clearly waiting for the wizard to precede him. Smoothly, Cornelius started toward the vehicle, giving no sign he’d noticed the man’s glare.

  Elias shook his head and followed.

  Nathaniel looked back, his gaze fastening on Cole. “This way.”

  Tightening his grip on Lily, Cole trailed the wizard toward the van. Nathaniel tugged the rusting side door back and turned, waiting for Ashe. A few steps away, she hesitated, her eyes flicking over the length of the dusty vehicle and then back to the door. She drew a steadying breath, suppressing whatever emotion had threatened to emerge onto her face, and swiftly pulled herself into the van, leaving Nathaniel to follow.

  Cole’s brow drew down, wondering if she was expecting the thing to explode.

  Pushing Lily ahead, he let her precede him inside. Bracing herself on the door, the little girl climbed up to the middle seat and then paused, realizing there wasn’t enough room for the three of them on the bench. Worriedly, she glanced to Cole and then to the seat behind her.

  He didn’t move, suddenly struck by the overwhelming compulsion to just turn and run for the city, wizards be damned. Because staying here was stupid. Mind-numbingly stupid. Lily was fine. Ashe was her sister, for pity’s sake. Regardless, the girl would protect her. Hell, she’d probably incinerate anyone who threatened to give the child so much as a cold.

  And thus there was no point in the whole damn world for him to take off with a bunch of wizards when, after eight years, his dad was only a few miles away.

  In the rear of the van, Nathaniel looked over, saying nothing.

  Cole met the man’s gaze, fury rising. Ashe wasn’t the problem; those other three wizards with itchy magical trigger fingers were. Trying to leave would only provoke questions, the kind whose answers wouldn’t go well. After all, even if Ashe was some kind of royalty to them, they obviously only listened to her so far. Which meant the minute they learned about his dad, they’d probably kill him. Apologize later. If at all. The big guy had made that abundantly clear with every glance, and the news about Cole’s father would only serve to shorten the man’s obviously already microscopic fuse.

  He was still trapped. Four different groups of wizards from two different sides, and he was still trapped.

  “Cole?” Lily called.

  Swearing to himself vehemently, Cole gripped the door of the van and climbed inside.

  Chapter Two

  The van rattled in the darkness, and its broken muffler provided accompaniment in the form of a dull roar. Bits of foam rained past tears in the ceiling with every pothole, while beneath the threadbare fabric of the seats, ancient springs complained over being put into service again.

  For the hundredth time in the past few hours, Ashe glanced to Lily. Looking terribly small with her thin legs dangling over the seat’s edge, the girl sat at the far end of the bench, her attention locked on her interlaced fingers atop her dirt-smudged jeans. Worry drifted across her face in time with thoughts passing through her head and, as though feeling the pressure of Ashe’s attention, she tucked her chin deeper into her chest as if trying to hide.

  Brow drawing down, Ashe let her gaze slide back to Cole, but the young man gave no sign of noticing her glance. Lily’s worries had something to do with the staff, of that much she was fairly sure. The little girl had retreated into herself ever since the mention of the artifact, though that could have just been natural. Bringing up the place they’d been staying must have been hard, especially since God knew what the girl might have seen when the Taliesin came, which went a long way toward justifying why Lily was so shut down.

  Of course, it didn’t address the other possible reason. The one she’d really rather avoid.

  Cole had been defensive about what he said, but maybe that was just his personality. She couldn’t really know, seeing as how they were a few steps shy of total strangers anyway. But the alternative was that he’d been lying, which opened a whole other host of issues. His lies meant Lily’d lied too, if only by her silence, and that’s where things became truly upsetting.

  Her stomach quivered. Lily wouldn’t lie. Not to her. At least, she wouldn’t have a few months ago.

  Drawing a breath, Ashe pulled her gaze from the young man. Maybe it wasn’t what she was thinking. Maybe Lily was just tired. Maybe Cole hadn’t lied. Maybe she’d been imagining things when they fled the factory, and maybe the hours of running and fighting and seeing people die were pushing her over the edge.

  Right now, she’d almost prefer to think she really was going insane.

  Grimacing, she looked back toward the window, her gaze catching on Cornelius as she moved. Already shaky, her stomach clenched again.

  In the shadows, he looked so like Carter.

  She shoved the thought down hard as she turned to the countryside. The sooner they got out of this van, the better.

  Without the light cast from the moon, the darkness beyond the glass was nearly complete. Lonely farms dotted the horizon, distinguishable only by their security lights blazing against the night. Hours slid past, blurring into cities and towns with endless stretches of darkness between. Sleep tried to come, though it brought vivid flashes of the days before that sent her starting back to consciousness every time.

  Lily shifted on the seat, and she glanced over to see the girl studying something out the front window.

  The growl of the muffler faded and the headlights went dark as Elias turned the van up a gravel drive toward a country church situated beneath towering trees. A flurry of birds burst from the steeple, the screeching animals abandoning their night roost to the wizards coming near, and the bells clanged as they were bumped by the panicked flight. Elias’ eyes flicked upward in annoyance at the noise, and the van sped up as he guided it around the building and then stopped just shy of the light cast by a lamp above the back door.

  The van clunked as Elias shoved the gearshift into park and, a moment later, the noise of the engine died. “Stay here,” he said, glancing at her in the rearview mirror.

  She nodded. He cast a quick look farther back to Nathaniel, and then climbed out.

  Minutes slid past.

  Elias emerged from the back door and waved a hand for them to follow.

  Shoving open his door, Cornelius got out and then stepped back to the side of the vehicle. The door ground open, the old track beneath it protesting loudly as the rust gave way.

  “Come on,” Ashe
said, nudging Lily ahead of her. Nervously, Lily looked to Cole, meeting his eyes where she wouldn’t even look at Ashe’s own, and she only climbed from the van when the young man nodded as well.

  Ashe’s stomach clenched and, angrily, she ordered herself to calm down. She was better than jealousy, especially when there wasn’t anything going on. Lily was just worried the boy wasn’t coming too.

  She was being ridiculous to let that bother her.

  Pushing the discomfort from her face, she glanced back as Nathaniel forced the door closed. As he moved past her toward the church, she stepped aside and looked to Lily.

  The girl was watching Cole, and trailed him instantly when the boy headed after Nathaniel.

  Ashe tried to keep breathing.

  Cool air laden with the smell of dust and polished wood pressed against her as she followed Elias into the building, and above the short flight of steps on the opposite side of the entryway, shadows obscured the hall. Elias lifted his hand and Lily gasped as electricity crackled around his palm, the sparks racing in tight circles till they gathered into a sphere of sustained blue glow.

  “It’s alright,” Ashe told her as Nathaniel followed suit with a light of his own.

  Appearing as utterly unconvinced as ever, Lily said nothing. With a barely repressed grimace, Ashe motioned for her to follow Elias. Beyond the steps, an oak door sealed off the end of the hallway, though an inset window gave a view of the room beyond. The hinges moved soundlessly when Elias pushed open the door, and the light in his hand played across the long rows of pews. Leaded glass windows lined the sanctuary, their colors muted to near black by the darkness outside, and the thick maroon carpet swallowed their footsteps as Elias led the way into the room.

  “Bathrooms past the doors on the far end,” he said quietly. “And an emergency exit to the left there.”

  He jerked his chin toward a narrow door halfway down the length of the sanctuary and then turned back to them. His gaze swept Cole and Cornelius, and then landed on Nathaniel. His eyebrow twitched up in the faint blue light.

  The larger wizard tilted his head briefly toward Cornelius.

  “Come on,” Elias said to Cole. “Help me get food and blankets.”

  Without waiting, he headed for the doors at the end of the sanctuary. Jaw muscles jumping, Cole glanced toward Lily and then followed.

  Ashe didn’t look away from the young man till the doors closed at his back.

  Time crawled by. At her side, Nathaniel eyed Cornelius, keeping the man at a distance. Shadows hung strange and heavy in the ceiling arches, and the silence echoed with the residual energy of people, motion, and sound.

  She shivered, the seconds creeping past with almost physical pressure.

  The doors swung open as Elias came in carrying crackers, jelly, and bottles of water. Loaded down with brightly colored fleece blankets, Cole trailed several steps behind. Twitching his chin toward the pews, Elias left him to put down the blankets while he crossed the distance to her.

  “Dinner’s served,” he said with a rueful glance to the rough sandwich ingredients.

  Ashe paused.

  “I left money in the kitchen,” he supplied, reading her hesitation.

  She took the food. Herding Lily ahead of her, she walked over to the steps to the altar.

  The crunching of the crackers broke the silence as, a few minutes later, she sat with Lily on the carpeted stairs. Small though it was, the meal dulled the hunger she hadn’t known was gnawing at her and gratefully, she closed her eyes.

  Lily shifted uncomfortably on the dense carpet.

  Ashe glanced over and then tracked the girl’s gaze to the rest of the sanctuary. Nathaniel leaned on the banister several feet away, while Elias rested a shoulder against a window frame. Radiating aplomb, Cornelius sat on one of the pews, looking for all the world as though he’d chosen the centrally visible spot of his own accord. Watching them all, Cole quietly ate a sandwich near the rear of the room.

  Lily never took her gaze off the boy.

  Drawing a breath, Ashe set her bottle of water aside. “Lily?” she asked softly.

  The little girl didn’t answer.

  “Are you okay?”

  Lily looked down and Ashe’s stomach clenched.

  “Is it what happened with Old Bill?”

  The girl fidgeted, her eyes twitching from Cole to Nathaniel. Half-formed answers flitted across her face, none of them making it all the way to the open.

  Nausea moved through her and Ashe drew a short breath, trying to quash the feeling. She wanted to hope that whatever happened, Lily wouldn’t have seen it. That Cole might have been able to spare her, or perhaps that it hadn’t been as bad as she feared.

  Because given what she knew wizards were capable of, the possibilities were truly frightening.

  “You can talk to me, Lil,” she said, worry filtering into her tone. “Whatever it is.”

  The girl’s face crumpled. Sharply, she shoved away from the steps and ran from the room.

  Cole rose quickly and disappeared out the door after her.

  Speechless, Ashe stared.

  “What the–” Elias started.

  He cut off as Ashe stood, her eyes still locked on the swinging sanctuary doors.

  “Your majesty?” Nathaniel asked, clearly torn between following them and staying with her.

  “G-go,” she stammered, too surprised to hide her confusion. “Make sure they…”

  Nathaniel let the partial order be enough. Swiftly, he strode after the girl.

  Stunned, Ashe watched him leave.

  *****

  He knew the wizards would be after him in a heartbeat, but he didn’t care. As he burst through the swinging doors to the lobby, Cole saw Lily stumble to a halt and cast a lost look down the halls stretching away on either side. Moving fast, he crossed the distance between them and took her arm, pulling her along as he jogged down the hall and slipped into the nursery where he’d found the blankets. Without pause, he headed for the closet and tugged her into the shadows, closing the door behind them.

  The light switch surrendered to his fumbling. Blinking in the glare, he yanked a dusty towel down from the heights of the shelving and kicked it swiftly into place around the base of the door, praying it blocked the light.

  “What was that?” he asked, turning to Lily. “She asked about the staff, didn’t she?”

  Swallowing, Lily nodded.

  “What’d you say?”

  Anger tinged the anguish on the little girl’s face. “You lied,” she said desperately and then she shook her head, as though she couldn’t get past the idea. “To Ashley. Why?”

  He exhaled sharply, knowing they had moments till the wizards found them.

  “It’s not Ashley, okay? It’s the others. Lily, they…”

  Cole grimaced. He didn’t want to lie to the kid. And truth was, it really wasn’t about Ashe, or even Lily. It was about holding the wizards and this whole damn mess at bay till he could figure out who the bad guys were.

  And keeping them both safe till then.

  “We don’t know if we can trust them,” he continued honestly. “Any of them. Even if Ashe says we can… they could be lying to her too.”

  Lily looked away.

  “You can’t tell them the truth, Lily. Not even Ashe. Not yet.”

  “Why? If they’re lying to her, then–”

  “Trust me,” he said, feeling like a bastard for all that he knew there wasn’t any other way. “Please. You have to do this, to keep Ashe safe as much as anything. These are the Carnegeans we’re talking about, remember?”

  The girl hesitated. “They’ll hurt her?” she asked, her voice small.

  “We–”

  The door nearly ripped from its hinges as Nathaniel yanked it open.

  “Get out,” the man snarled, glaring daggers at Cole as Lily shrank back.

  Cole didn’t move. He could see the dilemma raging in the man’s eyes. More than anything, the wizard wanted to tear the
girl away from him.

  But she was some kind of royalty, same as her sister. And Ashe wouldn’t take kindly to the kid being hurt, or scared more than she already was.

  It was strange how even that tiny amount of vicarious power made things ever-so-slightly better.

  Cole reached down and took Lily’s hand. “In a sec,” he said neutrally.

  Nathaniel’s face darkened. Deliberately taking his eyes from the man, Cole looked at the girl, forcing his face to give no sign of how his heart was pounding.

  “Okay?” he asked her quietly.

  She swallowed again, her gaze darting to the wizard. She nodded.

  Cole glanced back to Nathaniel. “After you.”

  The man’s expression could have cut stone. With rigid control, he stepped away from the door, letting Cole lead Lily from the closet.

  As Cole pushed the sanctuary door open, Ashe surged to her feet, her face flashing through a gamut of fear, confusion, and relief with a speed he would have thought impossible. Smothering the expressions with almost equal rapidity, she cast a hurried glance to the others.

  His eyebrow twitched with irony, though he stilled it quickly lest the linebacker see. He wasn’t the only one busy hiding everything from the wizards.

  The girl was scared to death they’d see her have a damn emotion.

  “You,” Nathaniel growled, putting a hand on Cole’s shoulder to stop him from going farther. “Over there.”

  Jaw muscles jumping, Cole contemplated the odds of shrugging off the man’s grip and concluded he’d probably just get his shoulder dislocated for his trouble. If not worse. Taking a careful breath, he glanced to Lily and nodded.

  Hesitantly, she headed toward her sister, looking back every few steps. Exhaling, he started for the far side of the room, obliquely grateful when the wizard’s hand fell away.

  This couldn’t last.

  Cole grimaced at the thought as he sank onto the slick wood of the pew. He knew he wouldn’t be stuck here forever. His dad was going to be looking for those girls and him, same as always. And given that he knew Cole was with them, he wouldn’t expect them to travel fast, since portals were–