Merlin's Children (The Children and the Blood)

by Megan Joel Peterson

  “Kill…?” she whispered. “How many am I going to…”

  She choked and then shoved away from the table to stride across the room, raking a hand over her hair as she went. By the window, Spider stared after her, while by the wall, Lily stood immobile, the piece of marble in her hand forgotten.

  His brow drew down. She said she’d studied for months on the spell. There was no way she hadn’t known.

  But he wasn’t sure actresses on Broadway could make ignorance look that real.

  “Does he know how to do that?” Ashe asked suddenly, spinning back to him.

  Cole tensed.

  “Does he know how to do that!”

  He glanced to Lily and said nothing.

  Fury rippled through her, making her tremble. “Cole,” she snarled, stalking toward him. “I swear to God, if you don’t answer me…”

  He felt her magic flare and could tell Spider did too. With a pained noise, the girl backed away from them both.

  “Ashley, don’t!” Lily protested.

  “Does he?” Ashe repeated as she came to a stop in front of his chair.

  Pain pounding through his skull, he glared up at her, but she only made the magic grow stronger. “No,” he growled.

  The magic died. Swiftly, she spun, striding back across the cafeteria with Lily staring after her.

  “How exactly is Cole involved in any of this?” Spider asked the room at large.

  No one answered. She turned to him. “How?” she repeated flatly.

  He scowled, but there wasn’t a way around it. Besides, if the girl wanted to kill him, at this point she’d probably have to take a number. “Because of my father.”

  Spider looked to Ashe incredulously. “Does he mean who I think he means?”

  Ashe glanced back at her. “Yeah.”

  “And you were going to tell me this when?”

  Uncomfortably, Ashe grimaced and then chose to ignore the question. “How close is he to figuring out the spell?”

  Spider made an irritated sound.

  “You really think I’m going to tell you that?” Cole replied.

  “If you damn well want to keep breathing, you will.”

  Lily choked. Dropping the broken bit of marble, she hurried to his side.

  Ashe’s gaze tracked her and then she scowled, pacing away. “You told me you wanted to help Lily. You realize if he figures this out before me, she dies too?”

  He didn’t respond. Disagreeing would only lead her perilously close to the realization that Victor couldn’t recreate the spell without her or Lily, and jeopardizing his father had never been part of the plan.

  At his silence, she made a furious noise and looked back at him. “Or do you just not care? Was that all a crock earlier about coming back for her?”

  His face darkened. “Yeah, I get blasted off interstates for fun.”

  “Then what the hell? He’ll kill her and you’re doing nothing! We need help here, Cole! If it wasn’t for you, I’d still have the staff and we’d stand a chance. But instead, you’re all we’ve got! So do Lily a favor and save her life, will you?”

  “This is about the staff?” Lily asked.

  Cole’s heart clenched. “No.”

  Ashe rolled her eyes, turning away again.

  “Ashley?” Lily pressed. “Is it?”

  “Lily, I told you–” he started.

  “It’s about the fact some very bad people are going to hurt us if we don’t start getting help from your friend, Lil,” Ashe said without looking back. “That’s what this is about.”

  His heart pounded harder as the little girl glanced between them.

  “Lily,” he urged quietly. “It’s okay. Really. She’s wrong. No one’s going to–”

  “Cole lied about the staff.”

  Ashe froze, and he was fairly certain the rest of the room did too. Distant sounds of traffic filtered through the windows, tinny and strange in the silence, and broken a moment later by the soft scratch of debris as Ashe turned slowly back around.

  “We,” Lily amended. “We lied. We found the staff at his grandparents’ house. They’re historians. For Merlin. They have a whole bunch of old history stuff at their place.”

  “The Merlin historians,” Ashe repeated flatly, and then she looked from the girl to Cole. “His grandparents are the Merlin historians? And you met them?”

  Lily nodded.

  Irate bafflement chased itself across Ashe’s face, and then she shook her head as though to drive it away. “Does your dad know about this?”

  Cole didn’t move. She swore as she read the answer in his eyes anyway.

  “How much of a head start does he have?”

  He looked away. She snarled in frustration.

  “Lily, where’s this place?” she demanded.

  “Washington. I… I think I could find it.”

  “Good.”

  Without missing a beat, she strode toward the little girl.

  “Wait, what–”

  “We’re going.” Ashe glanced to Spider and then jerked her chin at Cole. “Watch him. Shoot him if you have to.”

  Shaking her head, Lily backpedaled. “I’m not–”

  He felt a flicker of magic and then it was gone, taking the glow around Lily with it. Gasping, the little girl skidded to a stop, horrified.

  “You… you…”

  “I’ll give it back when we find Katherine.”

  A cry escaped Lily. She bolted for the far side of the room.

  “Lily!” Ashe yelled.

  The girl retreated through the piles of debris into the corner, staring at her sister as though she didn’t recognize her. “That’s… that’s what you were going to do, isn’t it? Take it away and put me on that plane. You–”

  “We don’t have time for this!”

  “That’s what you were going to do! You got all mad at him for lying and you were doing it the whole time!”

  “I’m trying to protect you!”

  “Hell you are!” the little girl shrieked.

  Ashe stopped.

  “You said we’d stick together, and you’re leaving him again. Well, I’m not going. I’m staying with him. And if you don’t like it, then you can just go on your own!”

  Rigid with adrenaline, Ashe trembled. “Lil…”

  “You heard me! Get out! Go!”

  Ashe’s brow twitched down, expressions chasing themselves over her face faster than he could read. For a heartbeat, she stood motionless, and then a flinch shook her.

  Lily gasped as the glow around her returned like a switch had been flicked back on.

  Without a word, Ashe turned and headed for the door.

  “Ashley…” Lily cried.

  The girl kept walking.

  Debris clattered across the floor as Lily scrambled from the corner of the room. She raced after her sister, grabbing Ashe’s arm as she reached the door.

  “No,” Lily begged. “Please, I didn’t… I’m sorry. You just… you can’t leave him, okay? You can’t ever leave anybody. Please.”

  Ashe looked down at her.

  “Please?” Lily repeated.

  Carefully, so carefully it seemed her bones might break, Ashe nodded. Her hand shook as Lily took it and interlaced her fingers with Ashe’s own, and when the little girl turned, her older sister followed.

  And then Ashe looked up and met his eyes with so much hate it made his skin go cold.

  Lily’s hand held delicately in hers, she walked with the little girl across the room.

  “Spider,” Ashe said as they came closer.

  “Yeah?” the girl replied.

  “Can you tell Bus to hurry about the car?”

  Spider nodded. She glanced from her friend to Cole, as though weighing whether he’d still be there when she got back, and then just as obviously deciding she didn’t care.

  He ignored her, watching Ashe. Wordlessly, she went to the window, bringing the little girl along. As Lily climbed onto the edge of the table, Ashe joined her, mov
ing a moment later to put her arm around her sister’s shoulders.

  Her expression never changed. Still as stone, not a muscle on her face twitched as she turned to the window and then lifted a hand to nudge a loose board out of the way.

  But he saw her fingers tremble, and watched her breath catch as Lily laid her head against her side.

  Cole looked away as the silence of the building returned and the faint sounds of traffic drifted through the room. The uneven legs of the chair rocked slightly beneath him as he crossed his arms, and in the corner, bits of debris whispered as they settled to the ground.

  Even monsters had people they’d do anything to keep from losing.

  He knew that better than anyone.

  Chapter Fourteen

  Seconds slid by, turning into irretrievable minutes that trickled away like water as she watched the world beyond the cafeteria window. Somewhere in the distance, sirens howled, rushing away from the building or toward it, she couldn’t tell, and past the window slats, a pair of teenagers met in the shadows of the crumbling train sheds to swap a small package for money. Her lungs barely worked, and neither did her body, both of them choked by a hot swarm of things she didn’t want to look at too deeply.

  She wished Elias or Nathaniel were here. Even Cornelius would have been welcome in his way. It would’ve been nice to have someone else in the room, if only to give her the space to leave it while still keeping Cole under guard and Lily pacified. It was a stupid reason to want them back.

  But it would have been nice all the same.

  A shiver ran through her, distant and strangely anything but cold, and without even noticing, she suppressed the shaking. Once they got back to the wizards, everything would be easier. More focused, anyway. It was true there weren’t that many Merlin left, what with councilman Arthur and his allies having been killed in Croftsburg a week ago and the fact Gavin, Ermengarde and most of the other survivors had gone so far to ground, she didn’t have the foggiest idea how to find them anymore. But Katherine was still out there. The woman was the only wizard still living who was trustworthy anyway. She’d find the doctor, get Lily to safety, put Cole someplace he couldn’t do any harm, and then head across the country to the historians.

  And through it all, she’d be moving. She just desperately wanted to be moving.

  By the train sheds, one of the teenagers ambled off. The sirens died without a cop car to be seen, giving a brief moment for the ever-present susurrus of traffic to whisper through the room before new sirens rose all over again.

  And time crept on, giving Jamison the historians and bringing her closer to having to watch everyone she cared about die.

  She closed her eyes, keeping her breathing steady by force of willpower alone. It wouldn’t happen. She wouldn’t let it. She didn’t know how, but she wouldn’t let it. She wouldn’t lose her friends and she wouldn’t lose her sister. Not again.

  Footsteps echoed in the hallway. Swallowing hard, she schooled her face back to emotionlessness and glanced over as the cafeteria door swung open.

  “Good to go?” she asked as Bus walked in.

  He nodded. Quickly, she slid from the table and turned, waiting for Lily and then fighting the sudden desire to hurt something when the girl looked to Cole before following.

  “Got a car for you,” Bus said as they came closer. “Loaded it up with food and the like. Spider tells me you might be on the road a while, so I wanted to make sure the kid had enough to eat.”

  He grinned at Lily, who hesitantly returned the smile.

  “Thanks,” Ashe said.

  Something must have been in her tone, because he glanced over questioningly.

  Swiftly, she looked down. “Do you have a phone I could borrow?” she asked, working to keep her voice casual.

  Bus paused. “Yeah.” He reached into his pocket for his cell. “Who’re you calling?”

  She hesitated. “One of the Merlin.”

  He froze with his hand in his pocket. His jaw slid around as he mulled it over, and then he finished pulling out an old flip phone.

  “Thanks,” she said again as he handed her the cell.

  She turned away, quickly dialing Katherine’s number from memory. For security’s sake, the wizards changed phones every few weeks, but the frequent new numbers hadn’t stopped Elias from insisting she memorize each one. Trying to ignore the distrustful look Lily was giving her, she paced across the room, waiting for the call to go through. Her breath caught when a click sounded immediately on the other end of the line.

  A polite message informed her that there was no voicemail for the number in question, and then hung up.

  Heart pounding, she lowered the phone. The woman could be using a portal. It wasn’t like signal was possible in those things anyway. Or she could have turned her phone off.

  Wizards never turned their phones off.

  Drawing a steadying breath, she waited a moment and then dialed the number again, taking care to punch each button correctly.

  Nothing changed.

  She stood, the phone at her ear though it had gone silent the moment before. Katherine had been shuttling between safe houses in Arkansas, Texas, and Oklahoma, helping those too injured to travel farther. She shouldn’t have been in much danger, not comparatively anyway. And she wouldn’t have changed phones this soon; she’d just gotten a new one a week ago. So perhaps the cell had just run out of power. Or maybe it’d broken accidentally, or just didn’t have signal right now.

  Or something.

  She shivered. There was no way Katherine was gone too.

  Glancing to the phone, she hit redial and then tried to keep breathing when the result was the same. Without Katherine, there wasn’t anyone still alive that she knew how to reach. Which meant Lily would have to come with her. Cole too. She wouldn’t have any backup, and if Jamison was waiting for them…

  Lily’s fingers rested on her arm and she flinched, not having noticed her come close.

  “It’s alright,” the little girl offered. “Maybe they’re busy.”

  Ashe looked down. Lily smiled encouragingly.

  She made herself nod. Taking her sister’s hand, she crossed the room and extended the cell to Bus, fighting to keep the fact she felt like screaming from showing in her eyes.

  “Keep it,” he said kindly. “I can get another.”

  She slid the phone into her pocket as she stepped around him, heading for the door.

  “Hey, wait a second.”

  One hand on the spray-painted wood, she glanced back as Bus hurried after her.

  “Sorry,” he said to the strained impatience in her eyes. “It’s just Spider asked me to–”

  He cut off as the door at the far end of the hallway swung open, banging into the wall as Spider strode through. A pair of black backpacks were slung over her shoulders and her shotgun had been replaced by twin handguns just visible under the edges of her jacket. She jerked her chin at Ashe in greeting. “You ready?”

  Ashe’s brow drew down. “Yeah,” she allowed. “Why’d you–”

  “Good, let’s go.”

  “Wait, what–”

  “I’m coming with you.”

  She stared at the girl, torn between equal parts relief and horror. She wanted to be grateful. She wanted to be thrilled. She just couldn’t get past the fact that, if Spider came along, she’d most likely end up adding the girl’s name to the list of all the people she’d gotten killed.

  Again.

  “Spider–”

  “Look,” the girl interrupted flatly as she let one of the bags drop to the floor. “You need help. There’re Blood out there,” her gaze flicked to Cole, “and you need someone who’ll watch your back.”

  “But it’s just… I don’t want–”

  “I wasn’t asking permission, your majesty,” Spider snapped.

  Ashe blinked. Grimacing, Spider looked away.

  “So I take it you talked to Samson,” Bus said carefully into the silence.

  Spider�
��s mouth tightened in something that could have been a smile. “Ran into him downstairs.”

  Bus’ eyebrows rose and fell in response as he glanced away.

  Harsh expression fading, Spider sighed. “Ashe, I get it, alright? It’s dangerous. You think I’ve missed that memo over the past eight years? But you need help, and I can’t just sit here waiting for the Taliesin king to kill us all.” Spider paused. “So are we going or what?”

  She didn’t answer.

  Irritation flashed over the girl’s face. Snagging the strap of the bag beside her, she swung it up from the ground, making Ashe catch it awkwardly.

  “Clothes,” Spider said. “Roadkill. Now come on.”

  Without another word, she headed back down the hall.

  Desperately, Ashe looked to Bus, but the old man just held up his hands. “Don’t think you’ll get me to argue with her,” he said, stepping around her to start after the girl. “I’d be coming too if she hadn’t asked me to stay.”

  Ashe stared after them and then flinched when Lily made a small sound. Glancing to the little girl, she hesitated and then shifted the bag around onto her shoulder and followed them.

  “You’re wasting your time, you know.”

  At the sound of Cole’s voice, she froze, barely having made it three steps. Shivers ran through her, fueled by the overwhelming urge to just stop the boy from being a problem once and for all.

  “Cole,” she warned without turning around. “Don’t.”

  Debris crunching beneath his feet, he gave her wide berth as he circled her.

  “What?” he replied. “I’m just saying. My grandparents won’t be in Washington anymore. Things didn’t go too well when Lily and I were there, and they’re not exactly the calm type. Minute they picked up the pieces, they’d have hit the road.”

  Her gaze slid over to him, and the shivering grew stronger at the innocent look in his eyes. “And where would they have gone?”

  “As far from Washington as they could get,” he said like it was obvious. “If they’re even still in the States, they’re probably hidden away in Florida by now.”

  She paused. “So you’re saying we should go there,” she stated flatly.

  He shrugged. “I’m just saying you shouldn’t rush off. Aren’t there other wizards you could contact? Maybe you could send them down south, see if they find anything. I mean, you don’t want to just go hauling Lily across the country unnecessarily, right?”