One Knight (Knights of Caerleon Book 2)

by Ines Johnson

  32

  Gwin stood on dry land, but she was soaked through. The last bit of warmth she’d had was about an hour ago when Lance had lifted her out of the dingy, wrapped her in a dry blanket, and sat her down on a private pier in the docks. The sun rose higher in the new day’s sky as she watched the ferry filled with petrified men coming closer and closer.

  Arthur was onboard the tugboat that pulled their boat from the water. Percy had returned with a crane to get the boulders out of the sinking ship. Tristan pulled up with a few of the town’s witches. The women set about casting an illusion spell to keep the nosy humans away while Lance backed a semi-truck into the parking lot that they would use to load the Stone Templars onto and take them all to Camelot to determine what to do next.

  Gwin took a moment to close her eyes. She was beyond exhausted. Not just a physical exhaustion. She was mentally and emotionally tired. Had it only been a full day since she’d been home?

  Gwin had spent the last hour working her magic to keep the boat from sinking. She’d lifted tons of water, moving it up and over the side of the boat. But it was a losing battle with the weight of the Stone Templars in a vessel that wasn’t built to carry their weight.

  She’d changed tactics and focused her magic on the Templars. She could still feel the life of the men in the stones. But no matter how many times she said the words to break the curse, not a single stone cracked.

  It was cruel. After a few hours of freedom, the men were all trapped again. Gwin felt the responsibility weigh on her shoulders like a dozen tons of stone. Though she was flesh and blood, her limbs were as heavy as rocks, her skin colder than stone, her heart a hollowed crag.

  She closed her eyes, trying to breathe in the sun's warmth. Miraculously, warmth infused her. She opened her eyes to see Lance. She didn’t see his face. Just the side of his chin and his forearms holding her to him.

  Gwin sighed into his touch as he lifted her. She turned her face into the space between the underside of his chin and the column of his neck as he carried her. He was sweat and salt and musk and the only place in the world she wanted to be.

  She had no idea where he was taking her, and she didn't care. Not so long as they were together. If last night had taught her anything, then it was this; there was nothing and no one that would keep them apart from this day forward.

  One hundred years had been too long to live a life as cold as stone. She would revel in his soft flesh for the rest of his days. He was the reason her heart beat, and she would no longer keep that pounding silent.

  Lance sat her down on a soft cushion inside a cocoon of warmth. She opened her eyes to see that she was in the cab of the semi-truck with the heat and seat warmer on.

  “Sleep.”

  He whispered the word like a spell. And it worked. She was out in a second. Her sleep was dreamless but fitful.

  When she opened her eyes again, she felt as though she’d slept for a weekend. She felt rejuvenated and ready to take on any challenge that came to them.

  “There you are!”

  And just like that, Gwin felt exhausted again. She was still cocooned inside the blanket wrapped around her. Still curled up in the heated passenger seat of the semi-truck.

  But the scenery was different. Different but familiar. They were home, back in Camelot in the town square.

  The driver’s side of the truck was empty. The passenger door wrenched wide open, and Gwin stared down into the face of her mother. The displeased face of her mother.

  Lance came up behind her mother. “I beg your pardon, my lady.”

  Gwynfhar glared at Lance. Once again, like he did last night under Arthur’s glare, Lance hesitated. But only for the briefest of seconds.

  He moved past her mother and reached out his hand to Gwin. Gwin allowed him to hand her out of the truck. Once she was on the ground, he didn’t let go of her hand. He twined his fingers with hers. Gwin relaxed into his strong shoulder as she faced her mother.

  The setting sun backlit her mother, casting severe shadows beneath Gwynfhar’s narrowed gaze. Her mother’s look was stormy. It should’ve cowed Gwin, but it didn’t. Nothing could affect her now that she was living the life she wanted with the man she wanted.

  “Your husband has taken a turn for the worse,” said her mother.

  Not even that. “There’s nothing more I can do for him, Mother. I’ve given him more than enough of myself.”

  “You’re his wife, the Lady of the Castle. You can go and be by his side. That is your duty.”

  “Actually it’s not.” Gwin gripped Lance’s hand. Now was the time. The truth was coming out, starting with her mother. “Mother, you should know—”

  “They’re waking.”

  They all turned at the sound of Arthur’s voice. He was at the back of the truck along with the other knights and the witches who’d come from the port. The doors of the truck were open and witch fire illuminated the inside where the setting sun didn’t reach.

  And there they were. The Stone Templars gasped for breath. They reached free of their stone cages.

  Gwin left the comfort of Lance’s arms and her mother’s glare to help the men. She went first to Sir Rex; he was bent over helping another of his men.

  "I didn't sleep last night," he said. "None of us did. At the first ray of the sun, we began to turn. It took us over before we could call out for help."

  “It’s a heart spell,” said Gwynfhar. She came up beside Rex, running her hand over the man’s heart. “It’s old magic. It’s settled into their very being. The only thing that can break it permanently is another's heart."

  “A blood sacrifice?” asked Gwin. The horror in her voice matched the dismay she saw in the eyes of the Templar soldiers.

  “No, I mean a love spell,” said her mother.

  Gwin had never heard of such magic. The first thing a child learned as a young witch or wizard was that they couldn’t compel someone to fall in love with you. They could get them to do what they wanted for some time. But love was its own magic.

  “What do you mean a love spell, Mother?”

  “They each need to find their true love,” Gwynfhar said. “Only she will have the power to break the spell permanently.”

  The Templars had looked blanched as they'd come out of the stony cages. Now they all turned green at the mention of love and permanence.

  “There may be a different way,” said her mother. “It may not have to be true love. Chivalric love might do the trick. In their time, that was considered true love. It might work.”

  “So, if they all focused their love on one noble lady, the spell could be broken?” asked Arthur. “But what lady?”

  Gwynfhar turned to her daughter. "Why, the noblest Lady of the Castle, of course.”

  33

  It wasn’t the pressing crowd of townsfolk trying to get a look at the Templars that had Lance short of breath. It wasn’t the agony and confusion of the weary soldiers, gasping and crying out in pain as they came out of their stone captivity that caused his fingers to clench into impotent fists. It wasn’t even the cold glare Lady Gwynfhar sent his way that caused the shiver to run down his spine as he retreated. It was the indecision on Gwin’s brow that sent Lance into a back-walking retreat.

  She was going to agree to her mother’s plan. She had to agree. Otherwise, dozens of men would suffer every night when the sun went down.

  There was no one else in the town who could do it. Aside from Morgan, who’d just recently gotten her powers back, Gwin was the strongest witch in town. Only she had the magic in her veins to stave off the stone curse.

  Gwin looked from the Templars to her mother, and then to the rising moon. She closed her eyes and retreated into herself. Lance felt the weight of the world that had just landed on her shoulders. He made a new vow. He would be there beside her to take on this added weight.

  Once again, their love would have to wait. But it couldn’t take as long this time. Maybe a decade at most to find all of the Templars their true l
oves so that their curses could be broken permanently.

  Just ten years instead of a hundred. He could wait that long. He would wait forever for her.

  But just as he turned to go, he saw Gwin back away from her mother. She was shaking her head in defiance of her mother’s edict. She looked up, searching the crowd until she found and held his gaze.

  “Gwin.”

  Her mother’s voice was stern, but it didn’t pull her attention away from Lance. Gwin’s brows dipped down as they took Lance in. Lance heard Gwin’s silent query clearly.

  Did he truly think she’d choose someone, anyone, over him after everything they’d been through over the past couple of days, over the last century?

  No. No, he didn’t think she would choose. But he did believe that she would do her duty if called.

  “Gwin,” her mother tried again. “It is your duty.”

  “No,” she said. “It’s not.”

  Lance's hands were clenched into fists. His right fist rubbed over his heart. His spine was stiff in readiness. He took deep breaths as he waited for Gwin to say it, to reveal what they had always been to each other, what they were now.

  “I’m not the Lady of the Castle,” Gwin began.

  As she prepared to throw off the cape of her century-old disguise, she kept her gaze locked onto his for strength. He saw that actually saying the words were proving harder than she anticipated.

  Lance strode toward her. People instinctively parted out of his way, making a clear path so that he could get to her.

  “Merlin and I never consummated our marriage. The vows never took hold.”

  There was a moment’s silence as the people around her processed what she’d said. Then slowly, just as the water had crept onboard the ferry last night, the whispers started. Lance heard his name mixed with hers. The whispers buzzed around him like bees as he came closer and closer.

  “There’s someone else …”

  Lance caught sight of Lady Minerva who had propositioned him just days ago. The look on her face was one of I told you so. He heard the word bastard, adultery, infidelity, affair.

  He was almost to Gwin, she was nearly in his grasp, but his feet stopped moving. His hands fell to his sides.

  Lance lifted his gaze from hers. He looked around at the people he’d spent the last century protecting, risking his life for, whose approval he’d tried to win. With their gazes heavy upon him, he felt like a specimen under a microscope, a character under a spotlight. Worse of all, he was subjecting Gwin to this scrutiny as well.

  He could take the abuse, the name-calling, the deafening whispers. To have her in the crosshairs was like death.

  But Gwin didn't look crushed. She didn't look in the least bothered. Her blue eyes shone brightly with love.

  “My heart is taken,” she said. “I can’t offer it up to anyone else. Not my mind, my soul, or my body. This most honorable man has not only kept me safe, along with everyone in this town, he has kept his heart pure in hopes of one day handing it over to me. For a century we have lived our lives with our hearts encased in stone. Now, we have the freedom to walk in the light of day, and we’re taking it.”

  Her words were to him, not to the rest of the crowd gathered. It was the bravest thing he’d ever seen anyone do. They could be rejected by all they loved and held dear with this declaration. Still, Gwin had chanced it. For him. Because she loved him and would no longer hide it.

  Not for anything or anyone in the world.

  Her eyes told him that he was worth it. That he was the most valuable, precious thing to her, and she would no longer hide it.

  “Don’t forget chastity,” Lance said. “I have remained untouched and have not touched another in my pursuit of you. Since the day I met you.”

  Feminine gasps rose up amongst the crowd.

  Lance turned to the Templars still sitting in the belly of the truck. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry we can’t help you.”

  Sir Rex shook his head. "There is no need to apologize. We would not have accepted the lady's offer to begin with. The vows of chivalry would've prohibited it. To sacrifice a lady for a knight? Not one of my men would’ve agreed to it.”

  Each man in the truck nodded, bowed his head, or placed his hand over his heart in assent.

  “What will you do?” asked Gwin.

  “We’ll have to search for some other way to break the curse,” said Rex.

  “By finding your true loves?”

  “If that is the way.” Sir Rex looked off into the moonlight. “In the meantime, we’ll be the guardians of Camelot at night and hold sentry around the place during the day.”

  The knights disembarked from the truck. As they did, the entire town rallied around them. Many young witches blushed and smiled shyly as they took in the new men to their town.

  Attention was off Lance and Gwin. No one even noticed as they straggled behind the crowd. No one said a word as Lance tilted Gwin's head back and kissed her under the bright light of the moon.

  “Get a room,” called Percy.

  Lance chuckled as he released his beloved’s lips. “That’s not a bad idea.”

  Gwin nodded as she looked up at him, love and adoration clear in her gaze. "I'm ready to go home now."

  They twined their fingers and walked towards the castle, their community, their home, their new lives together.

  Epilogue

  The room was in chaos. Papers were strewn over the desk. Clothes littered the floor. Books had fallen off the shelves.

  Opening her eyes, Gwin’s first instinct was to get up and bring order to her bedroom. That feeling passed quickly. She snuggled back under the covers and got closer to the warm body lying next to her in bed.

  Lance rolled over onto his belly, taking some of the covers with him. Gwin didn’t mind. It gave her the perfect opportunity to stare at his perfect ass up close.

  “Ouch.” Lance’s voice was part squeal, part laugh. “What are you doing?”

  “I was curious?” She prowled up to his chest and plopped herself down on his pecs.

  “So you decided to take a bite out of my ass?”

  She nodded, grinning too widely for her own good.

  “That’s fine by me,” he said. “Just know that turnabout is fair play.”

  Gwin had no problem with Lance putting his mouth anywhere on her, anytime he wanted. They’d spent the last week together in utter bliss. They broke their time between the Lancelot wing and the Galahad wing, but mostly they wound up in her bedroom each night as it was closest and they couldn’t always make it another flight up the grand stair.

  Though they hadn’t said their vows out loud to anyone else, most of the townsfolk accepted their union. In fact, the people were more excited about the double wedding that would be taking place. Nothing like a party to downplay a scandal and bring folks together.

  Gwin was hesitant to go along with the idea, believing it would steal her sister’s thunder. She should’ve known better. Morgan was all too happy to push the spotlight—and the responsibilities—off to her sister.

  “I will happily nibble at your bits,” said Lance. “But not now. We have work to do.”

  “Are you going to be like this for our whole lives?” Gwin flopped back on the bed. She’d become very lax in her daytime duties now that her nighttime was filled with so much sport. But her husband-to-be never allowed them to become too derelict in their duties.

  Lance came over her, grinning down at her. “Say it again?”

  “What?” She ran her fingers through his hair, watching the play of fire and gold in the morning light.

  “Our whole lives.”

  “We will be together for our whole lives.” She pressed a kiss to his lips. “Nothing and no one will ever come between us again.”

  “You know those are famous last words of every horror movie,” Lance groaned.

  “But they’re said at the end,” Gwin countered. “This is our beginning.”

  “I waited forever for you. I’d do it aga
in.”

  “Don’t you dare. I want you now.”

  “You can have me tonight.”

  “This afternoon?”

  “Just before dinner.”

  “Tea time?”

  “Deal.”

  Two hours after tea time, Gwin rushed to meet her sister at the LOC office. When Gwin arrived, five minutes late, she found Morgan leaning against the door with raised eyebrows.

  “You missed a button,” Morgan said.

  Gwin fumbled with her blouse. But her cheeks didn’t redden in the slightest, especially not when she looked at her sister whose hair was rumpled. Morgan’s T-shirt, which was a depiction of one atom bemoaning the loss of an electron and the other atom asking if it was positive, was inside out.

  “Looks like you got a little tied up,” said Gwin.

  “That was last night,” Morgan cackled.

  Gwin found herself giggling too. She'd never gabbed with the other married women of the town because she never had anything to contribute. Now that she did have stories to tell, she only wanted to share them with her sister. But right now, Gwin had something else to share. She placed a key in Morgan's hand.

  “So, we’re really doing this?” said Morgan.

  “It’s the right thing to do,” said Gwin.

  Morgan turned and fit the key into the lock of the closed door. The office of the LOC opened. Inside, the sisters were greeted with two desks. The ancient wood desk remained Gwin's. In the corner was a desk from IKEA that Arthur and Lance had taken a full day to put together, and that included a number of phone calls that resulted in Celtic and Scottish curses. But Morgan's desk was fully assembled in the new Ladies of the Castle Office.

  With a little shove from Lance and a lot of cajoling from Arthur, the two sisters had decided to share the role of running the castle. That way, the burden was divided and easily conquered with two Galahad girls at the helm. The first order of business would be in planning their double wedding.

  Gwin picked up her to do list. “The silverware has been ordered. They’re using biodegradable cornstarch as you prefer. We just need to firm up the guest list.”