My Merlin Awakening (Book 2, My Merlin Series)

by Priya Ardis

  “Colin!” I shouted to the sleeping gargoyle.

  He awoke and got up in one movement as he spotted Rourke slumped in the chair. “Sire!”

  Grey woke with a start. “What?”

  “Get Deirdre,” I told him. “He’s had some kind of stroke.”

  Colin ran out of the room. In a little more than a minute, he, Deirdre, and Sylvia were in the living room. Sylvia and Deirdre crossed the room to inspect Rourke.

  “What happened?” Deirdre demanded.

  Matt told her, finishing with, “He needs bed rest.”

  Deirdre turned from Matt to me. “You’ve figured out where to go?”

  I nodded.

  “Rourke can’t go,” Vane said. “He won’t survive the strain.”

  “You will take Grey with you.” Deirdre turned to him. “If your uncle passes, rule falls to you.”

  Grey stood up from the sofa. “I don’t want it.”

  “I know,” Deirdre said. “That’s why I know you will do everything you can to get the cup back to your uncle. Colin will go too, in Rourke’s stead.”

  Vane snorted. “We are not taking that traitor.”

  Colin blushed a deep red. “I regret my actions wholly. I have always protected this family, and only acted as I did because I thought it was in the best interest for all gargoyles. I bear no love for Oliver.”

  “Nice speech,” Vane said. “You are still not going.”

  Deirdre raised her chin. “If you want a boat tomorrow, you will take him.”

  “No,” Colin said. “They are right to mistrust me.” He drew out a knife from his side. It elongated into a sword.

  Vane put up a hand to blast a fireball at him.

  Colin turned the sword over, so the blade pointed at him, and knelt before Grey. He offered the sword to Grey. “Run me through if you cannot trust me. I offer myself to prove my fealty.”

  Grey gave me a “Help-me” look. I crossed the room. I held my hand out for the sword. Grey gave it to me with a “What-are-you-doing?” look. I took the hilt. Like Excalibur, the heavy sword was evenly balanced. In a move Vane had insisted I perfect, I arched it in the air and drove it with force at Colin’s neck.

  “Ryan!” Matt said.

  The sword sliced through a single blade of hair. His pupils dilated, but Colin didn’t move. I stopped the blade just as it touched skin. Colin’s expression remained resigned. I drew the sword back. The blade had broken through soft tissue and upon my removing it, a thin red line of blood formed at the base of Colin’s neck.

  “What was that?” Grey exclaimed.

  “He wasn’t lying. He was ready to die.” I held the sword out to Grey. “Now you know.”

  Grey took it with an angry jerk. “You’ve been hanging around Vane too long.”

  I felt Vane’s eyes on me, but I refused to look at him.

  Grey glanced at Colin, who was still kneeling on the floor, and said with exasperation, “You can get up.”

  “I may go?” Colin asked, without moving.

  Grey looked at Matt. “Emrys?”

  Matt gave a slight nod.

  “I will not betray your trust a second time,” Colin pledged.

  “And I am satisfied,” Deirdre said. “Colin, please carry Rourke upstairs.”

  Colin and Deirdre took Rourke upstairs.

  “I will stay with him as well,” Sylvia said.

  Grey gave her a worried look. “Mom, are you sure? You could go to a hotel—”

  “We’re family. This is where I should be,” she replied. With a worried glance upstairs, she crossed to Grey and took his hand. “I have not told you, but Rourke helped us a great deal when your father passed away. Do what you can for him.” She gave his hand a final squeeze and left.

  “When do we leave?” Grey asked.

  “First light,” Matt answered. “Rourke arranged the boat for six.”

  “Then, I’ll catch a few hours of sleep.” He looked at me. “Ryan? Coming up?”

  I shook my head. “I’ll be there in a few.”

  Grey gave a short nod and walked out.

  And that left Matt, Vane, and me. I stood across the room from the two brothers. Combatants lost in a timeless struggle, they stood on opposite sides of the desk.

  Vane had been watching me closely, but when I looked at him, his expression blanked.

  “Do you want me to stay?” Matt asked.

  CHAPTER 12 – THE PILLARS OF HERCULES

  CHAPTER 12

  THE PILLARS OF HERCULES

  Vane straightened away from the edge of the desk and began walking out.

  “Vane,” I said.

  Vane whirled around, hands fisted at his sides. “Do you two really think I can’t tell when you’re talking to each other? I started paying attention after the club. Every time you whisper to each other, the amulet flares with a blue tinge. I doubt anyone else can see it, but I know you too well, brother.”

  Matt crossed his arms. “About this afternoon. The snake—”

  Vane snorted. “It wasn’t the snake that made you practically devour her.”

  I took a step toward Vane, but I stopped at the sight of cold anger in his eyes.

  He said, “I thought you picked me, but you didn’t. You can’t have him, so I’m the default—”

  “That’s not true.” I said.

  Vane ignored me. “I knew it too. I thought it would be enough. It’s not. It will never be enough. Can’t you see what he’s doing to you? Every time you get closer to me, he pulls you back.” He crossed the room and came up to me. “This is real. Touch. Feel. I am real.” Vane grabbed the amulet. “This is not real. How long will you pine after a phantom?”

  I took a breath, hesitating.

  Vane’s expression hardened. “He made his choice. He picked the visions. Over you. Talk to me when you make your choice.” He dropped my hand and stalked off.

  I didn’t try to stop him. I stood rooted to the spot, awash in a swamp of guilt. I bit my lip so hard, it bled.

  “Ryan?”

  “Don’t, Matt.” I put my hands to my head. “He’s right. We have to stop this. I should take off the amulet.”

  Matt walked to me. “He’s not right.”

  I put my hands on his chest to hold him at bay.

  His dark gaze held mine steadily. “I’ve told you how I feel.”

  “Not out loud.”

  “Then I’ll say it out loud. I lo—”

  “Don’t.” I put a hand on his mouth to stop the whisper of words that couldn’t be taken back, whispers sealed behind an airtight door. “It doesn’t change anything. Daughter of Apollo, remember? We need your visions.”

  He laughed. “Considering our recent… closeness. I may have lost them already.”

  I frowned.

  Matt caught a strand of my hair and wound it around his finger in a soft loop. He grabbed the undersides of my arms and tugged me a little closer. “The problem is I’m finding that I’m beginning to care less and less. I’ve lived with visions my entire life. They’ve always kept me apart. Alone. I didn’t know how alone I was until I met you.”

  Dark eyes drew me in, beckoning me closer, and promising me everything. My amulet flared brightly. Matt clutched his head.

  I saw the trident. It glowed inside a dark tunnel. On the ceiling, long stalagmites pointed down like menacing teeth above my head. I’d been in this tunnel before, I realized. The monster flashed in the dark. It was feeding on something. Its teeth scraped off meat from the shank of some animal. It looked up. Its eyes locked on me. Hunger glowed deep in its eyes. Blood-covered lips twisted into a ravenous smile.

  The image shifted. Explosions of fire and lava as the underwater volcanoes blew now bombarded my mind. A great tsunami rose high in the water and thundered hungrily toward land. My heart raced with painful force by the time the vision ended.

  I said, “It’s the same vision.”

  “But stronger. As if it’s getting closer, or the probability of it happening has becom
e greater.”

  My eyes fell on Colin’s sword. Grey had left it beside the sofa. It reminded me of Excalibur. It reminded me of the crowd of people all over the world, wondering and worried about what was to come. It reminded me how much was at stake.

  It wasn’t a coincidence that Matt had gotten a vision as he stood on the razor’s edge of throwing them away. It was a warning. It was telling me to ignore the longing I saw in his face. I pulled away from him.

  Matt’s fingers dug into my arms, keeping me where I was.

  “Did you see the monster?” I said.

  His eyes flickered. “And the trident. It’s all tied together somehow.”

  I swallowed. I could taste the monster’s hunger in my mouth. It didn’t taste bad. It tasted tempting. The thought disturbed me. “I have a bad feeling about this.”

  “We don’t have a choice. This is the only path we have open to us.”

  “I know.” I thought to him and took a step back. “We need the visions.”

  Matt didn’t say anything.

  I said again, “You need to let me go.”

  “I know,” he echoed.

  I took another step back, easing away, bit-by-bit. My hair caught in his fingers. A slight tug and they would slip through.

  “I’ll let you go. For now.” Matt’s eyes locked on me with solemn promise. “But soon, you will have to make a choice and I won’t make it easy.”

  ***

  Two forty-four a.m. An excruciating minute past two forty-three a.m. I stared at the clock. I couldn’t sleep. The snake, the kiss, had released a Pandora’s box of emotions that now swirled inside me. Yet, something else nagged at me. Beside me, Gia took in deep breaths. Her countenance in sleep was easy and without worry.

  With a jerk, I got up. Excalibur lay on a chair beside the bed. I picked it up. My hand wrapped around the hilt.

  I shut my eyes.

  My mind slowly replayed the images of the latest vision. I wandered down the tunnel again. I looked up at the long stalagmites, dripping with bits of water. I walked further and further into the dark. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the monster’s shadow. I froze. Fear clawed my throat. In a flash, he stood in front of me. His teeth opened, wide and menacing. His eyes glowed with hunger. His nostrils flared like a bull’s. On his bared chest, a bronze piercing mutilated a flat male nipple.

  I don’t know what made me do it. I reached out and laid my palm on the monster’s heart. A red wound glowed just above my hand, a familiar spot on his chest, and a realization hit me.

  I opened my eyes. I dropped Excalibur.

  Vane.

  ***

  The morning came without mercy. I barely slept. A group of fifteen left the house early. Colin took us to the top of the cable car that carried us down the cliff to the port. When we got there, we found it broken. Plan B was donkeys. The hairy, not to mention smelly, creatures carried us down the steep steps of the cliff with more or less good behavior. I did feel sympathy for a handful of people who were walking down the six hundred or so steps. While it may have been more picturesque, I wouldn’t have wanted to do it, especially after I saw one tourist slip and slide into donkey doo. I could have sworn my donkey did his best to knock over as many people on the steps as possible in an effort to win some kind of donkey bowling trophy.

  Ahead of me, Gia and Blake rode closely together. Gia’s sharp features softened every time she glanced at Blake. They laughed at some joke I couldn’t hear and when she wasn’t looking, I saw Blake watching her.

  My eyes riveted on them, I almost fell when my donkey swerved in an attempt to clip another tourist. Vane caught my arm and hauled me back up. Then, without a word to me, urged his donkey ahead.

  I stared after him. Half of me hoped whatever Excalibur had helped me unravel the previous night had been a middle-of-the-night hallucination, but I knew I wasn’t that lucky. I thought about saying something to Matt, but couldn’t make myself do it. He already distrusted Vane so much. I couldn’t be sure he wouldn’t freak out.

  No. I had to figure this out by myself. In the pit of my stomach, I knew time was not on my side.

  The views of the red and green caldera stretched out before us. A morning mist crept up from the crystal waters of the Aegean through the winding streets of the white city. I tasted the fresh air on the sensitive bits of my tongue and took in a cleansing breath of sharp sea air, choosing to ignore the underlying stench of dung.

  Once we reached the bottom, Colin led us to the boat on foot. The boat wasn’t a boat. It was a ninety-foot yacht, that looked big enough to hold fifty, not just the fifteen of us. Colin explained it actually handled only twelve people. I guess that meant I was sharing a bunk, not that I knew anyone who wanted to share with me at this point. I climbed up steps to the top of the boat, which was large, with an open canopy. Brown plastic planks made up the deck and led to a long, rectangular built-in seating area. A square table with heavy painted bolts stood in the middle

  “Nice,” Gia said. Just beyond the seating area, a crystal blue pool invited us to shed our clothes.

  Grey, Gia, and Blake plunked themselves down on the soft cushions without prompting. Colin, Matt and Vane ducked below deck to meet with the captain. Colin ordered the other gargoyles to stay with Grey on the upper deck.

  “Your personal army, Your Highness,” Blake commented to him.

  Grey’s face turned red. “Watch it, Emerson, or I’ll have you eviscerated.”

  “As if you even know what it means,” Blake said.

  Grey tried to punch him and almost fell when the boat started to pull out of the harbor. I watched as we taxied out to sea for a bit. The boat showed us incredible vistas of the cliffs of the caldera. Yet, it couldn’t hold my attention for long.

  I went down to the second level. A luxurious living room with a cream leather sofa and a bar occupied most of the space. Clarence and the other wizards sat at a formal dining table tucked into one corner. I nodded to them and crossed to a small, open deck at the back of the boat.

  I paused midway on the deck. Seated in another small version of the built-in seating area upstairs was Vane. His feet on the table, he leaned back on the cushions and watched the water. He had an open liquor bottle in his hand.

  He smirked. “Dorothy. Can’t get enough of me?”

  The glitter in his eyes told me to run. I decided to do the opposite. I waved at the water. “You’re drinking when we’re going to who-knows-what?”

  One shoulder lifted and fell in a half-hearted shrug. “One spell and I’m sober… unfortunately.”

  “How long will it take us to get there?”

  “Six hours, they tell me.”

  I walked to the railing and peered over. The boat moved steadily in the water. As soon as we crossed one of the smaller side islands from Santorini, the boat turned southwest. Open sea stretched out before us, inviting us to come deeper, faster.

  I sighed. “Can’t this boat speed up?”

  Behind me, I heard Vane’s boots hit the deck and I tensed. The hair at the back of my neck rose as he came up behind me. The deck had to be twenty feet long, but he chose my spot. His arms went around either side of me. His fingers curled around the railing, almost, but not quite touching mine. His body crowded mine, hulking behind me. Almost, but not quite touching.

  “Eager, aren’t you?” His lips grazed the back of my ear. A finger traced the length of my spine from its base to my neck. “Does it call you?”

  “No,” I said, more to him than to the question.

  The finger paused at the base of my neck. “Do you know how easy it would be to toss you overboard? To give you to the sea? A creature such as you would be a bountiful sacrifice.”

  His voice washed over me, heated with a threat and a caress. I shivered and it wasn’t from the cold. I twisted around to face him. “What are you doing, Vane? I thought you were done being in the middle.”

  “I am done. I’m done waiting. I’m done being—”

  “Easy
?” I said dryly.

  “Patient.” His lips curved up, but it was a cold smile. “It’s time to take.”

  An odd glitter colored his eyes. The tiger was back and it wanted to play with me. I put my palm on his chest, right at the scar that hid under the folds of his thick shirt. I wanted to see the scar, but I definitely didn’t want to provoke him any further. Vane caught my wrist. He held it so tightly I thought the bone might fracture.

  “No touching unless you’re offering a lot more,” he said.

  “I’m not.” But I didn’t lower my hand.

  His eyes hooded. “I stopped in the club. I won’t next time. I don’t care who might be watching. I won’t care if it displeases you.”

  “You can’t displease me,” I said.

  His lips thinned. “Are you trying to be nice?”

  Before I could answer, he took a step forward and squeezed me back against the railing. It dug into my back. His fingers wrapped around my throat.

  Hard lips slanted over mine. The kiss took pleasure and laced it with pain. I couldn’t have responded even if I wanted to. Vane didn’t give me the chance. Like a captured bird, he pinned me in place. When he finally lifted his head and released me, my lips stung. Swollen. My throat felt abused. Assaulted.

  He traced a finger along my throbbing neck. “Still feel nice?”

  “This isn’t y-you,” I croaked.

  There was no emotion in his eyes. “It is now.”

  Mine narrowed in response. “Fine.”

  I kneed him as hard as I could in the groin.

  He grunted in pain. I pushed him off me. He fell on his butt and blinked up at me with a befuddled expression.

  My lips twisted in a small smile. “Now I am being nice.”

  ***

  My body still shook three hours later. I sat in my bikini on the edge of a bed in one of the bedrooms on the bottom deck. I struggled to tug on a slippery-as-an-eel wetsuit. You had to squeeze into the thing through a cutout at the neck of the suit.

  The door opened.

  Gia came inside. “Are you alright in here? You’ve been putting on this wetsuit for an hour.”

  I bent my head. Hair curtained my face. No, I wasn’t okay. I wanted to kill him with my bare hands.