Ever My Merlin (Book 3, My Merlin Series) (2 page)

“Father is not happy with you. What you’ve done—”

“I’ve saved this world.”

“At what cost? You’ve brought a plague upon this land. The pandemic will take half their lives in exchange—”

The Lady said harshly, “Better than every single life. There is always a price to be paid when you cheat time. Besides, I will not leave them completely defenseless. I have a plan.”

“Oh, yes.” The man laughed. “The sword.”

“The world will see a dark age, but our garden will flourish again, despite our abandonment.”

“It will not be abandoned. Father realizes our time here is at an end. The world has grown, and in time, they will gain their own power. Anyhow, it was not his choice. It was written in the stars. You have only delayed it. The universe will not rest until it finds a balance. Kronos’s Fury will rebound.”

“I will not give up without a fight.”
Chop.
She cut the potato in two neat halves.

In the storeroom, I winced at the hard sound, yet my heart swelled. The Lady would protect my brother and me, no matter the cost.

“They can save themselves, Mother,” the man said.

I didn’t like him.

She answered. “Your father doesn’t understand. Sometimes when you see too far, you can forget to look at what is most near. Fate must be helped along, my son. We must make sure the boys are protected. They will be needed.”

“One boy, Mother. There was only meant to be one,” the man replied. “I do not know how those idiot wizards somehow managed to cause the conception of two.”

In the cold blackness, my grip tightened on my brother. I
really
didn’t like this man.

“You can only leave the gift to one, Mother,” he continued. “We do not have the strength for more. Who will you choose?”

“I have already chosen.” The Lady moved on to a new potato. With one clean slice, she cleaved it open. “However, the two are tied so closely together. This will be hard for them—”

“You orchestrated their conception for this purpose.” The man’s tone hardened. His green eyes almost glowed as he watched the Lady. “My brothers and I were close once also. You must do what is right as we did.”

“I am well aware what is at stake.” The Lady paused in her cutting and laid down the knife. “We must all do what is necessary, but it does not mean we should forget our hearts. Are you and your brothers ready to do your part?”

The man stared at the Lady, his mother. I wasn’t sure what they were talking about. I knew this moment could change everything. The Lady looked steadily at her son. Finally, he sighed. “You know I would do anything for you. So will Jupiter.”

The Lady smiled and picked up the knife again. “And Hades?”

The man shook his head. “Pluto does not agree, but is too busy to be a problem. Jupiter has gone to see Father, but you know as well as I that Father will not part with the apples.”

“It is merely a ruse,” the Lady said. “Your father doesn’t know about the ones I sent Hercules to steal.”

The man paused. “Are you absolutely certain you want to do this? Father has strict rules against playing with two worlds.”

“Sometime you have to break the rules to save what is most important.”

“And the other way—”

“It is too risky,” she said dismissively, with a wave of the knife.

The man sighed. “I hope you are correct about this boy, Mother. So much hinges on it. I will go to my island after I leave you. I must give them their final instructions.”

“You will not be the least bit sorry to leave your son?”

The man’s face blanched. “We always knew this day would come. Triton is of this world. He belongs here.”

She looked down at the slices of potato. “It will be as difficult for you to let go of the boy as it was for me to let go of you.”

“I survived.”

“Vivane also reminds me a good deal of you, but he is more vulnerable. He is of this world. He has you in him, but he is not ours. Remember that. Teach him to be a warrior, but do not break him. You must return him in seven years’ time. Merlin’s training will be completed by then as well.”

“Triton knows what he must do,” the man said.

In the pit of the storeroom, I stood frozen to the spot. I made an effort to breathe. She was giving me away. She was keeping my brother, but she was giving me away.

My brother would be alone.

A jagged sword of anger surged from inside a deep pit—toward a mother I could barely remember, a father who’d never been there, and the Lady. I remembered the day the Lady came into our hut. My mother cried when she told me to be strong. She told me to always look after my brother. Then, she took a bag of gold coins from the Lady and let me go. The only one who cared about me was my brother. I knew that. And if I cared as much about him, I knew what I had to do.

My hands fisted, a physical reaction to the decision. They squeezed the small fingers laying innocently in mine.

“Vee,” Merlin protested.

The day I was dreading had finally come. I looked down at him, his round baby face and big eyes. The Lady wanted him. I knew I had no choice. We never had a choice. Neither of us.

We’d been betrayed.

With a sharp breath, I let go of his hand. Stomping away from him, I went up the stairs. As usual, Merlin ran after me. His little legs stumbled on the first step. I resisted the urge to help him. I kept climbing.

The bright, green eyes of the Lady widened when she saw me at the threshold. “Vivane?”

Behind me, I heard Merlin fall. A thud sounded as his back hit the dirt floor. An angry wail filled the air. I didn’t turn around. He had to figure it out on his own now. He had to be strong. He had to learn to stop counting on me.

The Lady stood up in a hurry. “Vivane, your brother!”

My name wasn’t Vivane. I wasn’t needed as an older brother.

I looked at her… I looked at the man. He watched me with steady green eyes, the exact same shade as the Lady’s.

I declared, “I am Vane.”

And I was alone.

CHAPTER 1

ENDINGS

F
orever. I ached for it. I hurt for it in places that didn’t have a name. I wanted it. I wanted it for my friends. I wanted it from my family. The world. Like anyone, I imagined some kind of forever for myself—whether good or bad—then, it was snatched out from under me.

The ghostly faces of seven billion people shimmered in a wall of water that stretched from earth all the way up to the heavens. As I faced the giant wave, I made a wish. I wished to change my fate. I wished to live.

How had I gotten here?

One word—tsunami. Wave after giant wave of ocean turbulence devastated the coastlines across the world. New Zealand. Australia. Hawaii. California. Indonesia. India. Five volcanoes started it all. Erupting simultaneously, they threw the whole world into a nightmarish scenario. Relief agencies that were strained dealing with just one hotspot struggled to cover five. However, it wasn’t just the hotspots that were impacted. The effects bounded out into a radius of pure chaos.

In Hawaii, the Wizard Council summoned the wizards who lived there, a surprisingly high number, to stand on the rocky cliffs and push back the onslaught of water. As the underwater volcano, Loihi, spewed out of control, it gave birth to a new island, a birth that wasn’t supposed to happen for another hundred thousand years. The vassal of the Earth Shaker had woken. The Fisher King, and I’d woken him.

I was halfway across the world from Hawaii. My legs were rooted on a flat, concrete rooftop, at the top of a square, white building, in a row of identical white buildings. Other wizards lined up beside me, evenly spread across fifty or so roofs. We faced the ocean, which, just a few days ago, had been a haven of tranquility and peace for the city behind us.

I couldn’t see the beach anymore. There was no beach. Wave after wave assaulted the shoreline, overrunning the mile-long expanse of sand that stretched from the buildings to the water’s edge.

Squatty steel and concrete buildings, only two stories high, were the last barricade as the water relentlessly tried to inundate the crowded metropolis of Chennai, India.

Its vibrant, noisy city streets, usually packed with three-wheeled rickshaws, bicycles, and cars, were abandoned and silent. Millions of people, a rainbow of brightly colored cotton and spice, had to be evacuated from their homes in the wake of the tsunami alerts. The blare of sirens sounded ceaselessly. Somewhere behind me the static-laden voice of a radio announcer described the panic-stricken chaos caused by the mass exodus.

On the rooftop, Matt took my hand.

I looked up into his tired amber eyes, somewhere deep inside a battle-scarred soul, their brilliant depths banked with faint power. Lelex’s torture still lingered, and now I was asking for more. My fingers intertwined with his. He inclined his head in tacit support, unruly, auburn curls brushing his forehead.

Grey took up my left. After him, Gia stood holding hands with Blake. The four of us, tied together by our common bond as Candidates to pull Excalibur from the stone, faced a horror from which only the sword could save us. In my free hand, I gripped it. It was King Arthur’s sword once, a long time ago. Now, it was mine. Its power hummed in my hand, and sweat filled my palm. It was ready. But was I?

In my free hand, I gripped Excalibur. It was King Arthur’s sword once, a long time ago. Now, it was mine. Its power hummed in my hand, and sweat filled my palm. It was ready. But was I?

Earlier this morning, Matt, the gang, and I left Greece to fly to Indonesia. Three volcanoes had exploded, spewing smoke, ash, and lava across the island chain. In the northern region of Sumatra, the Toba caldera was the site of a supervolcano. The eruption had caused a massive global climate change about eighty thousand years ago. Only two hundred years ago in 1815, Mount Tambora’s eruption, a nearby stratovolcano, instigated a volcanic winter, resulting in a worldwide famine that reached all the way to North America.

No matter which scenario we faced this time, it wasn’t good.

On our way, though, we were derailed. Matt and I saw a vision of a massive underwater earthquake farther north in the Indian Ocean. This one occurred near the Andaman Islands, sending shockwaves across the Bay of Bengal to the eastern coast of India.

One call from Matt to the head of the Wizard Council, the First Member, and the private plane carrying us changed course, making an emergency landing at the Chennai International Airport. Several black Mitsubishi SUVs whisked us from the airport toward the beaches. Twelve of us came from Greece—my brother Grey, my best friends Gia and Blake, Colin, three gargoyles, three wizards, and of course, Matt and me. I glanced at my friends. They’d all become my family. After what we’d gone through in Greece, I wouldn’t have blamed them if they’d wanted to stay behind. They refused to leave my side.

Blake’s words had been memorably British. “Not likely you’re going to leave us out of the adventure.”

Adventure, this was not.

Sirens started blaring through the city in the middle of our drive as the Indian Ocean disaster warning systems finally caught up to what we already knew. We dodged panicked pedestrians, scooters, and an occasional cow randomly wandering through the dusty streets. The leader of the local underground contingent of wizards, a surprisingly young twenty-year-old named Hari, drove down the crowded streets with a grim expression. Half an hour later, we pushed through the stampede of evacuees to reach the beaches at the edge of the city.

Hari stopped in front of a row of white buildings. I could smell the ocean behind them, and hear the rush of the waves. It evoked memories of cawing seagulls, gentle sunny days, beach blankets, and sweet ice cream. However, this was not that beach. Not today.

Beyond the building, past the solitude of the beach, impending rage simmered in the roaring darkness. I stared up at sulky, grey clouds as we got out of the SUV. Residents hurried past us with bulging suitcases, so focused on their own escape they didn’t even give us curious looks.

With Matt beside him, Hari led us into the building and up a narrow, concrete staircase. Hari told him, “I’ve asked everyone to gather in the other buildings. This house is at the center, so it will be the best for you, Master-
ji
.”

“Good work,” Matt replied.

Hari beamed under the simple praise, giving Matt the awe-struck expression that all the wizards inevitably seemed to get around him. We emerged from a short doorway. I looked out across what seemed like a never-ending sea of rooftops. In either direction from us, men and women spread out in what must have been a mile-long line. Those nearest to us watched the quiet ocean with petrified expressions.

I asked, “How did you gather so many wizards so quickly?”

Hari gave me a curious look. “Keltoi magic originated from here, of course. Many live close to this region.”