Ever My Merlin (Book 3, My Merlin Series) (23 page)

Rawana eyed the blade. “Will you finish me now?”

I laid the weapon down. “Do I need to?”

Rawana gave me a twisted smile. “My spirit is linked to the apple. Now that you have severed it from me, I will not last long.”

The river behind me rose higher. Water splashed up the boulder as the landscape turned more violent. I held the apple out to Rawana. “Then, I will not take it. I didn’t come here to kill anyone.”

He gave me a weak smile of surprise. “You are kind, warrior. You remind me of the one I would have made my queen.”

I colored. “I am no queen.”

“A title cannot hold a kingdom, while the lack of it cannot lose you one. I lost mine because I took what didn’t belong to me.” Rawana blinked. He pushed the apple back at me. “The apple is rightfully yours.”

“What does it do?”

“I do not know. For my misconduct, I have been denied the vision although I have the Father’s Eye. The Kronos Eye.” Rawana tapped his third eye. “The culmination of my knowledge of the stars rests here. The great Lady came here once, too. She hoped to see. She hoped to cheat fate, but the time was not right. The event was too far away. Now, you have come. The time is right.”

“The Lady called it the day of reckoning.” I looked at the eye. “Can it tell us what is coming? If the time is right, can I see what she couldn’t?”

Rawana blinked. “You have a touch of the divine, wizard-warrior. It is possible, but you must make haste. My strength fades quickly.”

I glanced up at the top of the slanted boulder. The black lion watched, but made no sound. “He should see this, not I. Can you free him?”

“His essence is diminished. His insides are hollow. Only with sheer determination does he continue to breathe. I have not the energy to restore him and accomplish my task.” Rawana caught my hand, the one that held the scythe. He stared at the curved blade. “Even if I did, the Kronos Eye would not bend to him. His soul is torn.”

“Torn?” Taking his magic tore out his soul? I glanced at the river behind me. “The water of life—”

“Will not heal him. He has defiled Elysium. He has taken a soul back from the dead—”

I bit my lip.
Grey
. Matt had brought Grey back from death.

“The Father does not forgive so easily.”

I touched the
Dragon’s Eye
. Rawana put his hand over mine. The third eye locked on the amulet and turned a disturbing grey. Rawana intoned, “One to save the world. One to destroy it. Only one was meant to be. Which one?”

The third eye blinked and the grey cleared. Rawana’s expression returned to normal.

“What does that mean?” I asked.

The king let go of my hand. Three eyes pierced past my skin and peeked into my heart. “You are torn, warrior, but deep down, you know the answer. You have always known it. I forced my princess to make a similar choice once. The fate of my world rested on hers. The fate of your world rests on yours.”

I told myself the words were overly dramatic nonsense, despite it being uncomfortably accurate nonsense. More thunder clapped insistently at the grey clouds. A flash of lightning struck the river. Behind us, the water churned more urgently.

Rawana’s breathing turned shallow. “My time dwindles. You have been kind, warrior, and in the memory of the princess I wronged, I would give you a boon—” With effort, he turned his head. The third eye locked on Matt. “I may restore his soul or I may share my knowledge. I only have enough strength to do one. It will be your choice. Choose wisely.”

The lion’s chest rose and fell with steady rhythm. Large eyes watched me without a hint as to the direction of his thoughts.

Rawana coughed. “Your choice, warrior… before it is too late.”

With a shaky breath, I turned away from Matt. Away from the betrayal I’d chosen once and now, chose again. Away from the guilt. I turned to Rawana and touched the third eye. “Show me.”

“As I said, you make a good queen.” He coughed again. “Take the apple. You hold the heart of a star in your hand. It will be your guide. Remember that.” He looked at the scythe. “Now, take the scythe and cut out my third eye. Hurry, you must do it before I fade.”

I balked, eyeing the sharp, curved blade. “You want me to butcher you?”

“If the eye is inside me, you will not be able to use it. You must take the eye yourself and dip it in the River Lethe.”

I blew out a breath. “Then what?”

“Take it into your mouth.”

“You want me to eat it?”
Eat a slimy, fleshy eyeball? Gross.

Above me, the sky trembled. Fierce wind sprayed water from the river onto the bank. Rawana’s body shuddered. He roared, “Are you a warrior or not? Do not fail now. Once you take the eye, you will have but mere moments. This pathway to Elysium is tied to me. Once I go, it will collapse. If you are still here, you will die.”

Crap.
I grabbed the scythe. He was still alive, but I had no choice. With furious hacks, I began prying out the delicate eye. Blood seeped down my hands. I almost gagged. The eye sat stubbornly attached, and cutting flesh and bone wasn’t as easy it sounds. Rawana roared under the brutal operation, but held himself remarkably still. His other two eyes blinked rapidly with pain. Finally, I held the slimy organ in my hand.

He caught my hand and held it. “The Kronos Eye will tell you much, but remember, nothing comes without a price. Our paths are not mapped; they’re made.”

“Wait. This is the Kronos Eye?” I asked.

It was too late. Rawana’s three eyes shut for the final time. On his arms, the tattoos disappeared. At last, his spirit flew free.

The black lion sprang up, also released. Matt bounded down to me. He picked up the apple with his mouth. I dropped the red-stained scythe. He ran alongside me to the edge of the boulder. I dipped the eye into the river. As soon as it touched the water, the organ shrunk and hardened into some kind of crystal. I squeezed the round ball. It didn’t give.

The Kronos Eye.

Matt dropped the apple into my hand. The black lion nudged me. I used his mane to climb on top of him. Wind blew furiously around us. Rough waves sprayed us. Above us, the sky dimmed. We had run out of time.

Then, I tried not to gag as I put the eye into my mouth and swallowed it.

The crystal hit my stomach. Darkness engulfed me.

I floated in a sea of nothingness. My body had no weight. More precisely, I had no body. Only my soul anchored me to the brightly burning stars that dotted an otherwise black space. Shiny balls of gas and dust spun around the stars. In the cradle of space was a bright spot, a yellow sun, sitting at the center of its children, one of who was a small, blue planet.

Home.

For what seemed like an eternity of time, I watched our solar system spin. It offered a quiet serenity that soothed even the most troubled soul. I sat in a place far away, a place high up on the branches of a celestial tree. The golden apple bobbed happily in front me like a guide.

I didn’t see Matt or the lion anywhere.

A sharp light off to the distance drew my attention. Against the canvas of space, bright pinpoints of light outlined a shape in the stars—a hunter with a bow and arrow. On his shoulder, a red star grew dimmer in its last moments of life. Then, in brilliant death, it exploded in a fury of fire and brimstone.

An invisible tsunami spread out of the supernova, shaking the branches of the celestial tree that rooted the galaxy with its tremendous power. The dark hand of the wave sent me whirling along with it. I managed to pluck the golden apple from its spot before being carried off. The wave swept over its closest neighbor, the yellow sun.

Under pressure, the steady sun bared its teeth for the briefest moment in time. Tentacles of fire flared out as it spun. I narrowly avoided the tentacles as they struck out with unintentional wrath. One tentacle, simply and silently one, sent a lash flying at its most fragile child. The flare penetrated the planet’s thin barriers, meeting little resistance.

Under me, on the blue planet, the fruit of life—my life—burned.

I fell down into the apocalypse that engulfed my home. Flames consumed the dark land, evaporating the oceans and melting away all civilization. Yet, I didn’t see any people. The world stood empty and hollow as if they didn’t exist in this plane. I could only imagine the quiet horror of billions of people at the end of existence. The day of reckoning.

I kept falling past the clouds and open air. The stench of sulfur and death scorched my nostrils and throat. Out of black night, I plummeted down to a large island and over a circle of nine stones.

The land widened as I neared the ground. In the middle of the rubble lay the sword inside the stone. Excalibur’s metal remained immune to the fiery heat. Its untouched glory clear for me to see as I fell with extreme force onto it. I screamed.

But I never met death.

I hung suspended in the air, the hilt of the sword scraping the unprotected expanse of my stomach. The planet continued to burn around me. I reached out and touched Excalibur. As soon as I did, a bolt of electricity went through my body and I dropped to the ground. I fell scraping my shoulder against the sharp edge of Excalibur’s blade. Blood ran from a gash on my upper arm.

The golden apple fell in front of me.

Above me, the sky flared with a rainbow of fire.

I reached out to take the apple. Blood ran from my hand down my fingers.

Out of the night, two hooded figures rode from opposite sides of the burning circle of nine stones. On top of saddled horses, they came together in front of me and blocked the path to the apple. One rode a white horse. One rode a black horse. Both wore brown, shrouded robes.

I recognized the animals—the same ones from limbo. Forever ago, it seemed.

The white horseman started to glow. From around us, an aria filled the air. The buried stones from the circle rose out of the dirt and came together. The white horseman made a structure. Two vertical slabs and one horizontal one, melded together to make a trilithon.

Then he turned. He extended his hand. I took a tentative step towards him. The other horse snorted in protest, blowing musky hot breath in the air. His rider trotted the black horse forward. He jumped down and picked up the apple.

Nothing happened. He walked closer to me. He held out the apple.

I took it.

Blood ran over the apple’s gold metal skin. The apple rose in the air. Sparkles of bright lights, tiny stars, glowed inside its dark interior. They bobbed excitedly, becoming charged. Beside me, Excalibur shuddered. The black horseman gestured me to touch the blade. I put my hand tentatively back on Excalibur. Another shot of electricity went through me. I cried out and tried to pull away, but the black horseman grabbed me and held my hand to the burning sword.

The sword absorbed the apple’s energy and emitted a blinding beam in return, a lighthouse beacon taming the chaos of the flames around it. It hit the trilithon in front of me, and the structure lit up. White light shone and a rectangular doorway opened.

Inside the doorway, I saw a curved wooden bridge over a thin crisp blue river.

Next to me, the black horseman held out his hand, but not to offer it to me. He reached for the apple. I shied away. Stumbling back, I fell against Excalibur. I pulled the blade and it came out easily from the stone. I held it in a battle stance in front of me. The horsemen threw back his hood. It was Matt. The black horseman was Matt.

The white horseman revealed himself. Vane.

Vane jumped off the horse. In one move, he leapt down. The hilt of a sword gleamed above the belt tied against his left hip. He held out his hand. For me or for the apple, I couldn’t tell.

There was only one thing to do. I tucked the apple close to me in a football hold and sprinted past Matt. I tossed Excalibur at Vane. He instinctively reached out to catch it and I used the distraction to leap into the open gateway of the trilithon.

I ran into the mist.

***

I tumbled out, landing facedown in a field of freshly cut grass. Soft earth kissed my lips. I lifted my head. In the distance, a familiar bridge came into focus. The world lay eerily dark. Moonlight reflected off the water. Surrounded by dark, shadowy trees, the shallow river ran under a curved wooden structure. The Old North Bridge.

An unlit lamppost on the bridge, a failed beacon in the darkness, sat silent and without any power. In the distance, nestled between two tree trunks, under another patch of moonlight, the bronze statue of a Minute Man marked the site of the first battle of the American Revolution. Concord, Massachusetts. Wearing a trim waistcoat and holding a musket at his side, the silent soldier welcomed me home.

I pushed myself up on my knees. The apple fell from my hands onto the flat clearing. In front of me, Matt lay on his back on the ground. I started to crawl to him, but a sharp pain made my stomach spasm. Clutching my middle, it rumbled as if a war raged inside. The taste of sharp metal coated my tongue and tainted the saliva. Taking shallow breaths, I rolled over on my back and tried not to pass out. The sky darkened into evening as this side of Earth turned away from the bright gaze of the sun. Stars winked down from a quiet sky.

The
Dragon’s Eye
warmed around my neck.

“
Where have you been?
” Vane’s voice pounded in my head.

His words hammered my brain, a pounding beat against my temples. I couldn’t work up the energy to press my hands against it. I croaked, “
H-help.
”

Vane shouted, “
Hang on, DuLac.
”

“
Where are you?
”

“
Sri Lanka.
”

I almost laughed. Matt was right. Vane did follow us. I thought back, “
Then, it will be awhile before you get here.
”

“
They have these things called phones
,” he said. “
Help is coming. Stay with me.
”

Another spasm rocked through me. I clenched my teeth at the pain. My mind started to shut down in defense. I told Vane, “
I don’t think I can
.”