Ever My Merlin (Book 3, My Merlin Series) (30 page)

I wondered if Doppelganger-Matt had broken in while the librarian was on a break. He led me into the study area of neatly lined tables. I paused, picturing the lion on top of them. My throat dry, I swallowed. The memory of what happened came rushing back, and even though it was only in my head and not physically here, the details of the library were too accurate for my mind not to replay the scene.

Doppelganger-Matt stopped just before a waist-high bookshelf directly at the library’s center. He let out a breath. “It’s not here.”

“Maybe it’s below?”

He knelt to run a finger through an ordered stack of coffee table books.

“What are you all fired up about?” I moved closer to his side and propped my crutch against the shelf. When I leaned against his shoulder, he stiffened.

I yawned. “I’m getting a little tired.”

Grabbing me by the waist, he hoisted me up and set me on the shelf. “You shouldn’t have come to school at all.”

I said in a husky voice, “Think of all the fun I would have missed.”

Without commenting, he knelt back down and eyed the books. A soft blush covered his cheeks. I bit my lip to stop a smile. It was cute.

“This is it.” He stopped on one book and pulled it out. I leaned over, but I couldn’t see its title. His body effectively covered it. He pulled up his shirt, showing Matt’s lean abs, and tucked the book into his jeans. Lucky book. I caught a glimpse of the back cover—an illustration I didn’t recognize, soft hues of red, cream, and blue—before he yanked his shirt down.

“What’s in the book?” I asked.

Doppelganger-Matt stood up. Keeping the book out of my sight, he leaned closer, as if he were going in for another kiss. My pulse spiked. He slipped my phone out of my pocket.

I tried to grab it back from him, but he moved away. “What are you doing?”

“Texting Ragnar.” His fingers flew deftly over the touch-screen phone.

Another reason Doppelganger-Matt could not be the real Matt. The real Matt picked at the screen with excruciating slowness. He handed the phone back to me. I glanced at the screen. The text read—
In the library. Sick. Take me home.

“High-handed, aren’t you?” I remarked.

“Yes.” He pulled me off the bookshelf. A hand snaked around my neck and drew me in for a quick yet heartfelt kiss. My other hand curled in soft, brown hair. His hand slid up my bare leg. I caught it before he reached too far up. Squeezing my thigh, he pulled away. “Happy birthday, Ryan.”

My mouth was freed, yet I remained breathless.

Before I could manage more than a blink, he loped halfway across the library.

“Wear something pretty Saturday,” I called out.

“Get a longer skirt,” he replied, without turning around.

He left through the open door. I looked down and made a face. He’d left my skirt hiked up. I smoothed it. I heard a shuffling at the door. My head jerked up. Mild unease filled me at the thought that someone might have actually seen us.

Matt, the real Matt with pensive amber eyes and sober expression, came into the library. Marilynn trailed him. My mild unease turned to full-blown embarrassment.

“It was Vane,” I said.

“I figured.” Matt walked toward the bookshelf. His eyes flickered over the low tables. The memory of the lion washed over us. Matt held my gaze. “Why me?”

Why did I kiss Vane while he looked like Matt? Or why did Vane take his form? Either answer was one Matt wouldn’t like. I chose another safer one. “He snuck in to get something from the library.”

Matt wasn’t fooled. His gaze fell on my mouth, puffy lips that still tingled.

“It’s not him anymore, Ryan.”

“You’re not giving him much of a chance, Merlin.”

“I’ve given him plenty. So did Blake. He can’t be trusted.” He glanced at the bookshelf. “If he could be, then why sneak in here? Why the disguise? Which book did he take?”

I played with my bottom lip. “He didn’t want me to see—”

“Typical,” Marilynn muttered from behind Matt.

I tamped down an urge to stick my tongue out at her like a five-year-old. “I saw a picture on the back cover. I can search for it in the library database.”

“It gives us something, at least,” Matt said. His unhappy expression didn’t waver. He gestured at Marilynn. “Take over for her this afternoon as we planned. Ryan’s had enough time to be normal.”

I shook off the weariness sapping my strength. Stubbornness straightened my spine. “Stop thinking you can run my life, Matt. I’ll be home after school.” I scowled at Marilynn. “I don’t need the duplicate to fill in.”

“We should follow up on this right away,” Matt shot back. “Stop being so childish.”

It was the worst possible thing to say.
My hackles rose even more. “We can work on it this afternoon.” I told Marilynn sweetly, “You can cover the afterschool Prom meeting.”

Matt raked a hand through his hair in frustration. “Everyone is depending on us—”

I didn’t waver. “They can wait a few hours.”

Matt’s lips tightened. Turning on his heel, he walked out.

Marilynn shook her head. “You’re an idiot, DuLac. He says it’s for everyone, but he only looks at you. He’s doing this for you.”

I stared after Matt. If that were true, it would have been him taking me to Prom. It would have been him who remembered my birthday. I said softly, “No, he’s not doing this for me. He just hasn’t admitted as much to himself.”

CHAPTER 13

THE TEMPEST

I
went home early. After five hours of sitting still in class, I was beyond exhausted, so I decided to skip last period. A.P. Chemistry. I abandoned the idea that I would be taking any of the advanced placement tests. Not that it would even matter anymore. I had to survive the apocalypse first. It took all the motivation out of studying.

Anyway, I spent most of my other classes surfing the Internet for information on the book Vane took. The library database had no pictures. Once or twice I got caught, but a sob story of how worried my mother (Sylvia) was after the attack let me off the hook. One morning with Vane, and I’d already turned manipulative. He was not a good influence.

I pushed down the guilt, telling myself it was for a higher purpose. If only high school gave extra credit for save-the-world projects. I looked out the window. Furious clouds hid the radiance of the sun. I wondered if the planet wanted to fight back. I hoped so.

Annoyed that I hadn’t found anything, I decided to talk to Matt.

Yawning, I forced myself to make the long walk down the hall to Sylvia’s study at the back of the house. It was past a front foyer, various living rooms, and the kitchen. More rain pelted the thick-paned windows. The manor was built in a flat clearing, but the land was on lower ground than the rest of the woods surrounding it. In winter, the school bus couldn’t make it up and down the path. Today, the weather didn’t seem much better. Inches of water rose around the manor’s foundation. The house would soon become an island if the rain didn’t abate.

Grey stood outside the study. His hand clutched the doorknob and he was in the middle of opening it, but instead of going in, he pulled it back shut. Then he stood staring at the block of wood with a flabbergasted expression. When he spotted me, the tips of his ears turned red. “Ah, maybe we should get a quick snack first.”

“Did you remind Marilynn she needs to go to school for the meeting?”

His arm went across the doorframe, effectively blocking me from it. “I called ahead earlier. I was going to bring you home anyway after last period. She said she’d be ready. It’s still a little early.”

I yawned again. “Okay, well, I need to talk to Matt. Is he in there?”

“Uh, you should get some rest first. You look pretty tired,” he said quickly. “I can tell him whatever you need.”

I frowned at his odd behavior. “It’s complicated. I’m trying to figure out which book Vane took from school.”

Gia came up behind me. “What’s going on? Why are you blocking the door?”

“Uh.” Grey turned to answer her.

I took advantage of his distraction. In his haste, Grey hadn’t clicked the door fully shut. I flung it open with my crutch.

“Shit,” Gia muttered.

My eyes immediately found what Grey wanted to hide. Past a huge, mahogany desk strewn with papers, books, and two open laptops, on a one-armed sofa framed by huge glass doors, long slender fingers tangled in shiny brown hair, girl’s fingers in a boy’s hair.

In return, Matt’s hands wound around long, dark-blond strands of hair. My strands. As I watched, he caressed apple cheekbones. My cheekbones. She straddled him while he lay back on the soft cushion of the sofa. He gripped her neat waist to grind her narrow hips closer to his. My waist. My hips.

At least they had their clothes on. Mostly.

Matt was shirtless, showing off a bare expanse of skin and short fine hair. Hair I’d been sliding my fingers through earlier this morning.
On Vane.

For a minute, all I could do was watch Matt kiss me. Watch him kiss Marilynn… in my body. It was surreal, beyond disturbing, and— narcissistically hot. I don’t know why I wasn’t more upset… maybe because I was guilty of the same misdeeds.

I pushed past Grey. He grabbed my elbow before I could go too far.

“Grey,” Gia said warningly from behind us.

The two on the sofa jerked apart, finally noticing they had an audience.

“Ryan.” Matt scrambled up. Marilynn almost fell off the sofa on the floor. Matt distanced himself from her by going behind Sylvia’s huge, mahogany desk. He wiped a hand across his mouth. “You’re back early.”

“Yeah.”
Duh.
I stared at the two of them. Their mussed hair and blotted lips… but I couldn’t actually articulate another response.

Marilynn stood up quickly. Two red spots flushed her cheeks. My cheeks. She glanced at Matt, but he stared down at Sylvia’s desk. Biting her lip, she ran out of the room.

Grey came up from behind and put his hand on my back. “Ryan?”

I shook my head. “I want to talk to Matt alone.”

For the first time since the rooftop, Gia looked at me as she’d done before—as my friend. “Are you sure?”

I exchanged a girl-to-girl look with her. “I’m fine.
Really
.”

Gia nodded, pulling Grey out of the room.

As soon as the door shut behind them, Matt said, “It wasn’t planned.”

I glanced at the curved sofa, the cushions still flat from its recent occupation. Dark rain continued to paint the glass of a set of French doors. It outlined Matt’s form, lending him a soft aura of melancholy. “Is this because of this morning? The library?”

“Maybe.” Matt’s shoulders drooped and then straightened. Amber eyes pierced through me. “You’re not upset.”

I walked farther into the room. “I wasn’t kissing you. I was kissing Vane.”

He blinked. “I wasn’t kissing Marilynn. I was kissing
you
.”

I bit back a semi-hysterical laugh. It was a freaking Shakespearian tragedy. Or comedy. Honestly, I couldn’t tell which. With more bitterness than I wanted to express, I stated, “I don’t think you know what you want.”

He picked up his T-shirt from the floor and pulled it on. “That much seems to be true.”

“I can’t keep doing this back and forth with you.”

“And I can’t help myself from wanting you even when I shouldn’t.”

Soft amber eyes watched me in silent question. The yearning look asked me to take Marilynn’s place on the sofa. He stood on one side of the desk. I stood on the other. The distance wasn’t far, but the gulf between us had become infinite. While it made me sad, it didn’t devastate me. Somewhere along the way, somewhere along the circular road back home, had I learned how to let him go?

“You shouldn’t have to help yourself,” I said slowly. “It shouldn’t have to be so hard, Matt.”

Matt slammed his hands, palms down, on the desk and leaned against its sturdy wood as if he needed the support. A hard glint entered his eyes. “If it is, it’s because you made it so.”

Bastard.
How did guys flip the switch from nice guy to bastard so quickly? I didn’t say the thought out loud because, although it stung, he was partially right. I had made it complicated or rather Vane had. Yet, I couldn’t lie to him like he wanted. That would have been worse. “I don’t know what’s happening between Vane and me, but I haven’t given up on him—”

His whole body stiffened. “Is he the better catch now that he’s the greatest wizard in the world?”

The question left me speechless for a minute. It was insulting on so many levels. Tamping down my temper, I ground out, “I don’t need to
catch
anyone, Merlin. Your magic, or lack thereof, had nothing to do with this until you made it so.”

“Well, I intend to get it back.” Matt yanked open a drawer on the desk and took out a small metal box. The Kronos Eye.

An ominous wave of foreboding rose in my stomach. “What are you doing with that?”