Ever My Merlin (Book 3, My Merlin Series) (35 page)

“I seem to have lost my date,” Doppelganger-Matt said from the opening.

Marilynn, doubling as me, gaped at the real Matt and me. She wore a buttercup-yellow gown that matched his vest. Purple looked better, I thought. She gave Doppelganger-Matt a glowering look. “Which one of those wizards put you up to this? Who are you?”

Doppelganger-Matt said dryly, “Much like you, I’m the extra.”

Glowering at him, she turned her attention at me. “What are you doing here?”

I ignored her. I couldn’t take my eyes off those green-tinged eyes. “Vane—”

“Vane!” Marilynn screeched and practically leaped halfway across the room to hide behind Matt.

“You knew,” Doppelganger-Matt said with a small smile.

My heart in my throat, I walked toward him.

The smile tightened. He said, “I don’t think you want to come near me right now.”

“I always knew it was you,” I whispered.

Light flared in his eyes. “Quite frankly, that makes it worse.”

As I struggled to come up with a reply, his cellphone vibrated loudly in the pin-drop silence of the room. He took it out and stared at the screen for a second.

“It seems our time is up.” Without sparing me another glance, he turned on his heel and stalked out of the suddenly claustrophobic bathroom, but not before I saw the monster coming alive within those stormy eyes.

Shit.
I took a step to go after him.

Matt caught my arm. He thrust the Kronos Eye in my hand. “Remember what’s at stake, Ryan. This is not the right time—”

With a quick twist, I broke away from him. I slapped the offending crystal back at him, refusing it absolutely. “If you keep waiting for the right time, it may never happen. Sometimes you have to make the most of the time you have.”

I plunged back into the party after a pissed-off animal—Vane. The hallway pounded with the music’s loud bass. He disappeared into the ballroom. I ran into the crowd and stopped at the edge of the room, my heartbeat pumping along with the frantic music. I scanned the crowd for a trace of him.

I touched the
Dragon’s Eye
on my neck. A purple vest on the stairs flashed under the swirling lights. I cut through the middle of the dance floor. Weaving and twisting through shimmering silk and satin that invited you to gyrate wildly in the night. Around me, the song urged everyone to take off their clothes along with their inhibitions. I’d lost mine on the first dance.

I made it through the dancers to the curved staircase. The pads of my fingers slid up cold marble of an elegant balustrade. I went up past lingering bodies, laughing and drinking and teetering precariously on the flat steps. Upstairs, curved balconies like numerous theater boxes gave a voyeur a full view of the glittering celebration below. With the
Dragon’s Eye
to guide me, I stalked the monster down the long mezzanine as I’d stalked him once through the maze.

I stopped near the center of the row of balconies on an abandoned one. In the shadows, past a circular table with wilted flowers and crumpled linen, I sensed the lurking animal. I walked deeper into the dark. The balcony gave an expansive view of the ballroom below, but I saw no one in the shrouded space.

It gave an expansive view of the ballroom below, but I saw no one in the shadows. Cursing, I turned and ran straight into the wall of Doppelganger-Matt’s chest. I caught his arms to keep from stumbling. His hands went around my waist. A lone ray of light shone down on his face, a closed off face. The scent of a stormy ocean-blue surrounded me and I was caught in its waves. The thumping music from below muted and sank into the background.

“Looking for someone?” He leaned down. His voice rumbled against my ear.

My body flushed hot and cold. My fingers tightened on him. “Only you.”

Green rose in his eyes and the monster snarled. “The wrong only.”

The same words I said to myself. It sounded more devastating when he said them, and it was then I knew I’d been wrong. I put my hands on his face. “Only you. Vane.”

The monster watched. It reached for me.

I resisted. “Drop the glamour, Vane.”

He did. Doppelganger-Matt disappeared and the hard lines of Vane’s body took its place. My mouth watered at the sight of him—the hard lines of a warrior’s body. The fighter versus the scientist. His lips crashed down on mine. Teeth parted and his tongue slipped inside. His taste, a sweet, clean spring, overwhelmed me. He pulled me into the shadows. My back met the smooth column that separated the balconies. A hand tangled in my hair and another down my side. The heat of his hand penetrated the thin silk of the dress. His tongue plunged deeper into my mouth and he arched my back, pulling me closer against him.

His phone vibrated loudly.

I slipped off the offending jacket that contained it. It fell to the floor in a heedless mess, the phone along with it. My fingers tightened in his hair as he continued the kiss. I don’t know how much time passed. All I heard was the music. All I tasted was his breath as I swam in the tides of moments for as long as the song would allow me. He pushed me deeper against the cold stone of the column. His leg slipped between mine.

A loud harrumph finally brought us back to land.

“Sire.” A voice came from somewhere beside us.

Vane tore his mouth from mine with a groan.

“You have the worst timing, Leonidas.” He moved off me and turned to face Leonidas, who stood on the outskirts of the small circular balcony.

“You did say to notify you immediately.” Leonidas’s stoic eyes locked on me. I could imagine what he saw—a rumpled gown and bruised lips and more…

We stared at each other for a second. Sizing each other with mutual distrust. Neither one of us would forget the gladiator pit. Vane picked up his jacket and I moved back into the light. I leaned on the balcony’s railing and tried to catch my breath.

Looking past the heat of the dancers, my gaze swept over the windows to the cool serenity of the pond outside. I stilled when I spotted a face that shouldn’t have been there. Under dim lamplight, I spotted a face I’d hoped to never see again.
Oliver.
Once a candidate for Excalibur, now he was only a son who’d murdered his father.

Oliver stood near the pond. A group of mermaids with swords in their hands surrounded him. I swiveled back to Vane. “What is Oliver doing here?”

A flash went through his eyes. His head jerked to the windows and he spotted the mermaids outside. He crossed to me in two steps. His hand slipped around my waist, gripping the curve of my hip.

“I’m sorry, Ryan,” he murmured before turning me to face the ballroom. Green magic sent a loud boom across the domed hall. There was a moment of stunned silence as the music cut out.

“Grey Ragnar.” Vane’s voice exploded across the suddenly quiet hall. He put his hand around the back of my neck and brought me close to him in a mark of clear possession. “You’re needed outside.”

“What are you doing?” I demanded.

“Coach Vane?” a girl from the lacrosse team cried in recognition.

In the crowd below us, a young wizard pointed up. “Vane!”

“Get Merlin,” someone hissed.

Vane waved his hand. Music filled the space again and drowned out the charged chatter. It couldn’t diminish the sudden tension prickling in the room. The regular students murmured amongst themselves in confusion.

Vane turned to me. “Come with me.”

I shook his hand, a manacle, off my neck. “I don’t think so.”

He lifted his hand and turned it palm up. A small green fireball spun with hungry eagerness. “This is a very crowded ballroom, Ryan.”

I narrowed my eyes. “Are you threatening me? Because I don’t believe it.”

A hand clamped on my bare shoulder. “Actually, everyone but you.” He looked out over the ballroom. Ice green filled his eyes. “I suggest you believe that.”

I did. The answer showed, because he grabbed my elbow and led me downstairs. It didn’t take long to cross the dance floor. The crowd parted for us without even noticing, and we left the imperial room to the dark green lawn outside.

Vane marched me to the group of mermaids. Dressed in black cargos and T-shirts, they could have passed for a SWAT team. Except their skin was tinged with green, two men sported pointed ears, and angry red slashes—their gills—poked out from under their collars. Vane barked at their leader, “Does he have it?”

Leonidas, the hulking mermaid prince, said slowly, “Of course. It’s as you thought, sire. He was lurking around the hotel. Waiting for a moment to get her alone.”

Leonidas held up Excalibur. I gasped. My arm instinctively reached out for the blade. It swung toward me, also seeking my hold. Vane stepped in between and took the blade. He turned to me with an impassive expression. I dropped my arm.

“How did Oliver get my sword? Why is he loose?”

Vane’s brow arched. “
Your
sword was stolen.”

I scowled at him. “You let him steal Excalibur? You let him escape?”

“I didn’t
let
him. He did. And I was… otherwise occupied.” Impersonal eyes traveled over my bare shoulders down to the plunging neckline. My body tightened even under the cold perusal.

Two other mermaids held Oliver at swordpoint. On the ground lay several dead gargoyles. Vane stared at them. “The dissension among them is intensifying. Rourke should have declared his heir.”

“You know he couldn’t,” I said. Since Grey hadn’t transformed, only Oliver was eligible to take the throne. Rourke wasn’t about to name the son who’d poisoned him as his successor.

“More’s the pity,” Vane murmured.

“I am the king!” Oliver snarled. He lunged past the mermaids at me. They quickly subdued him. One pressed the tip of a sword into his chest, breaking skin.

“Stop,” Vane said. “He is still useful.”

I didn’t like the sound of that statement. “Useful how?”

Oliver laughed. “To replace you, sword-bearer. Why else? If I kill you, I can claim Excalibur.”

“Is that right?” Leonidas’s mermaid green eyes flickered over me. I could see his mind turn as he glanced at Excalibur. He’d beaten me several times in the pit, if only I hadn’t survived. A flash of green magic zapped the prince. He fell to his knees with a pained grunt. Leonidas’s sword flew into Vane’s hand. He put it above Leonidas’s bent head. Blood formed at the edge of the blade.

Still holding Excalibur in one hand, Vane pressed the second sword into the back of the prince’s neck. “Remember your place, mermaid.”

Leonidas took a heavy breath. “I beg your pardon, my king.”

Vane dropped the sword at Leonidas’s feet. Leonidas quickly grabbed it and stood up.

I faced Vane. “This is why you took me to prom. To use me as bait.”

He shrugged. “I knew he was lurking close. A trap is better when you’re the one who’s laid it.”

He’d laid it, and I’d fallen right in. My hands fisted at my sides. Anger coursed through me. “And coming to school? What was that about?”

His lips curved into a wistful smile. “A small ruse—”

“Ryan.”

Grey strode up the slight slope from the ballroom. Colin and a huge gang of gargoyles took up his left. On his right, Gia, in a flowing white dress, a group of younger gargoyles, and a surprising number of wizards dressed in formal suits flanked him.

Vane glanced at me. The thin strand of a weeping willow swung between us like a pendulum. Light flickered across eyes dotted with more hateful green. He stated, “There can be only one king.”

One gargoyle king. I went cold. “What are you doing, Vane?”

My heart sank when the green in his eyes intensified. He said softly, “What I have to.”

With sharp fingernails, I gouged my own palms. “There’s nothing you have to do. It’s always been your choice.”

He inclined his head. “I’ve never seen it that way.”

"
Vicarati
,” he said. A green breeze covered me briefly. I tried to move, but found my body locked in place. I grimaced. At least I could move my face. The
Dragon’s Eye
heated my neck as I began to fight against the spell.

Vane chuckled at my persistence. Drawing my hand up, he kissed it.

“Leonidas, keep an eye on her.” Even though I couldn’t move, Leonidas grabbed my shoulder and thrust a sword in front of my stomach. It dug into the bandage under purple silk, sending shooting pain up my abdomen. I hissed, the only thing I could do. Leonidas grunted in satisfaction at the sound of my pain.

Vane faced Grey with Excalibur in his hand. “I need the gargoyles, Ragnar. You’re standing in my way. The problem is if I kill you, I’m not sure the gargoyles will wholly fall into line. You’ve made some powerful allies.” His eyes settled on Colin. Then shifted to the dead gargoyles beside Oliver. “Unfortunately, his claim to the throne is stronger. He is Rourke’s direct descendant. Which leaves me one way to solve this.”

Vane crooked a finger at Oliver. With a snarl, Oliver shook off the mermaids holding him. He stalked forward, transforming into his gargoyle face—protruding forehead and elongated teeth.

“A duel,” Vane told Grey.

“No,” Gia and I cried at the same time on opposite sides of the field.

Vane faced the gargoyles. “He hasn’t changed. I thought he would after Rourke died. We all thought so. So did you.”

Colin and the gargoyles behind Grey shifted.

Gia protested, “There’s time—”

“No, there isn’t.” Vane pointed up at the sky. “The gargoyles must have a leader. I don’t know how we’re going to live through what’s coming, but I do know the gargoyles must stay united. Now is not the time for us to splinter. If you fall into a civil war, none of you will survive.”

“He’s right,” Grey said. He walked up the slope. Gia and Colin walked up with him.

Colin drew out a knife. Uttering a small command, he changed it into a sword. He handed it to Grey. “We follow him.”

“Not if I win. Then you will bow to me. You will have no choice.” Oliver laughed from beside Vane. The hierarchical nature of the gargoyles demanded it. It physically hurt them to refuse a direct command from their king or even their clan leader. It was the downside to being part of a super-strong, nearly indestructible beast.