My Merlin Awakening (24 page)

I gritted my teeth.

Matt scowled. “That’s enough—”

I stepped on his foot to cut him off. I shook my head. We watched in silence as Vane went through the footage. I don’t know how much alcohol he had in him, but he dissected every detail of the sequences Matt and Rourke had put together.

Rourke and Matt watched him avidly. I got bored after five minutes. Grey came in later with Colin in tow. Gia, Blake, Grey and I started a game of poker. To my surprise, Colin sat at a grand piano and started playing a hauntingly beautiful song.

After several losing hands, I found myself released from the game, and although all I really wanted to do was sleep, I forced myself to stay. I sat down on a nearby sofa to listen to Colin play.

I don’t know how much later, I woke up with a start.

Gia and Blake were gone. Colin lay asleep on an armchair. Grey slept on the other side of the sofa from me. Vane, Matt, and Rourke hadn’t moved from the desk.

I glanced at a clock near the TV. Two  a.m. Ugh.

I went to stand in a safe spot beside Rourke. Vane gave me a look that screamed, “Coward.” I arched my brow and mouthed, “Bite me, ” to which he responded with a glower.

Vane turned the monitor to face Matt and me. “You saw eight formations in total. But a few sequences don’t match within the acceptable deviance. I’ve put together a few more sets. I want you to take a look at the following images side-by-side and tell me which one is more correct.” He tapped the monitor. Two images, one marked A and the other marked B, sprang up.

“A,” Matt and I both said at once.

Vane touched the screen. Two more images popped up, also marked A and B respectively.

“B,” I said.

“A,” Matt said.

Vane touched the screen again. We did about twelve. Then Vane went back to playing with the computer. As soon as we were done, Vane tapped a few keys and turned the monitor back to Rourke. “Here… this is correct.”

Rourke played the new sequences on the wall TV. I watched the whole thing and found the new sequences matched better. I didn’t doubt any of them.

“He’s right,” Rourke said. “This is more accurate. I had us plotted at least twenty nautical miles off. We would have never found it.” He leaned heavily on his cane to get up. Seeing the strain on his face, I moved to help him. “I’ll contact the boat captain right away.”

Vane stretched and yawned. “You’re welcome. Now if you will excuse me—”

Rourke’s cane crashed to the ground and his body started to follow. I tried to catch him, but couldn’t hold his weight. Matt moved quickly to help me. We managed to put him back in the chair.

Rourke’s face was pale and in pain as he said, “I can’t feel my legs.” He clutched his arm and started to jerk in the chair.

I looked at Matt. “He’s having a seizure.”

Matt leaned down and put a hand to Rourke’s chest. A blue sheen of light flowed from Matt to Rourke and Rourke stopped shaking. The gargoyle king slumped in the chair with his eyes closed.

Matt slumped heavily against the edge of the desk. “I’ve healed him for the moment, but he’s getting worse.”

“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 become 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.”