Shades of Avalon (27 page)

Amanda shrank back, and I reached for her automatically, taking both her hands, keeping her with me, even when every molecule in my body told me not to. I was a selfish creature despite my best efforts. I didn’t deserve someone like her. “I know none of us can ever move on from this until we put Zeal in the ground.”

Amanda’s eyes glazed over with moisture, and she smiled, understanding my conflict and my panic. I couldn’t leave her or ask her to leave me, and that meant getting her caught up in another Guardian battle.

“So we are in agreement then,” Merlin offered soundly and followed his statement with a bored sigh.

My cheeks heated as I retook my seat, trying not to meet anyone’s direct gaze after my outburst. I just said what everyone else must be thinking. No one at this table wanted this but we all had something to lose. Zeal would never leave any of us in peace while he drew breath.

“They will have the advantage in numbers,” Samuel reminded the gathering.

“Then we take the advantage back,” Triona said. “We use guns.”

“That is not our way,” Annice told her.

“Maybe it’s time we make it our way.” I slapped my hand on the table. “We have to do something.”

Samuel shook his head. “We use guns, and they retaliate with guns, and there are still more of them. How many of us will be shot down? That path will do more harm than help us. Zeal will stick to the old ways—the Guardian ways. I know him. But as soon as we pick up guns, we’ve already lost.”

Emma inclined her head and whispered to John. “I don’t want to wade into a fight, Johnny, but I swear if you suggest I sit this out, I will take one of your precious swords and cut you a new arsehole.”

John flattened his lips and narrowed his eyes at his sister before turning to Samuel. “Maybe—” John’s face scrunched up in a grimace “—Maybe we can turn Guardian fighting strengths into weakness.”

“In what way?” Triona asked.

John inhaled deeply and dipped his head as though still forming the idea. He darted a sideway glance to Arthur and then back to the table. His eyes flashed bright and enthused. “We use swords. Think about it. For a Guardian to do damage, they have to get within arm’s length. We don’t let them get that close.”

“That could work. Swords are considered a part of our oldest traditions, but it’s rare enough in modern time that it
would
give us an advantage,” Eila explained. “If we were competent.”

I was skeptical. In theory it was a good idea. I had seen Triona fight him using her sharpened talons and a sword. I had seen how John held her back and confused her with his blade. Still…

John went on. “I’ve been using swords since I was a kid. Our great, great, great grandfather collected broad swords, and it went down through the generations. When I was seven I wanted to be a dragon slayer.” John chuckled, a slight flush coloring his cheeks. “I guess little boys never grow up. We just get taller.”

A shuffling noise came from behind Merlin’s chair, and Archú whined lowly.

“I can teach Amanda how to use a bow,” Emma suggested. “Two weeks isn’t much time, but we can do something with it. I can throw a sword about too if I have to, but my strength is archery.”

“You can use a broad sword?” Amanda asked wide-eyed. We didn’t have much call for using swords growing up in Maine.

Emma shrugged. “I guess everyone has something in their blood. John showed me a few things when I was a kid. I know there’s more to it, but stance and keeping the sharp end away is a good start. I guess I gravitated more to Robin Hood than King Arthur. No offense.” She raised an eyebrow and winkled her nose when she addressed Arthur.

He bent his head respectfully. “No offense taken.”

I was partial to the idea of Amanda with a bow in her hand if it meant keeping a distance from any hand-to-hand combat. Like Emma, she didn’t possess the speed and agility to match a Guardian.

“The mist thing,” I said, thinking about the guys in the park. If they travel as mist, why couldn’t we?

“Is there more to that particular statement?” Guinevere prompted helpfully.

“Well, yeah,” I replied with the obvious. “I want to know how to do it.”

“I can teach you,” Merlin offered without missing a beat, although he continued to watch his dancing fingers. “Forgotten ways are not lost ways. As I told you, mountain, you have no idea what you are capable of. None of you do.”

“What about Lewis and Carmel?” Triona asked.

“You want them to join in?” I responded, surprised by her suggestion.

“Gods no!” she said. “I want to keep them out of this if at all possible. What if something goes wrong? What if we aren’t there to protect them in the future? Don’t they have a right to know what’s happening?”

I reflected for a moment. I wanted to talk to Lewis about all this. I wanted him to help me make sense of everything the way he did when I began to show signs of my Guardian blood. “No,” I said. “We shouldn’t tell them. We should play it like we did before we left for Tara—need to know. They can’t help us, and if we fail, we can’t help them.”

“They are safe for now,” Annice assured us. “We are limited with support but have people watching them.”

“How much do you really think you can teach in a couple of days?” Joshua leaned his elbow on the table and fixed John with a challenging look.

“Enough,” Arthur answered his question before John had a chance. “I will help.”

“Me too,” Guinevere added. “I have a debt to repay.”

Joshua rubbed the back of his neck and eased back. Eila smirked. Arthur had to be telling the truth. He was convinced he could teach us all enough to give us the upper hand against Zeal. This was good news.

“Regardless of debt,” Arthur explained, “it is the right thing to do.” He linked his fingers with Guinevere’s and pressed his lips to the back of her hand, gazing at her as though the rest of us in the room no longer existed. “You agree, Emrys, do you not?”

Merlin’s lips widened. It wasn’t quite a grin but he did seem interested for a few seconds before he disappeared behind a fog of confusion. He apparently found something fascinating about the wrought iron light fittings hanging over the table.

So that was it. Thirteen days and this would be over one way or another.

Chapter 21

Confessions

I W
OKE
T
O
A F
IST
hammering on the thick wooden door of our bedroom. Amanda rolled over and curled into my arms, burying her face in my chest.

“Why does everyone around here hate sleep?” she moaned, her warm breath heating my bare skin.

We’d talked about training until well past sun up, and judging by the hazy light slicing through the heavy drapes, it couldn’t be more than early afternoon.

The banging continued.

“Ben, Amanda,” Samuel called urgently through the door. “You need to wake up. Ben!” The intensity of his voice grew with each word and my chest clenched. Samuel wasn’t prone to exaggeration in word or action.

“Be right there,” I called back, surprised by the grainy texture of the sound.

“Quickly,” Samuel pushed.

Amanda lifted her head. One eye squeezed shut as she tried to focus on me with the other. Dust whooshed upward and danced through the sunbeams of light in the room like tiny particles of glitter. Goose bumps rose on my arms in the cool air, and I wondered if this place ever felt warm.

I slipped my feet into my sneakers and picked up my T-shirt from the floor, pulling it over my head on the way to the door.

Samuel’s hands lay on the frame of the door when I opened it. He looked up at me though eyes rimmed with dark smudges, startling me with his disheveled appearance. A faint hint of facial hair covered his jawline, though I had never seen him with anything other than a close shave. His shirt was wrinkled again, and his feet were bare.

“Jesus, Samuel,” I began, alarmed, the hairs on the back of my neck prickled. “What the hell happened?”

I heard shuffling from behind, and Amanda dragged herself from bed.

Samuel opened his mouth, but no sound came out. Amanda’s fingers curled over my shoulder as she came to my side.

“Oh no,” she murmured at the sight of him.

I fiddled with the string on my sweatpants to stop my hands from shaking.

“They are coming,” Samuel said and pushed off the frame. He threaded his fingers through his hair as my foggy, sleep addled brain struggled to take in his meaning.

“They can’t. We’re not ready, and we have almost two weeks to prepare.”

Samuel grunted a laugh. “I don’t think Zeal is stopping to consider if we’ve had sufficient time to prepare for him. He isn’t coming for a fight. He’s coming for the Stone.”

Amanda stepped toward him and took his hand. “I don’t think Ben meant it that way, and it’s John. They are coming for a person, not a thing.”

Samuel frowned and sucked in a breath. “No, you’re right. I apologize. I’m afraid I’m not thinking as clearly as I could be.”

“Least of my worries now, Samuel.” I knew the hope of his son returning must rest heavy on his shoulders. But he knew we couldn’t just let Zeal take John instead.
If Zeal intends an exchange
. What’s to say he didn’t intend to slaughter us? “Where’s Triona?”

“She’s in the basement training room with John,” Samuel said. “I heard from a contact not five minutes ago. I haven’t even told Annice yet.”

My heart pounded rapidly inside my chest, making it hard to think straight. There were things we needed to do. “I’ll get her. If she doesn’t know yet, she will as soon as they try to move Caleb.”

“Wait here while I get my jeans on,” Amanda said to him. “I’ll go with you to gather up the others.”

“Wait.” I grabbed her arm, forcing her to meet my eyes. “You aren’t ready for this.”

Her brow puckered. “None of us are, Ben. We’ll have to make do. We don’t have a choice.”

She was right. It didn’t mean I had to like it. “Whatever happens, promise me you won’t take any foolish chances.”

“Likewise.” She smirked, but her hand trembled.

I slid my hand around her neck and covered her mouth with mine. Not caring about our audience, I slipped my tongue past her lips and tasted her sweetness, committing it to memory. Amanda soon melted into the kiss. I savored her rapid heartbeat and the quick breaths. In a different possibility of life, another Amanda and Ben might have been kissing goodbye before work. No matter what, we had to get through this. Even if I couldn’t give her the exact future Merlin showed me, I’d be damned if I’d let our story end here.

Her face was flushed when I drew back, and her eyes flicked to Samuel who pretended not to see our exchange.

“I’ll see you both downstairs,” I said as I passed Samuel.

“I’ll just be a second,” Amanda told him before closing the door.

I made my way into the depths of the mansion and progressed through a series of stone tunnels illuminated by small fixtures casting triangles of pale yellow light on the polished floors. Several doors punctuated the tunnel and I opened them all.

When I reached the final door, I walked into the training room, and my feet refused to move—as if I’d stepped into quick drying concrete.

Holy crap. What had I walked in on?

They didn’t notice me.

John had Triona backed up against one of the side walls, her fingers curled into the paneling. Below her fingertips, five uneven narrow valleys were scratched into the wood.

She stared straight at John, utterly transfixed. He held her there, one forearm pressed horizontally above her chest, his upper body bare and covered in a sheen of sweat from their work out. The black mark on his back glistened in the artificial overhead light giving it the appearance of oil painted on his spine. The crescents had extended since I last saw the mark, curling in on themselves to form the beginning of three spirals shapes. It more closely resembled the tri-spiral I had seen online.

The muscles of John’s upper arm and back were tensed to the point of rigidity and flexed with each panting breath he took. His eyes were as wide as hers, and his lips were drawn back over his gritted teeth from the force he was exerting to hold her there. Or maybe it was to hold himself back. I couldn’t honestly be sure of which, as each pant brought their bodies in contact.