by Scott, Helen
One thing I had learned, though, was that when it came to Merlin, he always had a plan, and he only ever did things in his own timeframe and we never merited a full explanation.
❖
Merlin
The children were talking, and while I knew I should stay and participate, the conversation was incredibly dull considering I knew what had to be done. There was only the execution that was left, and the closer I got to that, the longer it seemed to take. Even I wasn’t immune from the effects of patience, or rather impatience.
When I sat and looked out over the Atlantic, I couldn’t help but think about the men who had betrayed me so long ago. They weren’t bad men. They were just misguided, obsessed with the idea of good being pure and innocent, and dark being malicious and evil, they had lived through the Dark Ages, after all, and that left a mark.
Without thinking, I reached toward them mentally. Part of me expected to be unable to even find the others and part of me hoped I couldn’t, but mostly I knew that they would never completely shut me out. We had been a family once upon a time, and family, however toxic, was hard to lock out of your life. As I drifted, searching for the familiar brain patterns of those who I still considered family even if they had dealt me the harshest blow of all with their betrayal, I couldn’t help but ponder what was coming, and what the aftermath of it would be.
Rhys’s anger was the first that got my attention. The man never knew when he had a good thing until it was gone, and I was willing to bet he was feeling the same way about Elizabeth in that moment. She was his mate, and like it or not, they were meant to be, not just him though, the rest of the Cavalry as well.
They were staying in a hotel for the night. It wasn’t that they were stopping their search, or even that there was much of a search going on. They were definitely on the move and in a very specific direction—heading toward Reaper territory.
When I made my consciousness visible, Drake looked directly at me and commented, “Took you long enough.”
“Hello to you too,” I replied, feeling salty that I hadn’t managed to surprise any of them.
“What the fuck do you think you’re doing here, Merlin? Are you seeking death at our hand?” Rhys demanded, his anger whipping out of him via his verbal assault.
“You can try, but I’m astral projecting. I’m not really here, so please, attack away,” I taunted, spreading my arms wide and inviting their best shots.
I wasn’t disappointed when it was Jasper who let loose a bolt of power. It zoomed through me and probably only caused a slight ripple, if anything, in my image.
“If you’re here to lecture us about how evil our Lady is, then you can just quit now,” Alexander muttered, raising one eyebrow as he looked at me.
“I know better than that,” I said, tutting at him. “I’m here to tell you that I’m ready to die.” My words sank like an anchor in the ocean. I waited for one of them to say something, but they didn’t. Silence echoed all around me and practically made my ears start ringing, or would have if I’d actually been there. I sighed and added, “Isn’t anyone going to ask me what I’m talking about?”
“We learned a long time ago that you talk no matter what we want, so just get on with it,” Rhys growled.
“Fine. I know you won’t defect from the Lady, but I do want you to consider this. The only way you’ll kill me, destroy everything I am, is if you do the same to her. We are linked, she and I, more than she realizes, and while you may wish to unleash vengeance upon me for imprisoning Nimue, know that you may destroy this physical body, but I will return, and I will only become stronger than ever before. However, if you choose your freedom over an eternity of being chained to that woman’s whims, then I will gladly give my life, end my existence, so long as hers is ended as well.”
“You want us to help you kill the goddess we’ve worshiped for millennia so that we can kill you and gain some kind of freedom you’re insinuating we don’t have right now?” Jasper clarified, folding his arms across his chest as he glared at me with a ferocity that would have frightened a lesser man.
Not that I was lesser or even a man… “That’s the crux of the matter, yes.”
“Fuck off,” Rhys muttered, before he turned away from me.
“Gladly, so long as you actually think about it. I’ve seen all my possible deaths, and I’m ready for them. After all, I had very little to do in that tree. Nimue will never let you go, you’ll never be free as long as she walks the Earth, but if she’s gone, you can do whatever you want, live however and wherever you want.
“I’m sure Elizabeth would love to see the world, since she’s only just coming out of withdrawals. Would Nimue let you take her, travel with her, start a family with her?” I was guessing, taking a few shots in the dark, but I knew these men at the core of their being. Time passed for everyone, but one thing I’d learned over the obscene amount of years I was imprisoned, was that people don’t change the core of who they are.
“Why would we want to start a family with a drug addict?” Rhys spat.
“Because I know one of the things you’ve wanted for most of your life was to have children. Elizabeth is your mate. I would be willing to bet that even if you wanted to fuck someone else to beget offspring, you wouldn’t be able to get it up. Have you even tried jerking off thinking about someone other than the beguiling chit who is your mate now you know who and what she is to you?” Their tensed jaws and irate glowers were enough of an answer to that particular question. “The Lady was never a fan of multiple partners, so I’m honestly surprised that you all have the same mate, but if you try and cheat on Elizabeth, physically or mentally, then I’m sure Nimue is going to have something to say, or possible do, to all of you about that.”
I paused, deciding that stretching the truth here was a wise option, adding, “Oh, and just so you know, Elizabeth is currently getting ready to pass out in a strange place just because she can see Nimue for what she is.
“Don’t be blind. You’ve given your lives to the Lady and she’s never even said thank you.” I snorted. “Rhys, I doubt she’s even called you by your given name. Are you still son of Bodin?” When he growled under his breath, I laughed slightly and dug the knife in harder, “Elizabeth certainly wasn’t a thank you, she was a test for you to fail, and to keep you loyal to the Lady. I’m not asking for your loyalty, all I’m asking is that you unshackle yourselves from the Lady. Work with me and take back your freedom, take back your right to have lives of your own, to actually bond with your mate and form a life with her.”
It was a big speech, and I was somewhat shocked that they let me make it without any interruptions, but before they could reply, I poofed out of existence and retreated to my first port of call.
The second I’d landed in the Americas, traversing from Chicago to LA, New York to Florida, I’d decided that herding my children was a wise option, and herded they were.
As I landed in the cave where I’d dumped them, treating them with as little grace as they had me these past millennia, I smiled up at them in their cages of glass and oak roots.
“Daddy’s home.”
9
Arthur
“This is ridiculous,” Morgana hissed, her hands bloody from having torn at the roots entangling the glass balls we were suspended in.
The second the Earth had stirred with Merlin’s liberation, I had anticipated this. There was no way our father would allow us to roam when the Lady was intent on making war.
What I hadn’t anticipated was his cunning.
Amazing how several thousand lifetimes apart could make you forget just how clever someone was.
Our cages were crafted with us in mind. The glass was forged into the oak roots themselves, meaning that Elayne, the Mother of Druids, couldn’t tear them asunder because not only were they not growing in the earth, but because the glass had compromised their structure. Strengthening them to the point of tungsten where our magics were concerned.
“Hardly ridiculous, daught
er, not when you’ve been plotting against me almost since the day of your birth,” Merlin rasped, his eyes drifting over Morgana who looked more rabid than usual.
Nor was that a surprise. The bitch took more blood than myself, Morgause, and Elayne combined.
There was a beautiful hypocrisy to his words, and I was hard-pressed not to sneer the truth at him. Both he and the Lady were so swollen with their own self-importance that we were usually pushed aside. Forgotten.
And what did neglected children do?
Acted up.
In their own unique and unusual ways.
The Lady didn’t realize this, and nor was I about to tell her, because I appreciated my head being right where it was, but Merlin was stronger than her.
A thousand-fold stronger.
That was one of the reasons why we were on her side.
Because with the five of us united, and had the mate of that hellcat Marcella not destroyed our plans, the Lady would have been reinforced. The second she took down Merlin, we could take her down, and then we could reign in peace.
Yes.
Peace.
For millennia, we’d been at the center of a war that was not of our making.
We’d Awoken and Slept during spells of misery the likes of which the human race didn’t even remember, and all because we’d shielded them from it.
We were not good, nor we were bad.
But Merlin and the Lady… they were corrupt to their core, and now Merlin walked the Earth too? I feared for not only myself and my catty sisters, but the human race as well.
“Father, is this truly necessary?” Morgause asked, ever the diplomat. It was the shifter in her, the beast who spoke. She appreciated the alpha in our father, and knew that diplomacy was the only means of appeasing someone who was bigger, stronger, and more powerful than you.
“Yes, indeed it is.” Merlin folded his arms across his chest as he tutted at us. “Such a disappointment, the four of you. All these years on this plane and what have you achieved?” He huffed. “Truly, what have you achieved? The council of pursangs is corrupt, the true strength of your bloodlines is under their thumb...”
My nostrils flared at that. “You speak of what you do not know.”
He cocked a brow at me. “Oh, indeed? Then do explain, son. I have all the time in the world.”
Mouth tightening, I grated out, “To allow a race so powerful to reign over the rest would be the height of folly—”
My father narrowed his eyes. “The height of folly? Like these pampered nobodies who squawk of nothing save their own importance.” He tutted. “They’re the ones who are sullied. Their lines are so incestuous, it is a travesty that they reign over my people.” His jaw tightened. “Before I deal with the Lady, I fear I must handle them as well.”
“If you take away the council, Father,” Elayne inserted quickly, “then you take away the laws of the land. Is that wise?”
“Is it wise to have a corrupt council?” he countered.
“They are the kinder of two evils,” I rasped. “Imagine a world in which creatures like the salsangs reign supreme?”
“I did, son,” Merlin growled. “That is why they exist.”
I gritted my teeth. “They are too volatile. Too dangerous to control.”
“You consider yourself a Maker, do you? You are a Sire, nothing more, nothing less. Through me, you were created, and through you, I decided the species this world needed to survive.”
“Such arrogance,” Morgana snapped, her eyes turning bloodred as our father turned to stare at her, “to infer that you know what the world needs when you have been in a cage for longer than these species have roamed this land.”
Was it wise to remind him of the prison we’d helped trapped him in?
No.
But that was Morgana. Ever speaking without thinking.
I sighed and was not surprised when, with the flick of his hand and the blink of an eye, Morgana’s hands were scrabbling at her throat, as imaginary fingers tightened around her windpipe.
Ignoring the squawking she made, since this was not the first time my father had punished her thusly, I stated quietly, “She is not wrong, Father. She speaks callously and without prior thought as she is wont to do, but she speaks true. You are not aware of the minutiae at play on this world. The politics here are—”
“As politics always are,” Merlin growled, folding his arms across his chest. It had been a long time since I’d seen him, and after far too long in a tree, he was looking surprisingly well groomed, whereas I, on the other hand, looked wretched—even after only two days in this cage. “Did you think I was unaware of this? Did you think I knew not the intricacies of politics would create a new world order?
“You four were born to breathe new life into a world, whose magic was slowly dying out. Whose land was morphing by the tides of the sea and with a gust of the wind. I brought magic back to it with your creation and, through you, those creatures were born to breed together. For a reason. To let the magic flourish.
“A lineage of pureblood dogs will never run as strong as a motley crew of mutts. You have sabotaged this land when you should have known that I, as Maker, as your Maker, was aware of these so-called intricacies more so than you.
“Instead, you let your children, Morgana, reign supreme. You fostered blood lines, purebloods, over the right and true path that would lead to a fairer, juster, safer world—”
Stung, I spat, “So we are as we have always suspected, simply vessels?”
Merlin’s top lip curled up. “Useless vessels at that. You all sprung leaks right at the start.” He held out his arms, turned his palms over, and blew onto them. As he did, our cages, which were suspended over the rocky ground of the cave we’d been captured in, began to rotate.
Stomach churning, I growled, “Is this necessary?”
“Indeed it is,” he purred. “It is one thing to mutiny against one’s own father, but it is another thing to destroy his world plan. The sullied lines that control these lands, that think of nothing other than their power and their wealth, have destroyed what I set out to create. Who else deserves my punishment than those who were born to serve me and who betrayed me instead?”
My nostrils flared as I stared at him, as I stared at my father and the Maker of the world we lived in today. There was an utter lack of mercy, a cold, hard stoniness to his eyes that told me he would not be moved.
As I gazed out of the cave, through the fissure in the rock that enabled me to see the ocean beyond, I knew that would be my last sight.
We had failed him, betrayed him, and he would end us for that.
The Lady could not spare us. She undoubtedly would not, for she was intent on a course of her own. But we were mere puppets to her, just as we were to this man.
I closed my eyes and prepared myself for something that had never entered my mind until this night.
The end.
I didn’t welcome it. I didn’t cherish the thought of the end when I’d lived a life that lasted a hundred thousand times longer than most could even imagine. Indeed, I wept and waited for Merlin’s axe to fall.
❖
Marcella
I pressed a hand to my belly as the sudden stirring of nausea hit me. The pain was unusual, peculiar in that it didn’t hit my nerve endings like pain should. Instead, it hit me in a place that had only ever been stirred when Henrick had declared me a Descendant, back in that cabin which belonged to one of Gideon’s friends.
It hurt, yes, but it was a bewildering sizzle in my brain, in my blood. It made me blind, even as I saw better than I had a mere seconds before.
“What is it?” Barclay demanded, and as ever, it touched me, warmed me deep inside, to realize I was at the center of his attention.
I wasn’t needy. I didn’t need his eyes on me all the time, but the little girl who had been neglected by her parents? Who’d been abused and abandoned? That creature flourished under the care of her mates.
“I don’t know,�
�� I rasped as I thought about his words. Blinking at him, I took in the way he was crouched forward, leaning into me, cosseting me with his attention.
He was on the low sofa that sat in front of the large bed within the suite the Reapers had stacked us in momentarily. The antique, four-poster bed—one that would fit a football team, quite handy considering—took over the entire room, but there was a seating area squished in, and we were there, in front of a roaring fire because I was cold. Had been for a while.
Something was happening.
Something…
I turned to look at the spirit animals who’d insisted they remain liberated, and when I said insisted, I meant it. There had been no keeping them in, no containing them even as we’d traveled across the country, they’d demanded to be free. Like I was their prison, they’d stormed the gates and, as a result, were currently clustered inside the guest suite with us, listening with intent to the rock-concert-loud argument the Reapers were engaged in with Lily who, quite surprisingly, was demanding they let her do as the Maker wanted.
I wasn’t sure why she’d had her own personal ‘come to Jesus’ moment, but I wasn’t about to complain. Not when she was doing what we wanted.
Or, to be frank, what Merlin wanted.
And what Merlin wanted, I was coming to learn, he usually got.
Whether he’d slipped into her mind as he had Elizabeth was another matter entirely. I didn’t know, didn’t want to know, either. I was just grateful that we weren’t going to have to coerce her to a battle that might be the end of us all.
The truth was, I was starting to feel herded, but with the Lady wanting to wear me like a skinsuit and Merlin not, well, it wasn’t difficult to see why I was on his side.
That didn’t make him right. Nor did it make him honest or trustworthy. If anything, it made him the opposite, and I wasn’t unaware of that, but my hands were tied, and fuck, I loathed being backed into a corner.
