Claiming Excalibur

by LH Nicole

  “Excuse me,” Wade said impatiently. Dawn laughed as he pulled her hand from Owen’s and scooped the short girl up into a big hug. “It’s good to see you again, sunshine.”

  “How many times do I have to tell you not to call me that?” Dawn tried to look stern but failed. The bright blush on her pale cheeks gave her away. She’d never admitted to having a crush on Wade, but Aliana suspected the two of them liked each other. She just couldn’t figure out why they hadn’t acted on it yet.

  “Careful, big brother,” Lacy joked as Wade finally let go of Dawn. “You remember what happened last time you refused to stop calling her sunshine.”

  Aliana explained the joke, and to Wade’s credit, he didn’t pale at the memory of finding the crabs Dawn had put in his car as retaliation.

  Dawn’s eyes shot to Aliana’s bag again. “Okay, why the heck are my instincts screaming that there’s something in that bag of yours, Lia? I’m starting to think there’s someone else you need to introduce me to.”

  Aliana saw the top of Dagg’s head peeking out. She sent out a quiet prayer that Dawn was ready for this introduction before saying, “Come on out, Dagg.”

  The small, marbled Dragon flew from the bag to hover in front of the trio of girls. Dawn’s hazel eyes widened, her mouth falling open as she gasped. “Lia, is that a flying lizard or a really good prop from a photo shoot?”

  Dagg’s long mouth frowned and he flew closer, stopping in front of Dawn. “I am no prop.”

  Aliana opened her mouth to introduce the two, but Dawn spoke first. “You are so freaking cool!” Dawn held her hands out for Dagg. “I don’t know how or why, but I just knew something was hiding in that bag.”

  Aliana glanced at Lancelot and Merlin. Their previously annoyed expressions were now more assessing. Aliana let out a relieved sigh. Dawn had dealt with Dagg better than she herself had!

  With a big smile, Dagg landed in Dawn’s cupped palms. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Dawn. Aliana has spoken of you often.”

  “None of the stories are true!” Dawn said, laughing. “Aliana and Lacy were the ones who talked me into all those pranks.”

  “Whatever!” Lacy and Aliana denied with fake indignity.

  “As entertaining as this has been, I suggest we get moving.” Lancelot’s impatience had apparently returned.

  The girls looked at each other and shrugged. With Aliana’s black bag in his hand, Galahad wrapped his other arm around Aliana’s waist and walked with her and the girls to Dawn’s old, but well-loved convertible. Next to the car was the monster SUV Merlin had arranged for them. As much as she loved the guys, Aliana was beyond grateful that she wouldn’t be stuffed between eight fairly large guys in there.

  “Pump your breaks, Romeo,” Dawn said to Galahad, holding her hand out to stop him.

  Galahad looked down at Aliana, confused.

  “Sorry, Galahad,” she said. “It’s kinda our girls-only tradition. Top down, blasting tunes, and gossiping.”

  The knight’s arm tightened around her waist. “I think one of us should be with you. Wade at the very least.”

  “Not a chance,” Wade said, glancing up from the back of the SUV, where the guys were loading the luggage. “I love my girls, but I’ll never ride in a car with all of them again! Besides, you should know by now that arguing with them is pointless.”

  Galahad sighed heavily as the other knights piled into the black SUV.

  “I have Dagg,” Aliana said, stroking the Dragon, who’d perched on her shoulders. “Plus we’ll stay close to you guys the whole way. I promise! And it’s not like we’re totally defenseless.” She held out her hand, glancing around to be sure nobody else had entered the hangar before summoning a small wave of her pink, sparkly magic.

  “OMG, Lia, that’s incredible!” Dawn cheered as the twirling pink lights flickered out.

  Aliana shrugged. “I hate to say it, but Merlin’s a good teacher. When he’s not being the grumpy Druid, that is.” Ever since the battle with Mordrid, Aliana’s magic had been getting stronger and easier to control. Something had happened when she’d connected to the earth and Mordrid’s gray magic, but she and Dagg had yet to figure out what.

  3

  I couldn’t stop my eyes drifting back to Galahad and Aliana on the plane. Every time I see them together a memory of Guinevere flares to life. I will never get to hold my love like that again or feel her soft breath on my chest as she sleeps. I hate myself for my envy, but there is something else that weighs on me about Galahad. He’s changed since the battle a week ago. I can’t quite place it, but it worries me. There’s darkness around him. It reminds me of a magical signature I tracked several lifetimes ago.

  ~Lancelot

  GIVING IN, GALAHAD PLACED Aliana’s black bag in the back seat of Dawn’s car. “Have fun with your friends. Try to stay out of trouble.” He claimed Aliana’s mouth in a quick but searing kiss that left her breathless and clinging to his shirt when he pulled back. Smiling at her dazed look, he helped her into the back seat, closing the door behind her.

  “Wow, protective and possessive, isn’t he?” Dawn asked, giggling as Galahad climbed into the back of the SUV with the other guys. Wearing a crooked smile, Aliana swatted Dawn.

  “You have no idea!” Lacy added through her own laughter. “Wait till the action starts. They all go crazy!”

  Aliana pulled her hair into a loose braid and slipped on her sunglasses while the convertible followed the SUV out of the hangar. Dawn hooked her iPod up to the car stereo and met Aliana’s eyes in the rearview mirror. “After that little display of pink glitter back there, you better get to giving me all the details you’ve clearly left out.”

  “It’ll take longer than a car ride to explain, but we can do a Reader’s Digest version.” Aliana paused for a breath. “You already know the gist of the situation—”

  Dawn nodded. “Right, crazy prophecy laid down by a psycho Fae queen, you saving Galahad and Arthur and setting out to help them save the world by finding Excalibur and this Grail of Power. And you and Lacy have, of course, gotten very cozy with two of the hottest guys ever.”

  Lacy frowned. “Because us getting boyfriends is the most important detail of all that.”

  Dawn stuck out her tongue, and then nodded for Aliana to continue.

  “Moving on. Except for Galahad, Arthur, and Merlin, all the guys are reincarnated.”

  Dawn’s eyes widened and the car swerved over the lane lines for a second. Aliana braced her hands on the back of Lacy’s seat. Her blond friend gripped the dashboard tightly, glaring at Dawn. “D, I love ya’ and all, but I think the rest of this should wait till we’re not in a situation where you could kill us before Mordrid and Morgana do!”

  Dawn nodded silently, her freckles standing out on her paled skin. Her shoulders relaxed as she continued to follow Merlin, who was barely doing the speed limit. After a few minutes, she began tapping her fingers with impatience. Aliana was impressed that the speed demon had been good for this long. “Could he go any slower?” Dawn whined. “How are we supposed to follow tradition if he’s moving slower than a snail?”

  Dawn and Lacy shared a devilish grin, and Aliana knew exactly what they were thinking.

  “It is tradition,” Lacy pointed out.

  “They’re gonna hate it,” Aliana told them through a small smile.

  “All the more reason to do it!” Dawn cheered and blasted the music as the song changed to Hunter Hayes’s “I Want Crazy.”

  “Just don’t get too far ahead,” Aliana warned, unable to contain her carefree smile.

  “Yeah!” Lacy and Dawn punched their fists into the air.

  Aliana heard Dagg’s resigned grumble, “I knew this was going to be trouble.”

  Checking that the road was clear, Dawn accelerated and zipped into the opposite lane, picking up speed and zooming in front of the black SUV. The girls sang off key at the top of their lungs and blew kisses at the guys as they sped past. Aliana turned her face up to the sky, loving the
warm, humid air as it sailed over her skin. For the first time since her parents’ deaths, she let all the heaviness and angst fall away. Enjoying the energetic enthusiasm reminded her that she was only eighteen years old. Still a teenager. She should be letting loose and having fun with her friends, and getting into trouble. She shouldn’t be worrying about fulfilling a fifteen-hundred-year-old prophecy and wondering if she was going to be able to save the world from total domination.

  The song changed again, and Lacy started telling Dawn all about Percy and how he’d been such a great dancer at the charity party where they’d met a few weeks ago. She told her how he’d stolen a long, hot kiss after following her from the dance floor. Aliana couldn’t help remembering Galahad’s branding kiss from that same night and thinking about how their intimacy had only gotten better since. She rested her hand behind her head and accepted that she couldn’t control the future or what would happen to all of them over the next few months.

  “You have to take the good things when you can,” Dawn said, reading Aliana’s expression in the rearview mirror. “Enjoy the now and don’t let what has been or will be ruin it.”

  Nodding, Aliana closed her eyes.

  Dawn turned the car off the highway onto a side road. Merlin was still several cars behind them. The street was lined with large live oak trees with thick, winding branches overrun with Spanish moss. The bright South Carolina sun saturated the trees and the surrounding areas, but the bright green leaves provided a cooling shade from the sun’s rays. It was picturesque, like driving through the scenery in Gone with the Wind.

  A gravel driveway led to the sprawling plantation-style house that Aliana’s family had owned since the nineteen thirties. The property comprised several acres of private land located near Folly Beach, but far enough from the public areas to feel secluded. It was the only real home Aliana had ever known. Growing up she’d spent so much time in hotels and camped out at dig sites that when she got the chance to be home, it was precious to her. She had many cherished memories with her parents at this house. Since their deaths, she’d spent very little time here. For the first few months after the “incident,” she’d stayed with Wade and Lacy’s family, but even that became too painful as she struggled to hide her guilt from her friends. When she’d found the courage to go home, she hadn’t stayed longer than a few months before fleeing the ghosts of her parents.

  Money had never been a real worry for her parents. Her mother had been a successful actress and both she and Aliana’s father had come from family money. After their deaths, Dawn’s mom had been entrusted to look after Aliana’s finances until she turned twenty one. Aunt Michelle had been her parents’ financial advisor as well as a good friend. She also worked in the administrative department at the same college where Aliana’s father had taught.

  It seemed like ages before the trees fell away to reveal the sprawling, three story plantation-style house made of red brick and white wood panels. Tall pillars stretched up from the edges of a wraparound porch furnished with a small table and chairs, perfect for lazy summer days. Aliana’s favorite part of her home was the small, private strip of beach that backed up to the property.

  The calm Aliana had achieved slowly slipped away and anxiety swept in, taking its place. It had been seven months and nine days since she was last home. At least this time she wouldn’t be alone. Surely a house full of hot knights and teenage girls would be distracting enough.

  Dawn pulled under the carport awning that stretched out from the side of the house, leaving enough room for Merlin’s SUV. “I wonder how pissed your Merlin will be when he gets here,” she said, shutting off the car and hopping out over the closed door.

  “Arthur and Galahad won’t let ’em say a thing,” Lacy assured Dawn as she and Aliana climbed out and grabbed their bags.

  Aliana inhaled the fragrant, sweet summer air that was only found in the South. She was vaguely aware of Dagg curling around her neck as she opened her magical senses to connect with the earth element. Magic was rooted deep in the area all around her, its slight vibrations whispering to her, offering strength. It was tempting to take what was so freely offered, so Aliana helped herself to a small sample of the power. It slid slowly up her body, finding a small place within her own magic to rest until she decided to use it.

  “Earth to Lia,” Dawn said, snapping her fingers in front of Aliana’s face. “You in there?”

  “Yep,” Aliana said, gently separating from the element. The power was a weight in her chest, warming her from the inside and giving her a comforting feeling of home.

  Dagg leaped from Aliana’s shoulder and flew off to explore the grounds.

  “We need to talk later.” Dawn’s sudden seriousness caught Aliana off guard. “I still have tons of questions!”

  Aliana nodded, amazed again by her friend’s strength. She could clearly see Dawn’s worry in her glassy eyes, but her friend didn’t let it rule her.

  “The guys just pulled into the drive,” Lacy called out.

  Sure enough Aliana could hear the crunch of gravel and the purr of the SUV’s engine.

  “Finally,” Dagg said, rejoining them. “Your home is wonderful, Aliana. There is already a strong layer of magic protecting the property.”

  “What?” all three girls screeched, surrounding the little Dragon.

  Before Dagg could answer, Merlin pulled past them and parked under the awning. Galahad was out of the car before it fully stopped and immediately at Aliana’s side. “You promised to behave.” He frowned down at her, his eyes deepening to an almost ocean blue.

  “No, I said we’d stay close and we did. Merlin was just going too slow.” She fought back her smile. Galahad’s overprotectiveness warmed her.

  “There is a strange magic around your home, Aliana,” Merlin said as everyone gathered at the front of the house.

  “It’s stronger than the magic that protected your flat in London,” Lancelot added, studying the area.

  “It feels like there are two magics overlaid,” Merlin said.

  “I don’t feel anything. I didn’t in London, either.” Aliana frowned and opened her senses again. After pushing past the power of the elements, she felt the blistering energy that surrounded her home. “No way!” She blinked away the sensation of magic from her eyes, trying to make sense of this new discovery.

  “I’m not sure who created this or why,” Merlin said. “But it’s powerful. We need to solve this puzzle.”

  “Agreed,” Arthur said. “Whoever has been protecting Aliana has done so for a reason.” His golden brown eyes ran over her as he smiled. “Anyone so powerful would make a great ally.”

  “Why do I suspect we’re going to need a great deal of those?” Leo grumbled as everyone grabbed their bags and headed into the house. The first order of business was to search the home office for the book Aliana had seen in her dream. She’d described it enough times that the others would know it if they saw it, and she wasn’t quite ready to go in there yet, so she said she needed to check all the bedrooms to make sure they were ready for guests while the knights searched the shelves.

  “We found nothing,” Merlin said as Aliana descended the stairs to meet them on the first floor.

  Aliana wasn’t surprised. The dream had shown the book in her papa’s university office, after all. So she moved on to the second order of business: getting them settled in their rooms. “There are three levels to the house,” she explained. “You can choose which rooms you want, but a few of you will have to bunk up. The top floor has my room and the one Dawn and Lacy will use.”

  Merlin and Lancelot took the two bedrooms on the ground floor, and Percy volunteered to room with Lancelot. It was easy for them to stay together because they’d already spent the last few years as friends and coworkers in London. The rest of the guys took over the second floor. Everyone agreed that Arthur should have the master bedroom. Aliana had cleaned out and redecorated her parents’ old room over a year ago.

  She followed Lacy and Dawn
up to the attic level that her parents had converted into two small bedrooms with an adjoining bathroom. “Are you okay?” the Dragon asked quietly so the other girls couldn’t hear him from his perch on Aliana’s shoulder.

  “I’m fine,” she whispered, knowing it wasn’t true. Her insides churned and her skin was clammy. Being home again was harder than she’d anticipated. The stairs dead ended into a small box-like hallway with two doors.

  “Welcome home,” Dawn said, opening the door to the room she and Lacy had used since they were eleven. Aliana’s friends understood a lot about her personal demons, but they didn’t know the full extent of the memories that haunted her.

  “Everything will be all right.” Lacy squeezed Aliana’s hand and followed Dawn into the small room with white and brown walls and two twin beds.

  Aliana opened the door to her room, clutching her bags. The familiar paneled walls were covered with pictures she’d taken and some by her favorite artists. Her room was small but had a wonderful sloped ceiling with a big skylight over her queen-sized bed. A tall dresser and small vanity were tucked against one wall, and a desk was situated in front of a window on the far wall. Setting her bags by the closet, Aliana sat on the edge of her bed, which was covered with a black and white comforter with bright pink lines and circles. She stared at the vanity, picturing herself sitting there with her mother brushing her hair, teaching Aliana how to put on makeup. Her eyes moved to the desk where she could see her papa sitting next to her, helping her with a history report.

  She lay back on the bed and stared through the skylight. She couldn’t think about her parents without hearing their screams.

  “Aliana?” She shot up at Galahad’s voice. She loved the way he said her name, the way his accent drawled out his A’s and E’s. It was so much sexier than a normal British accent.

  “Hi,” she said weakly.

  “May I come in?”

  Nodding, she watched him look around her room, his eyes lingering on a large poster-sized picture of eight men standing in a fighting line. Their colored tunics and chainmail were covered in dirt. They wore grim looks of determination as they waited to fight an unseen enemy. Behind them was a ghostly image of a red and gold flag with a large crown and a sword through it. It was a print from Aliana’s King Arthur series.