My Merlin Awakening (Book 2, My Merlin Series)

by Priya Ardis

  “I knew it. You’ve been pushing yourself too hard.” Gia walked closer and took the wetsuit from me. She knelt at my feet and commanded, “Legs.”

  Legs. I took a breath and put my legs into the rubber.

  “Get up,” she said.

  Get up. I forced myself to stand.

  She pulled the wetsuit over my hips. “Arms.”

  I complied. The final piece was to pull on the over-the-head panel, pull the drawstring tight, and zip up a chest zipper to streamline everything in place. I lifted my hair to expose my nape.

  Gia stopped in the mid-zip. “What happened to your neck?”

  I glanced in the mirror on the wall above the head of the bed. Ugly bruises covered the skin.

  “I’m fine.” I yanked the head panel over me and cinched up the suit.

  “It was Vane, wasn’t it?” Gia said.

  The dam of ice holding me together broke. I turned around and hugged her. I let out a noisy wail. “He hates me.”

  She let me cry it out. When I finally quieted, she handed me a tissue. “I’m going to kill him.”

  “No,” I shook my head. I told her about what I’d seen in the vision with Excalibur’s help. I ended by saying, “There’s something going on and I’m going to find out what.”

  “Shouldn’t you tell Merlin?” Gia said.

  “No, Matt doesn’t see straight when it comes to Vane. Anyway, he needs to concentrate on the trident.” I stood up. “I’m going to do this on my own.”

  Gia looked at me. “No, you’re not. We’re Candidates. We stick together.”

  I glanced at Excalibur. “We’re not Candidates anymore, Gia.”

  “You’re wrong. We’ll always be Candidates as long as we have cause.” She put a hand on the underside of my forearm in an act of solidarity. “We’re family.”

  Warmth seeped into my skin. The suit took whatever body heat I had and fed it back to me. However, this warmth had nothing to do with the suit. Family. I’d forgotten what an anchor it could be. My eyes stung once more. “Fine as long as you help me get out of the wetsuit.”

  She frowned.

  I smiled. “I forgot to use the bathroom first.”

  She laughed. So did I. And for those few moments, we were normal.

  ***

  A knock sounded at the door. Blake stepped inside. “Ladies, we’ll be there in half an hour. Were you planning on seeing this fun adventure through or having a slumber party?”

  Gia and I lay on the bed with our wetsuits half on.

  “Slumber party sounds like a better idea.” Gia stood up, giving Blake a nice view of her barely-there bikini top. I suppressed a smile when Blake’s pupils dilated. Gia didn’t react, but I noticed she took an extra long time pulling the neckpiece on and zipping up. She smoothed her hands over the wetsuit, which already clung to her curves like paint.

  “I’ll be upstairs. Tell me if you change your mind about you-know-who. He would make a nice snack for the sharks.” She marched out of the room, brushing Blake lightly as she passed him.

  Blake stared after her. “I hope she doesn’t mean me.”

  I rose up on my elbows. “She likes you.”

  Blake’s face turned beet red.

  I asked the next obvious question, “Do you like her?”

  His forehead wrinkled. “What about Grey?”

  I raised a brow. “I think he has other things on his mind.”

  “He’s my mate. I should ask him.”

  “You do that,” I said.

  Blake turned to leave.

  “Just so you know, if you hurt her, I’ll Excalibur you.”

  Blake grimaced. “I believe you.”

  He left. I stared after them. They were my family. I couldn’t risk them for Vane. I was coming to the slow realization I might be doing just that by not telling Matt what Excalibur had shown me. I pushed myself up on the bed and pulled the wetsuit up to put my arms through.

  “Matt,” I called. “Where are you?”

  A few minutes later, Matt came in through the open door.

  “Need help?” he said.

  I reached back to pull over the neck flap. “No—”

  In a flash, he stood at the edge of the bed. He pushed aside my hair and hissed at the sight of the bruises. “I’m going to skin him alive.”

  I slapped his hand away. “You don’t have to. I handled it, Matt. I’m a big girl.”

  “No, you’re not,” he retorted. “You’re seventeen. You’re barely more than a baby.”

  My eyes flashed. “As I recall, Professor, you’re eighteen.”

  “I’m from a different century. It doesn’t have the same meaning.”

  I sighed. “Now that you’ve seen it, can you heal me?”

  “Is that why you called me? To clean up his mess?” Matt said.

  The anger behind the statement shocked me. “You’re letting him get to you.”

  With a scowl, Matt put a hand up to my neck. Blue light flared from his fingertips. Then, it blinked out. He pulled his hand back. “No.”

  “No?”

  “I want you to feel this for awhile. This is what he is, Ryan. He destroys everything he touches.”

  I touched the bruises. They sat right along the amulet. The tightness of the wetsuit pressed the amulet into my skin, aggravating them. “Come on, Matt. It hurts.”

  He shook his head. “No.”

  “I don’t need to be taught a lesson, Matt. You’re not my teacher anymore.”

  “Apparently, you still need one.”

  Did I have a sign over my head that read “Push me around. I like it?” Frustrated, I flounced out of bed, stepping on Matt’s foot as I did. To my satisfaction, he winced.

  “I might not need a teacher, Matt,” I snapped. “If you’d been a good one.”

  ***

  Halfway up the stairs to the top deck, Colin stopped me while I muttered about boys being jerks and beckoned me into the covered lower deck. He and several other gargoyles, as well as Clarence and the other guardian wizards picked through an array of weapons that were laid out on a table, which, I was sure, was only used to seeing fine china.

  Colin saw me eyeing the weapons. He gestured at them. “Any you would like?”

  I held up Excalibur.

  “Ach, you do have the best one.” He continued, “Have you seen Merlin? There’s a storm brewing in the east. The boat won’t be able to wait for us after we go under. But we’ve figured out a solution for them to tell us when they’re back—”

  “I figured out a solution.” Vane lounged on a white leather sofa.

  “We brought the equipment,” Colin said.

  “You had no idea how to use it in a storm,” Vane remarked.

  “Use what in a storm?” Grey came up behind me.

  “A deep sea paging system,” Colin answered. “Vane’s rigged the buoy it uses to remain operating during the storm. It will allow the boat to communicate with us. It’s only one-way though…”

  As Colin continued to explain the technicalities to Grey, I moved further into the living room. I couldn’t be still. Too many emotions had left me jittery. I stared out at the endless sea. Dark clouds hovered just beyond the horizon and I thought I saw a small funnel.

  “Ready?” Vane asked.

  “Are you?” I turned to look at him. He sat up and stretched his arms. His wetsuit clung to his chest, but the thick rubber obscured anything that may have been lying there. “Are you sober?”

  “Unfortunately.” He rose. My eyes went to the spot between his legs. His gaze followed mine. He raised a brow. “It’s a good thing I can heal away any hurt.”

  “Must be nice,” I muttered, unconsciously I touched my neck. The bruises, although hidden under the wetsuit, sat on my skin with painful awareness.

  Noticing my gesture, Vane’s eyes narrowed. He took a step closer, his step coiled and ready to spring. “Let me see.”

  “You don’t need to.”

  The quiet words, a fine string, fell and sp
lintered on the razor sharp edge our relationship stood on. Vane halted. His fingers tightened until I saw his knuckles become white. He repeated fiercely, “Let me see.”

  “No.” Even without knowing what lay under my wetsuit he knew he’d hurt me. He would want to heal it. I knew it. He knew it. I couldn’t let him. Not yet. I sighed and moved a step away. “I should get some gear.”

  “Gear?”

  I said slowly, “Diving gear because we’re going underwater.”

  Small harsh laughter burst from Vane.

  “What is so funny?”

  “Diving gear,” he said. “You do realize you’re traveling with wizards? Besides, do you really think where we’re going any diving equipment will work?”

  I put my hands on my hips. “How far down do you think this is? There have been divers who have dived around a mile or more. The maximum depth of the Calypso Deep is somewhere around three miles—”

  “You are being naïve.”

  We weren’t talking just about diving. I ground out, “Why don’t you explain it to me?”

  He looked at me. When he spoke, though, he went for the safer answer. “In the whole Mediterranean, maximum depths have been measured here. It’s not a coincidence. Triton’s island has gone undetected because they know how to keep it hidden. I would wager they are more like five miles down.”

  Five miles down in the cold dark. I stared out beyond the protection of the glass doors onto the endless reach of the open sea. We had sailed from the Aegean and into the blue green waters of the Ionian Sea. One name after another marked invisible boundaries in the water, boundaries that meant nothing to anyone, but those of us on the surface. Inside the water, there would be no lines. Vane closed the distance between us. “You know I’m right.”

  I took a step to move past him. “Fine. You’re right.”

  Vane grabbed my arm, his fingers an unapologetic manacle on my arm. “Have I pushed you away then?”

  I stopped. “Did you mean to?”

  He whispered, “No.”

  The honest answer surprised me. I looked up to meet his hazel eyes. In them, I saw the reflection of the sea. I was the surfer standing upon its waves. They could make me fly so high. They were thrilling, exhilarating, absolutely breathtaking. In them, I could find life. But it was easy to get caught in the barrel. Easy for the waves to overwhelm, to crush. A force of nature, it could be entirely without mercy, without remorse. Well, my surfboard and I had been shredded. Did I dare meet another wave? I opened my mouth to reply. I didn’t get the chance.

  In a flash of blue light, Vane went flying across the cabin. His head knocked against a small ledge behind the sofa with force. A thin line of red formed on his temple.

  Matt stood at the door. His hand still outstretched, he said, “Stay away from her.”

  I scowled at him. “I don’t need saving, Matt.”

  The boat stopped.

  Colin stood up. “Fascinating as it is, we’ll have to continue this later. We’re here.”

  “I thought we had half an hour,” Matt said.

  “I guess not,” Colin replied.

  It took half an hour to get ready for the dive. Eight wizards paired up with seven gargoyles and one regular—me. I realized with a start I’d begun to think of Grey as a gargoyle. Clarence handed us rings, spelled with magic to allow us to breathe underwater. I started coughing as soon as Matt slipped the ring on my finger. I put my hands to my neck as the bruises under my wetsuit burned deep into the dermis of my skin blistering through the layers. I fell to my knees, choking.

  “Ryan,” Matt pulled me back up. “Breathe deeply. You’ll need to get used to the gills.”

  Gasping, I took off the neck flap of the wetsuit. It had become a noose. And finally, my chest expanded after I was able to take in a breath. My neck still burned. I suspected whatever spell he’d given me made the injuries on my neck worse. I couldn’t tell him that though. His and Vane’s relationship was strained enough. Instead, I glared at him and said hoarsely, “You could have warned me.”

  He gave me a sheepish look. “I’ve never used a mermaid charm before.”

  “No kidding.” I wiggled my toes. My feet had grown to almost twice their size and flared out just like fins. Around me, Grey and the gargoyles tore open their wetsuits and threw off their neckpieces. Grey stood beside me. His skin had taken on a faint shade of blue. I saw three gills, deep slits, forming on one side of his neck. I touched my skin. Just above the chain of the amulet sat three slits on one side and three on another.

  I looked at Matt. “Your turn.”

  Matt slipped a ring on. He started choking as I’d done. The other wizards followed one after the other. I watched Vane. He’d already healed the gash on his forehead caused by Matt. He put the ring on and it struck me that his transformation was the quickest. Gills formed and his feet flared out. He didn’t make a sound. His body didn’t jolt under the strain as ours did; his reacted eerily, as if it had been waiting for the change.

  “What happened to your ears?” Grey said to me.

  “Huh?” Immediately my hand went up my lobes. They felt normal until I reached the top. They pointed in a tip. “Argh.” I rushed to a nearby window and checked out my reflection. “I’m a blue Vulcan!”

  Blake came over. “Isn’t that a green Romulan?”

  “Who cares?” I screeched, touching my pointy ears.

  Gia rushed over to me. She crowded next to me to look at herself. “I have them too.”

  Blake stared at her. “That is so… brilliant.”

  Gia blushed. Her cheeks turned an odd purple, a mix of red and blue.

  Blake’s ears were completely normal. I demanded, “Why don’t you have it?”

  Matt walked up and I almost drooled. His skin had taken on a slightly darker shade of blue. It perfectly complimented the auburn in his hair and deepened the color of his irises to seem almost purple.

  He said, “It must happen only to females.”

  “I don’t have it.” McKenna, the lone female gargoyle among us, cleared her throat. Tall with cute, brown hair, I’d seen Grey eyeing her more than once.

  “Because you’re a gargoyle?” Grey said.

  “Mayhap, Sire,” she said shyly and watched him with an expression that bordered on worship. Grey’s chest and, no doubt, his ego puffed.

  “Yes, that could be it,” Matt said quickly. “Let’s get in the water.”

  We all sheathed our knives. Matt shrunk Excalibur again and placed it into a hidden pocket in the wetsuit. Vane held the trident. Matt had a backpack with the deep sea paging equipment and the snake. We all had small pouches with some emergency provisions.

  I crossed to the railing. “Where are we going?”

  “Straight down.” Vane came up beside me. Like his brother, his skin had also turned a darker shade of blue than the rest of us. It served to only deepen the dangerous edge to his eyes. My fingers itched to stroke his changed skin to see if it felt any different. I bit my tongue to keep from licking him.

  As if he could sense the throb of want coursing through me, he deliberately leaned closer. His tongue flicked out and teased a lobe. “Sweet, Dorothy.”

  I jerked away from him.

  Matt appeared at my other side. “Get away from her, Vane.”

  “I don’t need protection, Matt,” I repeated. Although, by the way my body reacted to Vane, maybe I did need a psychiatrist.

  “No pointed ears for you, Merlin?” Vane chuckled.

  I turned on Matt. “What aren’t you telling me?”

  Matt sighed. “He’s trying to goad you. Ignore him.”

  “What about when we meet the mermaids?” I said. “Are we going to be able to understand them?”

  “Once I understand what they’re speaking, I’ll have to spell your rings.” Vane’s eyes glittered with a reflection of the blue water. He arched a brow. “What’s the matter, DuLac, afraid to get in the water?”

  The small waves of the water invited us in. I touch
ed my new gills. This was going to be fun.

  And it was. As soon as I hit the water, nothing else mattered. I fluttered and floated around in the sea. Cool water cleansed away any fearful thoughts and lingering worry. They all slid off my shoulders and away into the depths of the deep.

  The freedom of weightlessness seemed to lighten everyone’s mood. We swam deeper and deeper down, but it felt more like play than work. I’d been swimming before and never been able to see anything, but the spell had put some kind of protection over my eyes and I could see everything.

  Grey, Gia, Blake, and I played, doing flips in the water. Grey flicked bubbles at me. Matt had to reel us in several times when we tried to wander away to look at the rainbow-colored different sea creatures. The only other one who seemed to be enjoying it as much as we were was Vane. He pushed us further without taking any breaks. In the endless possibility the water presented, it was easy to forget the tension between us.

  Grey, Gia, Blake and I did several races, twisting and turning through the water. We were in the middle of a race when Vane grabbed my hand. After a moment’s hesitation, I let him pull me to a long rock formation, a mountain rising out from the sea floor. We swam deeper, along its ridge. It seemed to go down forever. Masses of seaweed and other plant-life covered the hard shelf.

  I don’t know what I was looking for, but I didn’t find it. I saw nothing but black rock. Vane pointed me to a particular spot. Through a mesh of seaweed, he pointed to a barely discernable break in the stone. I peered around the curtain of seaweed. In a valley, amid a mountain of rock, stood a pair of giant pillars.

  Gia, Blake, and Grey caught up to us first. Matt came up behind them. I moved to allow them a closer look. The rest of the group stopped swimming also. Matt peered through the curtain.

  “The pillars of Hercules,” he thought to me.

  Two long, seaweed-covered columns supported a hulking expanse of rock that loomed above them.

  “But how can two pillars hold up an entire city? This can’t be Aegae,” I told Matt.

  “Let’s find out.” Matt signaled us to go through the curtain.

  We went, one-by-one, through the fissure. Vane went first. I, after him, then, Matt. As soon as I crossed to the other side, I stopped. The very substance of the water seemed to change. From its hiding place, Excalibur screamed in warning.