22. Will
Chapter twenty-two
Will
So... it’s definitely booby-trapped
“ R emind me again why we’re doing this at three in the morning?” Nana asked, leaning more than usual on her cane. Her unicorn purse slipped down her arm, and she had to push it back up.
The night sky helped cloak us from unwanted attention as we bustled across the beach. Though it wouldn’t do much to hide Nana’s griping.
“Because it’s when there’s a low tide,” I said... for what might have been the 50th time in the past half hour.
“But there’s a low tide in the afternoon!”
“Yes. And there will likely be lots of people who come to the cave then.”
“Maybe I should have stayed in bed,” Nana grumbled as we reached some large boulders just outside the mouth.
“And miss out on this adventure?” dad asked, sliding an arm around Nana’s shoulders. “Nah, this is worth the lack of sleep.”
A circular entrance opened up in the cliff face just beyond the boulders, and as we came to stand just outside of it, my ring began to vibrate. And when it jerked, trying to tug me closer to the cave, I gave it a little smack to calm down. Because I’d go into the dark, eerie cave in a second.
Damn, it really was dark...
“Anyone have a flashlight?” I asked.
“Don’t you have magic?” Arthur asked from my side. My side where he’d been ever since we’d woken up tangled in bed together this almost morning. I’d... really liked waking up to his warmth by my side.
“Yeah, well,” I said, smirking at him, “unless we want to risk me setting someone on fire, I think it might be best if someone else does the magic.”
Arthur grinned at that, and he looked so fucking cute that butterflies fluttered in my belly and a light blush tinted my cheeks and ears.
Ah, this was wrong, wasn’t it? I was supposed to be protecting him! Not thinking of getting him into bed.
But even so, I couldn’t find it in myself to regret it. And based on the shy smiles Arthur kept casting at me, neither could he.
Otto turned on the flashlight on his phone, and though it wasn’t the brightest thing in the world, it would get the job done.
Those of us with phones turned on ours as well to help illuminate the way deeper into the cave.
It smelled of damp stone and moss, and little crabs scurried away from our lights whenever we shone them in their direction.
Every step forward, I could feel Arthur’s stare clinging to me, feel his body heat radiating off of him into my back.
We were nearing the end of the cave, Nana airing her grievances all the way, when my ring began to vibrate violently. And that’s when I heard something. Almost like whispers...
I glanced to the left, and I was distantly aware of my family pausing to grumble about hiking in the early AMs. Gerry and Arthur flanked my sides, though, as I turned to face the cave wall, and my breathing picked up as I spotted a little symbol engraved there.
“You feel it too,” I said to them, not a question.
“Yes,” Arthur said, voice lower and tinged with a growl.
“It’s calling for you,” Gerry said, voice echoing slightly. “The magic here. It recognizes your blood.”
“What are you talking about?” I asked, taking a step forward and placing my hand against the wall of the cave, just over Merlin’s rune. Heat shot up my arm at the contact, making me gasp. And when I pulled my hand away, the wall began to groan and shift. When it stilled, glowing orbs of gold lit up along the walls, illuminating a narrow, stone corridor. There was no end in sight.
“What if it’s booby-trapped?” Otto asked, and my dad snickered.
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “Really, Dad?”
“I didn’t say anything!”
Tossing him a quick glare, I returned my attention to the corridor. “I should go first to make sure it isn’t.”
Arthur stiffened. “I can go—”
“Dude, no offense, but you’re like the whole point of all of this,” I said, nipping his chivalry in the bud right then and there. “If you died, then this whole thing was for nothing.”
He frowned, looking ready to argue, but Gerry sauntered forward, shoving past him.
“Oh, come on,” Gerry said, a toothy grin on his face. “Everyone needs to relax. Gerry’s got this.”
Otto rolled his eyes at the demon.
But despite Gerry’s cavalier attitude, his eyes were sharp as they scanned the walls, the ground, the darkness ahead. His nose twitched as he sniffed the air, searching for... I didn’t know what. Ears twitching, he took one step forward... before a gust of air threw him backward.
If Arthur’s reflexes weren’t so honed, Gerry would have knocked right into me.
But one moment, I was staring at Gerry’s ass coming straight for my face, and the next, I was being crushed against the most massively muscled chest.
Arthur cradled me protectively against him, and the sounds of Gerry crashing into Otto was slightly muffled with one of my ears smushed against his pec.
But as much as I liked the feel of Arthur’s firm tiddies against my face, I needed to figure this out.
Arthur seemed reluctant to release me, but he did when I pushed against him.
“So... it’s definitely booby-trapped,” Nana said, leaning on her cane.
“Astute observation,” Otto wheezed, still entangled on the ground with Gerry who was lamenting his misfortune of missing the cats-always-land-on-their-feet gene.
“Well, maybe let me take it from here. Unless you want to risk finding out if you have the nine-lives gene as well.” Stepping forward, I called my magic to my fingertips, and the orbs seemed to brighten. A sense of rightness settled over me as I inched closer, almost like the tunnel was urging me to enter. “I think... I think I need to go first.”
“And if it sends you flying like Gerry?” Otto asked.
I shrugged. “Hopefully you’ll cushion my fall too?”
“Ha ha. Very funny.”
“Thanks. I try.” I touched the entrance of the corridor, and a soft ripple of power washed over us in response. “I don’t know how to explain it. But I get the sense the magic here recognizes my blood.”
My dad placed his hand on my shoulder, causing me to look at him. He smiled tightly. “We trust you, son. Just be careful.”
I returned his smile before facing the passageway again. Closing my eyes, I sent more magic to my fingers, coaxing it out and into the side tunnel. I could have sworn the walls hummed .
Arthur kept hold of my shirt as I took my first step inside.
No gust of air blew me away. No hidden daggers shot from the walls. No spiked pits opened up in the ground to swallow me whole.
I released a breath of relief and turned to meet Arthur’s intense gaze. Taking the path deeper into the corridor one step at a time, we kept moving. The others followed close behind with Gerry taking up the rear of the group. The deeper we went, the wider the walls became.
But the most curious thing about the tunnel was the murals.
For upon the stone walls were depictions of Arthurian lore.
The glowing orbs led us deeper and deeper, revealing more imagery, and I found myself lost in the unspoken story they told. I brushed my fingers over the one of Uther handing Arthur over to Merlin as a babe. In the next, Arthur was a child, playing with stick swords with a boy of similar age. In another, Arthur pulled his late father’s sword from the anvil when he was a young teenager. There was even one of him being crowned king, looking just as young. Later, it showed Merlin taking Arthur to Glass Lake to meet Viviane, and Arthur replaced Uther’s sword with Excalibur.
On and on it went, showing Arthur’s life in colorful art.
If Arthur was uneasy having his life displayed so easily for us to see, he didn’t show it. In fact, he barely even glanced at the walls, his focus entirely on the softly lit cave before us.
When we reached the end of the now spacious hallway, the walls opened up into a large, dome-shaped cavern. This area, unlike the corridor, was filled with light. Books and scrolls lined some shelves on the far wall, and a few corked bottles of elixirs littered on several slabs of stone assembled to look like a desk.
The room felt... odd. Like visiting a relative’s home you weren’t super familiar with.
My heart beat wildly, like it knew where we were.
Unlike the murals in the passage, the ones in here told a different story.
Sure, there were still paintings of Arthur’s life. Like his defeat of the lake monster the Afanc, a creature looking like a cross between a beaver and a crocodile. Or Arthur’s slaying of the Questing Beast, which was the oddest combination of spotted fur and reptilian scales.
But there was another story told here.
In one of the pieces, Merlin kneeled before a grand city full of lush trees and quaint homes. Atop a large hill at the city’s center stood a massive, stone hillfort. In the next painting, it showed Merlin clearing the aftermath of a bloody battle. Roots and grass wrapped around the dead bodies of men and horses from the battlefield before dragging them down into the earth. In the third, Merlin stood before a large volcano, his hands raised as lava and ash shot upward, cloaking the sky in its debris. But it was the item following the triptych that drew my attention.
In the very last painting, Merlin stood outside the city of Camelot. But here, the sorcerer leveled the empty city to the ground before sinking the rubble beneath the earth’s surface.
Merlin had wiped Camelot from the face of the planet. Had cleared any mark or memory of the place from existence.
The others moved farther into the room, studying the artwork as well.
“Okay, now what?” Nana asked, sniffing loudly at an overturned bottle on the stone desk.
Otto snatched the bottle from her with a reproachful look.
“What was that for?” Nana asked.
“You don’t know what this was!”
She rolled her eyes.
Setting the bottle back down, Otto turned to me. “Do you feel anything?”
“Yes,” I said, squinting around the room. “I just can’t tell if it’s because I can feel the remnants of Merlin’s magic or if one of the Treasures is here too.”
Arthur circled the room, brushing his hands along the damp, cave walls. Red licked at his arms and hands at the painting of Merlin destroying Camelot. “Will, isn’t this the symbol?”
I hurried over to him, finding he was right. Painted on Merlin’s robe was his rune. “Yes,” I breathed, reaching forward. The moment I made contact with the mark, it lit up gold. That familiar heat seared into my skin, and we watched as the mark retracted, leaving a large hole behind it.
Reaching in, I felt something soft and silky. When I pulled it out, Nana’s eyes went wide as saucers.
“Dibs,” Nana said, snatching the gold, silk-lined cloak from my hands. With a flourish, she draped it over her shoulders.
The cloak... shrank.
“Why did it do that?” she squawked.
I muffled a laugh. “It's the Mantle of Tegau Gold-Breast. It changes length depending on how virtuous or faithful a woman is.”
Nana frowned down at the hem of the cloak that barely brushed her thighs. “Well, that’s just downright rude. He was the one with the cuckold kink.”
My father sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose. “ Mother ...”
“What?” Nana exclaimed indignantly. “I just don’t think this thing should be allowed to judge me when it was your father’s kink. Besides, it’s not cheating if it’s consensual.”
“ Dude ,” Otto breathed beside me in a mixture of awe and horror. “I know way too much about our family’s sex lives.”
That made two of us.
“What’s a... Did she say cuckold?” Arthur asked in my ear, his voice making me jump.
When had he moved so close?
His breath was hot against my skin, and the complimentary cologne from the hotel he wore reminded me of the sea. I inhaled slowly, breathing in the refreshing smell before remembering he’d asked me a question. I blinked at him. “What?”
Arthur looked puzzled as he watched Dorothy and Nana bicker. “A cuckold. I was asking what that is.”
Otto patted his arm. “Hush, you’ll find out when you’re older.”
I watched as my dad picked up a curved, tapered item from the hole in the wall. It was silver with intricately carved runes around its middle.
The Horn of Bran Galed.
When my dad peeked inside, his brows hiked up his forehead. He sniffed once. Twice. Then, before any of us could stop him, he placed the Horn against his parted lips and poured whatever he’d discovered into his mouth.
What. The. Fuck?
I lurched for him. “Dad, what the hell are you doing?” I knocked the Horn out of his hands, and it clattered to the ground behind me. Reddish-orange liquid leaked from its opening. “I don’t care if it’s supposed to be magical. You can’t just go ingesting unknown substances!”
My dad, startled, pouted down at the liquid. “Aw, was that really necessary?”
I ignored him and tried to pry his mouth open. “Spit it out!”
Crying out, he leaned his head back and smacked my hands away. “Ah! Patricide!”
“Will you stop being so dramatic and just spit the damn—”
“Interesting,” Arthur said thoughtfully from behind us. “It tastes like tomatoes.”
I whirled around to find him squatting beside the spilled liquid and licking it off his fingers.
“Seriously! What is wrong with all of you? What if that was poisoned?”
My dad smacked his lips. “Pretty sure it was just V8 juice.”
“So basically poison,” Otto muttered.
A prickle raced up my spine just before a voice spoke from behind me.
“You know, you really shouldn’t be so predictable,” a soft, melodic voice said, and we all jerked around.
My magic flared bright, curling around my fingers as I watched the two figures at the mouth of the cavern.
Gliton and Glitonea’s faces looked identical to their sister Gliten’s, the fairy queen Gerry had eaten. Gliton’s gold hair was cropped short to her head, unlike from the vision of the past. Glitonea’s brown locks cascaded over her shoulder in a single braid. But unlike the queens we’d met so far, these two wore what could only be described as boho-chic. Matching gauzy dresses were molded to their figures, and the fabric clung to their bodies, wet with water and making me wonder if they’d been watching from the sea.
“Thanks for breaking the seal to these quarters,” Glitonea said, brushing her fingers along the wall of the cave.
Gliton crossed her arms with a sneer, and I realized with horror that water was pooling around her ankles. She noticed where my gaze had drifted and grinned. “You made a mistake coming here, sorcerer.”
Arthur edged closer to my side, not once taking his gaze off the threats in the room.
“Look, I get it. You don’t want Arthur healed or whatever, but—”
Glitonea laughed while Gliton’s eyes blazed with fury.
“You think we want to end you because of him ?” Glitonea scoffed.
And that... confused me. “Yes?”
She shook her head like she thought I was a fool. “We might agree that Arthur poses a threat to humanity and should be disposed of, but that’s not why we’re here tonight.”
“It’s... not?”
Gliton hissed, and I barely jumped out of the way as an explosion of water slammed into the wall where my head had just been.
She sent another with an angry screech. “You killed our sister!”
“I mean, if we’re going to point fingers, Gerry was actually the one who ate her,” I said, and Gerry squawked indignantly.
“Enough!” Glitonea said, glaring around the room. “It doesn’t matter which of you killed her. All of you will pay the price for her life.”
But that was enough for us to take action.
I sent a bolt of lightning searing their way, and they jumped aside with hisses of displeasure. The others blasted magic at them as well, but none of our hits landed as the queens blocked each spell. Because no matter how much we’d practiced with Gerry, they had millennia of experience on us.
Only Gerry seemed to be managing any blows. And when he whispered foreign words in clicks and hissed tones, a large wave made entirely of flame crashed toward the queens.
The wave broke through their barriers before fizzling out and leaving them unprotected, and I prepared a ball of writhing, electric energy. But before I managed to fire it, the queens linked hands. Their eyes closed as they chanted softly in a foreign tongue, and the sound of rushing water echoed through the corridor behind them.
With matching, wicked grins, the queens transformed, scales and gills forming on their skin.
And then the water came pouring in.
The queens disappeared into the rapidly rising water, and we scrambled backward, knocking into the far wall as the tide continued to spill into the room.
“Will?” Otto asked, backing up against the far wall with us as the water lapped at our feet.
“Just give me a sec,” I said, my gaze skipping frantically around the room. But the only things here were empty jars and books. But then my eyes snagged on the paintings around the room. Then to my satchel.
An idea began to form in my head as I yanked out the book with the stashed Treasures. Flipping to the page I wanted, I stared down at the Halter, wondering if it could only summon a horse.
Or if it could summon something else...
And as we had to climb onto the stone desk, I settled on my decision and removed the Halter from the book.
Grabbing Arthur’s hand, I slapped the Halter into his palm. He stared down at it in confusion. “I think I have an idea,” I said to him, swallowing down my fear. “Can you help me?”
“Yes,” he said instantly.
I swallowed hard again and placed my palm on the painting by his head. Arthur’s eyes widened as he looked from the painting to the Halter in his hand. “No.”
“You already said yes!”
“Will...”
The water slapped the edge of the desk, and I used my magic to form a small air shield, but it didn’t work well. When a wave slammed into it, I barely managed to keep the water from breaking through. Gritting my teeth in concentration, I turned to Arthur and cupped his face, making him look at me.
“You were able to capture it before,” I pointed out as another wave crashed against my protective wall.
“I had a magical chain then! And the help of my horse.”
I pointed my chin at the Halter. “You have a magical Halter. And us.” The water covered our shoes now, leaking through widening cracks in my barrier, and I knew it was now or never if we were going to do this. “If I wasn’t trying to keep the water back, I would do it. But I have to concentrate, so it needs to be you. Arthur, please. I don’t even know if it will work, but we need you to try. I need you to try.”
Arthur stared at me for several moments, each one feeling like a timer counting down to our demise. His curse flickered around him, revealing just how agitated he was. But then he nodded and closed his eyes.
And for a moment, nothing happened.
Then a boom sounded in the cavern, and a bright pulse slammed me and the others hard against the wall, breaking my hold on my air shield. A large splash preceded Arthur’s yelp, and just as I opened my eyes, I watched Arthur being dragged beneath the water’s surface.
“Arthur!” I shouted, moving to jump in after him. But before I could, a hand stopped me.
Gerry’s cat eyes watched the rippling water with caution. “Wait.”
“But he—”
“Wait,” Gerry insisted, just as the water stilled.
We all stared in fearful anticipation for any sign of Arthur.
And just as the water reached my hip, Arthur burst from the surface, gripping the Halter in a white-knuckled grip. The Afanc roared, its scaly snout jerking left and right as it fought the Halter. Arthur grunted from his perch around the terror’s neck, pressing his knees tighter. The thing had to be around 20 feet long with an almost serpentine torso leading to a flattened, scaly tail. It had four arms dipped in claws, but fortunately for us, its arms were too short to reach its neck where the Halter kept it restrained. He shouted as the beast dove beneath the surface again, spraying us with water.
“Did he summon the fucking Afanc?” Otto screeched, looking ready to climb on top of Gerry to get farther away from the water.
I grinned. “He sure did.”
Otto’s eyes were wild with fear. “You’re all crazy!”
Dorothy patted his hand, though she didn’t take her eyes off the water. “It’s mentally unwell, remember?”
Otto looked ready to retort when the Afanc burst once more from the water, Arthur still straddling its neck. His grip on the Halter never faltered as the creature shook its head, a grating growl emanating from its throat.
“Climb on!” Arthur bellowed when the Afanc thrashed its long tail.
“Fuck no!” Otto shouted.
My dad helped Nana onto the Afanc’s back, and Dorothy and I glanced at each other when Otto seemed more likely to stay here and drown than get on. So with a nod, we reached out to Otto together, each of us grabbing hold of an arm. He yelled curses our way as we dragged him with us onto the Afanc.
Arthur sent me an exhausted look over his shoulder as I settled in behind him.
Gerry leaned down, getting his face dangerously close to the Afanc’s. But though the creature released a rather unsettling growl, it didn’t move to attack Gerry. “You hungry, little beastie?”
Another growl, and Gerry grinned before leaning close, whispering something too soft for the rest of us to hear.
Don’t worry, Lord Will , Gerry said in my mind, startling me. I shall show you just why I am the best familiar you could have bound to yourself.
Gerry , I growled back in warning.
But he simply winked at me before hopping on the back of the now calm creature. He patted the Afanc’s side, and in a blink, the creature dove beneath the water.
I barely managed to suck in a breath before we were submerged.
Beneath the surface, the orbs continued to glow, helping to illuminate the water slightly.
Little swarms of fish dove away from us as the Afanc swam, and it was all I could do to hold on and hold my breath as it started for the exit.
But then the queens were there at the mouth of the corridor, their hands raised in defense as we barreled toward them.
But with a muffled roar, the Afanc opened its jaws and swallowed Gliton whole.
When I felt it swallow beneath my thighs, I flinched.
Ho-ly shit.
My lungs burned as the Afanc twisted around, setting its sights on Glitonea who now looked entirely unsure of herself. Before she could raise her hands to cast any spells at the Afanc, it snapped its teeth over the top half of her body and shook, ripping the queen in two.
Red clouded my vision for a moment, but I didn’t have the brain power to stress too much about it. Because my lungs were burning with the need for oxygen, and I knew the others would be struggling just as much.
The Afanc swam hard away from Glitonea’s remains, swerving and squeezing through the tight passageway and pushing us out toward the sea.
And when we surfaced, I gasped in air, spluttering slightly when water still managed to sneak its way down my airway.
Everyone but Nana and Gerry seemed to be struggling to catch their breath, and when I sent her a questioning glance over my shoulder, she shrugged, pushing her purse higher up her arm.
“I’ve had years of practice with breath play,” she said, making me wince.
“I really didn’t need to know that,” I muttered, turning back to Arthur.
But he was slumped over the Afanc’s neck, and panic flared hot and bright as I dove forward to twist his face. His eyes were closed, and he wasn’t breathing.
“Fuck!” I manhandled Arthur’s body so I had better access to his torso. Then I started chest compressions. Pinching his nose, I covered his mouth with mine and puffed air into his lungs. It only took a few times of performing the steps of CPR before Arthur’s body jerked, and a splatter of water spluttered from his mouth. He choked and coughed, and I helped him to a sitting position as I patted his back.
“Did I just... Did I just die?” he wheezed.
“Nope,” I lied because he’d totally been dead for a minute there.
Apparently I wasn’t convincing because he narrowed his eyes at me.
But before he could call me on my bullshit, Gerry whistled, making the Afanc start forward. Arthur quickly scrambled around to grab the Halter once more.
“Where are you having him take us?” Otto shouted, pointing toward the mainland in the distance. “Shore’s that way!”
Gerry grinned and licked the side of Otto’s face. “Silly, metal human! Why waste the chance to ride such a magnificent creature?” he crooned.
“But where is it taking us?” I asked Gerry with the mainland disappearing from view.
Gerry shrugged. “How am I supposed to know?”
“You’ve been talking with it!”
He rolled his eyes like he thought I was being ridiculous. “Yeah, but it’s not like he can talk back.”
“Gerry, we can’t just leave our stuff,” I growled.
“Why not?” Gerry drifted his fingers in the water. “You have your valuables.”
“But what about the rest of our stuff?” Dorothy pointed out, helping dry the Treasures with a spell.
“Like the car,” Nana added.
“Just call the hotel later and see about extending your stay,” he said, making it sound like we were complicating this. “We can always retrieve the rest of our things later.”
“Gerry,” I said, glaring at the demon while retrieving the Horn and Tegau’s Mantle from the others to store in the book. It was still dry thanks to the librarian charm for water damage protection that I’d marked into a rock and stored in my bag. “So help me, if we end up stranded in the middle of the ocean, I’ll feed you to the sharks.”
He grinned. “Deal. Now just sit back and enjoy the ride.”