24. Will
Chapter twenty-four
Will
Who pimped out the deer?
W e stayed on the Isle of Man for a few more days, but every time we looked up ferry times to take us back to the mainland, I’d get bombarded with visions of one or more of the remaining queens waiting there for us. So we’d waited, trying to figure out what our options were. Gerry kept insisting we ride Fancy back to the mainland, not understanding why we couldn’t let that happen again. My dad suggested we sneak on a fishing boat, Nana thought it would be a good idea to simply steal a fishing boat, and Otto had started looking into how to build your own rowboat.
Honestly. I just couldn’t deal with my family sometimes.
The more I thought about it, though, the more the solution became blatantly obvious.
That was how we found ourselves standing on Castletown Beach at six in the fucking morning.
Nana squinted down at the Chariot in my dad’s hands. “Maybe you’re just not saying it right.”
My dad glared up from the book on animating objects. “Fine, then you try to make it work,” he exclaimed, tossing the Chariot at her and raising his hands up in defeat.
They’d been at this for the past half hour, trying anything to get it to change. They’d tried asking, then switched to begging, and then had even resorted to hexing the damn thing. But still, the Chariot stayed fixed as a little toy.
Because after discovering the Halter could summon more than just horses, I wondered if the Chariot could change to a different sort of vehicle. Like a car or boat.
Arthur came up beside me, looking mildly concerned. “Are you sure we’ll die if we take the ferry?”
I sighed. “Yes. Though, that’s sounding more and more appealing with every passing minute of this nonsense.”
When Nana prepared to cast another hex at the Chariot, Dorothy cleared her throat. “Mind if I take a whack at it?”
Nana rolled her eyes, picking up a red parasol she’d gotten from who knew where. “Sure, but I doubt you’ll have any more lu—”
A large splash washed over our lower legs as the Chariot shifted and dropped into the water, transforming into a small, sleek yacht. Water lapped at its sides where it bobbed farther out in the water, and Dorothy had to cover a smirk when Nana and Dad’s mouths dropped open at the same time.
I rolled my eyes, just relieved that it had finally worked.
Since we didn’t have a way to reach the yacht without taking a swim, my family and I worked together to form a dock using air magic. We all clambered onto the yacht, and my dad and Nana giggled together as they took up spots in the back with our bags of takeout we’d ordered for breakfast. The two of them had also purchased some orange juice and Prosecco from the corner shop, and while they got busy making mimosas in the glasses they’d stolen from the hotel, I found the helm inside the cockpit and studied the dials on the control panel. They didn’t seem normal. Though, I wasn’t a boat expert.
Otto followed behind me, frowning at all the buttons. He pointed to a green switch on the side of the helm. “Maybe that will start it?”
I gave it a flick, and we grinned at each other when the yacht purred to life.
Our small yacht started off then, bouncing on the waves as it headed out to sea. Otto pulled up the directions for the mainland, searching for an area we could hopefully dock, and I steered us that way.
But no more than one minute into the trip, Gerry skipped into the bridge.
“Ooh! Can I drive the boat?” Gerry asked, bounding up and stuffing his face between ours.
I shoved him out of my face with a snort. “Absolutely not.”
Gerry pouted, his eyes growing abnormally large. “Please?”
“I can always supervise,” Otto said with a shrug, tucking his hands in his pockets while his ears tinted pink.
I cocked my head at him. “Really?”
He shrugged again, not looking at me. “I mean, it’s not a big deal or whatever.”
“Mm-hmm,” I said, narrowing my gaze on him, but Gerry was already jumping up and down with glee.
“Oh, this is great! I shall be the best captain you’ve ever had, I swear. We shall plunder and pillage all the gold from any ship that dares to cross us, and—”
“No pillaging or plundering,” I said immediately, making his face drop.
“But what about the gold?”
“We’re not fucking pirates, Gerry,” I pointed out. “Besides, I have more than enough gold.”
In a nearly inaudible tone, Gerry muttered, “Of course I’d get tethered to someone with no evil aspirations. What would my parents say if they knew?”
Tired of his shit, I left Otto to babysit him as we headed farther out to sea.
Arthur was sitting alone near the prow, a mostly gone mimosa in his hand while he stared out at the sea.
He smiled when I moved to sit beside him, and I grinned in return.
We’d spent most of our free time the past few days lazing about the hotel room and making out late into the night.
We hadn’t gone farther than kissing and dry humping each other into the mattress, but I could tell by the desperate desire in Arthur’s face whenever we stopped that he wanted more.
And fuck did I want that too.
We hadn’t talked about what my role in his life entailed. Like I’d told him before, we could worry about what came next later. For now, we needed to focus on the present and find the Holy Grail so we could end his curse.
So I supposed the same applied to our... Well, I didn’t think it could be defined as a relationship. And I was content to explore this new and budding attraction between us for now and figure out the rest post-Grail.
Though, part of me knew some of my hesitance was thanks to my nightmares. Well, one nightmare in particular.
I’d had the same dream of me dying every night. I woke with the memory of that dagger piercing my chest, the pain so clear I had to gasp for breath.
I knew Arthur sensed I wasn’t telling him something. Especially when he jolted awake each time that specific nightmare occurred and tried to console me. But I always tried to brush it off, not wanting to worry him or the others with something I myself didn’t even fully understand.
So no, I was content to bask in the present because how could I plan for a future when I’d possibly Seen my death coming all too soon?
As the mainland came into view, we encountered a problem, though.
Despite Otto and Gerry’s efforts to direct us toward the dock Otto’d looked up earlier, the Chariot seemed to have a direction of its own it wanted to follow. We tried everything to make it turn back when we started heading the wrong way, but it became clear that we were just along for the ride now. All we could do was wait.
When we spotted a small bay surrounded by rocks and lined with dense trees, the Chariot began to head toward the shore.
And it was around there that our ship finally came to a sputtering stop in the middle of the cove. Then, as if knowing its job was finished, the Chariot shrunk until it was nothing more than a little toy yacht, forcing all of us to tumble straight into the water.
When I surfaced, I glared at the damned thing where it bobbed just near my head. “Really?”
It didn’t respond. Obviously.
We swam then trudged out of the water, and I tried not to think of the potential of sharks. Because knowing my luck, I’d be lunch for a great white if I stuck around in the ocean much longer.
Dripping wet, we made it out of the water and onto a rocky beach. Despite the sun, I shivered from my wet clothes and decided to use a drying spell to expel the water from my clothes.
Shutting my eyes, I felt for my magic. It slithered down my arms with a warmth I definitely appreciated right now.
I pictured what I needed from it, urging it to vacuum the water out of my clothes.
I yelped when I suddenly found myself naked, my clothes wrenched from my body and flung into the ocean. The only thing my spell hadn’t rid me of were my fucking shoes.
With a shout of alarm, I tried to cover myself.
Otto shielded his eyes with a curse, Gerry squawked about me always being inappropriate.
The rest of my family gaped at me, and really, I didn’t blame them.
Nana tossed me her parasol, and I snatched it gratefully as I used it to cover my junk. Arthur, who was still behind me, made a noise of approval, and I peeked over my shoulder to find him ogling my ass.
His teeth sank into his bottom lip, and when he finally glanced up, his irises brimmed with heat and want.
Fuck, I really couldn’t afford to be naked with a boner right now.
“If you wanted your clothes dried, you could have just asked,” my dad said wearily.
I’d only taken one step into the water, eyeing my clothes drifting a mere 10 feet away, when a massive shape lurched through the surface. To my horror, none other than a great white shark opened its jaws, its sharp teeth clamping down around my clothes before it splashed back into the water.
I immediately took my foot back out of the water. Fuck. That. Shit.
“Don’t worry, Lord Will!” Gerry exclaimed, running toward me while stripping out of his clothes. His dicks swung in the air as he struggled to kick off his wet pants and underwear. “You can have my clothes!”
“Is this really fucking happening right now?” Otto muttered, rubbing his temples.
Gerry reached me then, handing me his soaking clothes with a beaming smile.
“Thanks, Gerry,” I said, since his gesture had been thoughtful, if also ridiculous.
He shifted then, making me wonder why he hadn’t just done that in the first place.
Dorothy moved to help me dry Gerry’s clothes while Gerry skipped off to scout out the trees. Or, that was what he said. But I’d spotted him eyeing a little, brown bird chirping on a branch.
“Where are we?” Otto asked, while I tugged on the freshly dried clothes, sans Gerry’s underwear, of course. He pulled out his phone to check the map and frowned.
“What is it?” Nana asked yanking the parasol out of my hands when I moved to hand it to her.
Holding his phone up for us to see, our location blinked at us, but there was nothing but trees around for several miles.
“We’re going to need to walk,” he said regretfully. “But look, there’s a town maybe four hours from here.”
We all glanced toward Nana whose leg, though mostly healed, wouldn’t be able to handle that much walking.
My gaze caught on Nana’s purse, and a thought entered my mind.
The others watched as I pulled out the book and flipped it open. When I retrieved the Halter from its pages, they all eyed me curiously.
Warmth circulated through me, which had nothing to do with the sunshine, and in the next moment, a majestic creature stood within the Halter.
Its white coat almost seemed to shimmer. Its wavy mane hung long and glossy over one side of its body. And there, protruding from its forehead, a single, golden horn.
Nana squealed . “Is that a unicorn?”
“You’re telling me unicorns are real?” Otto asked, shifting close in awe.
“They are. Though, I only met one,” Arthur said, patting the beast’s side with a soft smile. “She lived in a forest and befriended an outcast dwarf and helped take care of his newborn son after the lad lost his mother in childbirth.”
“How did she take care of a baby?” I asked curiously.
Arthur grimaced. “You don’t want to know.”
Arthur helped Nana onto the steed’s back, and she grinned as she twirled her parasol. “Quick, someone take a picture!”
Otto snapped a picture of Nana on the unicorn before we all moved to stand around the creature and took an awkward selfie.
With Nana taken care of, we ventured off, and Gerry capered alongside us, hunting down any prey he could. Which was mostly bugs.
He kept his distance, though. Especially since the unicorn started to freak out anytime he came too close to her. I bet she sensed what he was, and being a creature of light and purity, his presence scared her.
With the Horn, we were able to keep well hydrated, but we had little to eat except for some leftover candy from my bag.
After a couple of hours, we stopped in a small clearing for a break. We were exhausted and not making the sort of progress we’d hoped for. I definitely didn’t help matters, tripping over everything and anything placed in my path. Plus, leather, humidity, and hiking were so not a good combo, and my balls were chafing like crazy.
I’d sell a kidney for some baby powder right about now.
“Why did it have to stick us here of all places?” Otto muttered as he dug a pebble out of his shoe. Shoes that were definitely not meant for hiking and looked close to falling apart.
I made a mental note to buy him some new ones the next time we found a store.
Dorothy wiped the sweat from her brow. With the sun beating down on us through the branches, the heat would be unbearable within hours. “How far to the nearest road now?”
“It’s still about an hour and a half from here,” Otto said, checking the map on his phone. He zoomed in, frowning at the screen. “But the nearest town is nowhere close to here. At least several hours more of walking.”
Taking the Horn from my dad, I took a long sip of Gatorade. The berry flavor, of course.
“Will,” Arthur whispered, grabbing onto my arm and making me spill Gatorade down my shirt. When I glanced his way, I found his eyes glued to the trees. Fear filled me, wondering if we were in danger. But that’s when I spotted something slinking through the trees.
A white stag.
It glowed a brilliant white, almost ghost-like, and when it turned its head to face us, my mouth parted in awe at its magnificent antlers. A chain of gold hung around its neck, twinkling when it caught the sunlight.
I knew of the white stag. It appeared in various myths and legends from cultures all around the world, including Arthurian lore.
A smile lit my face as a feeling of hope and tranquility settled inside me, and though I wasn’t sure, I felt in my gut that it was here to help us.
“Who pimped out the deer?” Gerry asked, ruining such a remarkable moment.
The deer moved at the sound of his voice, leaping deeper into the trees, and I cursed.
We chased after the stag, catching glimpses of it as it weaved through the trees.
Arthur laughed beside me as we ran, bounding over rocks and fallen trees like it was nothing.
I tried to keep up, but I kept tripping over what felt like every single fucking pebble. Branches scraped my face, twigs snagged my clothes, and I tripped or stumbled over too many rocks to count, but still, I couldn’t stop moving forward. After falling over a broken tree branch for the third time, though, Arthur picked me up and tossed me over his shoulder.
If I wasn’t over getting beaten up by the forest, I probably would have felt more humiliated. As it was, I didn’t mind. Especially not when I got a great view of Arthur’s ass.
The others hurried along after us, faces wild with excitement. Nana hollered from the back of the unicorn, and even ended up passing Arthur and I. Gerry practically pounced from spot to spot, sometimes leaping from some low branches in the trees with a Cheshire grin plastered on his face as he tracked the stag. Otto called after him, shouting for him to be careful. My dad and Dorothy took up the rear of our group, the two of them huffing and puffing even as they laughed.
But then the trees thinned, and through the gaps in their trunks, I spotted what appeared to be a lake.
The stag rushed onto the lake’s shoreline, and when we passed the last of the trees, we stopped mere feet away. Arthur set me on my feet as the others caught up, sidling close to us. My dad helped Nana dismount from the unicorn, and she held onto the Halter with a trembling hand.
The stag watched us with ghostly eyes, and we didn’t dare move in case we spooked it away. But then it stepped toward us with strong steps, coming to stand directly before me.
I held my breath as the stag leaned forward and touched its cold nose against my forehead. Its cold breath brushed against my face as it moved down our line, pressing its nose to each of our faces. Even Gerry, who never seemed to stay quiet for long, held still as the stag nudged its nose to his forehead.
Then it retreated, and we observed the stag take several steps onto the surface of the water.
Remaining still, our group waited to see what happened next. But the stag only turned to look at us. And as it dipped its head in a semblance of a bow, it faded into mist.
We released a collective breath at its disappearance.
And that’s when we got a good look at our surroundings.
The area around us, the trees, the brush and grass... were all barren or dried. No creatures scavenged for food, no insects buzzed among the flowers. Because there was nothing for them here.
It reminded me slightly of the land of Avalon, but it missed the sense of grief and misery that island had.
Here, it just felt deserted.
Mountainous hills rose around the lake, something that had been hidden by the forest we’d trekked through. A castle sat atop one of the nearest mounds, its stone dark and gray. It almost appeared to be shrouded in shadows despite the sun bearing down upon its exterior.
Looking around, I took in more of our environment, trying to piece together why the stag had led us here. Because I refused to believe we’d just chased it all the way here for nothing.
And that’s when I noticed a lone fishing boat bobbing in the water. A figure sat with their line cast in the lake, but otherwise, it and the adjacent lands were utterly deserted.
“Shit, where are we?” Otto grumbled, fishing out his phone to pull up the map. He huffed when a little red battery symbol flashed across the screen. “Can I see someone else’s phone?”
“Mine’s dead,” dad called.
Dorothy offered him an apologetic, sheepish smile. “Mine too, hon.”
“Pretty sure I lost mine weeks ago,” Nana said, pulling out a flask from the folds of her skirt.
Seriously?
When he turned to me, I pulled out my phone and tossed it to him.
Only... I missed and my phone landed face down on the rocks with a crack.
When Otto picked it up and found the screen cracked and glitching, he walked straight over to the nearest leafless tree, groaning in frustration as he thumped his forehead against its trunk. “Why. Is. This. My. Life?”
“We need to keep moving,” Arthur said, his gaze falling back to the fishing boat.
“No,” my dad said, sprawling out on a fallen log with a long sigh. “The rest of you can go on without me.”
“Oh, stop complaining,” Nana said, twirling her parasol and beaming at the lake before us. “It’s not that long of a walk back the way we just came.”
Dad scowled at her. “Coming from the person who doesn’t have to walk at all!”
Since my dad didn’t seem inclined to move anytime soon, I took his lead and plopped down onto a boulder on the outskirts of the forest. Arthur kept close, taking a seat next to me on the rock as we watched my dad and Nana argue about taking turns on the unicorn.
“It’s never a dull day with your family, is it?” Arthur mused, trailing his fingers over mine where they rested palm down on the boulder.
“No, never,” I said as my gaze tracked those fingers as they shifted up my arm, sending goose bumps over my skin and making Arthur grin devilishly.
He leaned closer, his breath smelling of citrus.
“I think I like you in leather,” Arthur said against my ear. His hand wandered down my side, just out of view from the others. When his fingers hooked in the hem of my shirt, skimming the skin underneath to brush over my leather pants, my blood heated.
“More than my birthday suit?” I teased, and he frowned in befuddlement. “That means naked.”
His nostrils flared, and his eyes glazed over for a moment, making me think he was recalling earlier when I’d been just that. “No,” he rasped. “Nothing compares to you without clothes.”
“Can you two stop flirting and help us please?” Nana called, making us jerk apart.
I hadn’t even realized how close we’d gotten.
“Maybe we can ask that person for directions?” Gerry suggested, pointing a clawed finger toward the figure fishing.
Otto straightened at that suggestion. “Yes! Let’s do that.”
“How do we get their attention?”
“We could just, like, shout?” my dad said.
“Then go ahead,” Nana told him, rolling her eyes. “Shout at a complete stranger we found in the middle of nowhere.”
My dad scowled. “It was only a suggestion.”
“You two can be so ridiculous sometimes,” Dorothy said, moving around them to stand on the shoreline. She waved her hands, trying to get the person’s attention. “Excuse me! Hello!”
They turned their head, but they were too far for us to make out their face.
“Can you help us?” Dorothy called, still waving her hands. “We’re lost and trying to find the nearest town or road.”
We watched as the individual reeled in their line and grabbed their oars. They began rowing their boat back toward the land, though the process was slow.
When the small boat docked on the shore, I finally got a good look at the gentleman. I studied his face as he climbed out of the boat to tug it onto the rocks. But when he struggled, my dad and Arthur rushed over to help him, and he mumbled his gratitude. He looked around the same age as my parents with slightly longer, brown hair touched with gray. His nose was strong, if not a little crooked, and light wrinkles lined his face.
But it was his eyes that had me studying him a little closer.
His brown eyes were drowning in sadness and pain. He had the look of a man who had borne many burdens and given up hope.
“How may I help you fine folk?” he said, his voice thick, his tone soft. He hobbled after dad and Arthur as they returned to us, using an oddly shaped cane with a pointed end, almost like a spear.
“We got lost and need help finding the nearest road or town?” Dorothy said, sounding relieved.
The man glanced over our group, taking in our dirtied clothes and weary expressions. When his gaze fell upon Arthur, it widened fractionally. But then he looked back to Dorothy, but one glance at Arthur said he’d noticed it too.
Though, the fact he didn’t balk over a unicorn should have been the biggest indicator that something wasn’t quite right here.
Clearing his throat, the man smiled tightly, a pinch of pain in his expression as he shifted on his leg, leaning heavily on his cane. “I’m afraid the nearest town is still a ways from here.”
“Dammit,” Otto muttered to no one in particular.
“If you’d like, you’re welcome to stay the night at my home? I can prepare you supper, and you can rest before you venture out to town tomorrow.”
“What’s your name?” Arthur asked, his gaze roving over the man’s face.
The man bowed slightly. “I’ve gone by many names over the years. But these days, I just go by Pell.”