Chapter Six
“Tell me everything you know,” Arthur said to Simeon. “Leave nothing out. I also want to know how you know these things.”
“First,” Simeon said. “Tell me. Are you truly him? Are you Arthur Pendragon?”
“It depends,” Arthur answered. “Who is asking? Are you Merlin? Do you know?
Roldan started to shake his head, but then stopped and shrugged his shoulders instead.
“I don’t know. The knights asked me…” Tears welled up in his eyes, and it seemed, his throat.
He swallowed back emotions, almost choking on them.
“…what was the witch’s name who cursed me to travel through time.
I didn’t know. I still don’t. But I believe it was Morgan.
I may indeed be Merlin and you, my friend, King Arthur. ”
“My dearest friend,” Arthur said on a deep groan. He wished he remembered, but just knowing this was likely his closest friend in all the world… “It’s been a long time.”
“Yes,” Simeon wiped his eyes and sighed, looking at him. “She’s been searching for you. She—” He stopped for a moment to look around. “Where’s Elia?”
“I sent her away this morning. I knew Morgan was getting closer. I felt it.”
“You sent her away?”
“Yes. Believe me it pained me to do so. I want her safe.”
“Is she her? Is she Guinevere?”
He began to tell him that he didn’t think so, when he heard Miss Upton whispering, “Is this real?” to…
He turned to have another look at Sebastian. His nerve-endings came alive, his senses honed for danger, his heart about to burst with love.
“I believe my firstborn son has come to me. What does it mean?”
Simeon leaned over his shoulder to whisper near his ear. “He will betray you. He was born to kill you.”
Arthur shook his head. “The same outcome doesn’t have to happen.”
“Even you are not permitted to change the past,” Merlin reminded him. Then when Arthur turned to him, he added, “You feel him in your blood.”
“Yes.”
“And you feel danger.”
“But I also feel…something else.” Arthur stared at his dearest friend. Did he see Merlin in there? Yes. Yes, he did. “I feel something like the old Mordred, and if he’s there, I will fight to the death to free him.”
*
“I want to help him.”
Noelle gave him an incredulous look. “How could you help a powerful magician fight an angry witch?” She widened her eyes and touched her fingers to her temples. “This is too much. It can’t be real. I must be dead or something.”
“’Tis real,” Sebastian told her softly.
Lancaster—or the king, was busy trying to explain to Simeon why he’d helped their mutual friend, Elia, move away to Hawaii.
They had stepped away and were speaking off in the corner.
“And he is in trouble.”
“I understand that,” she argued softly, glancing over at the two magicians.
“But what could you possibly do to help them? I think we should get out of here before she arrives. It’s him she’s after—oh, gosh,” she stopped her rant and covered her hand with her mouth.
“I sound horrible, don’t I?” She didn’t wait for an answer.
“I’ve never been in a situation like this before.
” She drew in a deep breath and looked at Lancaster as she blew it out. “Okay, I’m with you. What can we do?”
All at once, he seemed to let down his guard. Walls fell and crumbled around her feet. How was it possible that a guy who looked as if he just stepped off the cover of a magazine would be so serious about anyone, let alone her?
“I can take this moment to tell you that I feel like I have waited a lifetime to meet you again, and now that I have, ’tis a disaster. I cannot express to you how sorry I am. I want to make it up to you. Have dinner with me when this is over.”
She smiled at him, finding it easy to do so. “I can’t deny this is the most interesting evening I’ve ever spent with anyone. I’ll never forget it.”
She lowered her eyes behind a spray of lashes then lifted them slightly to take a peek at him. He was smiling. He smiled at her often. She liked it.
She tilted her head a fraction and caught Lancaster staring at Sebastian as if he were the devil himself sitting right there in his living room. He gathered himself quickly enough and returned his attention to Mr. Simeon, who was busy telling him something.
“Where is your favorite place to eat?” Sebastian was asking her. “We can go there.”
“Where is it you two wish to go?” Lancaster moseyed over as if he hadn’t been listening.
“To dinner,” Sebastian told him. “I would like to start this night over.”
“Ah, well,” Arthur began with a gracious smile. Noelle thought he was a handsome man. “Please allow me to help. I can use my magic here. The walls are made with a blend of titanium and carbon steel. Magic cannot be detected.”
“What do you wish to do?” Sebastian asked.
Arthur—Mr. Lancaster started speaking something in another language. He waved his arms a time or two and when he was finished, a hole in the wall appeared. Beyond it was the night sky, clouds lit up by the full moon before they passed across it.
Sebastian took her hand. And turned to look at her. “Let’s do it.”
She nodded. She liked adventure. This was her dream coming true.
They stepped through and felt their clothes change. She wore a snug, black Donna Caren dress and Louboutin heels. Her hair was brushed up and sprayed and pinned until a hurricane couldn’t pull a hair out of place. But when she touched it, it felt soft.
“Wow,” he said. His voice cracked a little. “You look…beautiful.”
“You look good, too, in your Armani suit.” She wanted to tell him that she didn’t care what he wore, but it might make her seem eager. But really, with his hair left down like a reminder that there was something less tamed beneath the flair and fashion, she’d rather he wore nothing.
To her right, the Eiffel Tower was lit up and looming over people sitting at tables beneath it. That’s where they were going!
“Okay, wow!” she said as they were escorted to small candlelit table covered in white silk, embroidered with colorful dancing men with spring flowers bursting to life around them.
Everything was so expensive and beautiful. They drank from crystal glasses, ate from fine china and sterling silverware. They sipped two-hundred-year-old wine, and ate the finest food, like Beluga caviar and some kind of rare salmon that Noelle knew she’d dream about.
“This is more like it,” Sebastian said, sitting back in his chair when his meal was done.
“Oh?” She laughed as a soft breeze fragranced with freshly cut flowers floated by. “Is this something you would plan for a date?”
“No,” he answered “I don’t think this is you. Perhaps once in a while, aye. We all like to be pampered. But stay with me a little longer and I will pamper you in more intimate ways.”
Her veins went hot. She felt her cheeks go up in a blaze. “All that and a gentleman, too,” she muttered, smiling.
“Tell me,” he said, setting his glass on the table. “Who is the Noelle Upton the camera does not know?”
She hadn’t spoken about her life in years—to anyone. She’d never let herself get close to anyone before, but she felt as if she’d already shared so much with him. If she lived through this, no other guy would ever give her a night like this one.
“I’ve had to be tough. It’s easier for the men to get ahead, unless you look like Barbie. All of us women have been through it. You work hard and the man who works with you gets ahead faster. This story would have changed all that for me.”
“Your time will come, Noelle,” he said, sounding convincing.
“Do you know something I don’t?”
“Aye. That the accolades of others don’t satisfy the way you had hoped.
That ache to be fully content can only come from yourself and the Almighty.
I can tell you that you are well loved on the eleventh floor of Columbia Presbyterian Hospital, but you have to be convinced of your worth before you can demand what you deserve. ”
“Yes.” She sat back, thinking on his words. “Convinced of my worth. You’re right.”
“Here is to your happiness.” He lifted his glass and clinked it with hers.
“So what do we do to help King Arthur?” she asked after she sipped her wine.
“Noelle, I recently discovered that I have—I would have told you when you woke up but there has been so much to take in.”
She stared him. What was he trying to tell her? He recently discovered what? Her heart thrashed within her. He had a place in all this madness. What was it?
“What, Sebastian?”
“I have…ehm…powers like Arthur’s.”
She nearly spit out her wine. “You mean you’re a sorcerer?”
He shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know what I am. Or who I am. But I know I’m his enemy.”
Her expression fell. “Oh, no. And how do you know you have powers?”
“Let’s not spoil this with talk of what’s going on out there. We’re in France. It feels and smells and tastes so real, does it not?”
“Yes, and it’s much better than hiding out in a stranger’s apartment. Even if the stranger is King Arthur and you’re holed up in a huge, gorgeous place.”
He agreed and they both laughed.
“’Tis a beautiful night,” he remarked with a gleam in his green eyes. “Let us walk a bit. There is something I wish to do.”