Chapter Eight
Noelle stared at the woman who had appeared with Mr. Simeon in King Arthur’s living room. She thought people couldn’t travel with him. Who was she? They obviously knew her as she was the one they had been discussing earlier. Elia.
Noelle watched as Elia produced a golden vial and lifted the top off. The same kind of smoke that had trapped Mr. Simeon earlier was released and drifted to Morgan and the knights being held still by Merlin.
“Who are you?” Arthur asked her.
“She’s my sister,” Morgan spat as the smoke covered her. “Viviane.”
Elia—or Viviane appeared less surprised than Noelle would have been had someone told her she was Morgan’s sister.
Instead, Viviane’s eyes softened on Arthur. “Merlin told me who you are, Your Majesty. Kestrel was correct. You are the knight of knights.” Her smile brightened her eyes, but there was sadness also. “I do not remember you.”
She meant to say more but Morgan’s wailing distracted her.
She set her eyes on her sister, bound from head to toe in golden tendrils of smoke. “I wonder if you know of a place where I can keep her?”
Mr. Simeon nodded his head. “Come.”
“Wait!” Arthur stopped them. He began to mutter words. A small light appeared before him. He lifted his hand and plucked it from the air. It was a blackened pin of some kind.
“The brooch,” Noelle heard Sebastian say in a low voice.
“My lady, Viviane,” he said, bowing to the lovely woman. “You don’t remember this right now, but you saved me once. For you, do I do this.” He uttered a short incantation, of which Merlin joined in. After a moment, he opened his eyes. “Our memories are restored.”
Because he kept her so close against his body, Noelle felt Sebastian go entirely stiff. He made a small sound with his throat. She looked up at him.
“Are you okay?”
“Yes.”
Viviane wept while she hugged Arthur and Merlin. The knights fell to their knees and almost onto their faces, with their bound knees and ankles, at Arthur’s feet.
Arthur smiled, looking joyously happy and waved his hand. The vaporous bindings disintegrated from the two men. Arthur told them to rise and embrace him. They happily obeyed.
“I thought you might be Guinevere,” Arthur was telling Lady Viviane, one of the Nine. “But I think I knew you weren’t,” he said softly. “You knew we didn’t share a connection, no?”
She nodded. “And I realized that when I was first transported by the brooch, I didn’t come to you. I went to the eleventh century. I assume he is there.”
He smiled and drew her in close. “I want to come to Avalon with you. Now that I’m no longer in hiding from her, I want to see home. But first, my lady, allow me a moment to speak to my son.”
Viviane nodded with a smile and stepped aside.
Noelle did the same, thinking as he came closer, that this was King Arthur. Who would ever believe her? Magic was real but she had no proof.
“Son—”
“I’m not coming. That life is not for me.”
“I know,” Arthur told him. “It never was. You’re a knight, not a sorcerer.”
Sebastian nodded, but Noelle could tell there was something else. He didn’t tell his father though.
“You changed their tales, Mordred.”
“This is all overwhelming…Sire.”
“Father will do,” the king said and pulled him in for a long embrace. “I’ll be back. Watch over the apartment for me, will you?”
Sebastian nodded and smiled, looking around. ’Tis a bit bigger than what I have but I’ll keep it clean.”
Arthur grinned down at Noelle. “Perhaps Miss Upton can help.”
Leaving her standing there blushing, he hurried back to the others. “How can we find Guin?”
Viviane looked up at him and smiled. “Leave that to me.”
Noelle watched them disappear. One of the knights rode his horse into nothing and was gone, but the one they’d called Gawaine came to Sebastian.
“Greetings, Brother.”
“Brother,” Sebastian acknowledged then glanced at a shocked Noelle. “We have different fathers.”
“I will expect to see you in Avalon for the harvest.”
“No, I—”
“I will see you there if I must come and get you.”
“Still just as bossy,” Sebastian chided.
“If bossy means I am the more handsome of the two of us, aye, I’m aware.” He laughed heartily on his way out.
Alone, Noelle turned to Sebastian. What was she still doing here? Why hadn’t she run already? She didn’t need this madness in her life. But she had to admit, her blood hadn’t pumped like this in years, maybe in forever.
She turned to him and stepped into his arms. She was immediately surrounded by muscle and the scent of peppermint and pine. “You sure do know how to make an impression on a first date.”
He laughed, sounding a little like Gawaine when he did.
Why hadn’t she run? She’d never run from anything in her life. She wasn’t about to start now. She coiled her arms around his neck and pressed herself against him.
“So do I call you Sebastian or Mordred?”
He drew her in closer. “Call me your love, your husband, lover, friend, protector, whatever you wish.”
“Oh, so you’re sticking around?” she asked playfully when he went for her neck.
“For as long as you will have me.”
Her face broke into a satisfied smile. “Alexa, play something festive.”
She didn’t resist when he cupped her face in his palm and tilted her head up. His mouth descended on hers, filling her with memories of a forbidden kiss they’d shared across time.
It was said the brooch brought you to your true love. Tonight, while she kissed Sebastian underneath the mistletoe, she believed it.