Ever My Merlin (Book 3, My Merlin Series) (21 page)

He muttered, “Apparently, my virtue has been declared questionable.”

More water rose against my feet. It spilled relentlessly into the tunnel. “If my blood opened this door, this is the key past the tunnel. We have to prove we’re knights. We have to fully step inside.”

“All right, if that’s what you choose.”

I blinked at his sudden acquiescence. “So if we die here, Merlin, if we never save the world because of what I choose, you’ll be all right with that?”

“You were meant to be here, sword-bearer. You’ve gotten us this far.”

Yes, I had gotten us this far, and he had to pick a cave in the middle of nowhere in Sri Lanka, only minutes away from certain death, to tell me such things.
Boys
.

I held out my hand to Matt. He took it.

We stepped into the burning blaze. The flames tickled me like soft feathers, but didn’t burn. We passed through them quickly and came out into a smaller chamber. It took me a minute to absorb that we were still alive. I couldn’t help it—I giggled. “I was right.”

“I could do with a little less surprise in your tone,” Matt said dryly. He held the cross up in the air. The metal glowed a faint blue in the dark.

I looked back at the burning tunnel. “Do you think it was the cross?”

“I don’t know.”

Water bubbled loudly at our feet.

Matt drew another orb out of his jacket and tucked the cross inside. Sparkling with magic, the orb floated up high. Light shimmered on a small waterfall that fell from an opening in the rocks above. I could only assume the stream from the first chamber somehow wound its way to the top here. The water dead-ended into a small pond ahead of us. Three tunnels to its right invited us to explore. Matt sent the light into the first one. The orb illuminated a long tunnel.

Recognition flared through me at the familiar curvature of the rock. My chest contracted. I fought to breathe. Matt took my hand to steady me. A whistle of wind flew through the tunnel and I heard the Minotaur’s laugh echoing along with it. My fingernails dug into Matt’s palm. “This tunnel. I recognize it. It’s identical to the ones in Aegae. The Minotaur’s tunnels.”

“Good,” Matt said.

“G-good? Are you crazy?” He hadn’t seen the Minotaur’s massive form. My heart pounded at memory of the beast’s sculpted human body, its monstrous head and the tail of a horned bull, its eyes glowing green and as cold as the sea. It had chased me and I remembered my heart beating in the dark like a beacon calling to its hunger. I whispered, “Nothing about the Minotaur is good.”

Matt looked to me. “I mean it tells us we’re in the right place. Which way?”

I shut my eyes. My heart strummed with the anxiety of facing the monster in his home. I pictured it chasing me through the tunnels. Then, I was chasing it. I pictured the lust in its eyes when it looked up after I interrupted it while feeding on the broken body of an animal. I shivered as much from anxiety as a disturbing rush of desire.
Vane.

A hot burst of musk-scented air, reminiscent of the monster’s breath, slithered across my nape. My eyes snapped open and I was safe. I said, “I don’t know.”

Matt pointed to the first tunnel. “Let’s try that one.”

Hours or minutes later, it became obvious we were going in circles. We retraced our steps and tried all the tunnels. They led here and there, but the main paths all wound back to the waterfall. There were no markings. No signs. We could wander around here for years and never find anything.

I sat down on a rock as Matt paced in front of the water. I watched him for several minutes before working up the courage to say, “We need to talk to Vane.”

Matt continued to pace. “I am not going to risk putting Avalon in his hands.”

He was driving me crazy.
“Can’t you see that you both want the same things? Maybe in Avalon we can figure out what exactly we’re supposed to do… what we’re all supposed to do. Aren’t you a little worried about the whole end of the world thing?”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Of course,
it’s
why we’re here, but whatever we find out, we have to be careful. The information can’t get into the wrong hands.”

“Ugh. Are you never going to learn? We’re in this mess because of your pathological need to hoard knowledge. Face it—you’re no different than Vane. You want to be the powerful one. The hero. At least he’s upfront about it.”

“Is that what you think? Was I wrong to not want to unleash the tsunamis on this world? How many died in Chennai, Ryan?” Matt halted in front of me. “Because of Vane.”

“There are no easy choices, Merlin.” I took the
Dragon’s Eye
from my pocket.

Matt snatched it away and tucked it into his. “You’re right. No easy choices.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “I’m getting a little tired of you ordering me around. I’m not going to die in here.” I kicked the dirt floor. “And I’m hungry.”

Matt bent down, his face brushing my thigh as he reached into my cargo pants pocket.

“What are you doing?”

He drew out the crumpled breakfast bar I’d rejected earlier. He sat down on the rock beside me and tore open the package, giving me half the bar. It tasted like soy mixed berry sawdust, but I demolished it in three bites.

I yawned. “What’s your plan, Merlin?”

“Do you think you can stop calling me Merlin?” he exploded.

I looked at him curiously. The orb bobbed above us.

Dim light slanted off lean cheekbones, a princely face. In the dark imaginings of the cave, I saw him riding by King Arthur’s side, the shadowy figure behind the warrior. The lion behind the crown. Despite the progress of fifteen hundred years, he hadn’t changed all that much. The wizards still gathered around him like he walked on water. They weren’t the only ones. Even my teachers at school had done so. I had done so.

What place in his life did Merlin have for a slightly messed up, mostly ordinary high school girl? That was the part I couldn’t see. Yet, something inside me reached for what lay underneath. Matt. The one he thought he saw, but still struggled against.

The waterfall rippled in front of me. I got up and moved closer to it. Matt followed me. Catching me, he turned me until I faced him. Two hands slid along either side of my jaw. I held my breath. Would he finally let go and just allow himself to just be? He turned up my chin and backed me up until we stood just outside the spray of the waterfall. Like the pitter-patter of soft rain, water kissed my skin. Matt leaned down to graze his lips along mine. The waterfall gushed forward, completely soaking me.

Matt stepped out of the way.

“What the hell, Matt?” I yelped.

Water ebbed and I stood dripping wet in the cave. I crossed my arms over my chest and hugged myself. I glared at Matt who remained completely dry.

“I knew it.” He pointed to the water. “It’s Vane.”

My heart thumping, I whipped around. I saw nothing but water. “You’ve been in here too long. You’re having delusions.”

Matt grabbed my elbow. “He has Poseidon’s powers, Ryan. He’s in the water. The Ella Falls must lead back to a river which attaches to the ocean.”

I yanked my elbow away from him. “Not surprising, since we
are
on an island.”

“I knew he’d react if I tried to kiss you.”

“You kissed me to needle Vane?”

“I—” Matt smiled sheepishly. “I’m sorry?”

I gave his back a hard shove. With a grunt, he fell into the pool. Sputtering, he flailed in the water. I smiled in triumph. “Still sorry?”

Matt sank into the water. After he didn’t come up for a few minutes, I moved closer to peer into the water.

Matt’s head popped back up. He was treading water. “It’s deep under here.”

I sighed. “A passage?”

“Let’s find out.” He dove underneath.

Muttering, “Crap,” I jumped in.

The orb shot into the water. I sank into the pool. I wasn’t a particularly strong swimmer, but a current, like a dorsal fin in the water, caught me and sped me through. Vane’s hand, I suspected. Inside a blanket of warmth, the current wrapped around me and sent me twirling and twisting until it spat me up and out at the other end. I landed gently in another rocky cavern, exhilarated by the wild whirlwind ride and disappointed that it was over. The orb floated up and out of the pool just before the water threw up Matt next to me.

He lay facedown on his stomach, vomiting water. “That b-bastard.”

I thumped his back and found it icy to the touch. I had to suppress a smile. Vane must have tortured him, it seemed. At the moment, I wasn’t feeling too sympathetic.

Matt grabbed my hand. Rolling over onto his back, he pulled me on top of him. Every inch of my body pressed against his. Thin, wet layers of clothing did nothing to hide that we fit together perfectly. He said huskily, “You’re warm.”

 Behind us, the water grumbled. Matt’s eyes went to the pond.

I scrambled off him and sat down by his side. “I am not the pawn between the two of you.”

Matt sat up, shivering still. “All you have to do is pick a side.”

I stood up. “What if I don’t want to?”

“Then we may all lose,” he said quietly.

“Give me the
Dragon’s Eye
.”

“Why?”

“To get dry. Otherwise, you’re going to catch pneumonia down here.” I held out my hand and wiggled my fingers. “He already knows we’re here.”

“You don’t need to keep going to him to get rescued,” Matt ground out. He took out the handkerchief with the amulet. Instead of handing it over, though, he took my outstretched hand in his while holding the necklace himself. “
Zusyati.
”

Green magic floated over us. We were dry in seconds.

I arched a brow at Matt.

He shrugged. “This way, I don’t have to talk to him.”

Issues with a capital
I
. A sense of foreboding went through me. I had to stop this. I had to find a way to stop them from tearing each other apart and taking the rest of us with them. I asked, “Does this mean you can leech off him to do magic?”

“Yes and no. A drying spell takes very little energy. I can’t do anything big without his help.”

The orb zoomed ahead of me as I moved to step into the darkness. The cavern curved at the top, dotted with stalactites that pointed down at us like sharp fangs. At ground level, neat rows of stalagmites led up to another cliff. The orb danced out over the edge. Light shone down on a valley of nothing but rock, like a miniature Grand Canyon.

“There is nothing here!” I said.

“Are you sure?” Matt took the guidebook out of his pocket. He threw it down at the canyon. Instead of dropping like a stone, the book zigzagged in the air like a kite, descending slowly into the valley.

I stared up at it. “You want to go down?”

Matt went to the edge of the cliff. “These tests were given to the knights to prove themselves worthy. The first test was to prove virtue, and the second test was faith.”

I held up a hand. “I am not sky diving without a parachute.”

On cue, the pool erupted behind us. A gel-like snake of water rose up and flowed toward the edge of the cliff. Reaching us, the front piece of it shaped itself into a water-gel boat with outstretched wings. Below the boat’s prow, the figurehead of a horned deer took shape. Then, the whole gel structure solidified into ice.

“A reindeer pulling a sleigh,” I murmured. “Cute, Vane.”

Matt set a foot inside the ice-sled to test its sturdiness. It held. He scowled. “Apparently, your chariot awaits.”

“Don’t look so happy about it,” I said dryly. The snake-hand of water squiggled in the air. I gave in to its demand and walked along the edge of the cliff to the boat.

Matt jumped out of the boat. “Dealing with him always has a price, Ryan.”

Before I could do more than let out a squeak, he tackled me and sent us over the edge of the cliff. I screamed as I tumbled down a thousand invisible steps of compressed air. Each gust of air hit me with the force of a sledgehammer. Finally, I reached the bottom. The air stopped about fifteen feet up and I slammed into the rocks down below.

Luckily, I knew how to tuck and roll, but the jagged surface of the valley made it impossible to set down gently. Matt fell even less gracefully than I did, landing face-first on sharp rocks. He groaned and got up, looking mostly all right. I stood up with effort. Bruises tattooed my arms and judging by the way the rest of my body ached, I had no doubt there were more. I spat at him, “Are you crazy?”

“We didn’t need the sled.” He brushed blood off a small cut on his forehead and stalked off toward the hidden island. The orb bobbed happily after him.

No, apparently, we needed to eat dirt instead.
I yelled at his back, “You better have a plan for us to get out of here.”

Nine stone columns held up the rock awning that covered the tiny island. The columns rose out of a moat, evenly spaced across the circumference of the island. We waded through the waist-high water of the moat onto black rock.

I knelt down to touch the odd-looking granite. “Matt, this stone is the same as the one that held Excalibur.”

“I’m not surprised.” He pointed to a column behind us. On the back of it, a figure of a woman in a toga was carved into the rock. Her arms, like branches of a stone tree, rose up and connected to the awning above. Water flowed out of her mouth and back into the moat. A sentinel, she guarded the island. Matt floated the orb around the island in front of the other columns. “They’re all women. Nine women. It has to be the Nine Morgans.”

“Nine Morgans?”

“In legend, Morgan Le Fay and her sisters guard the entrance to Avalon.” Matt floated the orb to the center. On a rectangular dais lay an enormous stone sarcophagus.

“This isn’t an island; it’s a tomb,” I whispered.

Matt walked over to the casket. I followed. An odd picture had been etched on the top of the stone coffin. In the rough shape of an umbrella, a stick-like body supported a curved line of the ten heads of Rawana. Matt took out the cross from his pocket and held it over the etching. A hiss of wind fluttered through the darkness. I stared down at the casket. “The body could be the stem of the cross and the center head the top.”