Ever My Merlin (Book 3, My Merlin Series) (34 page)

From behind his back, Doppelganger-Matt drew out strappy gold sandals and pointed me to a spindly chair. I sat and lifted the hem of the gown. Kneeling down, warm fingers skimmed my skin as he tied the heels to my feet. They fit perfectly, of course.

I stared down at his bent head. I wanted to say something, but the moment felt too delicate for words. Then, he looked up at me. His hand still wrapped around one foot. The skirt fell away from my hand, and from the stormy depths of his eyes shone all the emotions he couldn’t quite bury, the light of his soul that wouldn’t fade and asked for redemption.

From that moment on, I was ensnared. Captured by his spell, I found myself being drawn deep into the night. The limo took us past Fenway Park into historic Back Bay. Darkness descended over the city by the time we came to a stop at the Boston Palace Hotel. Tucked to the side of the hotel, the Imperial Ballroom overlooked a bean-shaped pond framed by weeping willow trees. Five hundred or so kids milled inside the majestic domed ballroom. A photographer clicked a picture of us in front of a life-size painting of a pirate ship with billowed sails.

Blue, green, and yellow strobe lights sparkled off the crystal chandeliers. Two curved staircases led upstairs, where kids over leaned over royal-style balconies on a second story. Floor-to-ceiling windows canvased a midnight-blue sky on one side. On the other side, decorations of sea nymphs and big-eyed mermaids lined the walls. (After all I knew about them, the pictures made me smile.) Circular tables covered with white linen showcased glass centerpieces of pink-and-purple sea anemone.

Half the kids wore masks. Half didn’t. In my daze, I barely noticed the crowd. I smiled and waved, having no idea who was who. Friend and foe, tonight—on this one night—they all mingled together.

On a grand stage above us, the very appropriately named band,
The Neptunes,
thumped out fast-paced music and lyrics that screamed not to stop until the world ended. Vane drew me out into the middle of the dance floor. A laughing Christine and her date danced on the outskirts. I spotted Ramanajan with one of the young wizards who invaded my house. Gia gave Grey a tentative smile as they moved to the beat. Various friends—Regulars, wizards, and gargoyles—made up the odd crowd, but none of them looked out of place. Their happiness surrounded me.

Then, as if on command, the music slowed.

And all I saw was him.

Beneath the twinkle of a lone chandelier, I pictured Vane’s actual face under the mask. I’d worn a mask at the music festival in Glastonbury. We’d kissed for the first time that night in a smoke-filled basement surrounded by blood-spattered walls. Today, he held me in the middle of a glittering ballroom. Yet, I clearly recalled how he’d taken me into his arms that terror-filled night. How safe I felt in them. The hunger in that first tentative kiss and promises it suggested.

Around us, the song whispered about two souls fated to meet. In the lullaby of the moment, suspended from the present and unmindful of the future, I laid my head against his chest. My cheek pressed into the cool silk of his vest. I listened to the steady rhythm of his heartbeat. And there I understood why prom had become so important to us. Something about the last dance before the final act spelled the end of all things and the beginning of new ones.

Matt’s words came back to me.

I stilled in the middle of the dance. The words sounded in my head with desperation.
Tell me you haven’t fallen in love with him.

But I had.

CHAPTER 15

OF KINGS AND MEN

C
rap.
I yanked off the mask and stared at myself in the mirror in the girl’s bathroom. Thanks to black kohl, my eyes looked raccoon wide. Smeared gloss plumped my lips, leaving it a vulnerable pink. My hands shook as I rested them on white marble and took heaving breaths. I left the ballroom for a hidden restroom, closer to the lobby. The rush of music vibrated the old walls of the historic hotel, making it come alive. Too alive.

I left him in the middle of the dance floor.

I’d fallen in love with him.
There, I admitted it. The one thing I’d been denying for months. I was only seventeen—no, eighteen. I wasn’t supposed to be in love. Real love. The kind that changes you type of love.

Lust, definitely. Like, it’s what I thought we had.

But this… not him. Not Vane. He was the wrong one.

I didn’t want to be broken.

Matt.
I hadn’t believed him when he’d said the words. I hadn’t dared. I hadn’t been ready, and now, I was in the same place. God, it was awful. In the mirror, my reflection grimaced and replied with a silent mocking, ‘
You’re screwed
.’

“I love Vane,” I said, hoping it would sound less painful out loud.

“You what?”

My head jerked to the opening and wanted to sink into the floor. Matt slipped inside. I cursed the lack of a door. Only a curved wall barred the view from outside. He wore a tux identical to Vane’s, except for the color of his vest and tie. Buttercup yellow matched sober amber-brown eyes. I didn’t need the color change to tell who he was. The lion burned in his eyes, and while I loved him too, I wasn’t
in
love. He didn’t have the same power over me. I didn’t feel as if every breath I took was for him. He couldn’t break me.

“Matt,” I started and stopped. I didn’t know what to say.

He looked ready to explode. “Is it true?”

I winced at the bite in his tone and mumbled, “Yes.”

“Have you told him?”

I’d rather eat nails.

“Have. You. Told. Him?” he ground out when I didn’t answer.

“Of course not!” I snapped. With a sigh, I faced him. “Listen, Matt, I’m sorry—”

“You should tell him.”

He’s lost his mind.
I said, “What?”

“This was inevitable,” he muttered to himself.

Inevitable. I stared at him
.
I didn’t understand
. Unless…
“You had a vision.”

It wasn’t possible. Vane had taken his magic, but I knew Matt. His shoulders drooped with the secret, the weight of the world pressing down on him once again.

Matt muttered, “You won’t understand.”

Meaning there is something to tell.
“How?”

He confirmed it by closing his eyes. After a long second, he opened them. “I had the vision a long time ago… shortly before Vane returned from Carthage. I had just freed Perceval. But I never thought it would come true. I never thought I could actually lose my magic.”

“Losing your powers was the trigger.” All this time, was this the real reason why he got so upset with me? Because I triggered a chain of events. It took me three steps to reach him. I put my hands on his shoulders. “What have you seen about Vane?”

Matt stiffened. “What makes you think this is about him?”

I gave him a slanted look. “With you, everything goes back to him.”

Matt straightened away from me. “Not true—”

I grabbed his arm. “For once in your life, forget about strategizing. This is about your
brother
. Just tell me.”

“It’s not just about Vane. It’s about us all.” Matt’s eyes became unfocused as he stared off to a point somewhere in the past. “It happened after he came from Carthage. The first time I saw him. He’d changed so much. By sight, I didn’t even realize it was Vane when Arthur spotted his small camp.”

Vane’s memories replayed in my mind. “And?”

Amber eyes refocused on me. “It’s why I wanted desperately to find the Healing Cup.”

A cup that doesn’t exist.
I pushed. “Why?”

“I saw myself take my magic back. I didn’t understand that bit of the vision until Chennai.”

“But that’s not all.”

He took a strand of my hair and wound it around his finger. A yearning look softened burdened amber eyes. He said quietly, “I saw myself kill my own brother, Ryan.”

I took a step back. Hair slipped through his fingers. I said emphatically, “You wouldn’t do that.”

“Wouldn’t I? What if it’s the only way to save everyone?”

I had no good answer. He was capable of it. Instinctively, I reached for the
Dragon’s Eye
.

“Is he here?” Matt asked sharply.

“I told you I could shut him out.”
I think.
Knowing I was playing a dangerous game, I let go of the gemstone. “Describe the vision exactly.”

“We were standing in the middle of a circle. Everything around us was hazy. The skies above seemed to be dotted with fire. They shimmered with all kinds of different colors. Vane lay on the ground. I knelt beside him. His eyes glowed green, but he was sick. I saw the blackness tearing through his insides. He was dying. I had Excalibur. I put my hand on his chest, but instead of healing him, I stabbed him. Magic flowed into me more powerful than I’ve ever felt and I sent it back out. To this.”

Matt pulled out a phone from his suit pocket and clicked on the touchscreen. It showed a circle of stones with standing trilithons.

“Stonehenge?” I said.

He nodded. “Kronos’s Circle. It’s torn apart, but we’re taking steps to rebuild it as we speak. From your horseman vision, I figured out that the Lady was leading us to quarries that hold the metal used to construct the trilithons. The government is mining them. The mermaid song, the aria you heard in Elysium, is what constructs the gates.”

“Vane controls the mermaids.”

“I can replicate their magic using the Fisher King’s trident.”

I gave him a skeptical look. “How will rebuilding Stonehenge save us?”

“I don’t know yet. The Lady has a plan. We have to figure it out. But that’s not the bit involving Vane. Constructing the trilithons isn’t enough. We need energy to power them—”

“The apple?”

Matt shook his head. Lips tightening, his expression became bleak. “I would have thought so, if not for the horseman in the Kronos Eye and my vision.”

“What is more powerful, then?” I knew the answer. I couldn’t say it.

“Vane.”

“You’re going to rebuild the trilithons in Stonehenge and then you’re going to take his powers to open them? For what?”

“I’m going to take back my powers.”

I whispered, “You’re going to kill him.”

Matt’s gaze didn’t waver. “Yes.”

“You’ll let yourself flameout.”

And I would lose both of them. His placid expression made me want to hit him.

He continued. “Poseidon’s power must be released back into Kronos’s Circle. That’s why it was left for us to find. The Kronos Eye confirmed as much when the white horseman opened the gates. This is why the Lady meant the power for me. When the time comes, Vane won’t be able to do what is needed.”

“To be the sacrificial goat?” I said, almost shouting. “I don’t know why he wouldn’t want another way. Why haven’t you looked for another way?”

“The Lady has been training me since I was a toddler to be the greatest wizard in the world. For this. So I could do this.”

“Maybe the Lady is wrong, Merlin.
You
chose not to take Poseidon’s power in the maze. Can you for once not follow the path you think is laid out for you and make your own?”

He shook his head. “Don’t you think I want to? But I can’t take that risk. I won’t. Not with so much hanging in the balance.”

I wanted to throw something. “Vane has Poseidon’s power and your magic and he’s not going to give either one up easily. Meanwhile, you have none, Merlin, and since you gave away Excalibur, neither do I.” I stated with certainty, “You couldn’t kill him even if you wanted to.”

The vial of poison was gone.

“I wouldn’t be too sure. You gave me the answer, remember?”

An ominous wave of acid rose in my stomach. “The Kronos Eye.”

“You can get close to him. The poison won’t kill him, but it will weaken him.” Matt took out the Kronos Eye from his pocket and held the poison out for me to take. “If you want to save everyone, all your friends here tonight… if you want to save your family, the billions of this world, you’re going to have to do this.”

I shrank away from him. “How can
you
even think of doing this?”

“It was meant to be me!” Matt slammed a fist into the marble countertop. I winced as the long sink wobbled. The sound reverberated inside the small bathroom. “Just me! Whoever took Poseidon’s power was meant to die. I was meant to die! Only me.” He closed the distance between us. His hand wrapped in my hair. “You should have only been mine.”

Then, he kissed me. With desperation. With finality.

It was the finality that left me nonplussed for a second. I didn’t like the feeling of giving up. My mind ran. There had to be another way. I had to find another way. I pushed away from him, but not quickly enough.