"—I simply want to taste you again."
She came closer, and I reached out, pushing my palm against her to keep her at arm's length. "Why help me?" I asked directly, wanting to focus on anything but the effect she was having on me. "If you've known my identity all this time,you could have exposed me—or used the knowledge for leverage weeks ago."
"I didn't save you from Kay merely out of kindness, though his actions disgust me." Her voice was like velvet. "I saved you because you and I share a unique position in this conflict—a position few others could possibly understand."
I struggled to maintain my composure, acutely aware of how exposed I stood before her. The cool air of the chamber raised gooseflesh across my naked body, something she noticed as she reached out and ran her fingers down the numerous bumps covering my arm.
"What position is that?" I managed to ask, my voice embarrassingly breathless.
"We are both pawns in a game between powerful men. Pieces to be moved, sacrificed, or captured according totheirdesign. Tools in a war neither of us started, yet both of us must survive." She paused. "Do you wish to be a pawn?"
"No."
She nodded and trailed her fingers up my arm, to my collarbone, and down to my breasts. I didn't stop her.
"The quarrel between Merlin and Arthur began as principle but has devolved into something far uglier—pride and vengeance dressed as righteousness." Her voice was steady as she brought her face so close to mine that I could feel her breath against my cheek, warm and scented with something I couldn't place.
"Arthur fears magic he cannot control; Merlin resents authority he didn't create. Both men claim to fight for a better world, yet both destroy what stands in their way." Her emerald eyes held mine captive. "They're more alike than either would ever admit."
When she brought her lips to mine, I didn't fight her. The kiss was soft at first, tentative, as if she were testing my resolveor perhaps her own. But when I didn't pull away, when my body betrayed me by leaning into her touch, her mouth became more insistent.
My hands found their way to her raven hair almost without conscious thought, fingers threading through the silken strands. She tasted of secrets, of power barely restrained, and dangers I couldn't yet name. The kiss deepened, and I felt her tongue in my mouth. Something inside me awakened—not just desire, though that was certainly there, but a recognition of sorts. As if some part of me had been waiting for this moment, this connection with someone who understood the dangers I faced because she faced them too.
I managed to pull away from her. "And where do I fit into this game?"
Morgan leaned forward, her gaze locked with mine. "You are Merlin's most valuable piece—his knight on the board. Hisdaughter."
I couldn't help the surprise that ricocheted through me. "You know?"
She smiled slyly. "As I told you, I am in the business of knowing." Then she paused. "Merlin sent you to infiltrate Arthur's inner circle. Yet you're more powerful than even he realizes."
"And what piece of this puzzle are you?"
"The piece I play is ever-evolving." Her smile twisted, bitter as winter. "What I will tell you, however, is that I was once Arthur's betrothed."
Morgan must have seen my confusion written across my face because she continued. "Arthur and I were betrothed briefly when he first took the throne. A political match arranged by his advisors to strengthen his claim through my royal blood. But I saw the path he was choosing—his growing fear of magic, his need to control rather than collaborate. I refused the match,choosing exile over a crown that would have made me complicit in his suppression of our kind."
"Then you've known all along that Arthur would change from the idealistic young man he once was—you knew what would happen."
She began pacing the small room, her movements fluid, beautiful. "Of course—I’m a seer."
"As well as a dreamwalker?"
She nodded.
And then I remembered something. "If you are able to walk in dreams, and mine specifically, why did you give me the talisman that protected against exactly that?"
She smiled as if she were pleased I'd remembered. "Because I'm not the only one." I frowned, and she continued. "There is one other dreamwalker among us, here in Camelot."
"Then the talisman was meant to ward him away from my dreams?"
"It was."
"Who is he?"
"His name is Vaelen—he's a dreamwalker and a shapeshifter, and he's also a figurehead for the Northern Rebellion."
"I have not met him."
