“Speaking of Morgan, Sire. We think she is with my brother. Merlin informs me that Fin is in great danger. I wanted to return to him and help but Merlin said that would be a bad idea on earth. But I can fight her here.” He told Arthur their plan and then his belly tightened in a knot when Arthur refused to let Morgan come here.
“I forbid it, Wolf,” the king warned. “Do not bring her near my children.”
That was all he said and then walked inside and joined his wife. Nicholas gave his arm a pat, and then he, too, left to join his wife.
Wolf stood alone at the doors. He was going to have to disobey the king. Bringing Morgan here was the only way to stop her. And he was going to stop her.
He didn’t want to go inside and dance. He wanted to go home to Denmark and live his life, as Merlin had said. Forget all this. Forget…
Kestrel stood in the center of the hall with her finger on the button of some kind of contraption he was sure wasn’t supposed to be here. But the same rules didn’t apply to Avalon, did they? If anyone spoke of what they saw here, they would be brought back and never allowed to leave again, so the timeline was safe.
She pushed the button and the soul-soothing sound of a woman’s voice mixed with blessed instruments, the likes of which Wolf had never heard before, filled the air. The melody was haunting as she sang about the first time she saw her beloved’s face.
Each husband and wife embraced and swayed to the sound.
Wolf looked through them and found his beautiful wife waiting for him. He wanted to go to her. He moved his foot—
The air crackled behind him. Viviane, Nim, and Gliten appeared with Merlin in front of the king. They each whispered words that blended, sparkling the air, making Wolf’s hair rise off his skin.
“No!” the king suddenly shouted. He let go of his wife and glared at Wolf. The music stopped. “I don’t want her allowed to come here! Are you mad? I’ve kept them all away from her and now you want to bring her to the middle of them? No. I forbid it!”
“Arthur,” Merlin pleaded. “He can stop her.”
Wolf cast his wife a calm, confident smile and then took one last look over his shoulder to make certain everyone was behind him. His gaze found Merlin’s. The sorcerer nodded slightly while the king cursed behind him. They had opened the gates. She was coming.
Wolf pulled his sword free of its sheath and held it ready. Yes, he was ready. This was what he was born to do.
He watched the rift opening. Morgan wasted no time in getting here. Well, let her come. Let her—
“Wolf! Help me!”
Fin!
Wolf’s heart froze for an instant—and that was all the time Morgan needed to strike. She fired a force of power at him that knocked him across the hall. The last thing he heard before everything went black was laughter.
Chapter Twenty-Five
Morgan let thefull extent of her rage flow freely toward her sisters and that bastard Merlin. It was the only way to stop their enchantment against her using her magic.
So, she used it, wrapping her sisters and their sorcerer in a web of gossamer tendrils, their arms pinned at their sides, and then she tossed them aside with a brush of her hand.
When she saw Arthur, she laughed. She laughed at all of them. Their ridiculously weak men coming at her with their swords. She flung them aside, too.
“Mordred,” she growled, in front of him, “you have chosen their side, I see.”
“You know,” Sebastian said silkily, “I already killed the man who finished raising me, and I tried to kill my real father. Your odds are bad. I suggest you forget I’m your son.”
She wanted to kill him. She wanted to smash him like a snail beneath her foot. But she couldn’t. Not her child. Her eyes slid to the woman behind him—and then to his father. She was too delighted that she had them all, all his children, including Mordred—under her power, to let her son’s hateful words affect her.
“Which one of you should I kill first?”
“Morgan,” Arthur ground out. “I’m going to end you.”
She laughed. “You can’t even move, you fool. You are not going to do a thing but watch as I destroy everyone you love, beginning with your wife.”
“No!” more than one of them screamed, proving the queen was well-loved.
It made Morgan hate her even more. She pulled an arrow out of the air and threw it at Guinevere. She turned to Mordred’s woman next. She heard a sound behind her, theclinkof metal against metal. She looked over her shoulder to find her arrow on the floor a foot away from Guinevere, and a savage-looking man standing in her defense. His sword was long and there was a hint of illumination to it. Who was he?
