How could she not fall in love with him? What did the future hold for them? Which future would be best for them?
“I don’t mind you being my earthly lord,” she smiled playfully, zoning in on his gloriously handsome face instead of the hundreds of questions vying for answers in her head. “Not when you love me the way you do.”
Thousands of years or miles or whatever, wherever she had to travel to find him…how could she ever let him go? But there were so many obstacles.
When he swooped down to lift her in his arms, she didn’t fight him.
When he told her that he didn’t think he could wait until they wed, she giggled against his ear like an eleventh-century milkmaid. She loved having this power over such a warrior. “Have you so quickly run out of things you like about me?”
He laughed and she thought of a wolf, hungry and ready to hunt. “I love that you are bold, but not foolish. That is a trait I admire.”
He admired. She liked that very much.
“You are compassionate and protective over your child—”
She was going to correct him, but she did love Hild as a mother would. She deepened her smile on him for seeing that in her before she did.
“Excuse me,” came a man’s resonating voice. She smiled when Michael appeared around a bend. He smiled, blushed a little, and then went back to being emotionless. “I was looking for my room, but these walls are really confusing.”
“Yes,” Wolf answered him. “We have been walking for two hours now.”
Camelee gasped a little. “Has it been that long?”
He nodded and put his arm around her.
Michael smiled ever so slightly. “To be honest, the rest of us are pretty envious that you two are together and our loved ones can’t be here. I know it’s selfish, but it’s a fact.”
Camelee nodded, understanding. “We are doing everything we can to help.”
Wolf held up his finger. “If I am correct, the reason they give for not bringing them here is that it will affect the timeline. I can tell you that it will not. Avalon is not part of the normal timeline. You should bring it up. I will confirm it.”
Michael stared at him for a moment and then smiled and nodded. “Thank you.” He turned to his sister. “I’m glad you found someone who makes you happy, Camelee. The brooch worked despite being burned and charred.”
“I’m happy for you, too, Michael. I would love to catch up with you.”
“I’d like that, too. But we need to know where we’re going in this place.” His voice grew a little louder as his sentence ended.
“Lord Micajah.”
Nim appeared in a spray of silver through the air. “We sense your frustration. You should have told us you were having difficulty navigating the palace.”
Before he confessed or denied, she turned to Camelee and Wolf. “How about you?”
“We’ve been lost for two hours,” Camelee told her.
“Oh, my,” Nim said, shaking her head and lifting her hand through the air. “Imagine what you prefer until the glass changes.” She moved her eyes over Camelee and her brother. “You have the power. The glass can be changed into any vision you like. Each of you will only see his or her own vision. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” they both said, looking at each other and then around the hall.
“Lady Camelee, the queen is in the yard with the child. Two lefts and three rights. You will come to three windows and a door. Go outside.
“Lord Micajah, your room is in the west hall—this is the north. So, that way.” She pointed west with a smile. “You will go to the second floor, where the rooms are. Yours is the first door on the right, across from your brother. My lady,” she went on, turning to Camelee. “You will follow the same direction as my lord. But your room is the second door on the right, across from your sister. Timekeeper, you will sleep on the—”
“I will sleep with my wife tonight,” he corrected her. “Now that we can find our way around better, please point us to where the king is, so I can ask him for his daughter.”
Nim’s radiant face appeared even more beautiful when she gave them both an excited smile. “A wedding in Avalon! How exciting!”
“No. We do not want anything—”
