I was done listening to a conversation about my life without being an active participant.
“Merlin,” I called, struggling to keep my voice even as the woman leaned around Merlin’s shoulder and looked at me with widening brown eyes.
Merlin’s shoulders stiffened before he turned to me with a smile that did not reach his eyes. “Arthur—”
“Do not,” I cut him off with a look. “Were my ears deceiving me or did you just utter the words ‘time travel?’”
Even just saying them out loud made me feel as if someone was going to pop out of the trees and tell me I was touched in the head.
“I may have…?”
My frown deepened at the wizard. It was not far out of character for him to be secretive—hells I had known that his very existence was mysterious when he walked out of a mist and said my name as if he had known me for eons.
But the time for conundrums had long since passed in the years he had been missing and I wanted an answer. “Explain. Why is it that every soul behind us recognizes a princess that I have never met before and why you have suddenly reappeared after absconding into the night ten years ago.”
A feeling of hurt that I had pushed off telling myself that Merlin would not disappear without good reason reared its ugly head as I glared at the man. He had been my closest confidant and friend. Hells, he was the reason I had pulled a blasted sword out of a stone all those years ago.
And he had left me to flounder as a young king trying to find my footing in an increasingly chaotic Logres.
“It is very complicated…”
Anger surged in my chest at his words. “Uncomplicate it then.”
I watched as both Merlin and the woman flinched back at the tone in my voice, but I was finished playing the magnanimous king when there were forces at work that seemed to have me at their very center without my consent.
Merlin took a deep breath, his bright green eyes squinting at the corners as he grimaced before starting to speak. “Ten years ago I received a portent from the gods—the same way I did whenit was time for you to claim Excalibur and become the king of kings.”
I had been a scrawny lad of ten and five then when Merlin shook me awake, his normally affable expression completely gone as he told me in a monotone voice that it was time.
He had refused to explain himself until Sir Ector brought us to the festival surrounding a shining sword embedded into a rock.
“They whispered to me that I must find your fated omega. The one who would save Logres from certain annihilation. Only she would give you the tools you need to save this land, Arthur.”
My brows raised, but before I could say anything the woman next to Merlin scoffed. “And how am I supposed to do that? I think you’ve grabbed the wrong woman because I have no skills that would be transferable to ancient England—I have a theater degree for crying out loud!”
Her voice was sharp and confident, very different from the soft spoken women that had been presented to me by their fathers all evening, as was the stubborn set of her chin and the flash of anger in her brown eyes.
Despite my reservations, I found myself curious about the woman who appeared in a flash of light. Who exactly was this creature who spoke her mind to a king without fear? There were knights of my very own round table who still stuttered over their words at times when speaking to me face to face.
Merlin turned to her, his lips pulling up in the corners at her words as if he was charmed in spite of being the target of her anger. “I did not grab the wrong woman, Guinevere. You have been fated to come to this time from the moment you drew your first breath and your mother named you as such.”
I watched silently as Guinevere’s face crumbled into some kind of unspoken grief that I recognized all too well. The honeysuckle perfume that hung around her like a shroud soured with it.
The urge to soothe her pain inexplicably filled me and I found myself taking a step back away from her out of fear that I would instead reach for her hands and give them a comforting squeeze. A single, solitary purr tried to rattle up my throat but I held onto it with a tight grip, pressing my lips together.
“You have no idea what you’re talking about. All of this is some crazy comatose dream conjured up by my brain because I was stupid enough to walk into the King Arthur exhibit at the museum. None of this is real,” she said, but even as she spoke I could tell she did not fully believe her own words.
I returned my attention to Merlin. “How is it that an omega is supposed to save Logres?”
In my experience, omegas served two purposes: to soothe an alpha’s rage and to bear him healthy alpha and omega children. Outside of that their presence was a constant danger to everyone around them.
After all, there was no telling what would happen to an omega and her alpha if a stronger, more malicious alpha happened upon her scent.
Images of the aftermath of what happened to Sir Ector and Lady Anna when I was a young king flashed in my mind, reminding me exactly why I had been so reluctant to accept any queen—omega or not.
Guinevere seemed unhappy with my words as she crossed her arms over her chest and tilted her chin up stubbornly. “What’s that supposed to mean? I’ll have you know that omegas can do everything alphas can.”
Her words snapped through me like a whip and I reeled back as her anger was suddenly directed at me. “I did not mean any offense, my lady, but in this land omegas only cause death.”
