“He used up all of his magic to bring you all to the future,” I told them, my voice soft as I reached out and touched his face, finding it ice cold. “Merlin isn’t like you or me—not really—the gods described him more like a vessel for their magic. So by using up everything and not having anyone like me around to refill his stores…”
My voice trailed off as an idea formed in my mind. The day that I had been pulled to Camelot Merlin had fainted from the loss of magic after using it to allow me to time travel.
I had touched him, trying to help him up, but it had sparked my magic—or as he described it—jump started it.
Before that I had never been able to use magic, but after that day it felt like magic had oozed out of my pores. Merlin had explained that oftentimes young magic users needed to come in contact with it to be able to use their abilities.
Arianrhod’s words from the day of the battle rang in my head again:“Have you never wondered why it is that your magic connects so well with Merlin’s? It is not a coincidence, Guinevere Ramos.”
It couldn’t be that simple, could it?
“This is some fairy tale ass shit,” I muttered to myself, wondering if the ancient Celtic gods knew about Disney movies, before I gently leaned over the coffin and stared down into Merlin’s colorless face. “God, I hope this works or else I’m going to look insane.”
Willing the little bit of magic I still possessed to behave itself, I pressed my lips to Merlin’s stiff, unmoving lips and let my magic pour into him.
Before when we had shared magic, it was like a gentle wave trickling out of me and into him, but now it felt as if Merlin’s soul drank and drank without stopping.
“Should we stop her?” I heard someone ask vaguely, but I was too focused on filling Merlin up as much as I dared.
Then there was a bright flash of light and one of the alphas around me made a disgruntled noise as I felt Merlin gasp underneath me, drawing in a sharp breath as his heart began to beat underneath my palm again.
“Impossible,” Arthur murmured as I pulled away just in time to see Merlin’s now-pale lashes flutter and his eyes open.
Before, his eyes had always glowed with an unnaturally green light, showing that he had been fashioned by pure, natural magic. Now, his eyes were a pale gray, only slightly darker than Bedivere’s silver and they hardly had any light to them anymore.
“Guinevere?” he asked, his voice rough from centuries of not being used. “What has happened?”
He began to try to sit up and hands popped into my peripheral to help him as he rubbed at his eyes and looked around at our surroundings.
“So,somuch,” I told him, my eyes burning with tears as I threw my arms around his too-skinny frame. “But you’re here now.”
“Where ishereexactly?” He asked, his hand cupping the back of my head as he seemed to hold on to me for dear life.
“The future, Merlin,” Arthur told him, his own eyes looking suspiciously misty as he shot me the brightest smile I had seen in days now that his childhood friend and advisor had been returned to him. “Thanks to you we are now all able to be together forever.”
There was a long, drawn out silence as Merlin seemed to be coming to terms with the new information that had just been presented to him.
“Does that mean I may finally be able to try a cheeseburger?” he asked hopefully. “I have always wanted to try one of those.”
A wobbly laugh left me as I nodded and wiped at my wet eyes. Stupid pregnancy hormones got the best of me most days now, but I had a feeling I wasn’t going to stop crying for the foreseeable future now that my pack was whole again.
“You can have as many as you like. You’re free from the fate that the gods set for you—we all are.”
Merlin nodded, his lips pursed as he realized that he truly was free—but with it had come a price that I had been able to feel when he had awoken: his magic was all but gone now. He was nolonger a puppet created by the gods to do their bidding, but that also meant that he was all but human with just a hint of magic left that I had shared with him.
“Are you okay with that?” I asked, worried that Merlin would miss being able to use magic as he had before.
But Merlin just nodded, his lips spreading into a wide smile. “More than okay with it. After all, it’s just as you say, is it not? Fate is completely overrated and I am excited to, instead, have a future.”
Series Epilogue
“Bat, be more careful with Alex—he’s not a toy,” Juneau called, watching with a wry expression as her alpha ran around the yard with a giggling toddler on his shoulders.
The tattooed alpha turned to shoot her a cheeky grin as he said something to the toddler that made him squeal before he was off again as the miniature ponies at his feet chased them.
“He’s so rough with Alex,” she told me with a shake of her head as she sipped on her frosted glass of iced tea. “I’m worried one of them is going to end up in the hospital—and my money is on Bat himself.”
As she spoke we watched the lanky man trip over one of the many ponies at his feet and face plant in the dirt, barely managing to keep his son upright as he groaned.
