I opened my mouth to ask one of the dozens of questions that were aching to be free but Merlin held up a hand. “Not here, lad.”
He jerked his head in the direction of the grounds outside and I dutifully followed him out into the cool night air until we reached the edge of the tree line, only then did he turn to face me again.
“What did you mean by fiddling with minds?” I asked, the question practically bursting from me as I thought about the way my head had hurt when Morgana was asking me to plead Mordred’s case. I had heard many rumors about Morgana’s magic, but nothing such as that.
“Morgana’s specialty,” Merlin explained dryly, his own green eyes seeming to glow in the darkness like those of a cat. “Though, she hardly even needs magic to manipulate those around her. It seems you proved to be more of a challenge than she had thought you were.”
I frowned, thinking of the way it had felt. “That was magic?”
Merlin shrugged. “Of a sort, not the kind gifted by any of the gods that I follow, but still magic nonetheless.”
“Why does she want the king to take Mordred so badly?” It was rare for Mordred to ever be far from his mother for Morgana was famously protective over her son.
“Why would she not? Come now, Gawain, you seemed much more intelligent in all of my visions of you.” Merlin’s expression shifted as if I already knew the answer and he did not need toexplain it further before finally letting out a disgusted sigh of surrender. “Mordred is Arthur’s only living male relative, and while he probably would not consider the boy as such, Mordredishis current heir until he and the new queen are gifted with a child.”
I reeled back away from the wizard, my disbelief likely evident on my face. “But the king has just married, she must know that would soon displace Mordred from inheriting Camelot, so why is she still so…attached?”
“And therein lies the crux of the issue, does it not? You are already aware that she knows of the machinations of the gods, Gawain, and that Guinevere is not of this time.”
Realization dawned from his words. They meant Guinevere was in danger. My inner alpha seemed to howl at the prospect of it—the scent of her perfume from the first night was a sweet honeysuckle in my mind. I hardly knew the woman, but my instincts were in a near revolt at just the thought of her being targeted by my stepmother.
“We have to do something,” I said, turning to head back into the castle—to do what, I was not certain—but the urge to protect her had filled me so completely that I nearly gave in to the usually alpha side of myself.
“Whoa there, cowboy.” Merlin stopped me with a firm grip on my arm.
I frowned at the strange word, but understood the meaning. “Should we not go and tell the king and queen of this at once?”
“Not right now, lad. I have a feeling that they are otherwise…occupied.” Merlin’s eyes glanced up at the sky and when my gaze followed his I found, much to my surprise, that the stars seemed to be dancing above us..
“What—?” I asked as stars continued to streak across the sky in sparkling multitudes.
Merlin’s smile was soft, if not slightly distant. “They are blessing the fated union.”
Then he looked squarely at me, his expression slackening. “It will be more than just a starfall once all four of you are bonded to the omega out of time.”
His voice was odd as he spoke, as if there were other voices echoed behind it.
Instinctually, I knew that I was not just speaking with Merlin any longer. “Why me?”
Bedivere, I understood completely. There was no better knight or man to be the subject of a herald from the gods. Even Lancelot made some sense as I had never seen someone as good with a sword as the alpha was despite his otherwise glum demeanor.
But I was just the fourth son of a king with too little land to be important. I had been sent off long before I was old enough to leave home—more trouble than I was worth to keep around. While it was true that Arthur and Bedivere had taken pity on me and taken me under their wings and I was blessed as such, it still made no sense for me to be a part of something as important as their fate.
“All will be revealed in time,” Merlin said mysteriously, his voice reverberating off of the nearby trees before he gave himself a shake and blinked hard before offering me an absent-minded smile. “Was I just saying something?”
I stared at him, unsure of whether or not I should tell him about being spoken through by an unseen—I knew I myself would not want to be used as a puppet for the gods.
“No,” I finally said, taking a step back away from the wizard, the hair on my arms rising with the queer nature of the conversation we had just had. “However, I am going to turn in for the night.”
I turned to hurry away from him, but Merlin’s voice made me pause. “The gods would never do something without reason, Gawain, you would do well to remember that.”
I said nothing and hurried back towards the castle, the stars still streaking through the sky overhead as the gods seemed to be continuing their celebrations of a union that had nothing and everything to do with me.
“I can feel your irritation, my queen,” Arthur told Guinevere the next morning as we all stood in front of the castle, waiting for our company to head out.
Leodegrance had asked him to stay longer, but Arthur was still worried about the movement of the Saxons in the hills. We had been away from home for nearly a month and it would still take us days to get back around the lake and back to the castle that was built into the side of the hill.
“I know you can feel my irritation,” Guinevere shot back, offering her new husband nothing but a brown-eyed glare as she turned away from him with a swish of her green skirts. “I can feel yours too becausesomeonedecided to gnaw on me without my permission last night.”
