“My king, is all well?” someone asked from behind me. “I had no clue you had such a display planned with the princess.”
“Princess?” the man asked, wheeling back, his red-gold beard twitching with confusion as he looked from me to whoever had spoken. “What princess?”
There was a pause before the same voice, more hesitant this time, replied, “Princess Guinevere, your Majesty, our host’s daughter?”
“Arthur, my friend, when we conversed earlier this evening you told me you had no preference on omegas,” a new man said as he came into my vision. He was shorter than the man in front of me and older, his dark curly hair and gray-streaked beard highlighting that as he grinned and clapped the man—Arthur—on the back.
My brain had started to connect the dots earlier when the strange man in the cave had introduced himself as Merlin, but with the man’s name, the strange clothing, and the torches placed around what looked to be a clearing of trees, things were starting to become abundantly clear.
“I must have fallen and hit my head or something,” I muttered under my breath as I reached up to touch my head only to find that there was a crown woven into my curls. “Yep, I’m definitely in a coma somewhere. That explains it.”
“Explains what, my heart?” the older man asked, turning to me with a frown. “And what is a coma?”
“Leodegrance, are you saying this maiden is your daughter? When did you father a child?”
Leodegrance threw his head back and laughed. “Do you jest, Arthur? Guinevere has been the light of my immeasurably long life forever. You used to tell me how delightful she was when she was a small child and you were just a boy-king, do you not remember?”
Arthur’s head whipped towards me as his frown turned suspicious. “What manner of magic are you using to trick these people? I could feel it sizzling on your skin when I touched you.”
I opened my mouth to speak—to defend myself from the sudden accusation—because how dare he accuse me when I was clearly the one so out of my element here?
And why was this strange man calling me his daughter? In my twenty-six years on earth I’d never had a father.
Donor X34S2was the only name I had off of the sperm bank paperwork my mother kept in the attic, shoved out of sight in case I ever developed some sort of genetic abnormality.
No, Adelaide Ramos always claimed that she had never wanted to be married, instead happy to focus on her career as a financial analyst. She’d also never wanted children until, as she told me when I was small, she began having dreams about me.
Not wanting to be married never changed, but she did seek out a donor so that she could have me at nearly forty. I grew up never needing a father because my mother had literally done it all for me while also being a busy career woman. There was never any gap to fill.
Now this man in front of me was suddenly calling himself my father and I was having trouble keeping up.
Especially because, somehow in this fucked up reality my surely comatose brain had conjured up, this man actuallylookedlike me.
He had the same brown eyes and dark curly hair, and not only that, when he turned and shot me a smile, my dimple which my mother had loved so much, winked in his cheek.
Leodegrance’s smile disappeared and suddenly the cheerful man was replaced with someone much different, much more dangerous. “Trick? Arthur you best watch your words, my child would never trick any—”
There was a clap of thunder overhead, which was strange because the night sky was completely clear of clouds, and suddenly the man from the cave appeared next to Arthur’s shoulder.
“I see I am too late for the betrothal,” he said cheerfully, his eyes locking in on me.Do not say anything, Gwen, just let me handle this.
At first, I thought he’d said the words out loud, but even after they’d been said they still echoed in my head like he was underpinning his message so that I didn’t do anything he deemed stupid.
“Merlin, by the gods is it really you?” Arthur gasped, seeming to momentarily forget all about me as he rounded on the man and pulled him into a ferocious hug. It was so aggressive that I was pretty sure I heard the shorter man’s bones crack as he groaned.
“Arthur, you know I enjoy when my bones remain whole in my body,” Merlin said, his voice tight as he gave the bigger man a few pats on the back.
Arthur’s blue eyes darkened as he frowned at the man. “It has been nearly ten years since you’ve disappeared, so forgive me if I am surprised by your sudden reappearance.”
“I was busy communing with the gods about your future wife.” Merlin stepped away from Arthur and turned so that he was standing next to me. “PrincessGuinevere is who the gods have indicated their preference for, she is the omega I once told you of, remember?”
It was my turn to gawk at him and his hand whipped up to grip mine tightly.Again, Guinevere, say nothing.
It’s Gwen, you pompous ass,I shot back, and judging by the way his fingers twitched on mine, he’d definitely heard the retort in my mind.
Leodegrance’s foul mood seemed to lighten up at Merlin’s words because the king clapped his hands together. “Wonderful, if Merlin says so, then it must be true! Tonight, we celebrate!”
The crowd roared with delight, holding up wooden steins of what looked like a pale ale as the music began again. The shift was so abrupt that I felt off-balance from suddenly not being the center of everyone’s attention.
