The obsidian beneath his boots continued to flare crimson with each step he took.
“She might not have the time required for their precious timeline to play out.” His voice dropped until it was raw with something deeper than anger, and he began pacing away from me again. “They’ve all forgotten there’s a person, a woman, who could face execution any moment Arthur decides he’s done with her.”
“I agree with Merlin. Arthur won’t harm her. She’s too important to him.”
Corvin gave me an expression that said he wasn’t pleased with my response. I just shrugged as I reached out with my perception. It wasn’t a spell, just the natural talent I’d always had for reading people. And I wasn’t surprised by what I found. Corvin’s aura pulsed with jagged spikes of fear, rage, and something softer, something wounded, something that cared too much.
“Will you at least take me up on my offer?” I continued.
He turned to face me then, and in the sharp amber of his gaze, I could read it plainly: he had no memory of the offer I’d made him earlier when he’d been too consumed with the need to act to truly listen. The words had passed through him like smoke through a window. I let the silence stretch a beat before I spoke.
“With my ravens, I can be your eyes and ears inside those walls, Corvin.”
“With all due respect, Morgan, I don’t need your eyes or ears.”
I smiled as I shook my head at him. “You’re just as stubborn as I remember.”
He looked at me then and offered me the smallest of apologetic smiles. I moved toward him, letting my gown whisper against the stone. “Do you remember when you first came to court?”
“To Camelot?”
I nodded and kept my voice low, intimate. “Everyone wanted the mysterious knight from the borderlands. The one who fought like a shadow and spoke nothing but truth to any who would listen.”
He stopped pacing and began to eye me warily, like he had a very good hunch where this conversation was leading.
I stepped closer. “I wanted you too, you know?”
“I didn’t know.”
I nodded, giving him a grin that had earned me my last few bed partners. “You were the only knight I ever desired and never got to experience.”
My fingers brushed his arm, letting a tendril of magic highlight what I knew was one of my best features, next to my eyes, of course: the curve where my neck met my shoulder, exposed by my carefully arranged collar.
Corvin stepped back, gently but firmly. “Morgan.”
It was just my name, but the way he said it told me everything I needed to know. I smiled once more up at him, but this time it was bittersweet.
“You’re a ravishing woman,” he started, but I held up a hand to stop him.
“I know.”
At that, he laughed, and I laughed with him. There was a strange camaraderie between us, and there always had been, even though neither of us knew the other well. And I’d certainly always wished I could have known him in a more carnal way. I imagined this man, with the power of his shadows and the strength of his body, could ravage a woman in ways most men couldn’t. What a shame I might never experience it firsthand.
“You love her, don’t you?” I didn’t need to specify who. The courtyard stones beneath us shifted from angry red to a softer, deeper purple: the color of longing, of truth recognized.
He looked away from me, which was answer enough. “I need to reach her before Arthur does something... we will all regret. I... I don’t care what Merlin says.”
I didn’t need magic to read the rest: the subtle softening around his mouth when he spoke of her, the desperate edge to his determination that went beyond duty to Merlin.
“Well, then.” I straightened, letting my attempted seduction fall away like a discarded cloak. It was very rare for a man to turn me down. In fact, I believed Corvin was the only one. Or perhaps the only one who had lived to tell of it... In my youth, I had been rather...sensitive.“There are... things you should know.”
“Things?”
I nodded, letting a flash of genuine feeling show on my face. “I can’t say what it is about you that appeals to me so much,” I began. “Perhaps it’s merely because you’re the only man to ever refuse my advances.” At that, he chuckled.
“I wouldn’t consider it a refusal of your advances per se.”
“What would you call it?”
