My Merlin Awakening (40 page)

“Unacceptable. We need to move faster,” he said into the phone. “Thorton needs to organize the local wizards to get to the hotspots. I don’t care if we risk exposure. It’s the least we can do… Yes, I know this is a critical time. I’ll attend whatever meetings you set up. We are leaving here as soon as possible.”

“It would be best if we could talk to all the heads of the government at once. If what the Lady warned is coming, this goes beyond wizards and gargoyles. The day of reckoning is not something we can hide any longer. Everyone must make preparations.” He paused to listen. “Then, we will go in front of the United Nations if we must—”

The weight of responsibility pressed down on me as Matt continued to speak. I had to fix this. I didn’t know how.

I sat on the sofa in the living room of Rourke’s house in Fira. I didn’t know where the others were. It had only been hours since we returned, but it felt like days. We all needed a break from each other. The red doors had dumped us back in the cavern in the deepest part of the Aegean Sea. The paging system told us that the boat waited above. It had been anchored for a month, yet the gargoyles never gave up hope. Or I should say, Deirdre and Sylvia never gave up hope. Somehow, we’d gathered enough magic together and made it to the surface.

Once we’d reached the house, Grey surprised us all by delivering a vial of the Lake water to Rourke. Unfortunately, it hadn’t worked. Either we hadn’t found the healing cup or it simply wasn’t the answer.

Matt continued on the phone, “Considering what is happening, they will have no choice but to believe. It’s in all the texts and lore—even the ones the regulars abide by. They call it judgment day.” He sighed. “We would know more if Gia hadn’t panicked and destroyed our only source of information.”

My shoulders slumped.
We lost. I lost.
I hadn’t seen what was happening to Vane. I hadn’t wanted to see it. We’d unleashed a terrible catastrophe and worse… all of it was my fault. I glanced at Excalibur. It leaned against the side of the sofa.
Some sword-bearer I turned out to be.

Rising, I strode out through the glass doors that stretched across one wall. The sunset painted the sky with red and purple. Wind made small ripples disturbing the serene blue waters of the pool. I remembered when Vane and I had watched them on our first day in Fira. His presence lingered in the house, haunting me. The thought of him sat on my chest with suffocating heat.

I reached the edge of the infinity pool. In quick moves, I took off my plain t-shirt and shorts. I plunged into the pool. I sunk beneath the cold water; then I let myself float.

Weightless, I could finally breathe. I closed my eyes.

The water lulled me. It penetrated every pore and filled the absence I felt. Inside its chilly embrace, I could almost feel the other half of me again. I sank further. The siren call of the water’s song beckoned me deeper. Beckoned me into forever.

I let myself go. I felt my breath go. I hovered on the brink. I looked for an answer. Water pooled in my lungs.

My back hit smooth concrete. I hit bottom.

“Ryan!”
Vane’s voice rang clearly inside my head.

My eyes snapped open. Radiant sunlight penetrated through a fog of water. A dark face swam before me.

Hands grabbed my waist and snatched me back up.

The next thing I knew, I woke up to Matt’s lips slanted over mine as he forced air into my lungs. My chest spasmed as I coughed and water dribbled out of my mouth.

My back lay on smooth tile. His hands tilted my head up. He pulled me into a sitting position and slapped my back. Hard. When I stopped coughing, he picked me up and plopped me down on a nearby chaise.

A six-foot, dripping wet male wearing only boxer shorts scowled down at me. “What are you thinking? We don’t have time for this. You could have drowned. If it hadn’t been for the amulet—” He ran a hand through wet hair. “At least that part of my magic is working.”

I opened my mouth, intending to speak, only to cough up more water instead. Matt’s wet face darkened. A breeze flew through the small courtyard and I shivered. Matt stomped over to a bin, grabbed a towel, and threw the oversized fabric around my shoulders.

“I f-failed him,” I choked out, huddling inside the shroud of the towel.

The seat of the chaise depressed when Matt sat down. He pulled me close. Steely biceps tightened around me. “It was his choice.”

I stiffened. “You’re not being fair. The Lady said—”

“No, it was Vane. He chose this. He chose to take on the mantle of the Earth-Shaker. He chose power. He’s never cared who gets trampled in the process.”

“He thought it was the only way.”

Matt clenched his jaw. “He said that to me once before. The only path.”

“At the cave,” I said.

His gaze went to my amulet. “You saw the memory?”

“Yes, I saw it. Apparently you didn’t. He didn’t mean to kill you that day. Why else would he insist on dueling near Lake water? He wanted to freeze you all along.”

Matt pushed back the stringy strands of hair from my face. “I wish I could believe you.”

I met his eyes. “Do you?”

“Of course. He’s my brother. I want to save him.”

“But?”

Matt’s expression darkened. “Not at the expense of the world.”

I gazed out over the boundless sky. The water underneath it lay calm. Here. Only here. For now. “We don’t even know what’s coming.”

“We may not know what, but we do know when. The Lady said the longest day of the sun. She must have meant the summer solstice. I will figure out the rest.”

I stared at him. “Your magic is barely working.”

“I’ll find a way to fix it.” Matt cupped my chin, his palm surprisingly rough, and forced me to meet his eyes. “But you need to help. You are the sword-bearer, Ryan. You need to be strong. You can’t dwell on Vane and forget why you have been given Excalibur.”

Matt was right. I was the champion. Sword-bearer. I had a responsibility. He was also wrong. I pulled away from him. I scooted to the edge of the chaise. Alone. I said the one word I had such a hard time saying to him, “No.”

He frowned. “What?”

I straightened my shoulders. “I’ve done everything I was asked. Everything you asked. Everything Vane asked. Look how it’s turned out. Vane is a monster and it’s because of me.” My eyes locked with his. “I can’t change what’s happened, Matt, but I can take a stand.”

His gaze sharpened. “What stand?”

“First,
you and I
need to do more. Gathering the local wizards at the hotspots is not enough.
We
need to go to the hotspots. We bring the other Candidates and the wizards. All of them. We’re going to gather all the champions and we beat this one catastrophe at a time. We find out what Excalibur can really do.”

He crossed his arms over his chest. “Second?”

I stood up. “We save the world
and
we save Vane.”

Matt protested, “You’re being naïve.”

“So what if I am? You’re giving up too easily.”

The red and purple sunset stretched over the cliffs of the city and beyond the horizon of an endless sea. Rolling waves hid the turmoil breathing just beneath. As the Lady had said—it would be the end of everything I knew if I didn’t somehow find a way to stop it. If I didn’t prove myself to be the champion Vane had pushed me to be.

I looked at Matt, his profile outlined by the fading sun.

I said, “It’s time for you to prove you trust me.”

All-knowing amber eyes fixed on me, brutally piercing through any euphemism to the core of what I said. In my head, he replied,
“Prove that I love you, you mean.”

I didn’t flinch.
“If that’s what it takes, Merlin.”

***

EVER MY MERLIN

BOOK 3, MY MERLIN

FALL 2012

If you sacrifice everything, what’s left to hold on to?

The end of the world. The day of reckoning. The final battle.

It is a time of great strife for Arriane (aka Ryan) and Merlin (aka Matt) as they struggle to stem the flood of destruction unleashed upon the world.

With every scrap of life hanging in the balance, Ryan must convince both friends and enemies that the key to survival rests in the plans of a sword-toting girl of only eighteen. She must reconcile a fifteen hundred year rivalry between two brothers, and be ruthless enough to break a heart—and a life—in the process.  And at some point, she really needs to get herself to Prom.

Read the epic conclusion of Ryan, Vane, and Matt’s story in the final installment of the My Merlin trilogy!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Priya Ardis loves books of all kinds—but especially the gooey ones that make your nose leak and let your latte go cold. Her novels come from a childhood of playing too much She-Ra and watching too much Spock. She started her first book at sixteen, writing in notebooks on a long train ride during a hot summer vacation in India. Influenced by Nancy Drew and Elizabeth Bennett, she embarked on an adventure that involved both mysteries and romance upon deciding to write books. A hopeless romantic, she is a longtime member of the Romance Writer’s of America.

When not living in her character's world, she might be found at the local coffee shop—her nose buried in a book.

***

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Author's Note

Thank you for reading
My Merlin Awakening
!
Ever My Merlin
, Book Three of the My Merlin Series, will be available in Fall 2012.

If you enjoyed
My Merlin Awakening
, I would be grateful if you would help others enjoy this book, too. Recommend it. Please help other readers find this book by recommending it to friends, reader's groups and discussion boards. Review it. Please tell other readers why you liked this book by reviewing it at one of the following websites: Amazon/Shelfari (amazon.com/author/priyaardis), Barnes and Noble (www.bn.com), or Goodreads (www.goodreads.com/priyaardis).

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