Once & Future (Once & Future #1)(12)

My moms. He did that sometimes. Ari knew it was not a purposeful exclusion of her from their family, but that didn’t make it hurt any less. Kay knew he’d hurt her, too, but instead of gearing down, he revved up. “Tell me you didn’t have anything to do with that mess back there.”

Ari folded her arms over her chest. “Don’t say anything,” Mom used to tell her. “If you can’t lie and you don’t know what else to do, just… say nothing.”

“Ari!”

“A little help, friends?” a voice called out from the main cabin.

Kay’s face blanched to a gray that matched his hair. “You brought someone with you?”

He rushed out of the cockpit and Lamarack stood, giving Ari a one-armed hug. “Never boring with you two, is it?”

Ari smiled back but then hustled into the main cabin. Without magboots, Merlin was floating in the air, spinning slowly toward an upside-down position that would give them an unfortunate view of whatever he was—or wasn’t—wearing under that bathrobe.

“Who is this?” Kay asked, incredulous.

“I found him in a nightclub.”

“What were you doing in a nightclub?”

“You said to go somewhere Mercer wouldn’t expect to find me. Who goes dancing when the largest corporation in the universe is after them?”

Kay growled and grabbed Merlin’s leg, stuffing him into a chair and strapping him in.

“Greetings, latest Kay,” Merlin said.

“He says he knows us,” Ari added.

Kay stood back, studying him. “I don’t know you. I would remember… you.”

“I’m Merlin the magician, and I come to you now at the turn of the tides.” Kay stared openmouthed at this attempt at dramatic grandeur. “Well, that’s Gandalf’s line, but I had to try it at least once.”

Kay’s face puckered with annoyance. “Is this because I made you wear the smelly rubber knight costume and hide in the Arthur exhibit? You find some wacko to pretend to be Merlin to taunt me?”

Ari remembered the miserable old figure listed as Merlin. “No, but that would have been a great idea. He’s the reason the dome broke. I was merely a witness.”

Kay swiveled at his sister. “He broke the dome and you brought him on my ship?”

“He can do magic, Kay.”

Kay scoffed and spun at Merlin. “Right, sure, do some magic, then. Go ahead.”

Merlin puckered a frown. “I’m a bit tired. Being tortured will do that.”

“The fuck!” Kay’s eyes had found Ari’s newest love. Excalibur should have been floating along with Merlin, but somehow it was stabbed through the center of the crew table, rather majestically, Ari felt like adding.

“Huh. I didn’t do that. I dropped it on the table. Promise.”

“Do I look stupid?” Kay asked.

Oh, what a trap. Ari stared at Kay’s livid expression, his shoulders hunched to match his eyebrows. Lam chuckled from the corner. “Not any more than usual.”

Kay spun on Merlin. “So, you did that?”

“Not in the slightest,” Merlin said unhelpfully. “Excalibur has its own ideas.”

Kay yanked on the sword, first with one hand, and then with both. His face grew red and puffy, and Ari could tell he was about to bust something. “Excalibur only responds to the touch of King Arthur.” Merlin looked at Ari knowingly, and she felt distinctly uncomfortable.

“Don’t get your unders in a twist,” she told Kay. “It’s only a sword.” She pushed him out of the way and lifted the sword with ease.

“I loosened it for you,” Kay said, breathing heavily. “Everyone saw me loosen it.”

“Told you,” Merlin sang, a few sparks flicking from his fingers.

“Did you see that?” Ari said, shaking Kay’s shoulder. “He duped the Mercer associates. Tricked them right out of seeing us like we were invisible. What if he could help us find our moms? What if he could help us save them?”

Ari stopped herself from the last piece, the unspoken, rushing desire beneath her muscles, hidden in her blood. The desire she’d only admitted to Captain Mom once—and yet it was so powerful it had cost her moms their freedom. What if he could get me through the barrier, back to Ketch?

“Ari, that’s impossible.” Kay placed a hand on her arm, highlighting how furiously she’d been talking. Her feelings toward her brother were tight and twisted. Ari refused to give up, and Kay had given up so long ago she was starting to hate him.

“Lam, tell him we can—” Ari cut herself off. Lam was leaning in the doorway of the cockpit, wearing a long leather coat and matching breeches. Their arms hung at their sides, one of them significantly abridged. Their left hand was missing. How had she not noticed it before? “What happened to your hand?”

Lam looked to Kay, who shook his head and nodded toward the crew quarters. Lam left obediently. “Lam had an accident a few years back. They don’t want to talk about it.”

Ari bit back a shout. She was going to kick the crap out of her brother. They hadn’t had a full-on fistfight in years, but it was coming. And this time she had a sword.

“Lam,” Merlin said, interrupting. “Oh! Lamarack! He’s an excellent knight.”