Once & Future (Once & Future #1)(26)

“What about afterward, Ari?” Gwen pulled her knees under her chin. She had a way of looking young even while she looked old. Like her heart had been born at full maturity, and she was waiting for her body to catch up.

“What about it?”

“Will you run off again or will you stay with me? As my wife. Here.”

Ari couldn’t lie. Lionel was a weird, fun place. Her friends loved it, and she loved her earlier memories from camp, but to live here permanently when her true home was far away and just… waiting? “I’d have to think about it.”

“That’s fair.” Gwen nodded, glancing away. “There’s one more thing, and it’s forward, but I don’t care. I want a child. I’d already have one if my people weren’t so intense about wedlock. If this marriage lasts, there will be one. Or more. Can you handle that?”

Ari’s surprise left her slightly confused. “I love kids.”

“You do?” Gwen’s knees fell loose from her stranglehold on them.

“But in the spirit of honesty, I have to tell you Mercer is in the habit of punishing the people I love. Badly. My adoptive parents,” Ari cleared her throat, “were arrested. We don’t even know where they are.”

Gwen straightened up. “That’s easy. I’ll find out.”

“The information is restricted.”

“Not for the head of a damn planet. We’ll put it on the list of priorities when we meet with the council on Troy to argue Lionel’s mistreatment. After the wedding, of course.”

Ari looked at Gwen anew. They were both exhausted. They were both dehydrated. And even though Ari had been the one sweating her ass off in the ring, she had a feeling that Gwen had been thirsty for much longer. “So you will marry me? You’ve decided that fast?”

“Yes,” Gwen said.

“A real marriage?” Ari shouldn’t have been thinking about the curve of Gwen’s back… and how it met her legs with such glory. Or that body flood of a kiss in the jousting ring.

“A political union,” Gwen replied carefully, her slight blush the only indication that she was possibly remembering the way they’d melted together so well. “We’ll have to do it before Mercer storms the city for you. Then we’ll need to hightail it to Troy and file our marriage with the galactic state department. We can’t give Mercer an inch to get between us.”

“I have a fast, albeit ugly, ship. We could be there in under a week.”

“Okay.”

“Done.”

They were close enough to kiss again, and yet Ari knew there was an unbreakable barrier between them to rival the one orbiting Ketch. There always had been.





The night was strewn with crystal stars. The torchlight circling the tournament ring added a glow to the familiar faces around Ari. Beyond them, beyond the lights, she knew an entire planet was watching her enter the biggest lie of her life.

A political marriage. To Gwen.

Beside her, Kay and Lam stood… wasted. Val kept them upright with a hand on each of their shoulders. Merlin slid up to her in the shadows. “I can fix this!” he whispered. “I can make those ships go away. Poof. No problem. No one needs to marry anyone!”

“You can’t take out the entire Mercer Company, Merlin. Plus, you’re really drunk.”

“There’snothingtodrinkonthisplanetbutbooze,” he whisper-shouted.

Ari dug a finger in her ear. “Val?”

Val stepped forward and took Merlin by the back of the robes like he was a young pup. Ari couldn’t even look at the magician; he was part of the reason why she felt like she was stepping into a lie. Ari hadn’t told Gwen about Merlin, his King Arthur shenanigans—or this Morgana who was out of sight, but not out of mind. And she hadn’t told Gwen that she was going to use whatever information the queen could get to break her parents out of prison.

Ari knew how well that would land.

“You look sick,” Lam said. “Too much wine or too much reality?”

Ari leaned on Lamarack’s shoulder, sighing.

Gwen came forward on Jordan’s arm, wearing a dress of red silk and white, pinned roses—and a crown. Silver, simple, incandescent. It caught the torchlight like a mirror and cast it around her in a halo of sparks. Gwen smiled at Ari and then at the woman conducting the ceremony. She lifted her arm from Jordan’s only to find Jordan unwilling to let go. The black knight was still in her full suit of armor as if she could wear it for a few more days without needing a break.

Gwen kissed Jordan on the lips sweetly, and the knight relinquished the bride with stiff, unwilling movements. The ceremony took mere minutes, but it was long enough for Ari’s heart to race into a speed that left her gripping Excalibur, afraid. So bizarrely afraid. After an exchange of vows, Gwen pecked Ari on the mouth, and it was over.

Done.

Music lit up the tournament ring all around, while the planet began to dance and Gwen immediately started messaging Mercer. She took off her crown and dropped it in Ari’s hands as if she were a handy end table. Ari examined the silver wreath. “Does this make me king?”

Val smiled at her, a little sadly, and plucked Gwen’s crown out of her hands. “Your title is queen’s consort.”

Merlin peered from behind Val’s shoulder, eyes large, and chanted, “Love and Arthur. Oil and water.”