Once & Future (Once & Future #1)(30)

“Ari knows dragons. Don’t they have dragons on Ketch?” Lam asked.

“Taneens are really, really big lizards,” Ari said. “I wouldn’t call them dragons.”

“They’re totally dragons,” Kay faux-whispered from behind his hand.

“I’m sorry, are we discussing dragons or Merlin’s idea to fuck with Mercer?” Val asked, smiling at Merlin as if he’d found a way to be helpful. The group turned to Merlin—except Ari. She seemed to be considering his idea.

“It’ll be safer to slip through Troy without a Mercer escort.”

“Plus arriving under guard will undermine our marriage claim, which is definitely their goal,” Gwen added.

Kay crossed his arms. “So, you’re going to use your magic to seal their doors, right?”

“I believe I should save my magic for Troy, if this planet is half as horrific as everyone thinks,” Merlin said.

“Yes,” Jordan tutted. “You should save your ‘magic.’”

Merlin felt his face screw up tightly like a small, affronted child. He had to turn her into a newt. He had no choice. He raised one hand, and Ari clamped it down to his side.

“Leave Merlin be. He proves his magic best when he waits for the right moment.”

“I’ve seen his magic,” Lam put in.

“Me, too,” Kay grumbled.

“I’d love to see it,” Val purred, causing Merlin to tingle and forget completely about Jordan.

“So a spacewalk,” Lam said, bringing them back to the plan. “A dangerous one.”

“I’ve been stuck in this ship too long,” Ari said, standing with a grand flourish of a smile. “A walk outside sounds good.”

“Ari…” Gwen said. Ari looked at her like she was waiting for Gwen’s argument. An intense spark passed between them, until Gwen snuffed it out. “Seal those bastards in tight.”

Through the window, Ari studied the Mercer ships attached to Error by a network of docking cables. They were caught like a fly in the center of a shimmering, metallic spiderweb.

“We’ll use the cables,” she said, making it sound easy.

“No one’s going out there while we’re moving,” Kay said. “That’d be an ugly death.”

Ari turned to her brother, and Merlin could almost see her brain scheming. “Can you break Error?”

“What?”

“Just a little,” Ari said. “She has to be actually broken, though, so the Mercer ships will stop. Then you can fix her. After the doors are sealed.”

“I would need someone on the ship’s controls while I was in the engine,” Kay said, putting a protective hand on the nearest part of Error.

“I can do it,” Jordan said, standing at the ready.

Kay blinked. “You… fly, too?”

Merlin indulged in his first true teenage eye-roll.

“You think a ship like this is a challenge?” Jordan asked.

“It took me six years to learn her, inside and out,” Kay shot back.

“Give me six minutes,” Jordan said, shattering Kay’s pride and flicking away the pieces. She strode toward the cockpit with her wide gait, armor clanking. Kay watched her go with renewed fire, as if somehow this exchange had only made her hotter.

“Ugh, boys,” Val said.

“I believe the phrase you’re looking for is straight boys,” Merlin corrected.

“What is straight?” Lam asked, furrowing their brow.

“Oh, goodness,” Merlin said. “Well, it’s when a person has attractions to people who are on the other binary end of the… ummm…”

“They’re messing with you, Merlin,” Ari said, unable to keep the truth back, or maybe she didn’t like watching him wriggle like a trout on the line. Merlin felt fairly sure he had just outed himself to everyone on the ship, something he had never done in all the cycles.

And it felt strangely, shockingly, fine.

“Gwen,” Ari continued. “I want you in the cockpit with Jordan, ready to talk to the associates.”

Merlin yelped, wanting to keep Gwen and Jordan apart at all costs. “I can stay in the cockpit and talk to Mercer. I’m well versed in villains.” He thought about Morgana, his own personal, evil shadow.

“They’ll be nicer to a queen than a fictional magician,” Ari said. Before Merlin had the chance to bridle at the description, she’d moved on. “Besides, I already know what everyone is doing. Val and Lam, you’ll work Error’s airlock.”

Ari’s leadership was emerging, as simply and powerfully as Excalibur being drawn from a sheath. Merlin watched delightedly as she proved that she could ace her training. Ari wasn’t relying solely on impulse. She wasn’t attempting to do it all on her own. She was planning, orchestrating—bringing people together to accomplish more than they could by themselves. It was a large part of what made an Arthur great. The first King Arthur’s round table was the greatest legend he’d left behind, and all because he’d brought knights together like this. It had seemed improbable at first. A smile crept onto Merlin’s face as he remembered the piping, runty boy who’d become the first Arthur.

Ari was curvier, and her voice actually a bit lower, but she had the same bright look on her face as she turned to Merlin. “You and I have the best job of all.”