Once & Future (Once & Future #1)(54)

“Morgana!” she cried.

“Arthur,” a familiar voice purred through the wind, making the guards pause and look around. They could not see Morgana in their midst. But Ari could.

The associates froze as if she’d turned them to ice, and Ari kicked them away. Morgana came so close that Ari felt the specific cold that belonged to this ancient enchantress.

“I hear my brother in your voice,” she said. “He controls you well.”

“It isn’t control,” Ari managed. “It’s alliance.”

Ari picked up Excalibur, fingers numb. She would not die unarmed or without a fight. “Thank you. Although I’m worried you stopped them just so you could kill me yourself.”

“Most likely,” Morgana sneered. Her eyes trailed the long, silver blade, gleaming so much more than the metal ever could. When she came to the deep red spot along the edge, she paused. “My dear, what is that?”

“Merlin’s blood,” Ari said, the words sticking in her throat. She couldn’t feel the residual warmth of Bermuda anymore. She was freezing solid where she stood. Morgana looked ready to laugh. To scream with delight.

And Ari’s mind fractured as Morgana moved through her.





Merlin stared out into a blinding rash of snow. “Ari!” he cried. “Ari?”

Everyone else had run aboard Error. She had to be close behind. And yet waiting another minute gave him nothing but white spots in his vision as the frozen wind cut through his prison uniform and plague-touched skin. There was also the matter of his shoulder, which Excalibur had taken a bite from. Blood was crystallizing in the wound, gritty and painful.

But none of that could stop him from searching for Ari. He’d been stumbling along with Ari right behind him—and then she was gone. Merlin had told the rest of the knights to run onward, trusting his Excalibur sonar to find her when the rest of his senses failed. But he was too sick, too drained.

And Excalibur did not sing back.

“Get your ass in here, magic-boy!” Kay shouted from inside. “And bring Ari with you! They’re about to fire on us!”

The snow cleared just enough for Merlin to see heat cannons revving up—the grown-up versions of the guns that the prison guards carried. They were pointed rather directly at his face. He turned and ran into the ship, seconds before the door slammed closed.

“Where is Ari?” Kay asked, looking around Merlin as if he might have been hiding her.

“I… I couldn’t find her,” Merlin said, the words stirring up all the ways he’d lost Arthur. All the failures Morgana wouldn’t let him forget.

Kay raised the heat gun he’d brought on their rescue mission. This one was definitely pointed at Merlin’s face.

He cringed. He cowered.

It was a horrible showing, and shame paraded through his body. What was worse, he didn’t have any magic to stop Kay from shooting him. And the absolute worst of all? A small part of him believed he deserved this fate.

“Hey!” Val shouted, getting between the two of them. “Shooting the person who just saved your parents isn’t a good look, Kay.” He grabbed the gun by the barrel, yelped at its heat, and tossed it across the cargo den.

Jordan caught it in one hand.

“No time for boyfights!” Lam shouted from where they sat, leg mangled and black. “We have to go.” A blast of heat rocked the ship, as if confirming Lam’s words. Everyone tipped on their feet, and Val fell hard.

“How long will the heat-skin hold?” Gwen asked Kay, as an uncomfortable warmth seeped through the walls.

“Error is still mildly damaged from when someone broke a planet,” Kay announced.

“It was a moon,” Merlin muttered.

“We must take off, my queen,” Jordan said shakily as another gust of dragon’s breath hit the tiny ship. “This moment demands bravery and decision. If we do not meet it with both, we will perish.”

“Ready to jettison Ari already, are you?” Merlin asked wildly, pointing his accusations at this would-be Lancelot. “Think it will give you more time alone with your beloved queen?”

“We’re not jettisoning anyone,” Val said, fighting his way back to his feet. “We’re saving our lives now, so we can still save Ari. Those guards on your tail must have grabbed her.”

The knights fled toward the main cabin, and Jordan and Kay took up residence in the cockpit. Merlin stood at the door, heart strained to the breaking point. Had Ari gotten captured by Mercer? Would Mercer see more value in her as a prisoner—or as a dead hero they could wave around to destroy everyone’s mounting hope?

“No one is leaving this frozen wart of a planet until we get my sister back,” Kay said, knocking Jordan away from the controls just as another heat ray hit them hard. Captain Mom appeared beside Merlin at the cockpit—she must have been securing Mom for the journey.

“Ari?” she asked, looking around at the crew.

Kay looked back and shook his head once. He hesitated for a second too long, and another blast hit them.

“HEAT-SKIN COMPROMISED,” Error said in a stilted voice.

Jordan grabbed the controls from Kay—and he didn’t fight, only sat back with a thud. The ship soared as blast after blast hit them, making it impossible to turn back.