Once & Future (Once & Future #1)(89)

“Merlin,” Ari whispered, tears threatening.

His expression and rapid gesturing seemed to say, Well? Get on with your revolution.

Ari grabbed Gwen and pulled her down the steps that had been pressed into the side of the stone dais for the Administrator. They fled toward their knights while the crowd continued to marvel over Merlin’s special brand of distraction.

Jordan—wonderful, noble fucking Jordan—was already taking out an entire line of Mercer associates with one swing of her broadsword. Ari and her knights huddled together, using the horses to create a shield between them and the small army of Mercer associates.

“What are we doing?” Val yelled. “Running for it?”

“We’re fighting!” Lam said.

“I’m already fighting!” Jordan yelled over her shoulder, taking out a rogue associate with a hard elbow to the face.

“We’re…” Ari couldn’t look into their soon-to-be-dead faces. “We’re…”

Gwen’s fingers slipped between Ari’s, strengthening her hold. “We’re making our stand.”

“We are the truth the universe has to see. We will show them the lengths to which Mercer will go. Everyone wanted a king. A coronation. A spectacle. We’re going to show them the tragedy behind such wishes.” Ari’s voice broke as she thought about her brother. “There’s only one door on the arena level, the one we came through, and we only have a chance if we don’t let reinforcements in. Even if that means we are locked in here.” She turned to the black knight. “Jordan, keep the door shut. Lam—”

“Figure out how to blow it to splinters when we’re ready to escape. Got it.” Everyone stared at them as they untied the bracer from their left wrist, revealing a secret lining that held a series of vials. “Told you, I have explosives.”

Jordan squinted at the small glass tubes of bright-blue liquid. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Yes, it is,” Lam said proudly.

Ari blew out a breath. “All right then, but hold off until I’ve gotten to the Administrator. Lam, will that stuff be enough to take the whole starship apart?”

Lam shook their head. “No, but it’ll make it uninhabitable, to say the least. Should give the spectators plenty of time to get back to their vessels and blast away. Us, too.”

“We should make them go down with the ship,” Jordan said. “Mercer-owned cowards.”

“Some of them are, yes.” Ari looked up into the stands. The crowd was still rioting over the fireworks. “But some of them are like us, waiting for a time and place to make a stand. We might be surprised,” she said. “But hold back the associates as long as you can. Give me time.”

The associates were forming ranks around the knights, while the Administrator had started to holler orders down from the dais. “Where are you going?” Val asked.

“To get my magician!” Ari’s hand sealed around Excalibur while she used the other to bring Gwen’s knuckles to her lips. “We end this together,” she promised Gwen. “For Kay.”

Lam pushed one of the horses toward Ari, but she shook her head. “I don’t need it. I’m going to ride my dragon.”

She put two fingers in her mouth and whistled as hard as she could.

And Big Mama roared back to life.





Ari flew around the arena on Big Mama’s back, scattering the Mercer ranks into screaming, trampled piles. She fought to get her bearings, to find Merlin again, and then she sent the taneen up into the stands.

Big Mama scaled the tiers of the stadium as easily as she’d once climbed Ras Almal. Ari found her magician trying to make his way down to the arena by climbing over row after row of seats, the cushions flapping.

“Good to see you, old man!” she hollered, hauling him onto the back of her dragon.

He held her around the waist, and yelled in her ear, “Thank you for being alive! Again!”

Ari couldn’t help but laugh as she turned the dragon around and returned to the arena. The raised stone dais was now the Administrator’s stronghold, and he’d barricaded himself in the middle of an array of associates. Ari could just barely make out his terrible thatched hair.

That was fine; he could stay up there, hiding. As long as he couldn’t leave or call for reinforcements, she had a chance to make an example out of him before—well, before it was all over. She was relieved to see that Jordan was on her task and the massive sliding door was tightly closed, no new Mercer reinforcements coming through.

Ari charged Big Mama back toward her knights, scattering associates in every direction. The taneen took a few tentative nips of flesh here and there, and Ari let her, jumping off her back with Merlin and into the spot where Lam and Val were fighting the good fight. Lam looked amazing in their leather armor, leveling associates with furious one-handed swings, but Val was bleeding from the shoulder. Merlin and Ari took down the half a dozen associates closest to them, and Ari held on to Lam, catching her breath to ask about their progress.

“The explosives?”

“In place.” They pointed to the seam on the sliding door. “We have about five minutes before it becomes caustic.”

Ari was exhausted, her body shaking. “Get this off of me,” she yelled, turning so that Lam could unstrap the miserable Pendragon breastplate. As she turned her back, her eyes fell on two boys, madly making out. “Hey!” Ari yelled. “We’re in the middle of a battle!”