bodies across the hill. “Limited strength remains in me, but I will make certain none of you remember her. You will all forget until the time is at hand.”
Forget her. I would not even have that much. The meager pieces of my life, leftover scraps sown together with flimsy ties and desperate need, would once again be torn apart. I didn’t know if I had it in me to bear more. I said hoarsely, “Why?”
Poseidon’s gaze flickered over Prince Arthur. “Because the threads of fate are held in delicate balance. We can only interfere so much before they start unraveling.”
He waved a hand at Sergius. The wrenching sound of breaking bone filled the air as Poseidon tore Sergius’s body apart. Blobs of blood floated in the air. Poseidon held up the apple. It absorbed the gargoyle blood; the gold color turned luscious red. He mingled his own energy with the blood and walked to the bluestones.
“A bit of the monster and the divine,” he murmured.
He neared the bluestones, and empty air inside the monolith flickered with a flash of light. The light calmed and a deep mist appeared inside the stone doorway. Through the hole he’d opened in the cosmos, I saw the dawn of a morning sky in some distant land.
Poseidon walked toward the mist.
I didn’t understand it, but I knew what he was about to do.
I sent magic hurtling toward him… magic I knew would be useless against a god. Yet, I didn’t care. I yelled, “She’s not yours!”
Poseidon raised a hand.
I went flying back to the ground. Wrenching pain went through me at the impact and at the loss. In Poseidon’s arms, the little princess murmured, echoing my silent cry, and stirred. The movement caused Poseidon to catch sight of the rowan bracelet I’d put on her wrist. For the first time, he smiled truly. He seemed to be stunned, yet not displeased.
He laughed. “It seems she has chosen. My mother may have underestimated you, my son. Who knows? All may not be as lost as it looks today. As my father says, the stars are not mapped.”
He put a foot into the mist.
I asked, “Where will you take her?”
Poseidon watched the mist. In the trick of the light, the expression on his inhuman face seemed almost wistful. “To her home. To Camelot.”
CHAPTER 17 – TELL ME YOU LOVE ME
CHAPTER 17
TELL ME YOU LOVE ME
I woke up on a sofa inside the common room of the teacher’s residence.
Out of a set of four, it was the only sofa remaining. The common room had been converted to be a command center of sorts. Instead of a piano, only a bench remained. Leonidas sat on it and ate something while Leonora paced in front of him. Occasionally, she stole glances at Vane. I tried not to roll my eyes. She’d developed a major crush on him on Aegae and apparently it hadn’t abated. Beyond them, two mermaids practiced sword forms in the far corner that I knew led off to the elevators.
The sofa lay at one end of a rectangle, along with a low coffee table. Beyond it, two rows of long tables held computers and extended across the width of the room. Several wizards hunched over the ten flat-screens with intense concentration. One monitored news footage. One scrolled through street maps of different cities. Some watched what looked like security feeds of different people. I saw Matt on one screen.
At the other end of the rectangle, Vane sat behind a massive desk. A tinted window behind him diffused the bright sunlight. I had no idea what he was up to and at the moment, I couldn’t find the strength to demand the answer. Everything inside me lay broken. I’d lost… again.
He was gone. The Vane I loved was gone.
Matt was right. I hadn’t listened to him and he’d been right.
“She’s awake,” Leonora said.
Vane’s head jerked up from a computer screen. He left the desk and crossed the empty middle of the rectangle to me. I didn’t move. I couldn’t. I was barely holding on. He sat down on the coffee table, his eyes no longer green, but a normal hazel.
“Feeling calmer, sword-bearer?”
Sword-bearer. Inwardly, I shrank further into myself. Outwardly, I made myself sit up. My stomach rumbled.
“You’re hungry. I’ll take you to the dining hall.”
After ripping me to shreds, now he wanted to feed me. I wanted to cry, but had no tears. “I’d rather starve than eat with you.”
Vane’s eyes flashed with annoyance. “This is getting old.”
“You’re