Sword in the Stars (Once & Future #2) - Cori McCarthy Page 0,18
homesickness.
“You brought a Mercer watch all the way here just to look at these? Merlin will be hopping mad if he finds out. Gwen, he might actually hop.”
“I needed a piece of our history. Our past,” Gwen said. “I look at these when I miss you too much. They can be… inspiring.”
Ari’s eyes closed, head tilted back to make a simpering, albeit pleased, sound.
“We only have moments.” Gwen’s tone turned serious. “You have no idea how hard it was to dispatch my handmaidens to various tasks. They’ll find me eventually. Or realize I gave them the slip and tell Arthur.”
Ari stroked Gwen’s neck with her knuckle. “You sure Arthur doesn’t know about the baby?”
“We aren’t intimate, if that’s what you’re digging for.”
“Because he’s twelve?”
Gwen scowled. “We’re courting. The process can take years. What he really needs is someone who understands politics. He’s in over his head. Camelot is a powder keg. Old Merlin is a disaster. I’m not sure when the chalice is going to appear, and I only have a month or two before I’m going to have a lot of explaining to do.”
Ari’s hands found the baby again, that hard, impossible place that felt both unreal and everything all at once. “We should get home before the time comes.”
“And put the baby in Mercer’s crosshairs?” Gwen hissed. Ari hadn’t forgotten that the corporation had demanded their child as a price for the rebellion, and the rest of the damn galaxy had acted like that was a perfectly reasonable cost. “Not happening. I’m giving birth here.”
“You can’t, Gwen. Think of all the ways it could go wrong… even if Camelot doesn’t get wind of the wedlock issue. You shouldn’t have given me that first aid pill.”
“I had to!” Gwen started to cry. Ari suddenly felt brittle. Powerless. Ari held Gwen close, apologizing until Gwen seized her feelings, smearing tears from her face with her knuckles. “We’ll do what we always do, Ari.”
“The impossible?”
Gwen’s small smile was another miracle. “I never doubted you’d come back. Not once.”
“That’s progress for us.” Ari kissed her, mentally reorganizing her to-do list. If Gwen needed to have the baby here, Ari would make sure it would happen. “Only two weeks until Arthur’s midsummer birthday celebration. Then the enchantresses will come bearing the chalice, I’ll steal it, you’ll give birth, and we’ll all return home to the same night we left. My moms will be waiting to help. We’ll hide the baby from Mercer easily. They’ll still be expecting you to be newly pregnant.”
Gwen didn’t say anything, and Ari could tell that she had her own plans. Her own doubts or fears or all three. For once, Ari didn’t press her. She gave Gwen space, which ached with distance. “First you have to get Merlin and Jordan out of the dungeons, Ari.”
“I have a plan for that, too. You’ll see at the melee. Do you think you could convince Arthur to fight on my team?”
“That’s a hard no. He’s not a fighter.”
“But don’t you see? That’s a problem. Arthur needs help, that much is obvious.”
“We should be protecting him, not throwing him in front of swords.”
Ari grew aggravated fast, tilting toward one of their infamous rows. “He has to toughen up, Gwen.”
“Ari, he’s afraid of everyone because people keep trying to assassinate him,” Gwen said. “I wish we could tell Arthur the truth, but we came out of a time portal to steal from you because your ancient, trapped spirit inside my wife told us to doesn’t really roll off the tongue. He might be young and inexperienced, but Arthur wants to be a good ruler in a desperate time, and even if Lionel is light-years away and Mercer repossessed my throne, I haven’t forgotten what that feels like.”
“So are we working with Arthur or around him, Gwen?”
“With him, as much as possible.”
“And you think he can keep up with us?” Ari’s voice slid over those words much like her body longed to slide over Gwen’s.
“Ari,” Gwen sighed, feeling it, too, pulling her close.
Footsteps echoed, and Gwen ducked from behind the tapestry, poised at the window. Ari peered out as the footsteps grew louder and then—pop—Gwen froze. Old Merlin hobbled by, sneering. By the time he’d turned the corner, another pop released Gwen from her statuelike state. She glanced around. “Did someone come by?”
Ari slipped out from behind the tapestry. “That old magical bastard! He froze you so he wouldn’t have to talk to you. What a damn—”