Sword in the Stars (Once & Future #2) - Cori McCarthy Page 0,3
looked back to the bride. And blinked. And then blinked harder.
Gwen?
The girl he’d known as the queen of her own Renaissance Faire Planet was standing at the dead center of Camelot, her gaze defiant until she turned to Arthur and gave him an encouraging nod. Gwen looked like she fit right in, perhaps because her life had been a unique form of training for this moment. Even if her mix of European and Asian heritage set her apart enough that the youth at the well had given her the micro-aggressive title of “exotic.”
The truth was that Gwen had come from much farther than anyone in Camelot could imagine. Far enough to be measured in galaxies and centuries. That’s the sort of distance it took to be safe from Mercer, and they were meant to be hiding out, yet it looked like Gwen had done more than storm the castle—she’d broken down the doors of the king’s heart.
In a single day? How?
Merlin clutched his head as he remembered that she’d gotten married to Ari in less time than that. Oh, this was bad. Tremendously bad. He could feel the time continuum wobble. He’d have to freeze the entire stadium and steal her out of the tournament ring, and…
“Merlin!” a voice whisper-shouted. Someone snagged his elbow and he was drawn back through the crowd, away from Gwen upending the entire Arthurian cycle.
Merlin came to an abrupt stop before a familiar knight in unfamiliar clothes. They wore the same rough-spun as the rest of the commoners. Their dreads were pulled back, but they sported no piercings. No makeup glimmered on their deep brown skin. At least their smile was worth a hundred blazing suns.
“Am I glad to see you, dude!” Lamarack clapped Merlin in a hug, thumping his back. He ached all over from his portal dive and subsequent climb. “You look…”
“Younger,” he said with a wince. “I know.”
“At least you’re alive. We thought the worst.”
“Who is we?” Merlin glanced at the scrappy person keeping to Lam’s elbow, the same kid who’d witnessed his arrival.
“He came out of the well, Lamarack,” they squeaked.
“As if that were my first time at the bottom of a well.” Merlin scoffed. “Hardly.” He turned to Lam, only to find them looking over the crowd at Gwen, their height a great help in the effort. “What in the blazes is happening?”
“You’ve missed a lot, old man,” Lam said without taking their eyes off Gwen.
“Missed what?” he snapped. Lamarack ignored him, and the mage spun back to his most pressing concern. “What happened to ‘steal the cup and get out unnoticed’?” Lam quirked an eyebrow. Before they all went through the time portal, Merlin had told them not to interfere with the past—hadn’t he? There had been so much happening. An unborn baby to protect from Mercer, who wanted to claim it as a price for rebellion. A cycle of tragedy and torment to stop. Surely he’d told them not to demolish the past in the process?
Surely he shouldn’t need to explain that one.
“You’ve heard of the butterfly effect?” Merlin barked. “Changing the tiniest thing in the past can damage the future. Gwen has leapt into the middle of a mythological hurricane! She and Arthur are bound to each other! Literally!” He paused. “Are they handfasting?”
Handfasting was a scrap of history he’d forgotten about in the great heap of time that came after it. He’d never paid much attention to anything having to do with traditions of love and romance. He’d called it idiocy, or brainmelt in his kinder moments, but he did remember this test of loyalty and devotion. Those who meant to marry were tied together for the length of their engagement, the knots cut on their wedding day. Most couples handfasted for a year, but Gwen had arrived today, mere hours ago.
Unless… she hadn’t.
He flashed back to the portal’s winds, everyone separated. Merlin had imagined they landed in different places, but what about different times? “Did you arrive—”
“Months ago,” Lam finished wearily.
“Tell me everything,” he yelled. “Now!”
His outburst drew looks from the crowd. Lam—who had lost a hand to Mercer in the future—angled to grab Merlin with the remaining one and hauled him many yards away. “We have to lay low, Merlin. We’ve been here for a long time. Me, Gwen, and Jordan.” Lam pointed to the sturdy blonde girl in the lineup of handmaidens with flowers in their hair.
“That was Jordan!” Merlin squinted. She looked like she wanted to hack her white dress and garlands