The Darkest Knight (Guardians of Camelot #3) - Victoria Sue Page 0,17

battle, I’d probably expire on the spot.” Mel smiled to gentle his question.

Charles closed his eyes for a moment. “Protect,” he said eventually. He frowned, not sure if he was just imagining things. “Someone told me to protect just before I opened my eyes.”

“That’s great,” Mel enthused. “Man or a woman?”

“I didn’t see anyone,” Charles said slowly.

“No, I mean their voice. I know you can’t often tell. Between you and me, I once had this repeat customer called Marvin. He used to whip me with his shoelaces.”

Charles’s eyebrows raised. Did Mel expect a reply to that?

Mel waved a hand. “He didn’t hurt me really, but the thing was I had to pretend. He said, and this is a direct quote, ‘I had to scream like a girl.’ Now if you ask me that’s quite offensive, because there’s quite a few girls I know that would have you singing soprano permanently if you ever said that sort of thing to them.” Mel paused. “Ali definitely. Anyway, what I mean is sometimes you can tell from a voice. Sometimes you can’t.”

Charles nodded cautiously. It seemed the safe option.

“So could you?”

“Could I what?” Charles was still thinking about the shoelaces.

“Tell whether it was a man or a woman that told you to protect Kay.”

“I…” He paused. It hadn’t seemed either. But young, very young. “A woman,” he lied because he had to say something. He glanced at Mel when he didn’t get an immediate comeback.

“Which is odd if you think about it,” Mel said sagely. “I mean, if you had an internal voice, I would imagine it to be all Yippee-ki-yay, motherfucker.” He considered that for a second. “Although I have been known to go all Julie Andrews, but definitely Princess Diaries not Maria.”

Charles had no idea what he was talking about. He knew the movies, but what that had anything to do with— “Oh, because I heard a female voice, not a male one.” Except he hadn’t. Apart from the youthful lilt, he couldn’t say.

“Exactly,” Mel agreed. “Which means at least to me that someone is directing you.”

“I suppose there would have to be,” Charles said. “But I don’t see why that should cause you a problem.”

“But don’t you want to know who?” Mel burst out. “Someone, possibly a few someones, are directing you to protect this person, or that one.”

Charles shrugged. “But that is my role. I agreed—” He snapped his mouth shut, but it was too late, and Mel jumped on his words like they were a juicy mouse to a starving feline.

“When did you agree?”

Charles sighed. “When I was a child. I remember being cold and usually hungry, and I lived with an old woman. I remember soldiers coming one day and taking me to a castle. My room was high up, and all I would see was a nurse who cared for me. And one morning I woke and I was somewhere else, like a big church or a temple. I just remember being the smallest one there. There were priests, I believe, and they spoke in a language I didn’t recognize and came at me with a knife. The priest looked at me and asked if I was ready to serve Arawn, but I heard his voice in my head and understood it. And that I would ride to his glory and command an army.”

Charles smiled faintly. “I’ll be honest, when he drew a knife I started crying, but it was too late. The next thing I remember was waking up on the boat and Mary being kind to me. When I woke up a second time as the boat docked, I knew about Tom.”

“Arawn?” Mel repeated the name slowly.

“The druid god of death,” Charles said gravely. He didn’t run from the kitchen, but his steps might have been faster than he liked.

Chapter 5

Kay rolled over and opened his eyes, watching Roxy trying on the new clothes she had bought. She had just returned from the store when he had arrived and had abandoned her purchases as soon as he had let himself in. She smiled, fastening her shirt, and walked back to the bed, putting a hand to his forehead. “You don’t have a fever anyway.”

Kay flushed, knowing if she touched him a second time his face would have the heat she expected. He hadn’t explained why he had just turned up this morning and had crawled into bed and stayed there while she worked quietly on her laptop and then read. She had woken him