her ear as he kept her against his cold body. "All is fine. You are safe now."
"Nay," she choked as she shivered. "I have died and gone to hell. Surely, there is no other place this can be."
She shoved him away from her as her thoughts tumbled over one another in her mind. She struggled to make sense of them all, but her emotions were too raw and exposed as she relived her horror.
"You're covered in blood," she said as she noted the way it coated his black armor, reminding her of glaze over a blackened roast. "You ruthlessly killed that poor man, knowing he stood no chance against you. Still you fought him. Killed him for no real reason other than for Morgen's amusement." She shook her head as the image of Tostig's violent death replayed in her mind. "You're the devil."
His expression empty and blank, Kerrigan stepped back as a black fur cloak appeared over her naked body. Seren would have cast it off, but she didn't dare. It was all that saved her dignity, such as it was at the moment.
Kerrigan said nothing as he watched her with those emotionless eyes.
"You don't deny it?" she accused.
"Nay," he said quietly. "You are in hell and I am the devil who keeps you here. It is the way of it."
Her mind screamed out in denial. This couldn't be happening. "I want to go home."
He shook his head. "You should have gone with Gawain when you had the chance. 'Tis too late for you now. You chose of your own free will to come with me. With me you will stay until I no longer have need of you."
Seren swallowed the tears that she refused to cry. She'd been weak enough before them. The time for tears was past.
In that moment, she hated him and all the creatures who dwelled here. "I can't believe that my entire life will be ruined by one thoughtless mistake."
He gave an evil half laugh. "We are all damned by our deeds, my lady, whether they are thought out or not." His eyes turned back to their dull blackness. "You may rest peacefully here. No one will disturb you."
She looked around the cold, ebony room. Nothing here was inviting or welcoming. It reminded her of a witch's black pot. "Where is this place that I am safe?"
"My bedchamber."
As soon as those words were spoken, he dissolved into a cloud of smoke and vanished.
Seren looked around the dark, foreboding room. There was nothing warm here. No fire burned in the hearth. His bed was overlarge, and covered with black furs, but even so, it didn't appear comfortable. There were no chairs, no table. Nothing. It was large and empty.
Like their hearts.
Aye, they were all monsters. All of them.
"I have to escape," she whispered. But how? The only way she knew was what Magda had told her.
Did she dare trust one of them?
Did she dare not?
Closing her eyes, Seren tried to wish herself back to her loom. She tried to convince herself that it was all a nightmare, but with each pounding beat of her heart, she realized that it wasn't a dream. This was her life, and those below fully intended to kill her.
"I won't let you," she said aloud to the room. "Do you hear me? I am Seren of York, apprenticed to Master Rufus of London, and I will not be bested by the likes of you. I—"
Am just a peasant.
Those words ran around her head and taunted her. Mocked her.
Aye, she was a peasant, but she was also a survivor, and she wouldn't let them best her. Ever. This matter was far from over. She would find her way home no matter what it took.
Kerrigan didn't dare head back to the throne room. In the mood he was in, he might very well kill Morgen.
Or at least try.
At the end of the day, he knew he could no more kill her than she could kill him. They were at an impasse.
Both immortal. Both powerful.
Both hateful.
But Morgen did have one advantage. She knew the source of his immortality while he knew nothing of hers. He had no clue as to what gave her her powers.
She knew his weakness. And, to borrow an expression from centuries ahead, that pissed him off.
Kerrigan gripped his sword as he materialized on the roof of Camelot. He sat at the highest point so that he could look out into the darkness of this land where he ruled. When he'd