couldn't do that. Not yet. "If I do, Seren will know something is amiss the instant she sees me without the sword on. Take her, and I will give it to you once she's safely hidden within the walls of Avalon."
Brea scoffed. "Do you think for one minute that I trust you, demon? Especially after all you have done in the past?"
"I give you my word."
Brea curled his lip. "That's as worthless as your life."
He couldn't fault the god for those words. Brea was right. "Seren won't go with you if she suspects anything."
Brea stepped back, then held his palm up toward the sky. A light flashed an instant before another sword appeared in his hand. It was made of brightly polished steel with a leather-wrapped handle and a dragon's-eye stone set in the hilt.
Kerrigan scowled at it. If he didn't know better, he'd swear it was Caliburn.
"It has no powers," Brea said as he held the sword out toward him. "But she won't know that unless she touches it."
It was a good plan, and for once he had nothing more to add to it.
Sighing, Kerrigan inclined his head before he unbuckled Caliburn. He could hear the sword screaming in his head. Hear it begging him not to let it go.I am yours…We belong to each other.
For centuries the two of them had been together…
It was all he'd ever had to call his own. All that had ever really mattered to him. The power. The strength. This sword had made him king. It had turned a boy into a man.
In all his life, this sword was the only thing that had ever taken care of him.
Kerrigan held Caliburn tight in his fist as the power of it consumed him. So long as he held this sword, no one could touch him. No one could harm him.
He was letting go of everything.
Don't be stupid…
He looked at the tinted windows, knowing that Seren couldn't see him. But she was in there, and he was the only one who could protect her from Morgen.
The sword or his mouse…
Cursing, he handed the sword to Brea even though it burned his hand to do so.
The look of shock on the god's face was truly priceless. He stared at the sword in his hand as if he half expected it to vanish. "You really let go of it."
Kerrigan didn't say anything as he snatched the fake sword from Brea's other hand and fastened it around his hips. "She's not to know of this. Ever."
Brea didn't respond. He merely continued to stare at Caliburn as if it were an apparition.
If only it were. The absence Kerrigan felt inside him at the loss of Caliburn was a pain more profound than any he'd ever felt before. It was as if a vital part of himself had been lost. And it took all his will not to take it back.
But he couldn't, and he knew it.
Without looking at Brea, Kerrigan brushed past the god and headed back into the RV.
He entered it at the same time one of the Adoni manifested by the driver's seat. Anger tore through him as he unsheathed his fake sword. The male Adoni lunged at him. Kerrigan hissed as the Adoni caught him a blow to the lips that cut them. For the first time in centuries he felt the sting of the blow, tasted the salt of his own blood.
His eyes flaming, he drove his sword through the Adoni's body, then pulled it free.
"We haven't much time," he said to Seren and Blaise as he approached them. "If we're not moving, they can find us."
He noted the way Blaise stared in disbelief at his cut lip, but luckily Seren didn't understand that part of the sword's power.
Wiping the blood away, Kerrigan pulled Seren to her feet. "You have to go with Brea now." He met Blaise's frown. "I need you to go with her as well and protect her."
"Nay," Seren said quickly as she stopped in the middle of the RV and refused to go farther. "I'll go with Brea, but I'd rather Blaise go with you to get the loom in case something happens and you need him."
Kerrigan started to argue, but knew better. They didn't have time to waste. Besides, Blaise would make this easier. He'd be able to send the necklace and loom back with the mandrake to Avalon.
Nodding, he ushered Seren down the narrow aisle to the door and out to the side of the road where Brea was