Then there was that time I tried to frame him as a demon-hybrid. Oh, and that other bit where I’d tried kill him.
He stood before me and drew me in for a hug, much to the chagrin of the new batch of female researchers. I tensed and clapped him on the back, hoping it was enough to satisfy. I didn’t like to hug.
“When Wilder said he transferred you, I didn’t believe him,” Aiden said, pulling away. He looked amused and I wasn’t sure if it was over the awkward hug, or the fact that I was standing in the mud at Camelot. “But here you are!”
“Yep.” I popped the p at the end and glanced at the others. I considered this posting a punishment while they thought it was the biggest break of their lives. Already, I could see the exasperated loathing on their faces when they looked at me.
“Yes. Well.” Aiden coughed. “Hi all.” He waved at the newcomers like he was wiping condensation off a window. “I’m Aiden Thompson, the head of the archaeological team here at Camelot. I suck at speeches, so let’s get you all inside. We’ve set up base camp inside the wall.” He gestured the group forwards. “Welcome to Camelot.”
I let the group filter past, ignoring the jealous glares from the women. I wondered if Aiden realised just how hot half the female population of the site was for him. Knowing him, probably not.
Sighing, I gave one last look at the world outside Camelot. Then I turned and followed my fate up the hill. My boots squelched in churned mud as I dawdled behind the group.
“Camelot exists on the fringes of our reality,” Aiden said. “Time and space are folded here, which means the inside is much larger than the outside.”
“To think we used to have so much power and understanding,” one woman said. Miss Canada. She was a scientist. “It’s unbelievable.”
“I wonder how they managed it,” one man added.
“The Druids,” I said with a huff. Everyone turned to stare at me, and I swallowed my annoyance. “They could walk between universes and change time.”
“That’s one theory,” Aiden said cheerfully. “Many of the artefacts we’ve unearthed point to Merlin having a hand in the construction. Not so much the outer city, but the castle itself.”
We moved through to another area of the outer ring of the complex.
“As you know, Camelot was torn apart in the cataclysm,” Aiden went on, firmly wedged in his happy place, “and the Dark took hold of it, making it its base. Reality was twisted, and the creatures that lived here were at their most powerful. That was due to their close proximity to their own world.”
“What happened to them?” one of the men asked.
“The demons who lived here?” Aiden shrugged. “When the rift was sealed and the One was defeated, their hold on Camelot was severed. Without any power to feed from, they fled. They’re likely wasting away, hidden out in the world someplace.”
“Preying on innocents,” the Australian researcher said.
“Thank goodness for the Sanctums,” Miss Canada remarked.
I snorted as we passed another broken wall and stepped into a clearing the size of a soccer pitch. This was where base camp had been erected. A small tent city stretched before me, bustling with activity.
Portable generators were rumbling happily, powering everything from research tents and medical, to the kitchen, showers, and dormitories. Naturals bustled from tent to tent, and in the distance, I could see movement within the lower city of Camelot.
Aiden gathered everyone close. “It’s been a long day of travel for all of you, so we’ll begin your new assignments tomorrow. For now, get some rest and settle in. The real work starts at sunrise.”
The researchers began to mutter excitedly amongst themselves, wandering off through the tent city, their heads swivelling in all directions as they went.
I stood on the edge of the camp, wondering where the grunts went. There had to be a designated place for the security detail.
“Madeleine,” Aiden said, gesturing to me.
I turned, my duffle almost colliding with a passing Natural, who almost dropped the box they were carrying. My cheeks heated and I began to realised just how out of place I was here.
“Wilder mentioned—”
“I know what he mentioned,” I interrupted.
“And what’s that?”
My jaw tensed. “Demon is as demon does.”
“You’re still hung up on that?” he asked, his shoulders slumping. “Madeline.”
“People keep telling me it was the demon inside me that did those things, but it only possessed me for a moment. All those things were me. I did them. You can’t tell me you don’t see how people look at me.”
“A mutation made you do those things. You had no control over them.”
“I tried to kill you.”
“You weren’t yourself.”
I narrowed my eyes. “So, what am I supposed to be doing here?”
“Security,” Aiden said with a sigh. “Escort detail. Patrol.”
So nothing even remotely interesting.
“Madeleine…if you open yourself up, you could find things aren’t as drastic as you make them out to be.”
I’d never fit in before I’d been possessed, but afterwards it was even clearer there was no place for me—and that was what I struggled with the most. I’d always carry the stigma of being demon bound and not a damn thing I could do would change it.
“Don’t worry about pointing me to the command tent,” I said, moving past him. “I’m more than capable of finding it myself.”
3
I swept open the flap on the command tent.
Caleb Thompson stood hunched over a table, swiping his finger back and forth across a tablet. Aiden’s older brother was the warrior of the family. They both had similar colouring—dark and broody—but the elder seemed to have all the coordination the younger lacked.
He wore standard issue black tactical gear, his jacket open and his arondight blade strapped to his waist. The hilt flashed silver
