he felt like it.
“Why did he lie to me? I know it wasn’t the enchantress’s magic. His feelings for me are real. They’ve always been real.” Saying it out loud, embracing the possibility as truth, finally loosened the chokehold on her heart.
The wraith turned away from her.
“You can’t play dominant personality forever. He’s stronger than you.”
“His humanity makes him weak.”
“No, it’s gives him the strength to make harder choices. Ones even you can’t make.” Like trying to end his existence to prevent others from dying, or worse, staying in control so there was no needless suffering.
Baring sharp teeth, the wraith snarled at her. Then vanished from sight.
For the first time in two days she was alone, but as much as she’d provoked him, she knew the wraith wouldn’t stay away for long.
Neither the wraith nor Lucan had reappeared a few hours later when the gong sounded, signaling the start of the next competition. She found a map in her room, next to a full length mirror. The glass shimmered, awaiting her to cross the veil. At the bottom of the crude map, she noted the combination of random letters that made up four words she couldn’t decrypt.
A cipher? She flipped the paper over, hunting for a clue as to which letter was the key to decoding the words. Finding nothing, she studied the map again. She didn’t recognize any of the landmarks.
Setting it aside for now, she strapped a dagger to her calf and grabbed the sword she’d taken from the weapon’s room. There was a good chance neither weapon would crossover with her, snatched away on a god’s whim, but she’d rather take her chances.
Readying herself, she grabbed the map, her gaze falling on the fuzzy reflection of it in the mirror. She frowned, tracking the landmarks on the reverse image.
“Caerleon Canyon?” The mountainous region east of the barren lands was sparsely populated, the terrain too troublesome for most to reside in that part of Avalon. Before Camlann, a few dragon clans had favored the area, but even they’d moved on as far as Briana knew.
She checked the map three more times before feeling confident she was headed to a destination in that region. Having tracked a missing gargoyle through the area centuries ago, she easily held an image in her mind as she stepped into the mirror and through the veil.
Like walking through cobwebs, the Fae magic washed over her as she emerged on the other side.
A brisk wind snapped across her cheeks, tugging at the hair she’d pulled back in a ponytail. Towering trees lined the trail leading down the gorge that served as the first landmark on the map. Beyond that, a steel-gray sky, thick with clouds, promised snow.
The cat’s tail snapped playfully at the thought of pouncing through piles of white fluff. Another time maybe. She planned on reaching the valley at the base of the gorge long before the first flakes fell. A forest then stood between her and whatever waited at the oval marked in the middle of the map.
Three steps. Maybe. That was as far as she got before she felt the wraith behind her.
He paused beside her, his black gaze tracking something on the horizon. “Do you know the way?”
It would be pointless to argue about him following her. Until her earlier comment about him protecting Lucan, she hadn’t succeeded in convincing him to leave her alone. Under other circumstances she might have felt better about someone watching her back, but if someone or something had gained control of Lucan and the wraith once before then it could happen again.
It couldn’t be a coincidence that only days before the Gauntlet there had been other reports of immortals losing control of their bodies. There was a good chance that Maeve and Aren had been responsible, another form of testing to rule out possible competitors.
Or, the guilty party had been selected to participate in the games.
Without answering the wraith, she began the downhill trek. Though they moved closer to the valley and the trees grew denser, the chill in the air deepened. She shivered under the cold breeze but didn’t let it slow her down. There was no way of knowing who else had figured out the map and might be ahead of them.
“I don’t protect him.”
Briana nearly tripped at the unexpected sound of the wraith’s voice, his words rough, unpracticed. Afraid that if she stopped to talk, he’d change his mind, she kept walking. “Isn’t that what you’re doing now?”
“No.”
She picked her way down a particularly steep section of the trail, waiting for him to continue.
“I’m protecting you.”
“He wouldn’t hurt me.” Although she’d been shaken by what happened, she knew the wraith was telling the truth about someone else pulling the strings when Lucan had attacked her.
“He doesn’t believe that.”
That didn’t make him right, and she said as much, adding, “And what are you protecting me from exactly?” She didn’t point out the irony of a creature known for death and destruction playing bodyguard.
The question fell on deaf ears, fraying the already taut threads holding her together. More confused than ever, she pulled the map out of her pocket to distract herself, matching up her current surroundings.
The code at the bottom continued to stump her. No matter how long she studied the scrambled letters, she couldn’t spot a pattern.
The ground shifted under her feet, and she stumbled sideways.
Her hand shot out to grab the nearest tree, the thin branches snapping like dead twigs in her grip. Nothing but air slipped through her fingers, and the world emptied around her.
Her claws snagged a tree stump, stopping her from teetering on the edge of a sheer rock face that fell away from the trail. A thin wall of trees had masked the drop-off that would have shattered every bone in her body.
Pulse firing at the overdose of adrenaline in her system, she sucked in a sharp breath, the air freezing in her lungs. The cat snarled in warning before a heavy arm dragged her away from the edge.
The wraith tipped her chin up, his eyes narrowed as he looked her over.
Lucan was in there somewhere, trapped by a bond that Rhiannon had condemned him to centuries ago. Powerless, isolated, punished, demoralized—over and over and over again.
And for what?
Because Arthur had fallen in battle after giving his life to a cause that he not only believed in, but inspired others to believe in? Lucan had done nothing wrong. He’d supported Arthur, broken his betrothal and ignored his family’s wishes so Gwen and Arthur could be together, had ridden in battle with Arthur, trained with him, laughed with him. There wasn’t a doubt in Briana’s mind that Lucan would have changed places with Arthur that day on the fields of Camlann.
How could that kind of friendship and loyalty count for nothing? He deserved so much more than what Rhiannon had done to him. He deserved a chance at a real future, free and happy. It no longer mattered if that future was with her or not.
How would she ever be able to live with herself if she won and used the sword’s magic to undo the mate bond? Maybe Rhiannon could so heartlessly punish Lucan, but Briana would never forgive herself if she didn’t do everything to free him. She couldn’t stand the thought of him spending another year or week, or even another day living a nightmare.
She loved him too much.
Holding the wraith’s gaze, Briana lifted her hand to his face. “You can be saved.”
With eyes so black and cold they could have frozen over an entire village, the wraith grabbed her hand. She waited for the crushing grip that would push her away.
Instead, gentle fingers closed over hers. “You will not sacrifice yourself.”
So the wraith knew she risked becoming one of the Forgotten if she used Excalibur to free Lucan and they still couldn’t be together.
“You’ve suffered enough.” She wasn’t sure she was just talking about Lucan anymore. The wraith had been created to destroy, to ensure Lucan followed orders whether he wanted to or not, but there was nothing destructive about the way the wraith held her hand now.
“You will
