Val slipped, disappeared under the water. Merlin grabbed him. Heaved him back up. Sparks filled the water, bright blue, as he expended more magic.
More time lost.
When they finally reached the bank, Merlin dragged Val past the edge of the water; he didn’t want Nin touching his boyfriend again.
Val’s eyes slowly rediscovered their focus. His face lit with the saddest smile in the universe. “You have freckles now.”
“I… I do?” Merlin asked. He hadn’t had freckles this morning. They must have been a feature of his youngest years, one that had lain in wait. Whatever magic he’d just used had cost him dearly. Whatever months he’d been clinging to that kept them close in age had slipped away.
But Val was alive. They were reunited. Anything else in the universe could be overcome.
Merlin could feel the great, foolish smile on his face. “Oh, Merlin,” Val said with a wince. He twirled one of Merlin’s damp red curls, then pressed a hand on his cheek. “You stupid, sweet boy. You just gave Nin exactly what she wanted.”
The entire kingdom of Camelot was hungover. Or still drunk.
Ari was both.
Dawn’s rays seared through the high windows in the great hall, baking Ari in her armor. She sat up from where she’d slumped over on the head table, Arthur deeply asleep beside her. Looking around for Gwen, she found the chair on the other side of the king was empty. Ari got to her feet and nearly went down. Arthur stirred beside her, and she hefted one of his arms over her shoulder. He mumbled something along the lines of, “Leave me to die,” and Ari carried him to his rooms as if she’d plucked him wounded from a battlefield.
Which actually worked as a metaphor because parties in Camelot were ragers. Ari hadn’t seen anything like it since she and Kay had found their way into a twenty-four-hour lock-in nightclub on Tanaka. Once she’d deposited the one true king in his rooms, his army of long-legged, huge-pawed hunting dogs barking incessantly as she stumbled out into the same antechamber where she’d snuck behind a tapestry with Gwen.
Gwen.
Almost the entire kingdom was asleep. Could she sneak up to the queen’s rooms unnoticed?
“Merlin,” Ari murmured to herself, a reminder. She needed to find Merlin, to make sure he got the chalice after Arthur passed it off. And Ari desperately wanted to take it for a test drive. To know what it could do. How it could be the answer to stopping Mercer…
Ari checked the tower where they’d sent Jordan back. The cot was empty, and there was no sign of Merlin. While climbing back down the spiral stairs, her feet took her toward Gwen’s rooms. Perhaps Merlin was there.
She wasn’t persuading herself. No, not at all.
Ari found Gwen’s guards dead asleep and decided against knocking. She pressed the door open, closed it behind herself quietly, and looked around. But Gwen wasn’t in the large, canopy bed or any of the smaller chambers attached to the room. And that’s when Ari stopped worrying about her headache and started worrying about the love of her life.
She shot out of the room and began a thorough search of the castle, making sure to drop in on the small hole of the oubliette, which was thankfully unoccupied. When she checked the room she shared with Lam she discovered that no, not everyone was incapacitated. Lamarack and Morgause were in the throes of an encounter so epic they both didn’t notice when Ari walked in—and walked straight out again.
“Fuck,” Ari muttered, shaking her head and the rather potent images nestled therein. “At least someone is enjoying the Middle Ages.”
Ari decided to try the courtyard, passing dozens of downed villagers on the way. She checked for Merlin and found the pile of Gwen’s handmaidens, which at least indicated her last known whereabouts. Ari went to the stables, too hot to stay in this armor a moment longer. She retreated to the back corner where Lam kept some things and pulled off several heavy pieces, pouring cold water from the horses’ trough over herself. Her headache began to ease as she remembered more of what had happened. They’d sent Jordan home; that was good. They’d laid eyes on the chalice; also good. The book still detailed Arthur’s legendary adventures with his knights, and that had to be a victory. They’d made their way into the story without changing the time continuum.
Then why did something feel very wrong?
A hand slipped over Ari’s shoulder, making her jump so hard she nearly punched the person attached to it. Gwen held her palms up, eyes wide. She wore one of her handmaiden’s dresses, not the billowing gold finery from the previous evening. Her hair was down and curly and Ari’s heart pounded.
“You scared the life out of me.”
“I didn’t mean to.”
“It’s okay.” Ari rubbed the water out of her eyes. “I’ve been looking for you and Merlin all morning.”
“I’ve been looking for him, too. Did he leave Camelot? I haven’t seen him since he ran after Old Merlin. You don’t think he got caught again, do you?”
“I checked the oubliette. It’s empty.” Ari took off a few more pieces of armor, and when Gwen started to help, Ari fell out of time for a spell, as if this were nothing more than a friendly morning on Lionel, following a fierce tournament. Gwen pulled off her layers, and Ari was exhaustingly grateful for each one. Until Gwen tugged off Ari’s undershirt, and she was bare breasted before Gwen for the first time in years.
Gwen’s hands found Ari’s biceps and slid up to her shoulders, fingers splayed. Ari’s eyes closed and the most damning sound slipped out. “Your muscles are enormous, Ari. And
