Merlin slipped out of the future, and back into the cave. This wasn’t the first time he’d checked up on his soon-to-be sister. They were still ten years away from her arrival, and sometimes it was hard to wait. Avalon was too perfect, and Merlin liked knowing that Gwen and Ari would get the baby that he’d never go back to being for them.
But this moment wasn’t his gift to them. Some truths people had to come to in their own time. After all, you couldn’t just tell someone they were going to have another magical baby. Not that he’d seen her do magic yet, exactly. But she could pick up the sword. And her name was Avalon.
“Back to the real plan,” Merlin said crisply. He closed his eyes, cast his mind outward and hummed, looking for just the right time to steal from the past.
“Not stealing,” he corrected himself. “Borrowing.”
Merlin had put blindfolds on both of them. Ari managed to get hers pushed up so that she could see a sliver below the bottom, a great shot of her boots, but then Gwen elbowed her until she pushed it back down.
“What do you think he’s up to?” Ari asked. “Anniversary present?”
“It’s a surprise, Ara.”
“I don’t like surprises.”
“But I do,” Gwen countered. “Let him have his fun.”
“What about my fun?” Ari said, abandoning whatever Merlin was about to show them for a few stolen kisses. Blindfolded kissing was a good time as it turned out, and Merlin had to clear his throat several times before Ari released Gwen and went back to the ready-to-be-surprised position.
“Step this way. Lightly.”
Ari and Gwen walked hand in hand into a portal while Merlin kept a leading grip on the back of her shirt. She wouldn’t lie; her heart trilled. Traditionally speaking, every time she went through a portal, something rotten happened, but she trusted Merlin, and she knew where they were the moment they arrived. Copper in the air. Dim light. Metal grating underfoot. She couldn’t wait for Merlin to say so and tugged her blindfold off. “We’re on Error.”
Ari dropped Gwen’s blindfold, too, so that she could see what Ari was seeing.
Merlin threw his arms out before Error’s main cabin. Strings of bright lights crisscrossed the entire space while the small table was bursting with food from what looked like several different worlds and eras. “It’s a throwback party! Happy anniversary!”
“Surprise!” Val yelled, followed by a full-mouth echo from Jordan who was currently making serious business out of a cupcake with a tiny Excalibur sticking out of the top.
Gwen smiled, crushing him in a huge hug.
Val wore an interesting grin as Ari gave him a hug. “Give me a heads-up, will you? No, let me guess. My parents are going to pop out from some place, and we’re all going to drink and hang out until—”
Ari’s words disappeared. A long-fingered hand clapped over her eyes. She would have known that hand anywhere—even if the smell was now mingled with horse and fire and leather armor. She spun around and right into Lamarack’s chest.
Ari was shouting. She had no control over her excitement as she hugged Lam again and again while they laughed. “How is this even possible?”
“Magical time baby,” Val crowed. “Kai nicked them from Camelot for a few hours. Surprise,” he finished, poking Ari in the side. “Now we can have a real party, huh?”
Ari found a few smudges of gray at Lam’s temples and a brand-new wrinkle to their eyes. “You’re older! How long has it been on your end?”
“Seventeen years,” Lam said, placing their wrist on her cheek. “You look the best you’ve ever looked.” They smiled to Gwen. “I imagine you have a lot to do with that.”
“Keeping Ari busy is my favorite esteemed position.” Gwen embraced Lam, and they lifted her off her feet.
Lam looked around the spaceship as if they were in a waking dream. “Arthur and I were on our way through Mirkwood. On a quest to free Gawain, and this person jumped out from behind a tree. I nearly ran him through, but Arthur stopped me.”
“I did nearly get killed,” Merlin said solemnly. “I have improved my tactics since then. Don’t surprise past humans with portals. It’s a grand rule.”
Ari felt the universe tilt. Or perhaps it was just the spaceship. Val was on her left, Lam on her right. Jordan was checking out the controls, and Merlin was staring at her straight on with the most tentative, hopeful smile. “Thank you, Kai.”
“I couldn’t think of a better present than to bring us all together, even if just for a night.”
Ari felt a familiar stab. This was her family, and they were together… minus one.
“All of us,” Merlin added, his brown eyes bright with excitement.
The entire cabin turned quiet while Ari looked around. There was no way… was there? She pushed through them, rounding the empty cockpit, heading straight to Kay’s room.
She burst the door open.
Kay was passed out on his bed, half fallen off the mattress, boots stuck to the floor and head thrown back. The rest of her friends were right behind her, uttering their own surprised noises as they collided with her back.
Merlin cleared his throat. “So, here’s a rather enormous condition of the night. Kay is alive, yes, but he’s also, um, trashed. Too wasted to remember this tomorrow, which was my exact plan!” He looked to Ari and Gwen. “I stole him from the afterparty of your wedding to Gwen, which is why we’re having the party here and not on Ketch. I should warn you, though, he’s still rather disgruntled by the idea of your marriage, which isn’t the best way to celebrate your anniversary, but—”
Ari couldn’t wait a second more. She leaped onto the bed and shook her brother by the shoulders.
“Hey!” Kay shouted, more alert than anyone would have guessed even if his gray-silver hair was standing
