Ever My Merlin (Book 3, My Merlin Series) (5 page)

I suppressed a smile at the new guy. “Grey’s my brother.”

Matt’s eyebrows rose. “I suppose it’s going to be complicated, then.”

“Complicated?”

Sensuous lips curved up into a half-smile. All-knowing eyes met and held mine. “To know you.”

My lips curved up in response.

A shadow crossed over the cafeteria.

Matt’s smile froze in place. The whole cafeteria, and everyone in it, froze in place.

Sound stopped, as if someone had muted the scene with a TV remote.

Fluorescent lights darkened.

A loud clapping echoed across the eerily quiet room. I straightened up and pulled away from a frozen Matt. Across the cafeteria a figure stood near the doors. My heart skipped a beat. He watched me with cold amusement. His well-muscled form, clad in a dressy ensemble of form-fitting red shirt and black trousers, leaned back against the wall in a rebel-without-a-cause pose. But this was no rebel. He would never settle for anything less than being emperor.

Vibrant green eyes blazed. God-like green.
Vane.

I blinked at the sudden appearance of my ex-boyfriend. I never had much luck with boyfriends.

“How adorable,” he drawled. “Is this how he became your hero? You have low standards, DuLac.”

What is happening?
I reached out to touch Matt. My hand went straight through his shoulder. I turned to look at Alexa. Her face paused in the middle of a scowl. Beside her, the other girls of the lacrosse team also sat completely still. I walked toward her, stepping right through the middle of the solid wood lunch table.

Either I was a ghost or it was.

“Yes, DuLac, work it out,” said Vane. “We are in your mind. This is a manifestation we’re seeing through the
Dragon’s Eye
. You are on the rooftop in India.”

He snapped his fingers. Everyone in the cafeteria disappeared. The tables were empty, and the chairs were tucked neatly back into place. Lights across the wide room dimmed until Vane stood under the lone spotlight, beneath a high window. Outside, the sun faded. The last remnants of light revealed the slanted lines of Vane’s harsh cheekbones and kept the shadowy mantle that hovered behind him at bay… for a few more fleeting moments.

I took me a second to recenter. To remember I was no longer that girl in the cafeteria, the one who knew nothing about wizards and swords. The one who didn’t ache for the twisted being that stood in front of me.

While I stayed a safe distance away from him, my heart jangled nervously in my chest. My muscles itched with the impulse to leap into his arms. The ice encasing those mermaid-green eyes stopped me. The Vane I knew burned hot. These eyes could have frozen an erupting volcano. My stomach clenched, and for a brief moment, I wondered if I had truly lost him. I dismissed the thought. I refused to believe it. But I also didn’t try to move any closer to him.

I demanded, “Why are you here?”

Vane raised a brow. “You haven’t found Merlin yet. You only found a memory.”

“What have you done with him?”

“You’re not going to find him in nostalgic trips to the past. Merlin is not here. Only I am, and you should be glad.” Vane straightened away from the wall, but didn’t move any further. “Because I am here to answer your pleas, not him. Only I can save you from this disaster.”

Tsunami.
The word brought me abruptly back to the present. I reached up to touch the Dragon’s Eye at my neck. I was inside. Outside, I pictured Grey, Gia, and Blake on the rooftop, staring at the ominously calm waves, waiting for it to turn on them. “What are you saying? How can you stop a tsunami?”

“I am the Fisher King, a vassal of the Earth Shaker and all that.” His lips curved into a smile. Not the kind that invited play. His promised only pain.

“
I suspect you like a little pain
,” he said arrogantly.

The amulet let him read my surface thoughts. I retorted, “
Get out, Vane.”

“
Never.
”

“What’s the catch?” I asked aloud. “For your help.”

A brow rose. “Why should I bother to make the effort?”

“Because you need me. If I die here today, Excalibur will be lost—”

Dark hair glinted in dim light as he inclined his head. “You are right. I do need to rescue… Excalibur. Someone must, I suppose, since you seem to have the uncanny ability to invite danger.”

I stared at his smooth expression. It was too easy. One of things that always disturbed me about Vane was how complex his games could be. Now, he possessed a bit of Poseidon inside his body. A destiny he took from Matt.

I picked through his words carefully until I found the flaw in them. “Can you save everyone?” I added carefully, “Not just me. All of us. Sri Lanka up the coast to Chennai. Kolkotta. Around to Thailand and Indonesia. This whole area.”

Vane’s lips curved into a chilly smile. “I rather hoped you would ask. Alas, to do that, requires a great expenditure of magic, even for the Earth Shaker. I would have to relieve pressure at the fault lines of two massive tectonic plates. You’re asking me to move a mountain of rock.”

“Can you do it?” I repeated.

“If I do, you can rest assured, this entire region would be safe.”

I gazed over the gulf that separated us, merely a few feet in this imaginary hallway, but a grand canyon of ulterior motives. “In exchange for what, Vane?”

Hunger sharpened his smile. “You know me too well.”

The smile set my teeth on edge, even as it strung an already tight chord inside me.

“Merlin,” he said. “I want his magic. All of it.”

CHAPTER 3

THE LIBRARY

“
Y
ou are unbelievable!”

He shrugged.

I strove to calm myself. I failed. “It’s impossible!”

“I always thought so, but now that I have the Earth Shaker’s insight—the answer seems so simple. Imagine magic as one layer of a golden onion. It surrounds us. I have the ability to strip it off him and layer it on myself.”

“You want to
skin
him?”

“It won’t kill him,” Vane said.

I shook my head. “It’s not my choice to make. Matt—”

Vane moved so quickly I only had time to blink before he was standing directly in front of me. He caught my wrist and pulled me back until I stood toe-to-toe with him. “Merlin is no longer your crutch. This is your decision, sword-bearer. Do you have what it takes to make it? Do you want to stop this tsunami? Or will you allow millions to die because you can’t make a move without Merlin holding your hand?”

He spat the words out and they fell on me like blows. His fingers gripped the vulnerable part of my arm, fingers that, until quite recently, held me with care. The fingers around me now, though, felt like steel manacles. These fingers would just as easily snap my bones as mend them. The truth was, I didn’t know. While I did depend on Matt, I’d always thought I made my own decisions. After Vane, I wasn’t sure. Had I listened to Matt too much?

I looked at him steadily. “I don’t trust you.”

Vane dropped my hand as if it burned him. I let out a breath—of relief and sorrow. I missed him so much even his touch hurt. Watching me, his eyes flashed for a brief second. Then, the mermaid hue of green hooded them again and his expression blanked.

“You shouldn’t trust me. However, I won’t kill him. Taking his magic won’t give me Merlin’s knowledge so I still need him alive.” He retreated, putting some distance between us. “We are on the same side for the moment. Your friends don’t have long, DuLac. I need your answer now.”

Mentally, I pulled myself away from him and focused on what was happening. “Why do you want Matt’s magic? You already have more than enough power.” I didn’t expect him to reply. Ideas tumbled around in my head until one stood out. “You need his ability. The Lady said the power of the Earth Shaker would show us what is to come. She meant visions. But she meant for Merlin to take Poseidon’s power. To enhance it. Only Merlin has visions. Not you. When you took it, Poseidon’s power didn’t grant you anything new, only enhanced what you already possessed. Therefore, you will never be able to have visions. You have ultimate power, but no ability to use it as we need.” My head jerked up to meet his shadowed gaze. “That’s it, isn’t it?”

Vane said, “Ten points to my star student.”

“You’re not my teacher anymore, Vane. I’m sure you’ve been fired by now,” I retorted. Vane was the European History teacher at Acton-Concord High. We’d been missing from school for nearly a month. I’d probably been expelled by now too. “Not even you could charm away that long of an absence.”

“Is that a dare?” He chuckled a hollow laugh.

My chin jutted out, but I didn’t reply. He was a predator, ready to strike at a moment’s notice. Could a predator keep his word?

His eyes narrowed. “I see you need convincing that I’m powerful enough. If that is what you require, you shall have it.” He walked closer again. “The Earth Shaker enhanced my magic to the extreme. All my magic, but especially the one I’m strongest in—persuasion.”

Before I could blink, he took my hand from my side. His hand enclosed mine, our palms touching. As soon as he did, a sizzle of electricity shot up my arm, straight into my chest, speeding up my heart, and beyond my abdomen until it curled my toes. It left me achy, breathless, and completely wanting.

“Please,” I whispered. I would have done anything to be near him.

“You see—I don’t even have to speak anymore,” he said in a silky tone.

The
Dragon’s Eye
amulet flared against my skin. He pushed past it. The amulet cooled and I realized I had no defense against him. Transfixed, I stared into his eyes and all I saw was a deep abyss. His grip tightened, a thumb pressing into the back of my hand with hard pressure. It filled me with an overwhelming need. I wanted nothing more than to agree to whatever he asked. “
Bend to me
,” his voice whispered in my head, a soft suggestion that lingered inside my eardrums until I neither heard nor thought of anything else but him.

I was drowning.

All I had to do was say okay and he would save me. I opened my mouth to do just that. If he’d asked me to drop to my knees and beg him, I would do just that.

Vane let me go. Suddenly bereft, I shuddered a black emptiness left me exposed. I needed him to fill it. I shook my head and backed away. Even though he released me, the desire to please him stayed strong. I gulped, trying to swallow the longing down.

“Convinced yet? Or do you need more?” He took a step toward me.

I held up my hand to stop him. I didn’t want him to touch me. I didn’t want to be that much out of control. Pulling together my bruised pride, I scowled at him. “You made your point.”

“Good.” The predator watched me. “We are running out of time. What do you say, Ryan? Will you choose Merlin and allow your friends to die? Or will you give me what I want?”

I stared at him.

In reality, my body was on a rooftop and the tsunami was coming. Within my mind, through the
Dragon’s Eye
, I faced the tsunami already upon me.
Vane
.

I bit my lip, debating.

I knew he could fix this. Yet how I could pay his price? To pay with something that was not mine to offer. To give Matt to him when I couldn’t be sure that he wouldn’t get hurt. I took a slow breath. “Even if I agreed, it wouldn’t matter. I came here looking for Matt and he’s not here.”

Vane’s gaze dropped to my amulet. He watched it rise and fall against my chest. “Have no fear, DuLac. I can fix that too.”

I ground my teeth. He’d used the amulet to read my thoughts again.

I pictured smacking him in the face.

Shadows deepened the slanted lines of Vane’s cheekbones as he gazed back at me with cold expressionless eyes. My insides twisted. The idea that he would want to do this to Matt, his brother, reminded me that he was not the Vane I knew, the one who held on to life with both hands. This Vane wanted to destroy life. He had become a monster, one I helped create. I took a deep breath. “I’ll do whatever you want if you save them.”

“You’ll do
everything
I want.”

“Let’s see you find him first.”

Vane’s brow rose. “Do you agree to my terms?”

“As if I have a choice.”

“That’s my girl. Always eager to sacrifice.” The drawl to his accent emphasized the sarcastic edge to the words.

I jerked away and put more distance between us. “I could really hate you.”

Vane didn’t blink. “Do so. It only binds you more to me.”

I ground my teeth harder. Another thing that always annoyed me about Vane—how I couldn’t seem to win one single argument with him.

Vane strode to the cafeteria exit. Holding the door open, he crooked his finger at me in command. “Shall we, DuLac?”