My Boyfriend Merlin (17 page)

Vane just gave me a steady look. “What makes you think sword training will make any difference?”

My jaw jutted out. “If it doesn’t make a difference then why can’t I learn it?”

Vane extended his hand. The staff flew straight at me like a javelin. The tip rammed hard into my shoulder before I caught it. Tears stung my eyes as I huffed to catch my breath.

“You may learn it after you master the staff,” Vane said.

“It’s not like those doing sword training have mastered the staff either,” I jabbed my finger at his candidates. “
They’ve
never even handled a staff.”

Vane’s eyes narrowed. “Are you questioning my methods?”

Internally, I grimaced. Maybe it hadn’t been such a good idea to confront him in front of everyone. Maybe I should have waited until after class. But now that I had, I couldn’t back down. I maintained, “I can handle a sword.”

Vane towered over me. “My training. My rules.”

I stuck my chin out. “You’re afraid that I’m right.”

Vane flicked his hand at the weapons rack. A sword flew out at me. For a second I thought he was going to let it skewer me. I ducked. Vane halted the blade right in front of me.

He said mildly, “Alright, then?”

I wasn’t, but I wasn’t about to admit it either. I straightened. “I’m fine.”

He crooked a finger at Gia to come forward.

“Let’s see if you’re as advanced as you think you are,” Vane said.

I inclined my head at the others who were still on the staff. “If I win, I want
everyone
to be trained.”

Vane raised a brow. “You’re pushing your luck.”

“If I can do it, so can they. They’re candidates too. We should all have the chance to find out.” I looked at Blake and Paul. “Do you agree?”

Blake nodded. So did Paul. One by one, everyone dropped their staff.

I faced off with Vane. “Well?”

For a second I thought I saw a smile cross his face, but it was with a sober expression that he clapped. “Well done. I’ve been waiting for someone to show some initiative.” He nodded at the Regulars. “If she can prove herself, all of you will be trained.” He turned back to me with a sadistic gleam in his eye. “All you had to do was ask.”

My stomach churned as I grabbed the sword floating in front of me—and almost dropped it. I hadn’t realized how heavy steel could be. Vane smirked at me. Ignoring him, I heaved the sword up into the beginning form position I’d seen him demonstrate in class. I faced off with Gia. “No magic.”

Vane shrugged. “No promises.”

Gia advanced first. I parried her. We went back and forth. I could tell she was holding back. She let me think through the steps. After a few minutes, Vane made a noise of disgust.

“Enough,” he said. A strong wind shoved at me. I looked up to see him separating his hands. He pushed us apart. He glared at Gia. “If I’d wanted to watch a training exercise I would have told you.” He beckoned Mark the Brute forward. “I want a real duel. She thinks she can handle it. Let’s give her the chance.”

Mark took Gia’s place. Gia gave me a silent look that said ‘Good Luck.’ The more time Grey spent with her the nicer she got towards me.  As Mark’s hawk-like focus settled on me, I had a feeling I would need all the luck I would get. Mark didn’t hesitate to come at me in a fury. Very aware of the sharpness of the blade, I barely deflected the first few blows. One nearly cut off my nose. Another swing. In slow motion, I saw the arc of the blade reflect off the light from the windows.

I stopped thinking. My heartbeat seemed to slow and a hum started in my ears. I swung up the heavy sword in my hand. My biceps screamed at the effort but I managed to stop the blow. Our swords met with a clang. I kept his sword above me.

His eyes widened in surprise. Time caught up. My hands shook.

Mark smiled. Our next few sequences sped by in a blur of speed. Every time he moved, I countered. I don’t know how long we went back and forth. But then, he started throwing moves I had no idea how to respond to. He almost took my head off.

Finally, Vane said, “Stop.”

A strong wind knocked the sword out of Mark’s hand. It threw me backwards. It pinned Mark across the room. I slammed down on the gel mat. I heaved, struggling to breath. When oxygen returned to my brain, I could feel every eye in the entire room on me.

I made myself stand up. “I’d do better with training.”

Vane tossed the sword back at me. I jumped out of its way. The edge barely missed me as the sword fell flat onto the mat.

“Clearly,” he sneered, “you’re ready.”

***

“
All you had to do is ask
,” I mimicked. “What bullshit.”

I followed Vane out of the classroom. I’d already apologized to the Regulars for getting their hopes up and failing. They’d actually been surprisingly sweet about it. Most had been awed that I’d even tried to stand up to Vane the Terrible.

Vane came to an abrupt halt. Instead of going to his office, we were headed down the narrow confine of a turret-style circular stairwell that led out of the cathedral. We faced off midway down the stairs on a small landing. Although we were the last ones out of class, a few students milled around on the bottom steps.

With a flick of his hand, he slammed me high up against the circular wall. I gurgled as what felt like compressed air threatened to choke me. Someone below us gasped. I was pretty sure he wasn’t going to kill me with witnesses present.
Still
…

A bland expression on his face, Vane tilted his face up and regarded me with dispassionate eyes. “Let’s be clear on one thing—I am not your friend, DuLac.”

 “Good to know,” I rasped.

“Leave,” Vane commanded the students lingering below. They scattered.

Great.
We were alone. I closed my eyes and felt Guinevere’s amulet warm. It broke Vane’s hold and I fell…right on top of him.

He caught me easily. I must have surprised him. I was pretty sure if he’d been expecting the fall, he would have let me drop to the floor.

“You’re heavier than you look,” he grunted.

I dug my fingernails into his biceps. Unfortunately the muscles were too hard to make much of an indention. “Matt and I weren’t kissing.”

 “By the way your eyes are always eating me up, you can hardly expect the rest of us to believe in your restraint.”

“I do not eat you up!” My whole face heated. Okay, that did not come out right. “I mean,” I mumbled, “You know what I mean.”

Vane set me down with a leer. “The lady protests greatly.”

I glared at him. “Why are you such a barbarian?”

“
Sir
Barbarian,” he corrected.

I wrinkled my brow. “Is that a joke? Did Vane make a funny?”

“
Sir
Vane,” he corrected again.

“That explains why Camelot fell,” I muttered.

Vane sighed. “What do you want, DuLac?”

I looked at him curiously. First he’d tried to choke me. Now he was trying to play with me. I was starting to form a hypothesis that guys from the medieval time period suffered from bipolar disorder. “There is no need to tell the Council about Matt and me. You were right. Matt thinks I’m interfering with his visions. He doesn’t w-want—” I broke off as the last word wobbled.

Vane gave me a look of disgust mixed with pity. “You’re not going to cry, are you?”

“N-No,” I stammered.

“Good.” He turned to walk away.

I hurried to grab his arm. “You won’t say anything?”

Vane looked down at my unpainted nails, then, followed along the length of my arm, up past the curve of the neck to my face. He said conversationally, “I could break you easily.”

I tried to yank my hand away. He grabbed it before I could.

“But oddly enough, I don’t seem to want to,” he whispered. His fingers tightened on my hand until I winced. His hold eased but he didn’t release me. He said in a louder voice, “My brother gave you the amulet he made for Guinevere. He must think you’re special. You could be.  Just be careful you don’t end up the same way as her.”

“And which way is that?” I asked.

He let go of my hand. “Burned at the stake.”

***

The kiss consumed me, heating my body from inside out. I hung on for life and allowed my mouth to be devoured. The acrid smell of fire broke through the fog of pleasure dulling my mind. I pulled away. I lay in a field under the protective branches of a tree. Stars twinkled in the dark night. They shone down on the one I still had my legs wrapped around—Morgan. His face twisted. Fangs shot out of his mouth. His forehead enlarged to become swollen and hard.

“Time to have some real fun, babe,” he said.

Fire blazed on the eaves of the tree above me.

I screamed. I grabbed a rock and hit him in the face. He snarled in pain. I wrestled out of his grip. I started running. But all of a sudden, a thick fog of smoke filled the field. I stopped.

From out of nowhere, Morgan jumped in front of me. His beautiful face twisted into a snarl. I cried as he grabbed me by the neck. I fell to the ground.

He squeezed my throat.

I couldn’t breathe. I was going to die.

“Wake up, Ryan,” Matt’s voice commanded from somewhere far away.

I jerked up in bed. My eyes stung with acid-like tears. My neck throbbed in pain. I coughed as smoke clogged my lungs. Flames engulfed our room. Fire alarms rang in ear-piercing screeches.

I stumbled out of bed.

“Gia,” I cried out and wished I hadn’t. Choking on smoke fumes, I ran to her bed. She lay deathly still. I grabbed her wrist. To my relief, her heartbeat felt normal. I scrambled to get her iPad out of her school bag to call for help. She stowed it under the bed. I didn’t have to open the bag. The contents lay scattered under her bed. My lips thinned when I saw the iPad. Someone had smashed it. I had no doubt mine was in the same condition.

I looked at the door. A wall of snapping fire blocked the way.

The window. I hooked my arms under Gia’s shoulders and dragged her to the lone window at the center of the outer wall. I dropped her briefly and touched the wall. The exterior stonewalls remained cold, but most of the interior burned as if it were made of tinderbox wood. I pushed the window shutters open. Iron bars covered the lower portion the window. The fire alarms should have disabled them, but Gia had told me that the bars also had a layer of magic on them. I had to neutralize it somehow.

I reached around my neck for my amulet and touched the iron bars.
Please
, I told it,
I need you
. An image of Matt flew in my mind.
“Kavas,”
a voice said in my head.

Heat filled the ruby gemstone. The iron bars swung outward.

With a cry of relief, I hung Gia half out the window and peered out… to the ground five stories below. Getting a room on the top level had seemed like a good thing. The entire residence hall had already evacuated to the courtyard in front of the building. Our room was on the side so I could only see them by craning my neck and looking to the right. Despite the alarms and burning inferno, I could hear various teachers taking roll count.

“Help,” I yelled. No one heard me.

Floating balls of water exploded around us like grenades. I saw a white robed wizard at the front directing fire hoses. I waved to him, but he was busy spouting instructions to the other wizards and he didn’t notice.

I eyed the curtains around the window, but they weren’t long enough. We could make possibly two floors, but I wouldn’t be able to jump the rest. Not with Gia unconscious.

Leaning out of the window again, I spotted a narrow ledge that ran around the building. It was just wide enough for one person to inch along if I balanced just right. The ledge ran across several other rooms. Fire occasionally burst out through the iron bars like octopus arms. Once fire engulfed the whole floor, the ledge wouldn’t even be an option. It was my best chance… if I was willing to leave Gia behind. Except I wasn’t.

Flames licked my heels. I took the curtains from the window and used a technique I learned babysitting some of the neighborhood children back when my life had been normal. I wrapped the cloth around me and then used the ends of the cloth to tie Gia to my side. I must have resembled a lopsided kangaroo. I cinched the curtain tight around my waist.  I don’t know how I found the strength, but with one hand on Gia and one hand against the wall, I edged out onto the ledge.

I’d only made it a few feet when it started raining.

I had a feeling the wizard firefighters had a hand in the sudden downpour. Inch by inch, I made it to the first window. Even a small spark of fire would set my highly combustible outfit aflame as soon as I tried to cross. I glanced at the corner of the building—only three more windows to go after this.

I took a breath and took another step.

I landed awkwardly and slid on the wet ledge. Gia and I fell. My side hit a rainspout that one floor down and I screamed. My rib cracked as it slammed against the stone. Luckily for me part of the curtain wrapped around me also caught on the long snout of the beast-shaped spout. I grabbed at the stone edifice to hang on. My jostling caused the curtain started to unravel. I let go of the rainspout with one hand and caught the loose cloth. Gia hung in the curtain sack like a baby.

I don’t know how long I hung, holding the double weight of Gia and myself with one hand. I just knew I couldn’t let go. It seemed like hours passed. The adrenaline thumping inside me started to ebb. My arm numb and stiff, I felt my grip slip. Ash and rain clogged my nose. The night had become pitch dark. I blinked, trying to stay conscious.

“There they are,” a voice called from below.

“Ryan, let go,” someone else said.

I couldn’t have resisted if I’d wanted to. My grip broke. Gia and I plunged down. Compressed air caught us before we hit the ground. We hung a few feet in the air while someone lowered us slowly to the grass. I lay on my back looking up into the starless night sky. Rain spit down on my face.

Vane peered down over me. “Enough lying down, DuLac, Get up.”