My Boyfriend Merlin (6 page)

CHAPTER 4
A NEW ROAD

My jaw dropped open. “What?”

Matt said bluntly, “I had hoped never to tell you.”

“You said every candidate needed to come forward.”

“There has never been a female candidate chosen before this ascension.”

I gaped at him. “I’m excused because I’m a
girl
? What kind of ass-backwards thinking is that?”

Matt gave me an affronted look. “We haven’t had an ascension since Arthur’s time. Things were a little different back then. I’m only trying to protect you—”

“I’m the only one—the only girl?”

Matt ground his teeth. “No, we have identified others.”

“Did you tell the others?”

“No. Not yet.”

My eyes narrowed. “Did you plan to tell the others?”

Matt’s cheeks turned a guilty red.

“Why not me?” I demanded.

“You’re just so… nice,” he muttered.

I sighed.
Sometimes I really hated being a blond. They all thought I could do nothing.

“Are these gargoyles are going to stop coming after me because I’m a girl? When were you going to tell me that I was putting everyone around me in danger?” I took a step toward him with murderous intent.

“You need time to absorb this.” He backed up all the way to the ledge and jumped off the balcony.

I couldn’t help it. I ran to where he’d jumped off half expecting him to be splattered on the ground. He’d landed nimbly on his feet. He looked up, saw me, and grinned.

My heart did a yo-yo.

I stuck out my hand and flipped him off.

***

The house sat silent in pitch dark. I lay awake. The bedroom doorknob turned. I sat up.

Matt burst into the room, stopped midstride, and gaped at me.

I only had on a skimpy nude camisole. And one side had slipped down to expose most of my cleavage. I snatched up the bedsheets.

Matt colored. “They are coming.”

I flew out of bed. Going to the window, I threw aside the curtain and heard… crickets. Nothing moved in the early morning light. The driveway stood completely empty.

“I don’t see anything.” I frowned.

Matt tapped his forehead. “I do. I just saw it.”

I touched the windowpane. The glass was a sheet of ice. I shivered and turned back to look at Matt. His gaze fell on me and lingered. I shivered again, but this time it had nothing to do with the cold. Matt adroitly turned away, only to meet my gaze through the reflection of a dresser mirror next to my bed.

Light glinted off the gold-brown strands of my hair. Bits of refracted green shone from the pendant necklace I wore.

“Your necklace is broken,” he commented.

I touched the chain around my neck. I moved closer to stand behind him and look into the mirror. The green emerald pendant had a deep crack going through it.

“The dragon must have broken during the fight,” I murmured, “ Guess it wasn’t real.”

“It compliments your eyes,” he said. “How did you get it?”

“Sylvia. She said it used to be my mother’s. They’d traded it long ago. But she said that I needed the charm now more than her.”

“Charm? I imagine so.” Matt let out a small cry and clutched his forehead. His eyes pinched shut. His face twisted in pain.

I put a hand on the broad expanse of his back. “Matt?!”

Instantly Matt’s face smoothed. He shook my hand off. His eyes opened and fixed on my skimpy top. He made a strangled sound. “Do you think you can put on some clothes?”

In the mirror, I saw my cheeks turn red. He looked big and hulking behind me. His eyes still dark with pain and… something else that I didn’t trust myself to identify. Next to him, I looked more waif than woman. But the intense way he stared at my reflection made me want less clothes, not more.

I hid a smile and went to my closet. The custom walk-in closet Sylvia had built for me—no small feat in a hundred year old manor. I eyed the shelves crammed with clothes. I admit I might have let Sylvia spoil me just a bit. Okay, maybe a lot.

I grabbed a pair of corduroys and a long-sleeved shirt. I pulled on the clothes and picked up some boots. As I came out of the closet, I asked, “What did you see?”

The relieved expression he’d gotten after seeing me dressed disappeared.

“W-what do you mean?”

I gave him a suspicious look. Had he been peeking? “You had a vision, didn’t you?”

“Oh, yes,” he said, with a quick grin. He leaned back on the dresser.

“And you saw?” I prompted.

His expression closed. “It’s better you don’t know. The things I see… aren’t always understandable.”

“Have you ever been wrong?”

“It’s possible, I suppose. But, no, I’ve never been wrong.”

I crossed to him. “That doesn’t sound bearable.”

He glanced at the window. “Sometimes it’s a relief when it finally does happen. Until then I alone have to live with it in my head.” His expression became bleak. “If the gargoyles get what they want, Ryan, if they get the Sword… what they can do to the world is unimaginable.”

I stilled. “Try me.”

“Worse than World War Three. Worse than a thousand Hiroshimas. It will be the end.”

I blinked. “Even if I believe you that the Sword is that powerful, why would they do that? Why would anyone?”

“They won’t mean to. But it will be their fate. If they get the Sword, they will have no one to guide them. No one—”

“Like you,” I said shrewdly. “Merlin complex much?”

“I admit I may sound a bit dramatic.” Matt smiled. As if he couldn’t help it, his hand reached out to brush across my hair. My breathing hitched.

Time seemed to stand still for a long moment as we stood in the warm confines of my bedroom. For a second, I could forget everything and he was just… Matt. The boy from school.

He pulled me closer. His hand tightened in my hair.

Sirens began blaring all over the house.

CHAPTER 5
ENEMY MINE

Matt and I ran out into the hall.

Grey burst out of his room in sweatpants. His hair stuck to one side of his face. “What’s going on?”

Marla came out of her room. “What
eez
happening?”

Sylvia marched down the hallway. “It’s the perimeter alarm—the magical one. We’ve got maybe ten minutes until they reach the house.”

Matt’s phone beeped. He pulled it out. “It’s a text from the other candidates. They are coming down the lane. But the gargoyles are not far behind by what I have seen in my vision. We’re going to need decoys.” He looked at Sylvia. “We’re going to need your cars.”

Sylvia nodded. “This way.”

***

Marla flipped on the lights as we entered the long garage. In the three-car space, there stood a silver Mercedes, Sylvia’s car, and a nondescript SUV, the family’s spare car. Sylvia crossed to the closed fourth garage and pushed a button on a separating column in between. A steel partition opened. Instead of Marla’s small import, a big black Land Rover waited silently.

Sylvia turned to me. “I was saving it for Christmas.”

“I don’t know what to say.” In a few strides, I crossed to her and hugged the taller woman close. “Thank you.”

“At least I got a chance to show it to you,” Sylvia sniffed into my hair. “A-Alexa wanted to be the one to give you the keys.”

Grey slipped the keys from Sylvia’s fingers and tossed it in a wide arc to Matt. “You can take it and the SUV. We’ll go in the Mercedes.”

A brief wind dropped the keys into Matt’s hands.

“Cheater,” Grey muttered under his breath.

“Ryan is coming with me,” said Matt. “She’s also a candidate.”

Grey balked. “What?”

“What?” Sylvia echoed.

Matt opened the garage doors. Outside stood a line of six black SUVs. In front of the cars, a group of about twenty or so men had gathered.  Half of them looked to be boys ranging between sixteen to twenty years old. The other half of the group was older.

“The other candidates,” Matt waved at them. “And their wizard guardians.”

Matt turned to a craggy-faced older man. “Where are the other three cars?”

“The ones from the South were… found,” he said grimly. “No doubt it’ll be a blip in a local news report. They have gotten clever at hiding their tracks.”

Thinking of the shadow-dragon’s destruction, I muttered, “Sometimes.”

“I am Oliver.” A cute boy wearing a wristband stepped forward with an easy smile. “And this is my guardian, Clarence.”

The older craggy-faced man nodded at us. “I’m afraid we may have been followed.”

“I know. I had a vision,” Matt replied grimly. “We don’t have much time. Split the candidates up between the two jeeps in the garage and the first three of our cars. I want two guardians in each. The remaining guardians will take our other jeeps and try to lead the gargoyles away. Save space for me in the Land Rover.” He glanced at me and Grey. “As well as two others.”

Grey opened his mouth to protest.

“Paul’s father asked that you call him after we reached here,” another guardian said.

“All of the parents have asked for you specifically,” Clarence interjected.

Matt nodded. “Of course. I’ll call them from the road—”

“The animals tell me there is a disturbance in the woods,” one of the guardians shouted.

Suddenly, everything seemed to happen at once.

“Get everyone in the cars,” Matt shouted.

The guardians scrambled, pushing the candidates. One guardian with tears in his eyes gave his candidate a quick hearty pat on the back before shuffling him into a car.

“I see four big Hummers at the top of the lane,” a boy shouted.

Upon the heels of his warning, a bomb seemed to explode upstairs in the manor. The manor shook down to its foundations. Boxes and sports equipment from the racks on the garage ceiling came crashing down. A box almost hit Marla on the head. A large crack tore through the garage ceiling, snapping the steel track of the bigger garage door as easily as a ribbon. The door started to plunge down. Matt stuck his hand up. The garage door magically stopped mid-fall.

Grey pulled me away from Matt. “You don't have to go, Ryan. This isn't our fight. No matter what Emrys says.”

The whole garage shook again as another explosion sounded outside. The acrid smell of smoke indicated who knew what kind of havoc inside the manor. Our home.

“I have to get upstairs,” Sylvia cried.

“No,” Matt commanded. “You don’t have time to get anything. We have to go now.”

I looked at him. He stood in the middle of the chaos, yelling directions at the guardians while holding up the garage ceiling. Yet despite it all he never flinched. His expression seemed almost cold. As if managing every task at once left no room for emotion. Then, sensing my gaze, Matt turned his head to look straight at me. Heat swirled in the far-away depths of his eyes.

I sucked in a breath. I forced myself to turn away.

“Grey, if this is anyone’s fight, it’s mine,” I said. “I don’t care about the Sword. I care about Alexa. If they killed her to stop us from doing this, then this is exactly what I’m going to do. I’m not going to run and hide. I’m not going to let them win.”

Grey blanched. “You’re right. I’m being gutless. I’m coming with you too.”

“No,” I said vehemently, “That’s not what I meant. You’re not going because of me—”

He gave me a crooked smile. “What better reason could I have? We’re family, Ry.”

Sylvia came up to us.

Grey looked at her.

She knew before said we could say a word. Tears sprang in her eyes as she pulled us into a tight farewell embrace.

“Take care of your brother, Ryan,” she whispered in my ear.

***

Matt and the other cars pulled out of the driveway just as the four Hummers reached. More fireballs whizzed by them. There seemed to be shields on the candidates’ SUV since the fireballs bounced off them. Some of the guardians shot fireballs back.

Stray fireballs bombarded the manor. It burned as we sped around to the back of the house. It might have resembled a scene out of a bad movie, except that my heart felt broken. We drove straight into a thicket of trees. At Matt’s command, they parted to reveal a hidden lane.

“The Ragnars have been prepared,” Matt said.

The group of cars thundered into the thicket. I sat in the passenger seat of the Land Rover. I looked behind to see the Hummers following as we raced along the lane. A few minutes later, we emerged onto a two-lane road that ran behind the manor. Matt stopped the car.

He turned around in his seat and stuck his hand out of the window. “
Pidadhatte
.”

Blue light shot out of his hand. The entire forest seemed to rise up. Trees and vines closed around the hidden lane, swallowing the four Hummers. Oliver, who’d ridden along with us, whooped in the backseat.

“The spell wouldn't have worked if the path had been built differently,” Matt said to me. “Your mother does have flair.” He pulled out his cellphone and started punching. The cellphone refused to connect.

“I hate these things,” he muttered. He tried again. This time it connected. “Take the long way out of town. The gargoyles will send more. We want them to see you. And I want one of you to lead the Mercedes to safe ground. Good luck.”