Page 34 of Queen Takes Camelot: Gwen
A circle of crows, perfectly drawn by the goddess Herself in charcoal.
Hissing out a plume of noxious smoke, the dragon chuckled. “Do you actually think this will stop me from cracking you open and feasting on your heart? I gained new power from Tiamat. I don’t need to cross these filthy beasts to go anywhere.”
I texted Kevin.I’m going to try and get him to take me away from here so Gwen can exit safely.
Then I opened a new message for my queen.I love you. Always. Be free.
On a whim, I called Kevin and left the line open as I laid the phone down on the ground and stepped outside. Maybe he would overhear something that would help Gwen stay alive. “I’m here. Do what you wish with me but leave my queen alone. Let her end this with Elaine once and for all.”
“This will never be finished.” The dragon’s words were garbled with hisses, but I could understand him. “Not until she’s mine.”
“She’ll never—”
He lunged forward, knocking me down with one giant wing so he could pin me by my throat beneath foot-long talons. “She. Is. Mine!”
“Not this time!” I panted with pain, trying not to shred myself open even more. Blood spilled from my mouth with each breath. I knew very well how to anger the beast. The one thing Arthur couldn’t abide. “Lancelot du Lac will keep her safe!”
Belching dragon fire into the night, he tightened his talons, nearly beheading me. But he took the bait. “If she wants you back alive, then she can come to Glastonbury Tor. One Blood’s life for another. I think that’s fair, don’t you?”
I refused to answer, even if I could have managed to choke out a word through the blood. She would never give Lance to Elaine. Not for me. Not for Bors. Not for anyone.
If she stayed alive and free, then nothing else mattered.
The dragon lowered his head, peering into my face with suspicion. “You die, Mordred. Yet you smile. Don’t you realize that I’ve won? It’s impossible for her to escape me this time. Since I fertilized the Mother Dragon’s eggs for Her, I can travel through space and time in a blink of an eye. I can see Guinevere wherever she is on this earth. As soon as she returns, I’ll know. I’ll return. As foretold by Merlin himself, I am the Once and Future King. Even he can’t stop me from making Guinevere my queen once more!”
“Pompous. Windbag.” I gasped weakly, trying to draw him down closer. “Sir Thomas Malory made that shit up.”
“Lies,” the dragon snarled.
Closing my eyes, I shifted to my golden eagle as quickly as possible. I focused all my strength. All my love. Even though I knew how this would end. I knew it was impossible. I still had to try.
I whipped my talons up to the dragon’s chest and dug in. Hard. Shredding. Tearing. I would find his shriveled heart and rip it out. If he had one.
I must have passed out. The world blurred. Darkness filled my vision but returned in waves. A heavy weight pressed against my chest, making it impossible for me to breathe.
A woman squatted beside me. Shaking her head, she tsked. “You’ve made so much work for me, Mordred. You’re almost beyond my ability to heal. And what have you done to our king?”
Elaine Shalott had always possessed the kind of beauty that inspired men to dedicate poems to her, but she had the look of someone too sickly to ever go outdoors. Her skin was ghostly pale, stark against her raven-black hair pulled into a fierce bun. Black clothes washed her skin out even more, giving her a ghastly appearance. Even in the twenty-first century, she wore her grief like a Victorian widow.
Mourning the loss of a man who would never love her.
I laughed, spluttering on my own blood. “Still half sick of shadows, I see.”
She lifted her right hand, each finger flashing in the moonlight like knives. Then she shoved those blades through my torn throat, and I knew no more.
15
Gwen
My great wizard was a demon, or rather, dark fae. Guinevere had been the one to imprison him all this time. She was part fae. So that meantIwas part fae, though certainly diluted after so many generations. I wasn’t even sure what that meant yet or what that changed, if anything at all.
I wasn’t sure how long Merlin fed, but my knees trembled. Lance slipped his arm around my waist, supporting me. Bors stepped closer, offering his throat. And yes, I wanted to taste him and Lance again, but they weren’t the ones I needed to feed on now.
Merlin lifted his head. A thick tar-like substance oozed and dripped from his angular body. Even the smallest of movements was sharp and jerky, as if his joints were in the wrong place. Or he was made of glass that wouldn’t bend. His eyes glittered like obsidian saucers and his mouth was a mess of glass-like teeth. He didn’t bite me, but I could only imagine how sharp those teeth were. How much it would hurt.
“Forgive me, my queen.” He didn’t have human expressions any longer, and his voice carried a sharpness that cut through my head, making me wince. “I can’t shift back yet. This form hasn’t revealed itself since I stepped through the veil, and it hungers.”
With my blood burning in his stomach, I could sense his emotions. Shame tasted foul and rotten on his tongue. He took great pride in his elegant appearance as Merlin, so revealing this demonic side embarrassed him. Worse, I needed to feed so I could solidify our new bond, but he hated exposing me to his dark form. Even Guinevere had struggled to embrace him like this.
