Page 43 of Queen Takes Camelot: Gwen
His sins had only worsened over the years. No obscenity was forbidden to him. No act of cruelty beneath him.
I made myself stand there and listen while the man who’d tortured my house for generations was devoured by shadow.
The sky brightened, the sun creeping above the horizon before Merlin stood before me a man again. The glittering black form was replaced by the lavender-haired man in perfect elven robes. Though a speck of blood dotted the corner of his mouth.
I rubbed the spot away with my thumb. “Thank you, my Blood.”
He bowed low, though he kept his gaze locked to mine. “Thank you, my queen. I’ve been dreaming of that for almost two thousand years.”
Bors slapped him on the shoulder. “Was he at least tasty?”
Merlin grunted. “Fuck, no. He tasted like shit-covered refuse left to rot in the desert a thousand years. May he rot in the pits of Dante’s inferno for all eternity.”
Laughing, Lance swept me up into his arms. “Amen. Let’s go home.”
Bors groaned. “Do we have to go through the well again?”
“I am surrounded by incompetent idiots,” Merlin growled. “Of course not. We can simply pass through the tower, if you’re not too exhausted to climb the tor.”
“The ring!” I gasped over Lance’s shoulder as he strode out of the garden.
Merlin held up the black signet ring, waving it back and forth. “I’ve got the foul thing. I can’t wait to see it melted into something more useful. Maybe an obsidian urinal in honor of our king. What manner of castle do you command now, my queen?”
“Only a hundred-story tower in the largest and grandest city of America.” Lance lifted his hand above his head, and Excalibur floated to him eagerly, like a hound who’d finally found his master. He kissed the hilt and then laid the famous sword on top of me. “As foretold, the Once and Future Queen has truly returned in our time of greatest need.”
Bors and Mordred cheered in unison. “Long live the Queen of Camelot!”
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