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“To see me suffer.” Mordred turned from the table. He had work to do. “Galahad, with me. We must speak.”
“Yes, my prince.” Ever the loyal servant, Galahad followed.
Loyal, for now.
Until he was free.
Without his strongest knight, and if he were left vulnerable from the spell he cast for Zoe, Mordred would make a tempting piece of bait, indeed. Grinn’s hatred consumed him—and his desire to twist the knife in Mordred’s side was his only weakness.
But the danger would be real.
Mordred would be left exposed.
Someone would seek to capitalize on the moment, he was certain. Too many of his so-called allies would see the chance to end him and seize it. Would it be Galahad who ended him? Or Percival? Or perhaps the doe-eyed Tristan would surprise him in the end.
It might be the Gossamer Lady herself.
Or any other number of elementals who loathed him.
Mordred would see Grinn wiped from the face of Avalon.
But he suspected he would be shortly at the demon’s heels into the great beyond.
Mordred hated when he was right.
And he was suspicious it was about to happen again.
SEVEN
Gwen glanced up at the sky as she followed Eod through the woods. It was starting to get dark. “Hey buddy, we should probably make camp. How far is the town?”
“Food still far.” Eod sniffed the air and wagged his tail half-heartedly in agreement.
It was bizarre to “hear” the dog in her head. It was like a thought that wasn’t her own. He didn’t even really have a voice per se. The thoughts were just there. But it was oddly comforting all the same. “There’s a river that way,” she said as she pointed through the glade to the left. “I can catch some fish.”
“Food!” Eod wagged faster. “Food food food”—he kept repeating the thought as he ran toward the river. Damn it all if his excitement wasn’t just a little contagious. Honestly, it was probably the only thing keeping her from having another panic attack.
Or maybe it was her new magic.
One or the other. Or both.
But either way, she was smiling to herself as she followed the dog to the river. Seeing as she didn’t have a tent, or a bedroll, or any supplies at all, she searched for a comfortably grassy spot, somewhere sleeping on the ground wouldn’t totally suck.
But at least she was alive. And she had her dog. Well—Eod wasn’t literally her dog, technically he was Mordred’s. But for all intents and purposes? Eod was hers now. She looked down into the river and let out a breath.
The last time she had gone fishing for dinner was with Grinn. It felt like such a long time ago, but it couldn’t have been more than a few weeks at most. Eod was happily gathering sticks, piling them up in the center of the clearing. It took her a second to realize why—a campfire.
“You’re such a good boy.” She smiled at him.
“Food! Food food food?—”
Right. He was being a good boy. But he also wanted dinner. That tracked. Chuckling, she stripped off her clothes to wade into the river. She didn’t want to burn them off accidentally or get soaked. She’d already wandered into a village butt-ass naked once in her life. She didn’t need to do that again.
Once she was up to her waist, she put her hands just below the surface and focused on summoning her fire. Sure enough, the water began to heat up around her. Steam slowly curled from the surface until, just like before, the poor fish caught in the really-had-no-business-nearly-boiling river bobbed up to the top.
She felt kind of bad for them, but…To quote Eod, food.
She chucked the dead fish to the side of the river as they bobbed up in front of her. It was a relief to have her fire back—it was funny, how she had hated it at first, but how terrible it had felt to have it taken away from her.
