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“And I love you, Gwendolyn Wright. No matter where you may be.”
Mordred thought she was on Earth. He had no clue that she was still on Avalon. She was worried her appearance, and her dragon wings, might have given it away. But he seemed to write it off as just a figment of the dream.
Gwen was, once more, withholding information from him. She couldn’t tell him the truth, no matter how much she wanted to.
I’m still on Avalon, and now I’m a…something. Apparently, I’m supposed to protect the island from everyone, and I have no idea how. Remember how you’re the only one who can control iron, and all the other elementals hate you for it? Yeah, about that. I can do it too! Surprise! Yeah, that’d go over like a lead balloon.
What would he do when he found out? It was only a matter of time. She couldn’t hide from him forever. But she wasn’t ready yet. She needed to figure out how to control her power. If she didn’t, it might have disastrous consequences. Watch—it’d just be my luck that every time I sneezed, I’d blow up a tree or something.
No, she needed some kind of mastery over herself before she told Mordred the truth. While she was pretty certain he wasn’t going to kill her because she had become a new threat to the island—she honestly didn’t know what he would do. Try to cast some sort of magic on her, to keep her under control, like he had his knights?
Maybe he’d just let her be free. Maybe he’d trust her to not turn on him.
Yeah. Right. Because I have such a great record for telling him the truth.
The most likely outcome was that he would use her power to kill Grinn, whether she liked it or not. Because she wouldn’t blame him if he did. But she was just repeating the same pattern with him, again and again. And it felt so very wrong.
I’ll tell him in a few days. Once I get my feet under me. Once I figure out what’s going on. He can’t be that mad if it’s only a few days. He’ll understand. Right?
That might give her enough time to find Grinn and convince him to declare peace. She wasn’t an idiot—she knew it probably wouldn’t work. But she needed to try.
It was her job now. To protect the island and everyone on it.
Even if it meant trying to protect them from themselves.
She kissed Mordred one last time as she felt the dream begin to fade.
She didn’t know how she’d pull it off. But she’d fix this. Somehow. Someway.
She had to.
EIGHT
Gwen spent the better part of the morning walking before they finally came to the edges of a decently sized town. Chewing her lip, she thought about what her plan was going to be. She knew from experience that the non-elemental, somewhat-magical villagers in Avalon did not take kindly to elementals. Not like she blamed them. They really did just rampage around like they owned the place.
So, marching into the middle of town with dragon wings was going to be a great recipe for getting shot. Again. She focused on them, and it took some effort—but she managed to get them to shimmer out of existence, leaving her only with her fire-colored hair. That involved a little more work than the wings, but she at least got it to be a consistent shade of red.
“Good enough for government work.” She smiled, just a little proud of herself.
All right—she looked vaguely not-elemental-y. Now what? She didn’t have any money or supplies. She only had the clothes on her back and a dog that was currently intent on sniffing the grass and shrubs for rabbits.
Maybe she should start at the tavern, though she really hoped this one had better food than the last place. The tavern was always a good place for information and stuff, right? She could offer to wait tables or something for food and a spot to sleep in the back. She just needed a day or two to get her feet under her and figure out what she should do about Grinn and Mordred.
Seemed like a good enough plan.
Now, she just had to focus on not getting shot. She really hated getting shot.
“C’mon, doggo.” She patted her thigh as she headed into the town. Eod jogged to catch up before walking alongside her happily.
Oh, to be a dog without a care in the world. Well, except food. And finding critters to murder.
She got a few odd looks from folks as she made her way through the town. She knew it wasn’t because she looked weird—hell, half the people glancing at her had horns or tails. No, she was probably getting looks because she was a stranger, and it was a small place. But nobody screamed, “Guards” or “Quick, kill her!” so she’d call it a win.
It wasn’t long before she found the tavern. She assumed it was a tavern, anyway—but she had a pretty good clue. Hanging from a post over the door, from weathered and fraying ropes, was a wooden carved sign that looked like it had seen better days. The paint that had been slapped into the grooves showed a mug of beer and a turkey leg, but no writing. She supposed that made sense, if most of the people in the town couldn’t read.
Letting out a breath, she braced herself. Glancing down at Eod, she patted him. “Be good, okay? You have one rule—don’t embarrass me.”
Those big, almost human eyes looked up at her curiously as he cocked his head to the side. “What im-bare-ass?”
