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“But I still don’t think you should murder everybody.”
“It was nice while it lasted.” He lay down with a grunt. “If you have come to entreat me to act with kindness and forgiveness”—the spite in those words was almost comically thick—“then you are wasting your time. Begone.”
“Mordred will be coming for you.”
“Speaking of, I thought he would send you away. Why are you still here? And why do you look like a fire elemental?” He tilted his head to the side slightly. “What have you been scheming at, girl?”
She really hated being called a girl. But there were a lot worse things that Grinn had called her, so she guessed she’d put up with it. “He tried. Galahad told the boat to send me home. It turned around and dropped me back in Avalon.”
Grinn snorted. “Then my suspicions are true—the island itself is an idiot.” He lowered his head onto his paws, shutting his one good eye. “And the rest?”
“I…uh…I don’t know. I asked the island for help, and now I think I’m a wizard? Or a witch. Whatever. I still have weird elemental powers, but I don’t really understand them.”
She expected a lot of things. But hysterical laughter wasn’t on the list. Grinn rolled onto his side, he was laughing so hard that he wheezed at the end as he struggled to breathe.
“It isn’t funny!” She put her hands on her hips.
“Oh, trust me—it very much is.” He kept having to stop talking to laugh before he finally managed to calm down his snickering. “You’re a new witch of Avalon? By the pits, this place truly is doomed. I should burn it all down as a matter of mercy.”
“Look, asshole—” She shook a finger at him. “I’m doing my fucking best.”
“I know, and that is part of the reason this is so terribly funny.”
Sighing, she slumped against the wall, crossing her arms over her chest again. “Whatever.”
“Mordred doesn’t know.”
It wasn’t a question; it was a statement. She shook her head. “How’d you guess?”
“If he did, I suspect you would be trapped in the Crystal or enslaved to him with one of those charms he uses to control his knights. You are too powerful now to be allowed to run amok.” He huffed, another curl of black smoke rising from his nostrils. “He will only ever allow one soul to reign supreme around here—himself.”
“You’re wrong. He wouldn’t do that.” Glaring down at the rocks, she would like to think that was true, but no, she wasn’t totally certain. Mordred might try to embed a crystal in her to control her—a safety kill switch. Especially if he was the one holding the key to the button.
She was also just mad that Grinn saw it all so plainly. Shit.
“Mm-hm.” Grinn put his head back down on his paws. “We could join forces. Torch this place ourselves.”
“No.”
“Had to try.” He shut his one good eye. “Now, go away, witch.” He snickered at the word.
She sighed. “What are you doing in here, anyway?”
“Like I would tell you.”
“I want to stop this war, Grinn. I don’t want you and Mordred killing each other.”
“Our rivalry and our path to mutual destruction started long before you were here. Do not be so egotistical as to think you’re important enough to intervene.” His tail thumped against the stone. “Human hubris knows no bounds.”
“I’m trying to help you, you piece of shit.” She rubbed her hands over her face. “Why can’t you see that?”
“Because you have no reason to help me.”
“Except the fact that I—” She sighed. “Never mind. You know what? Never mind. I’m going to stop this war, whether you like it or not.”
“There are only two ways to stop me from destroying Avalon, Gwendolyn. Either kill me or imprison me in the Crystal. And the latter is a fate worse than death. I found a way to escape once—I will do it again.” He grimaced, baring his one good fang.
Yeah. She knew all that. And that was the problem. “And there’s no way to convince you otherwise?”
