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And she listened to his breathing as it slowed.
And then it stopped.
Gwen let out a broken sound and wept as his body turned to ash and disappeared.
EIGHTEEN
Gwen was still wiping her eyes when she found Mordred and the others. It wasn’t hard. All she had to do was follow the sound of the shouting.
She was so very much over everybody’s bullshit. She needed a drink and a nap. And to not have to listen to people screaming at each other for a hot fucking second.
But something told her she wasn’t going to get any of those things. Not quite yet, at any rate.
Walking into the clearing, she found Mordred and Lady Thorn were the current ones in a shouting match.
“You are going back on our deal? Coward—spineless coward!” Thorn spat on the ground. “You are no better than the demon.”
Mordred huffed a laugh, pulling his helm from his head. His hair was matted with sweat and blood. He had taken a beating during the fight. “I see. I am the traitorous one? You hardly held up your end of the bargain.”
“I led you to the demon, did I not?” Thorn folded her arms over her chest.
“That was hardly the extent of our arrangement. You were meant to stand with me in the fight against him.” He smirked. “Not stand there and gawk, waiting to see who would win.”
“I kept him from fleeing, did I not?” Thorn sneered. “I thought perhaps you did not need my help in felling him yourself.”
“A cursory attempt and an invalid excuse. Galahad could have done the same. No. The fact remains, Thorn, that you did not hold up your agreement.” Mordred vanished his helm and, cringing, wiped a section of drying blood from the back of his neck.
Thorn grimaced. “Then this means war. We will no longer suffer the threat of you.”
“Hm.” Mordred looked to Zoe, who was floating by the edge of the clearing, clinging to Galahad’s arm. “What do you think, Gossamer Lady? Will you join the army to fight me, even if I vow peace and return to my keep with my Crystal and leave you all be?”
Zoe frowned, a crease in her brow forming as she considered it. “The fighting between the elementals will begin again in time. You will simply find yourself where you started, so long ago.”
“The fighting will resume whether or not I am imprisoned. I find I have lost my taste for coddling children. I wish to go home. I wish to be left alone.” He turned his gaze to Gwen, and she could hear the silent statement in that one look. Alone with her.
Her cheeks went warm, despite her continuing anger and annoyance with him at the moment. “Can’t we just all fucking get along? Seriously? Don’t you all see the—the cost of these things? How everyone suffers?” She rubbed a hand over her face, trying to bite back the tears that kept threatening to break free. “I’m sick of all this bullshit, and I’m the new kid in town.”
“Hear, hear.” Doc raised a bottle of alcohol from where he was sitting on a rock by the edge of the clearing.
Eod jogged up to her, tail wagging, but ears down. He was worried, clearly seeing how upset she was.
Smiling, she knelt and let the dog lick her cheeks, as he tried to cheer her up. It worked. “Good boy,” she murmured to him. “I’m okay. Well, I’ll be okay.”
“He imprisoned us for three centuries, and you expect us to let this go without repercussions?” Thorn snarled. “He speaks of justice and honor, and yet this is how he behaves!” She pointed at Mordred. “You are not the king in the mountain—you are nothing but a bastard child of a dead lineage.”
“Do you think I do not know that?” He arched an eyebrow in response. “I have known that from the moment I was born, Lady Thorn. Spare me your grandstanding.”
Thorn was pacing now, back and forth across the clearing. Gwen could see shapes of people standing amongst the trees—other elementals, hiding and watching. Close enough to hear, far enough away to run if things went sour. And the odds they went sour were pretty high.
Mordred was willing to lay down his life for honor when he felt he had nothing to live for.
But now he had something to hold onto.
Her.
Gwen sighed. “Let us just go back to the keep. We’ll stay there, Thorn. We won’t cause problems. Please.”
“Do not speak, child.” Thorn reeled toward her, fists clenched tight. “You are an abomination who should not exist!”
