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Morgan nodded her head and held out her arms. He didn’t respond.
“Mordred, you remember him now, eh?” she said, walking around him, pointing to his father. “You remember how he betrayed your trust and tried to kill you.”
“No!” Arthur shouted. “It’s not true, Sebastian. She’s lying.”
“I wouldn’t lie about this, Son!” she defended. “I know how much being a knight meant to you! But Guinevere hated you and everything you represented. She poisoned Arthur’s mind against you after you discovered her in Lancelot’s bed.”
“Sebastian, it’s a spell,” Arthur told him. “Don’t listen to her. Remember the truth. That she would do anything to hurt me. She’s a liar!”
For a moment, he considered Arthur and remembered a good, fair man. But not to him. Arthur hated him. He wanted his son dead.
“Mordred,” he heard Morgan’s voice dripping around his ears. “He wants to kill her. Look, he is casting a spell over her even now.”
Mordred beheld him, and he was speaking a spell over Noelle. The thin barrier around her fell. “No!” Mordred shouted, lifting his arm. Arthur was hurled into the wall, hard enough to knock him out. Mordred went to the kitchen to get a knife.
Noelle hurried to him, blocking his path to Arthur. “Sebastian! Don’t do it!”
He paused, his blood flowing hot in his veins. “He tried to hurt you!”
“No, he didn’t,” she insisted.
He stared into her big eyes wanting to dive into their oceans and swim to a place no one knew.
“He was helping me. You’re not thinking straight, Sebastian,” she said urgently and pulled his hand down when he held it out to Arthur. “It’s Morgan who wants to hurt me. She’s tricking you. You cannot kill Arthur!”
He stared at her, ready to kill with a swipe of his hand. He looked at Morgan. Was she lying to him?
“You don’t want this to happen again, Sebastian. Don’t kill your father.”
Aye, he nodded. He would do what she wished.
“Shut your mouth!” Morgan’s eyes rolled up in her head and her lips began to move.
“Sebastian,” Arthur shouted and raised his hand to Morgan. “Stop her!”
Noelle stiffened and cried out. Sebastian opened his mouth to speak but no words came out. He couldn’t speak! A spell! He watched in horror as Noelle was lifted up into the air. She struggled to breathe, holding her hands to her throat. Morgan was choking her! Arthur was also pressed against the wall, being choked and clutching his throat.
Here was what was different about the first time. Noelle. He loved Noelle and Morgan was killing her.
No! He tried to shout Morgan’s name. He struggled, watching horrified while Noelle choked. “Mmmor—” He had to break the spell! Noelle was dying. Arthur was dying. He felt rage growing inside of him, burning up everything else. At that moment, Morgan wasn’t his mother. He didn’t remember her. She was an enemy trying to take the only woman he’d ever loved. The only woman who could tame the beast.
His eyes went gold. He stretched out his hand and then squeezed it.
Morgan clutched her throat. Her eyes bulged and her face turned scarlet. “Release them and I will release you.”
When nothing happened, he squeezed tighter until Noelle and Arthur collapsed, gasping for breath. But he didn’t release Morgan. She’d caused so much damage. She deserved to die. But he remembered Noelle telling him that it wasn’t his decision whether or not a man—or woman died. He was about to let her go when another force swept into the room, rattling the Christmas bells hung over the mantel.
He turned to see that Mr. Simeon had escaped and was standing with a pretty woman of about forty years with long, gray hair peppered with black plaited down her back. She lifted her hand and Sebastian’s hand, that is, the one squeezing the air, went numb and fell to his side.
“Back away from her, Mordred. I will tend to her.”
Arthur stepped forward, still rubbing his throat. His cornflower blue eyes fixed on Simeon, and then on the woman. “Elia, how did you get here?”
