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“We have no choice, Gwendolyn. The way we are linked is unnatural. It cannot last. Think of me what you will, think of this world what you will—you aren’t meant to have this power.” He stared off down the road. “We don’t even know if the wizardcanseparate us. At least let us go there to find out.” His voice fell, growing almost vulnerable for the first time. “I wish to be free. I wish to be whole. I wish to be alone.”
Frowning, she couldn’t help but feel bad for him, even just a little. She had his power, and because of that, he was suffering. She couldn’t do that to him forever. It was cruel. “I’ll go with you. I’ll let the wizard split us up if he can. But if he can, we get to talk through the details first, okay?” She stuck her hand out to him.
He looked down at her hand, and then took it with one of his enormous ones. His fingernails were all jagged and broken. They reminded Gwen of her old cat’s claws. “Deal.”
“Great.” She walked up to the mare and climbed back into the saddle and nudged Sunshine in the sides, urging her to start down the road again.
“Have you decided if you wish to stay or go home?” Merlin resumed walking beside her.
“No.” She frowned. “Still figuring that out.”
“Hm.” He said nothing else on the matter. And she was happy to let it go.
They rode for another hour in silence before they passed a farm. It made her smile and made her feel just a tiny bit homesick at the same time. “I think I want to stay, honestly. This world is full of adventure and magic. It’d be hard to go home, knowing what I was missing out on. I just hope my family is all right, now that they’re homeless and all.”
“The house is fine.”
“What?”
Birds took off from the field at her shout.
Merlin shrugged. “You can create fire without burning material. So could I. It was easier to fake the inferno. I’m sure there was some light charring, but it didn’t last long enough to do actual dam—”
“You lying sack of shit!” Gwen threw a fireball at him. It hit his shoulder and might as well have been a snowball for all the damage it did. “You made me think—you—agghh!”
Merlin was snickering.
“It isn’t funny!” She threw another fireball at him. “I thought my family was homeless and they thought I died!”
“I’m sure they still think you’re dead, if it’s any consolation.”
“It isn’t!” A third fireball. She let out a long, ragged sigh and gave up. “You’re such an asshole. Why didn’t you tell me that sooner?”
“You didn’t ask.”
“I fuckinghateyou.”
“Yes, yes, I know.” He was still quietly laughing.
“Still isn’t funny.”
“Yes, it is.”
She gave up again. Shaking her head, she looked over at the small, squat medieval-looking farmhouse sitting by the edge of the road. It was haphazard and crooked, like most of the buildings she had seen. And the fence that surrounded it once more looked as though it had been grown rather than built.
Magic.
“I wonder if they’d lend us some more supplies.” She checked the contents of the saddlebags. They had enough for the trip to the sorcerer, she suspected—but the trip back was questionable.Back where? Does it even really matter?“Couldn’t hurt to have some more food in stock, even though we’re doing all right catching fish.”
“I, for one, am incredibly sick of fish.” Merlin shuddered. “Ask if they have any real meat. And if they don’t offer any, burn their house down.”
“No, I will not, you goddamn psychopath.” Pulling up in front of the house, she hopped off the horse. The wood shutters that were the only coverings for the windows were open. “Hello? Is anyone home?” She smiled in as friendly a way as she could. “We’re just traveling by, and wondered if—”
Someone appeared in the window. It was an older woman. Her expression was a glower as she grabbed the wood shutters and slammed them shut. “Go away, demons!”
Gwen frowned. “I’m not a—”
The woman slammed the other window shutters closed.
