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Gwen waited for him to start talking again. When he didn’t, she sighed. “Are there any artifacts like that on Avalon?”
“Only one that I can think of, and you aren’t going to like it.” He smiled with a weird hint of glee. He was enjoying this way too much.
“I don’t like any of this. What else is new?” She rubbed her temples. She wanted a nap and a stiff drink. This place really was going to give her a headache.
“Yeah, but you really-really-reallyaren’t going to like this.”
“Just say it, you idiot!” Grinn snapped.
“Well. The one thing I could think of that would have enough power to separate the two of you, is…well…” He paused. “Caliburn.”
Grinn and Gwen agreed on one thing.
And they voiced it exactly the same way and in unison.
“Fuck.”
TEN
“Take my hand, knight.” Zoe held out her palm to Lancelot. He trusted her. It was not like the Gossamer Lady to play such overt tricks. She was one of the good ones. It was part of the reason why it had been such a tragedy to see her committed to the Iron Crystal.
Not the only reason, of course.
But part of it.
Lancelot placed his hand in hers. Her fingers were so small and delicate compared to his. She gestured her hand, and he watched in awe as a portal opened in the space before them. That was true magic—not like what he could muster. He was always impressed by those who could wield the chaotic forces of the island. For better or worse.
She pulled him through the split in space, and Lancelot felt the world around him simply shift.
* * *
It was Gwen’s turn to pace around as she threaded her hands into her hair and tried to grapple with the news Doc had given them.
Caliburn. They had to take and destroy Caliburn. Mordred’s goddamn sword.King Arthur’s relic. Her mind raced through the possible ways this could all play out, and every single one of them ended with him ripping her head off and using it as a door knocker.
Ask for it nicely? Nope, dead.
Steal it? Nope, dead.
Trick him out of it? Nope, dead.
Bargain for it? Withwhatexactly? Sexual favors? Nope, dead.
Grinn wasn’t handling it much better than she was. He was sitting by the edge of the lawn, a large, long-clawed hand over his face, looking for all the world like someone had just told him he had terminal cancer.
Not exactly. Just possibly a terminal case of Gwen.
“We steal it.” Grinn stood and turned toward the woods. “That is the only option we have.”
“Sorry, won’t work that way.” Doc was cleaning his fingernails with a toothpick he had pulled out of his robe pocket. “Caliburn is bonded to whomever it was given to. It’s passed down. He’d have to give it to you.”
Grinn laughed in that “how can my day possibly get any worse?” kind of way. Unfortunately for him, it seemed the universe had one more trick to play on him that day.
“And three, two, one…” The sorcerer took five steps to his left, very pointedly. “And here we go.”
“What?” Gwen blinked.
A hole opened up in space, right where the wizard had been standing. She recognized it as the same kind of swirly, weird, drawn-on kind of portal that she had jumped through at the very beginning of this whole debacle.
