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A woman drifted through. Her bare feet were touching the ground, but she looked like she floated more than she walked. A sheer, transparent dress in every shade of pink and purple curled around her as though caught in an invisible pool of water. So did her jet-black hair. She was easily the most beautiful woman Gwen had ever seen.
And she recognized her almost instantly. Even though the version of her that she had seen had been ghostly and made of threads of pure gold. This was Galahad’s lover—Zoe. A pair of butterfly wings were folded at her back, draping from her shoulder blades like a cape.
The woman held the hand of a man who stepped out of the portal shortly after her. Someone else Gwen recognized. She couldn’t believe what she was seeing. “Lancelot?”
The knight looked equally shocked, his silver eyes going wide. “Gwen?”
“Lance!” She ran at him, unable to contain herself, and threw her arms around his neck in a leaping hug. She winced at the pang in her side, having forgotten about her wound. “You’re okay, oh my God you’re okay!”
Lancelot chuckled and hugged her, clearly being careful not to squeeze too hard in his full plate armor. “Gwen, by all that is holy, you are all right.” It seemed he was just as relieved as she was. “I thought for certain you must be dead. Mordred—”
“He destroyed the Crystal. Not me. I couldn’t take what happened to you, so I betrayed him, and he went off the handle, and now—” She was blathering, like she always did when she was freaking out. “And now I learned that the guy I’ve been stuck to the whole time is—”
Grinn interrupted. “Hello, knight.”
The next few seconds were complete chaos.
Lancelot pushed her out of the way, sending her staggering toward the mage, who didn’t do anything to catch her and simply stepped out of the way. Jerk.
It took Gwen a second to get the right way around, and by the time she had, Lancelot had his sword drawn and was already charging at Grinn.
“Demon! Begone from here!”
Grinn laughed, cruel and mocking, and stood up on his hind legs, rearing up so his height was even more considerable, maybe close to twenty feet. “You wish to fight me, little knight? Come then. See how you fare.”
“Knock it off, both of you!” Gwen burst into flame and ran in between the two of them, holding her hands out as if she could actually keep them physically separate. “It’s a long story, Lance. He’s not here to start a fight.”
“But I will gladly end one.” Grinn sneered.
“And you, you shut the fuck up and let me explain.” She glared at the demon. “Before you get stabbed and we both have to deal withthat.”
Grinn sighed and dropped back down to all fours with a thump, his long, tufted tail swishing annoyedly behind him. He turned his attention to Zoe and, baring his teeth, hissed at her like an angry tiger. There was clearly no love lost between them. Zoe had chosen to hide behind Lancelot, which was likely wise.
Lancelot looked unconvinced, still holding his sword and glowering at the demon. “What is he doing here, Gwen?”
“Okay, so…” She sighed, and stared up at the sky, begging for patience from whoever would listen. This was going to suck. “Grinn is the one who tricked me into coming here. He joined our life forces together using some sort of wacky demonic magic, like, ten years ago, and now we’re trying to figure out how to split ourselves up again. This”—she gestured with her fiery hands—“is his magic, not mine.”
“Damn right it is.” Grinn’s toothy smile was gloating and cruel.
“I said shut up.” Gwen pointed at the demon. Extinguishing her fire, she went back to her explanation. “That’s why we’re here with the mage, trying to figure this all out.”
“You two are…bound together?” Lancelot grimaced. “Which means that I cannot harm him without harming you.”
“You got it.” Doc looked utterly bored. “And I can’t split them apart. Even I don’t have enough magic to separate those two. We need Caliburn to do it.”
Lancelot quickly caught up with what was happening and joined the general vibe. “Fuck.”
“Yep.” Gwen sighed. “Welcome to the party.”
“I’m gonna go get dinner started.” Doc headed indoors.
Oh. He had saidfivepeople were coming to dinner. “How’d you know?”
The wizard only laughed as he disappeared through his front door. Shaking her head, she decided to stop asking the man questions abouthoworwhyanything he said or did made any sense at all. It’d just be a waste of breath.
Letting out a long-suffering sigh, Lancelot sheathed his sword, not taking his angry glare away from Grinn. “Can I expect you to attack me when I turn my back?”
“We have a common enemy at the moment. And so, for the time being, no.” Grinn curled his tail around his feet. “Once Mordred is defeated, however…”
