Savior of Avalon

Chapter Eight

Early the next morning, we were already on the road. Thom and I were more devoted than ever to get to Camelot now that Aengus had confirmed Mom was alive and well. Merlin was impatient, too. I was sure he wanted to see Nimue and save Camelot as quickly as possible.

To avoid any police, we took a lot of back roads. We knew it would delay our time a little, but it was better than having to escape the cops again. That would set us back even more. After our last stunt with Morgana's men, we'd been all over the news. The cops even had sketches of all of our faces. It was the first time I'd ever been wanted by the police, and I wasn't exactly sure how I felt about it.

After driving non-stop for almost six hours, we decided to stop at a small diner. Thom needed rest before he got tunnel vision and we all needed to stretch our legs, fuel our bellies and take a bathroom break.

The inside of the diner was cozy. It was very modern but had hints of a fifty-ish type of diner. After ordering some diner, I excused myself to the bathroom.

By the time I was done, our drinks had arrived, but our food was still cooking.

Aengus stood and let me have the window seat beside him. Ever since he came, he had been stuck to me like glue. I didn't mind it, though. Firstly because he wasn't overbearing. He admitted he had been training to become the best swordsman in Camelot since he was a boy because he knew the day when he had to protect me would come. I understood his need to fulfill a duty he had been training for his entire childhood. Secondly, I never had any friends before. Mom and I always moved and I was never able to talk to other children or even adults. It was nice to have a friend, someone who wasn't Mom or Thom.

Aengus was still dressed in his Camelot armor. He refused to take it off, saying that if he was to be in a world a strange as this, he'd at least like one thing to feel familiar.

However, unlike with Merlin, people didn't gawk at the ginger haired man beside me. In fact, they mostly seemed to avoid his gaze. It was understandable. He was the size of a bear and had arms the size of newborn infants. Not to mention he carried himself with an air that said you did not want to be on his bad side.

"So, Aengus, you said I'm supposed to have another warrior?" I wondered, taking a sip of my strawberry lemonade and eyeing him. When the liquid hit my tongue it was pure bliss. The sugary drink with just a hint of sour never failed at being delicious.

"Aye," he grunted.

"Did your mother ever say how we were supposed to find this other warrior?"

Aengus stroked his beard, his eyes getting a far off look as he thought very hard.

"No, mother never said much about the other warrior. I guess the river spirit didn't tell her much. But she did say we'd find yer second warrior when ye needed him most."

I needed as many people as I could get if I wanted to have any chance of rescuing my mother. I mean, Thom was clearly a badass with a sword and once we got to Camelot and Merlin's magic was restored, he'd make us a double threat. Aengus was apparently damn near invincible with his sword, so he made us a triple threat. My magic was good, powerful even, Merlin's little classes during this trip had helped me tremendously, but I knew I was nowhere near Morgana's level yet.

"Stop frowning," Merlin spoke up, looking at me weirdly. "You look terrible when you do that."

Aengus snapped his attention to Merlin and before I could speak, he was speaking for me.

"Ye dare to insult my mistress," he bellowed, giving Merlin a look that dared him to speak.

"I was merely making an observation," stated Merlin calmly, taking a sip of his soda as his face slipped back into its expressionless mask.

"I'll have ye know the Muses have sang songs of praise over my mistress's beauty," Aengus said haughtily. "She is a sight to behold. Perhaps yer just stupid."

Merlin's jaw clenched and he glared at the viking like man beside me just as the waitress arrived with our food. She began setting it down and looking between the two, clearly standoffish men, before scurrying off.

"Who are you calling stupid, you bone headed—"

"I was merely making an observation," Aengus mocked, a smirk spreading on his face.

"I think you're drawing attention to us," Thom spoke up, looking around. "That's the last thing we need. Maybe you two should give it a rest."

"I'd be happy to, Thom," said Aengus, a grin on his face as he turned to his meal and began devouring it.

Merlin was eyeing Aengus with such a sour look, it was as if he'd swallowed milk that was long past its due date. All the while, Aengus looked so happy and pleased with himself.

I don't know why this amused me so much, but before I could even comprehend it, I was laughing. Three pairs of eyes turned to me in shock as I wheezed with laughter. I was laughing so hard, tears were coming out of my eyes.

"Your...faces..." I guffawed, unable to finish my sentence.

When my laughter did finally stop, I just shook my head and went to eat my meal. Thom and Aengus looked amused for the most part and Merlin just looked annoyed. But at the time, I didn't realize there was another layer to his annoyed expression. Something else.

Merlin muttered something under his breath, too quickly for me to understand it. I tilted my head at him before shrugging and just enjoying my meal. Merlin was like a rabbit hole, once you fell in you just got lost.

I didn't notice that there was color in his cheeks that hadn't been there before. I didn't even see him sneak looks at me all throughout the rest of our dinner.

I did, however, see the news showing footage of Thom and Merlin sword fighting Morgana's men in the parking lot. We were halfway through our dinner when the video began playing.

I kicked Thom's foot underneath the table. He looked at me in confusion and I tilted my head toward the television on display for the entire diner to see. He turned right at the minute sketches of our faces showed up.

A couple of waitresses turned in our direction and whispered among themselves. When our eyes met theirs, they scurried into the back, no doubt on their way to call the police.

"We have to go," Thom instructed, standing. "Now."

Aengus and Merlin looked in the direction I was looking in and saw our faces plastered on the screen. Merlin muttered something under his breath and Aengus just looked as amazed at the television as he did when he saw one for the first time.

"Such an interesting device," he murmured to himself, standing and holding out a hand to me.

I took it and we moved forward, knowing we had to leave quickly. In a couple of minutes, there was no doubt in my mind, this place would be swarming with police.

As we were walking to the car—a sleek, black Sedan—Merlin stiffened and turned, drawing his sword. Aengus and Thom followed suit and Aengus shielded me with his huge body as he faced our opponents.

It seemed they had heard about Aengus switching over to our side, because last time there had been ten men and now it was at least twenty. They were all large and intimidating, but none of them were as large nor as intimidating as the viking who had sworn to protect me.

"Well, look at what we have here," Aengus murmured. "It seems cowards come in packs."

"Aengus, we don't want to fight you," the one in the middle spoke. He had features that were mediocre at best and a balding spot in the middle of his head. "Just give us the girl."

"No, you don't want to fight me. And you can have my master over my dead body," he told them, pointing his sword at them and bracing himself.

Thom, Merlin and Aengus may have been great fighters, but there were only three of them. Them going against twenty men didn't seem fair at all, were my thoughts as the men charged toward them. Merlin and Thom had cut down four men between the two of them already and Aengus had cut down another four by his lonesome.

However, despite how good they were doing, one of Morgana's men was right at Thom back, his sword raised as if to cut him down. Not even thinking about it, I held my hand out and the man fell back several feet, his body hitting one of the cars before he fell unconscious.

Thom looked in the direction of the man before he looked at me, nodding once in thanks. I smiled back, suddenly realizing I could help. I seemed to keep forgetting I had magic. Magic that Merlin had spent many hours a day training me to use and to harness.

Pressing my palms together, I closed my eyes and went deep into my magic, like Merlin had taught me. When my eyes opened again, I could feel my magic coursing through my veins, warm and strong. So powerful, I wondered if it was even really mine.

I focused on taking all of Morgana's men down and getting the hell out of here before the police showed up. I held my hands up to the sky and chanted quietly, "Pluvia, lava me ab inimicis."

All of a sudden, the sunny sky darkened and a single, golden thunderbolt struck the sky. All the fighting ceased as Morgana's men looked up at it, then over at me in surprise. Even Merlin seemed surprised, though pleasantly so.

"Mo Dhia," Aengus muttered under his breath, looking at me in awe.

I bought my hands down sharply and a great rain poured from the sky. With my palms up, I shouted, "Pluvia, lava me ab inimicis."

From the rain, a huge tornado appeared, making its way straight for Morgana's men and sweeping them up, carrying them up and away from us.

The rain immediately cleared and I slumped forward, exhausted. Aengus held out his hands and caught me. Thom looked up at where the men disappeared and whistled lowly.

"You can be impressed later, Thom," came Merlin's cool voice. "We have to go. Now."

We all hurried into the car and Thom started the engine. We took off right as the police were pulling in. Luckily, they didn't notice us. We had just escaped another attempt on our lives.

Barely.

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We drove non-stop after that. Before I really even knew it, we had reached California and from that moment on, I felt like I could breathe a little easier. Because although Aengus said that Mom was safe and people were looking after her, that didn't stop me from wanting to get her out of that place.

"So, where is this door, Merlin?" Thom asked as he continued down the Californian streets. The sun was setting, so the palm trees look ethereal against the orange and pink sky. It was picture perfect and, despite myself, I couldn't help but feel awed.

"There's an Elven woman," Merlin answered shortly, seeming in a bad mood all of a sudden. "She used to live in Avalon, but she got bored of it and came here a couple hundred years ago. Typically, she won't help people, but she owes me a favor."

Thom pulled over to stop for gas, Aengus decided he wanted to go in and buy me snacks. Despite the fact that we had eaten only an hour ago, he insisted that I had to eat more. Giving Merlin a steely look, he more demanded than asked Merlin to make sure no harm came to me.

With everyone gone except Merlin and I, the silence became so loud it was defeaning. Whirling around to face him, I said, "You seem to be in a bad mood. I mean, worse than usual."

"Does it seem that way to you?" He asked in a tone that said he really didn't care the way it seemed to me.

"Are you worried about going back to Camelot? About me...screwing up?" When I asked these questions, he just grew quiet. Sighing and turning so I was facing forward and staring through the windshield, I admitted, "I am. Saving my mom is a big enough job, but saving an entire kingdom that's been waiting for me for seventeen years." I shook my head. "It makes me feel like I'm going to throw up."

Letting out a deep breath, Merlin spoke up quietly.

"I don't want to go back to Camelot because I don't want to see Nimue." Laughing bitterly, he muttered, "It's your fault."

"My fault?" I swiveled around to face him. He was looking broodily out the window, his elbows on his knees and his chin resting on the palm of his hand. His amber eyes were holding a weird emotion I couldn't read. "How is it my fault you don't want to see your own girlfriend?"

"It was that stupid question you asked me the other night. Did I love her. Ever since then—ever since I realized I can't say yes to that—I don't know. Seeing her just...doesn't seem right." He took a deep breath after he spoke, sneaking a glance at me and looking shocked, almost as if he couldn't believe he'd admitted that to me.

I, on the other hand, was just happy to see another side to Merlin. So often, he never showed any kind of emotion. I often found myself wondering if he had any. But now, he was revealing a big part of himself to me.

Almost like we were friends.

"Maybe you'll feel different when you see her," I offered, softly.

Merlin didn't respond with words, but his silence was response enough. He doubted, very much, that seeing her would make very much of a difference.

"Merlin," I said, after a short silence.

"Hmmm?"

From the corner of my eye, I could see Aengus, with two bags filled with snacks and drinks walking proudly to the car with Thom by his side. He looked proud of himself and I knew I'd have to eat it all to appease him.

"When we were in the diner, you and Aengus got into it and I laughed, you muttered something under your breath. It's stupid, but it's just bugging me. What the hell did you say?"

He was eerily silent, so silent, I started to turn to see if he had slipped into a coma or something.

"I said," he spoke up, forcing me to pause mid-turn, "that you looked less terrible when you smile."

Before I could react, the doors were opening and Aengus and Thom were piling into the car. Aengus was already talking, proudly naming the food he'd gotten and Thom was already pulling off, ready to get to Hollywood as soon as possible.

I glanced at Merlin in the review mirror. His face was turned entirely toward the window, but I could see a little speck of color on his cheeks.