And though he was an esteemed warrior in the earthly realm, he doubted he could take on Morgan and her magic there. He could only fight her in Avalon.

  “We allow very few men here, and only for a short time.”

  “Good,” he corrected and returned his sword to the scabbard. If he could come and go as he pleased, there was no reason to fight. “I do not plan on staying long.”

  Chapter Twenty-One

  “I saw him step through the air and disappear. He did not turn to consider you, his brother, but left. He left you to your enemies. To me.” Leofric smiled close to Fin’s face. His breath was like old fish and ale.

  Fin gagged a little. Other than that, he couldn’t move. He felt no restraints and, after a moment, he realized he was wounded.

  He was in a clearing in the forest, tossed on the cold ground. He tried to sit up. Pain shot through his stomach. His chest felt as if it were on fire. He had been stabbed multiple times. If he knew any better, and being a warrior for many years he did, he’d say his wounds were fatal. He had escaped death many times, but not this time. And hell, Wolf had left him.

  They’d been fighting the Saxons. Wolf had already killed seven or eight in his savage rage. But then he stopped fighting their enemies and fought the air in front of him instead. Fin kept as many of them that he could off his brother for as long as he could. He didn’t think Wolf even knew he was there.

  He didn’t think Wolf would disappear. He didn’t know what Wolf was doing. But he stood by him and made sure he didn’t get killed while he did whatever he was doing.

  But he hadn’t stood for long. Leofric showed up and came straight for him. They fought. Wolf didn’t stop fighting the air while Leofric and ten other men fought Fin and brought him down. In the end, sheer exhaustion had done him in. Wolf was gone. He’d disappeared as if there were a slice in the air. He remembered calling out. But nothing else after that. He wasn’t angry with Wolf…or he hadn’t thought he was until Leofric got into his ear. Instead of killing him, he’d kept Fin alive to torment him about his brother.

  “Greetings, Fin.” He opened his eyes at the sound of a woman. What he saw made his heart batter against his ribs. She was beautiful, with raven hair cascading down her back. A silver veil covered it. Her skin was pale white. Her eyes were as green as summer blades of grass.

  She wore a gown of blood red, as tight as a second skin. Her body was sensual, voluptuous, with curvy hips and a perfectly round arse. He immediately wanted to take her to his bed. He suspected he was under some kind of spell because he was half-dead and hard as granite.

  She stroked her fingers over him, making him shudder. “I can make you better, Fin. Do you want to get better? Do you want to live?”

  He nodded. He must be dreaming. Where had she come from?

  “Who are you?”

  “I am Morgan.” She leaned closer and whispered in his ear, “Say my name and live. You do want to live, don’t you, Fin?”

  He felt lightheaded and weak. Yes. He wanted to live. “Did Leofric send you to seduce me?”

  “Who is Leofric but a mere servant? Forget him for now and kill him later. Now it is my time.”

  He watched her lips as she spoke. They were painted red, a sharp contrast to her white teeth. Did he want to kiss her and possibly get bitten? He stared into her beautiful eyes. She…she was evil. It dripped out of every pore and he wasn’t about to give up his soul so easily after keeping his body alive for so long.

  “Who needs to live anyway?”

  Her eyes went from green to topaz flames. “You’re correct!” She balled her hands into fists and was about to fling her words at him.

  He held her glare. In fact, he matched it in strength. This wasn’t the first time he’d looked death in the face. If she was waiting to see fear in his eyes, she would be here until her death.

  Finally, being overpowered by his fearless audacity, she opened her hands, cupped his face in them, and lowered her mouth to his.

  He didn’t resist. He could have, but he felt his body rejuvenating, so he let her kiss him. He didn’t owe her anything since he hadn’t asked her for anything. This was free.

  He licked his tongue across her teeth in a daring dance, hoping she didn’t bite it off. She didn’t. She was enjoying herself, filling him with strength, so he could use it on her.

  He deepened their kiss and roved his bold hands over her luscious rump. He would move atop her and then flip her over and take her from behind—

  She broke free and backed away. Her hair was falling around her face and her breath came hard and heavy.

  He sat up and looked at his healed wounds. “You are a witch.”

  “Put away your human words,” she scoffed. “I will teach you new ones.”

  “You will teach me nothing.” He looked down at the hard rod poorly confined in his pants. “It is I who will teach you.”

  She smiled but her eyes blazed like molten fire. He nodded to drive the point home. “Get me a sword so I can kill Leofric.”

  “No. We are leaving.”

  “We?”

  “That’s correct. You will tell me where your brother went and how he was able to open a rift. Is he a sorcerer? What is he called?”

  “His name is Ulf Kristiansen, and he is called Wolf. He’s not a sorcerer. I do not know how he did it.”

  “Do you know the man who was with him? Merlin?”

  “Who?” Fin asked, watching his erection go down. Just as well. “There was no one here with him.”

  She looked around when they heard approaching footsteps. “Do you want to kill him?”

  He knew she meant Leofric. “Yes.”

  She tossed him her own blade and disappeared into the trees.

  Fin threw himself down and lay on his back, eyes closed.

  “Wake up, Devil. We are heading out.” He smirked. “You will have to walk.”

  Fin groaned low and muttered something that could barely be heard.

  Wanting to hear, Leofric leaned his ear to Wolf’s mouth.

  “My brother…wants you dead.” He pulled back and stared Leofric in the eyes. “And I am loyal to my brother.”

  He used the woman’s dagger and thrust it into Leofric’s belly until the hilt almost disappeared into him. He dragged the blade upward, spilling the Saxon’s guts, never taking his eyes off Leofric’s.

  Fin pushed him off, leaped to his feet, and started out of the camp through the back woods. He left the king’s enemy gurgling on the ground.

  “I can kill them all, if you like,” Morgan said as she picked up her steps and came up beside him.

  Yes. He would like it very much. But he owed her nothing. “I want you to go away.”

  Her red lips snaked into the smile. “Oh, I cannot do that. I need you to help me find your brother.”

  “Why do you want him? Is he in danger?”

  “Fin.” She looked at him as if he were simple-minded. “He went through a rift in time. Of course, he’s in danger. Are you not worried about him?”

  He stared down at her. “Witch, my brother went through a rift in time. He can obviously take care of himself.”

  But Fin did worry about where of was. Was he coming back? What if he couldn’t? “How can we find him?”

  She smiled. “Tell me everything going on in his life for the last few weeks. Leave nothing out.”

  He didn’t want to tell her anything, but he wanted to find Wolf.

  “There isn’t really much to tell,” he murmured. But he proceeded to tell her whatever he knew or suspected.

  “So, Arthur and that mortal have another child,” Morgan said, scowling. “He hid them from me well.”

  “How did you heal me?” Fin asked. He didn’t care about some king of another realm, or whoever this king was. He wasn’t sure he believed her, but she’d healed him. He felt better than new.

  “With magic.”

  “And why did you?”

  “So you could help me,” she answered.

  “But I have not helped you. And yet, you still have not killed me.”

  She looked up into his verdant eyes while they walked. “I still might after I have my way with you.”

  He tossed his head back and laughed. “Woman, when I am done with you, you will be done for any other man.”

  “You’re quite confident and bold.”

  “And you like it,” he said, his laughter fading into a smile. He aimed it at her.

  “I do. She returned his smile, though hers was sweeter. “Keep it up or I’ll dispose of you.”

  He believed she would try.

  He paused for an instant, letting her step ahead, then he slipped behind her, took her neck in one hand. He held her dagger to her throat with the other. Pressing his body to hers, he whispered in her ear, “I like a good challenge. Keep it up or I will be the one doing the disposing.” He lowered his hand from her throat and moved it over her left breast and then beneath it. “Your heart has accelerated. Are you afraid, Witch?”

  She turned in his hands and looped her arms around his neck. He watched her close her eyes and part her ruby lips. She wanted a kiss. He would give it.

  But he would be careful not to give her anything more than his flesh. Of that, she could have all she could take.

  He dipped his head and kissed her and while he was kissing her, she faded in his embrace and appeared in solid form behind him—with her dagger in her possession once again. She didn’t threaten him but stabbed him in the back.

  He went down in front of her, crashing to his knees.

  Bitch.

  *

  Camelee watched Wolf reach his hand out and touch the glass wall along the long hallway. Everywhere they looked walls glistened and glimmered around them. They had set off to find Genevra and Hild, but they were more interested in each other…and the glass walls.

  “What did you say this is called?” Wolf asked, turning his grin on her.

  “Glass.”

  “It is wondrous!”

  She smiled, looking at him. He’d come for her. Like some knight on a charging horse come to save her from a dragon. She’d never seen anything like it. Neither had anyone else, apparently. A man in braids and furs, fighting and breaking through time. And doing it to be with her. “It’s common in my time, except I’ve never seen glass that wasn’t trans—see-though.”

  His eyes opened wider. “You can see through your glass?”

  “Yes.”

  He gave the wall one more pat and then removed his hand. “I wish we had glass in Denmark.”

  She was quiet, still unsure about living in the barbaric eleventh century.

  “Camelee, I do not blame you for not wanting to leave Avalon,” he said, sensing the change in her tone. “This place is beautiful, and Denmark is cold.”

  He was right, she didn’t want to leave. But not because Avalon was beautiful. She had just found her mother and father. She’d been wrong about them her entire life. They had left her because they loved her. It changed everything. She wanted to get to know them and to get to know herself.

  “But I love you, Camelee, and I want to spend my days with you. Do not be afraid to come with me. We will live. We will travel, and the seas may get rough. But we will always be together to get through it. I will keep you warm on cold winter nights, and I will keep you and Hild well fed in the days to come. I will not leave or abandon you. I am even ready to cease fighting. I want to be with you. I just want you to know that.”

  No one in her life had ever promised her such things. She was glad it was Wolf because she wanted to spend her days and nights with him, too. She wanted to cry to him, to beg him never to abandon her, or stop loving her. But she let herself trust him. He would always do all he could to stay with her. It was such a trumpeting affirmation of his heart for her. It belonged to her, and she would cherish it.

  “And I want to make you as happy as you make me, so I guess this will work out. But I wonder if you would want to come to the twenty-first century with me for a little while.”

  He smiled and drew her in for more kisses. “It sounds like a good adventure.”

  Yes. An adventure. That’s what he liked. Apparently, Wolf could travel to any time, any realm to stop someone from creating a glitch in time. She wondered if, being the king’s daughter, she could hitch a ride with whom the sisters called The Timekeeper.

  “We can stay here for as long as you like,” he went on. “I overheard Merlin telling Viviane that Morgan was on earth using her powers, trying to find any of you. You are safest here.”

  “That’s perfect. You make everything perfect.”

  “Me?” he laughed. “I have done nothing.”

  “You have done everything,” she corrected, looping her arm through his as they began to walk again.

  “Then you agree to become my wife today?”

  She stopped and gazed at him. “Wolf.”

  “Say yes, love.”

  “Yes. Yes! Is this real? Now I really doubt it!” She leaped into his waiting arms and kissed his hungry mouth. He kissed her until she felt lightheaded. When he slipped his hands over the mounds of her buns, she groaned. “I’m glad this glass isn’t see-through.”

  He looked around, suddenly distracted, and frowned. “We must not mention glass when we return to England.”

  “What?”

  “Glass. They do not know of it yet. We cannot contaminate the timeline.”

  “I know, but since when do you care about such things?”

  “Since I learned of them.” He grinned, dragged her in with one arm, and kissed her parted lips when she looked at him. “Let us go find your father so he can get us wed.”

  “Eager, are you?” she said, snuggling her face into his shoulder and taking in the scent of him.

  “I am eager to have you to myself. Your brothers and sister are fascinating, all coming from a different time, but I want to be alone with you.”

  “Yes, my love. They are fascinating, aren’t they? Kestrel went back to—well, for you, she went forward to the time of the famous War of the Roses. I don’t know much about it but they made a movie about it in my time. A tragic comedy. A great movie with three great actors.”

  She thought about her siblings and smiled. She went from having nothing real in her life to traveling back in time, meeting the love of her life, and finding out she was the beloved daughter of King Arthur and Queen Guinevere! And this all felt more real than anything she’d had before.

  “Kes is pregnant. I’m going to be an aunt. I think she and I will get along very well. Michael didn’t live far from me my whole life.” She glanced at him and widened her eyes. “Isn’t that nuts? I would have liked having a brother, and Michael seems nice. Sebastian seems like a bit of a handful, though.”

  “Yes,” Wolf agreed, “But there is also something very dangerous about him. I am happy he cannot use magic here.”

  “Yes.” She told him what she knew from earthly authors about Mordred and how it was his hand that killed or came close to killing King Arthur. “But here, I see a spoiled lord who loves his father very much.”

  “I like that you can see the good in people,” he told her, leaning in to smile a hair’s breadth from her face.

  It was a new thing. She’d been too disinterested in others to see anything but what they showed the rest of the world. She never looked deeper. She was sure she wouldn’t like what she saw anyway, so she never thought twice about it. But at times, it hurt. Like when she was feeling lonely in her beautiful penthouse in New York and there was no one to call for comfort. No one.

  Now she had many.

  She closed her eyes and smiled like a satisfied cat. She was happy.

  “What else do you like about me, my lord? What?” she added when she opened her eyes to see his expression on her change.

  “That is only the second time you have ever called me your lord. Now, when I want to be so much more than that.”

  How could she not fall in love with him? What did the future hold for them? Which future would be best for them?

  “I don’t mind you being my earthly lord,” she smiled playfully, zoning in on his gloriously handsome face instead of the hundreds of questions vying for answers in her head. “Not when you love me the way you do.”

  Thousands of years or miles or whatever, wherever she had to travel to find him…how could she ever let him go? But there were so many obstacles.

  When he swooped down to lift her in his arms, she didn’t fight him.

  When he told her that he didn’t think he could wait until they wed, she giggled against his ear like an eleventh-century milkmaid. She loved having this power over such a warrior. “Have you so quickly run out of things you like about me?”

  He laughed and she thought of a wolf, hungry and ready to hunt. “I love that you are bold, but not foolish. That is a trait I admire.”

  He admired. She liked that very much.

  “You are compassionate and protective over your child—”

  She was going to correct him, but she did love Hild as a mother would. She deepened her smile on him for seeing that in her before she did.

  “Excuse me,” came a man’s resonating voice. She smiled when Michael appeared around a bend. He smiled, blushed a little, and then went back to being emotionless. “I was looking for my room, but these walls are really confusing.”

  “Yes,” Wolf answered him. “We have been walking for two hours now.”

  Camelee gasped a little. “Has it been that long?”

  He nodded and put his arm around her.

  Michael smiled ever so slightly. “To be honest, the rest of us are pretty envious that you two are together and our loved ones can’t be here. I know it’s selfish, but it’s a fact.”

  Camelee nodded, understanding. “We are doing everything we can to help.”

  Wolf held up his finger. “If I am correct, the reason they give for not bringing them here is that it will affect the timeline. I can tell you that it will not. Avalon is not part of the normal timeline. You should bring it up. I will confirm it.”