“And Wolf’s?” Camelee asked.

  “Not exactly,” said Viviane. “Wolf is a Timekeeper. He is to stop anyone from corrupting the timeline.”

  “His kind—in their time—” Nim told them, “—were almost dispatched twice for Kestrel and Michael, but they did not corrupt time, so they were saved from the sword.”

  “The sword?” Kestrel gasped and moved a little closer to her husband, who asked why Wolf was allowed to have a sword.

  “Was I under the spell to forget, as well?” Wolf asked Nim, his jaw clenched.

  “No. Timekeepers live regular lives until they are dispatched.”

  “So, I was dispatched?”

  Nim nodded. “It would seem so.”

  “By whom?” he demanded.

  “By the One we all obey.” She smiled at him and bit into a peach.

  Camelee tugged his sleeve. “Do you have any memories of your past?”

  “Yes,” he told her. “Of Fin and my longhouse in Denmark. That’s my past that I remember. Nothing else. But I do have this new sense of keeping things moving along as they should. It is strange. I feel…watchful.”

  She couldn’t help but giggle at the thought of watches keeping time in the future.

  “Let’s just hope you’re not called upon to put your sword to anyone.”

  He agreed with a worried look.

  “So, why all the Morgan hate?” Kestrel asked their father. “Why does she want to hurt you enough to be a danger to us? What did you do to her?” She turned he gaze to the sisters. “Why do you keep her out of her home?”

  “She killed five of our sisters,” Nimue told her. “She should be thankful we didn’t destroy her for eternity or give her boils.” Nim turned the two sisters she had left. “Why didn’t we give her boils?”

  “We were…together,” the king told her. “Many centuries ago. I was young and naïve. She was…enchanting. But I saw the evil in her here so I left her and Avalon and built Camelot on earth. The home of my heart. I never knew she and I had a child until Mordred came to me.”

  “I’m sorry I asked,” Kestrel whispered. “I’m sorry about your sisters, and for you, Dad. It’s tough being in a relationship with a nutcase.”

  Camelee and Michael smiled at her and Camelee suspected her brother also missed future slang.

  “I came here,” Wolf reminded them.

  “What?” Camelee asked him.

  “They said Morgan couldn’t come here because no magic, other than theirs is allowed here. But I came here.”

  “Not with magic,” Vivian pointed out. “You were fighting, going berserk, as you call it. You are human. As we said, you are a Timekeeper, most likely alerted to all this movement and dispatched. You found the rift and must have opened it between the realms, where magic is weakest.”

  “So, anyone can do what I did as long as he is human and a little out of his mind?” Wolf asked, putting it all together.

  Viviane shifted her eyes to Nim and they both looked at Gliten. “No,” the first one said. “The fact is, we do not know why certain people are called. Only that they are ruthless and cold—”

  “Not all,” Wolf softened his smile on the sisters. “Surely not all.”

  “They are wrong,” Camelee told him when the sisters nodded. She pulled him out of his chair and dragged him away. “They aren’t God. They don’t know everything. They are wrong about you. Come with me, my darling. Come away with me.”

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Only Camelee could lure Wolf away from all his troubles, his duties, his family.

  He was cold in battle. It was true. But one either becomes cold or suffers a sorrowful death.

  But he wasn’t cold with her. Not anymore. He understood why she defended him, and he was thankful that she enjoyed his warmer side enough to stand up for it.

  She was everything to him. How had he become so hopelessly in love with her? Was he always meant to love her? Did he believe such things? He looked into her sparkling blue-gray eyes as they reached the door to their room. Yes. Yes, he believed something was at work. Whatever it was, it melted the cold.

  They undressed each other, eager to comfort and soothe with kisses and long, intimate strokes.

  He carried her to their bed, kissing her neck, her chin, her mouth. He set her down on the soft mattress and laid on top of her.

  Stretching her out beneath him, he looked down at her with a smirk. “Now I have you where I want you.” His breath fell on her lips. “What will you do?”

  He hadn’t expected an answer.

  She shifted in one swift motion and kneed him in the groin. Not hard, just a touch to let him know how close he came. Without pausing for a breath, she pushed him off while he was trying to cover his groin. He rolled over and grasped her wrists, stopping her from pummeling him with her fists.

  They stared into each other’s eyes and laughed softly. He pulled her in for a kiss. He wanted nothing more than to stay here with her forever. Denmark could wait.

  She sat up and undressed herself, teasing him with glimpses of her creamy skin, until he tore away her clothes and feasted on her body. She was perfection, with a small brown mole on her left breast, and one on her hip. He pulled her down on the bed and kissed each one. He didn’t remember how or when he removed his clothes. Or she did. He only remembered being so hard he hurt.

  “I love you, Camelee.” He remembered telling her often.

  “And I love you, Wolf,” she replied every time, entwining his fingers in hers and wrapping her legs around his waist.

  When she bit his lip and rolled over so that she was atop him, she rose up and drove him to the edge of madness.

  Later, she lay in his arms, where he believed she was meant to be. “Wolf, you know you are more than what they say, don’t you?”

  “I do not care what they say, love. My service is to you.”

  She smiled and pressed down to his hilt. She was grateful that he was dedicated to her and would do what she asked.

  “Camelee?” he asked as the wind howled outside.

  “Hmm?”

  “I must go back and find my brother.”

  *

  Wolf dressed in a fresh pair of pants, a clean, tan léine, and a leather belt with scabbards of various sizes. He sat in a chair in their room and pulled on his boots. His beautiful wife stood behind him, braiding his hair, kissing his neck, trying to tempt him into not going.

  But not in this. He couldn’t just leave his brother with no trace, no word. He had the ability to travel back and forth, so why not use it?

  He stood up when it was time to go and took Camelee in his arms. “Remember, tell no one where I went. I will return to you, my love.”

  “You better, Wolf. No. Really,” she added when he laughed.

  She walked out of the palace with him and into the inner grounds. It was dark and late in the night, quiet, and perfect for sneaking away.

  He kissed her, then kissed and embraced her again. Then he drew his sword and began slicing at the air. After an hour, exhaustion hit him and he had to pause for a rest. They hadn’t realized it right away, but Merlin was observing them in the shadows.

  Camelee spotted him first, when he moved to keep the direction of his gaze on Wolf’s movements. His hair was as dark as the shadows, straight and long, as were his mustache and beard. When he was caught, he stepped out into the light with boldness.

  “Why are you trying to leave?”

  “Are you telling me I cannot go?” Wolf asked.

  “I think my question was plain enough.”

  “I want to find my brother and tell him I am well.”

  Merlin folded one arm across his chest and stroked his beard with his other hand. “You shouldn’t do this.”

  “And you all should not have pulled all these people out of their lives. Something is bound to go wrong in the timeline You took three people from the twenty-first century and dropped them into three different times, possibly changing all those timelines. Not to mention Sebastian, an eighteenth-century lord, who used to be a first-century sorcerer, now living in twenty nineteen. You are truly going to judge me on this?”

  “No,” Merlin conceded, looking at Camelee then veiling his gaze for a moment behind long, black lashes. “But for the record, I had nothing to do with any of that. I have recently discovered that it was all Morgan’s doing. She was using the brooch for its intended purpose to find Arthur. It found his children instead—and guided them—as Arthur intended—to their true loves.” He smiled at Camelee and Wolf.

  Wolf cast him a doubtful look when he met his gaze again. “What is a record?”

  Merlin curled his lips into a smile that softened his angular features. “Forgive me, Wolf. I lose track of where everyone is from. I cannot remember how everyone speaks.”

  Wolf finally smiled back. The sorcerer was difficult not to like. “I imagine it is quite difficult.”

  “More than I hope you will ever know,” Merlin said in a solemn voice. “Do not meet more people than you need.” He turned a handsome smile on Camelee. “When this is over, take your husband home and live your lives. Don’t allow him to flit around from time to time because he can.” He set his dark eyes on Wolf again. “You will lose yourself.”

  “Did that happen to you?” Wolf asked him and felt Camelee’s hand searching for his. He caught her and closed his fingers around hers.

  “I could never stay long enough in any one place to form serious attachments to others. The choice was not my own. It still isn’t. If I wasn’t doing this for as long as I have, I would never have learned anything from the timeline. I still sometimes get mixed up when speaking of certain kings and their eras.” He smiled and then it faded. “One day it will end. I hope my day and your day are the same in the timeline.”

  “Do you think I will kill you?” Wolf asked, growing tired of being some prophesied cold killer of people he liked. He would find the chapel here and go to it when he returned from finding Fin.

  “Let’s hope not, eh?” He placed his hands on their shoulders, one on Wolf’s and one on Camelee’s. “Tell me why you have not been able to leave.”

  “I think I am not passionate about it. Feverish.”

  “I will go to your brother,” Merlin told him. “I will tell him—”

  “No. I have a feeling I am going to be here for a while. I want to tell him.”

  Merlin cast Camelee an understanding look. Then closed his eyes and tossed back his head.

  “What are you doing?” Wolf demanded and stepped in front of Camelee, blocking her from the sorcerer.

  Another moment passed with Merlin crying out. Wolf was about to give him a shake, but Camelee stopped him. An instant later, Merlin opened his eyes and stared at Wolf. All the color drained from his face and left him gaunt and hollow-looking.

  “Your brother,” he gasped as air and life returned to him. “Your brother might be in trouble. There is an evil force around him. I don’t know what it is. I fear it might be Morgan, but I did not see her.”

  “Morgan?” Wolf repeated quietly, then lifted his sword and turned toward the darkness.

  “Wolf, please don’t go!” Camelee begged him. “It’s most likely a trap.”

  “Wolf,” Merlin cautioned. I’m not sure you should go. In fact, I advise against it. If it is Morgan, you will die. You cannot beat her. You don’t even have magic. Besides, all the magic in Avalon cannot beat her.”

  All the magic in Avalon…Wolf set his gleaming gaze on Merlin. “If she is allowed back in Avalon, can the sisters stop her from using her magic, as they stopped Sebastian and the king?”

  “We are unsure. We have never had to try it.”

  “Now is the time. Tell the others.”

  Merlin blinked. “What?”

  “Let her in, Merlin. Open the gates to her. Take her power, if possible. If not, I will have to find another way.”

  “Another way to what?”

  “To kill her. What else. Every spell will be broken. Will it not? She is the one who brought all of them back. It is my duty to stop her. The threat to everyone here and to the timeline will be gone.”

  Merlin nodded.

  “I can stop her if she is here. My sword…”

  “Yes.” Merlin’s eyes opened a little wider. “Yes. Of course!”

  They blinked and he was gone.

  Camelee stared at Wolf and then threw herself into his arms. “This is all real. She’s real. I’m not ashamed to say I’m afraid of her.”

  “She will not be victorious, Camelee. I’m on the right side.” He grinned and closed his arms around her. “What can we do until she gets here?” He dipped his head and kissed her neck, letting her know what he wanted to do.

  “Let’s go back inside for starters,” she said. “I’m freezing.”

  “There you two are,” Sir Nicholas called out when they entered the palace. “Kestrel wants me to hear her music. We have gathered in the great hall to dance. The king sent me to look for you.”

  “So, what is it like being a knight?” Camelee asked her brother-by-marriage while they followed the knight through the long corridors leading to the hall.

  “The same as any warrior I would imagine. I fight for my king and country as your husband does.”

  “Depending on the country,” Wolf murmured, walking.

  “Aye, after meeting you,” Nicholas answered him as they turned a corner and came to the king waiting at the doors, “’twas easy to forget that your people are conquerors.”

  There was no judgment in his eyes, only the truth. Wolf thought King Arthur must have been happy that Kestrel had found a man who could likely sit at the Round Table.

  Come to think of it—“Where are Sirs Gawaine and Lucan?” he asked, turning to the king.

  Arthur greeted his daughter with open arms. Wolf’s heart swelled with happiness over what she had found.

  “Most of my men are human,” the king answered him, sending his daughter inside where the sounds of her family waited.

  Wolf brought her hand to his lips and smiled after he kissed it. “I will be in shortly.”

  “That’s right, you will!” she called back over her shoulder. “I’m going to teach you how to dance.”

  “I do not know why that feels like a threat,” he leaned in and told her father.

  Arthur laughed softly. “Because it is, Son.”

  Wolf liked King Arthur. He liked the things that Arthur stood for, according to Genevra—the mother he never had, and who had not changed despite the change of her name.

  He looked over the king’s shoulder to see Nicholas nodding his head at him.

  The three of them laughed, and then the king cleared his throat.

  “There is nothing better than the sound of happy men, unless two of them are the men married to your daughters, then, it is better.

  “Now, as for my knights,” the king continued while they lingered at the entrance. “The sisters don’t like having men here, especially human men. I sent them off to protect your loved ones and try to find Morgan.”

  “Speaking of Morgan, Sire. We think she is with my brother. Merlin informs me that Fin is in great danger. I wanted to return to him and help but Merlin said that would be a bad idea on earth. But I can fight her here.” He told Arthur their plan and then his belly tightened in a knot when Arthur refused to let Morgan come here.

  “I forbid it, Wolf,” the king warned. “Do not bring her near my children.”

  That was all he said and then walked inside and joined his wife. Nicholas gave his arm a pat, and then he, too, left to join his wife.

  Wolf stood alone at the doors. He was going to have to disobey the king. Bringing Morgan here was the only way to stop her. And he was going to stop her.

  He didn’t want to go inside and dance. He wanted to go home to Denmark and live his life, as Merlin had said. Forget all this. Forget…

  Kestrel stood in the center of the hall with her finger on the button of some kind of contraption he was sure wasn’t supposed to be here. But the same rules didn’t apply to Avalon, did they? If anyone spoke of what they saw here, they would be brought back and never allowed to leave again, so the timeline was safe.

  She pushed the button and the soul-soothing sound of a woman’s voice mixed with blessed instruments, the likes of which Wolf had never heard before, filled the air. The melody was haunting as she sang about the first time she saw her beloved’s face.

  Each husband and wife embraced and swayed to the sound.

  Wolf looked through them and found his beautiful wife waiting for him. He wanted to go to her. He moved his foot—

  The air crackled behind him. Viviane, Nim, and Gliten appeared with Merlin in front of the king. They each whispered words that blended, sparkling the air, making Wolf’s hair rise off his skin.

  “No!” the king suddenly shouted. He let go of his wife and glared at Wolf. The music stopped. “I don’t want her allowed to come here! Are you mad? I’ve kept them all away from her and now you want to bring her to the middle of them? No. I forbid it!”

  “Arthur,” Merlin pleaded. “He can stop her.”

  Wolf cast his wife a calm, confident smile and then took one last look over his shoulder to make certain everyone was behind him. His gaze found Merlin’s. The sorcerer nodded slightly while the king cursed behind him. They had opened the gates. She was coming.

  Wolf pulled his sword free of its sheath and held it ready. Yes, he was ready. This was what he was born to do.

  He watched the rift opening. Morgan wasted no time in getting here. Well, let her come. Let her—

  “Wolf! Help me!”

  Fin!

  Wolf’s heart froze for an instant—and that was all the time Morgan needed to strike. She fired a force of power at him that knocked him across the hall. The last thing he heard before everything went black was laughter.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Morgan let the full extent of her rage flow freely toward her sisters and that bastard Merlin. It was the only way to stop their enchantment against her using her magic.