Free My Merlin Awakening by Priya Ardis

heard that before.” Vane looked at Matt. “Keep her out of trouble.”
    Matt nodded. Vane and Grey crossed to the entrance.
    “You don’t need to baby me,” I said.
    “Vane shouldn’t have brought you at all. You need more training.”
    “I’ve had training,” I said.
    “Then, you need time,” Matt replied. “You ran away, Ryan.”
    He walked to the small door. Fuming, I stared after him. Even after all I’d done, they still saw me as five-foot-nothing blonde flower. I stalked to the door. “I went home to recover not to run away.”
    “That is what you say.” Matt waved a hand and the wooden door creaked open. “But not how you really feel.”
    I made a face. Why did he have to understand me so well? He and Vane. Both managed to get under my skin so easily. It was annoying. We entered a small room, straight out of slasher movie. Matt’s hand glowed a faint blue, giving us enough light to look around. A medley of innocuous scented candles and soaps had been laid out in neat rows on shelves all around the small space.
    “The hallway.” Matt pointed to the opposite end of the room and started walking to it.
    “Strange place for a candleshop,” I muttered, following him. Black blobs of dark matter popped in, out, and around us. Anyone of them could have hidden the fanged face of a bloodthirsty gargoyle.
    Every nerve on end, I walked straight into a shelf. Matt stopped my fall by jerking me up by my shirt with one hand. I slammed into his chest. With his other hand, he righted the wobbling shelf. Soaps and bottles floated in mid-air. The faint aura of blue magic sparkled in low light.
    My face mashed against his ribs. I inhaled a breath of amber and earth, the smell of morning dew dripping on tender leaves across a green lawn.
    Images flooded into my mind.
    Matt and I lay on the floor, kissing like there would be no tomorrow. Both naked. His hands skimmed across the bare skin of my chest. My fingers tangled in his hair, pulling him closer —
    As quickly as the images had flashed, they stopped.
    It took me a second to center myself back in the scent shop. I realized I was panting. Heat weakened my bones, forcing me to hold even tighter onto Matt.
    He let out a choked sound.
    In the dark, I whispered, “Matt.”
     

 
    CHAPTER 5 - NYMPH’S LURE

    CHAPTER 5
NYMPH’S LURE
     
    “I’m sorry.”
    “Aren’t you always?” I thought back.
    Carefully, I pushed away from him.
    The images lingered in my mind. From his tone, I could tell he was embarrassed. With another blue shimmer of magic, Matt returned the floating soaps and bottles to the shelf. I stared at him. He’d already chosen his path and it didn’t include me.
    So had I. Vane.
    Then, why did my heart still race?
    Matt put a finger to his mouth. The ceiling creaked under the weight of someone walking above us. I took a step and winced as glass burst under my boot heels. Just behind me, another shelf had been knocked over. An array of fine little soaps and bottles lay scattered around the floor. The sinister shadows of the storeroom closed in and I expected a gargoyle to leap out at me at any second. My stomach knotted. I wished I had Excalibur.
    Whether it was our connection through the amulet, or he just sensed my nervousness, Matt touched my shoulder, a warm hand easing the cold given off the barren room. He drew out a knife and gave it to me. It shimmered with a faint blue glimmer that always preceded Matt’s magic and the blade lengthened into a sword. Excalibur’s hilt gleamed under a ray of moonlight that penetrated through a small window.
    “You actually brought it?” I thought to him.
    “I brought Excalibur to Boston for this in the first place.” He headed out of the room. We crossed what looked like a kitchen to a narrow hallway.
    I scooted along behind him. “ You said it was to convince me to go back.”
    “I didn’t need it to do that. I would have made you see reason without it.”
    In the dark, I stuck out my tongue at