With My Last Breath

  ‚He was,' my mother agreed. ‚But no longer. Not right now. The boy who you saved? Arthur ran him through with his lance… he didn’t want a person tainted by witchcraft to live.'

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  With My Last Breath, Book Three

  I gasped. The image of the sweet boy’s face passed through my mind and I flinched at the thought of Arthur killing him. This couldn’t be happening. I shook my head.

  ‚It’s true, daughter,' Ares confirmed. ‚I was there and I saw it myself.'

  ‚So what do we do?' I asked limply.

  ‚We get the sword,' my mother replied simply. ‚It’s the only thing we can do.'

  ‚I suggest that we free Lucan from the dungeons,' Ares offered. ‚Harmonia, you and he should ride to find the sword. We don’t want to leave him here- we don’t want them to execute him before you return with the sword.'

  I nodded, finally able to suppress my panic. If we had a plan, I was fine. I could work with a plan. And there was no way in hell that I would leave Lucan here alone.

  ‚Ares and I will remain here,' my mother continued. ‚We’ll try to contain this situation as best we can. But this goes without saying… you need to find the sword quickly. It is hard to say what the Fates will do in the meantime, daughter.'

  I nodded solemnly. She had never been more correct.

  ‚I will accompany you,' Hecate added quietly. ‚We no longer need to be quite so careful about making changes here- we will change everything back to its rightful place with the sword. You will need my assistance.'

  Ares agreed. ‚That is a wise idea, witch. You will protect my daughter with your life.' It wasn’t a suggestion or a request. It was a bold imperative. I shot Hecate an I’m sorry look behind my father’s back. She shrugged understandingly.

  ‚I will do what I can,' she replied. Ares glared at her, indicating that her best was not enough. She ignored it, turning instead to face me.

  ‚So, first we need to free Lucan,' I pointed out. ‚And then we will ride out.'

  ‚It won’t be difficult,' Ares said. ‚Time has stopped here. We will walk into the dungeons, I’ll break his chains and we’ll … in fact, let us not talk about it. Let us just do it.' He waved his meaty hand and we were all standing in the front of the dungeon’s iron gates.

  The smell from the dungeons was moldy and stale and my nose automatically wrinkled. It was eerily quiet. Nothing moved, even the air was still. It was as though we were walking through a paused movie. It was the strangest feeling.

  Ares shoved his fist through the metal keyhole of the gate and it tumbled impotently to the floor, clanging loudly against the stone. He pushed the gates open and motioned for us to continue through.

  ‚Ladies first,' he grinned.

  I rolled my eyes and walked past, anxious to find Lucan. He should not be in this place. This was a place for murderers and thieves.

  The darkness down here was blinding- it took a few minutes for my eyes to adjust.

  Torches were few and far between. I could hear Hecate muttering beneath her breath, Courtney Cole 89

  With My Last Breath, Book Three

  but I couldn’t understand what she was saying and frankly, at this point, I just didn’t care. My sole focus was on Lucan.

  Turning into a long, damp hallway, we began looking into cells. Dank and dark, these were miserable little holes used for housing the scourge of Camelot’s society. I cringed away from the walls. Inside each cell, a dirty, hardened criminal was frozen.

  Some were chained in corners, some were hanging in chains from the ceiling and one, a particularly dangerous looking man, was standing frozen with his fingers wrapped around his cell bars. His legs were manacled and bleeding onto the floor. His icy blue eyes stared sightlessly at me and I unconsciously moved away.

  ‚He’s here!' Ares called from the front. I hurried to catch up.

  Breaking through the cell doors, Ares rushed inside. I gasped as I turned the corner to follow him. My beloved was dangling in mid-air, his wrists bleeding as the manacles cut into his skin. His face was bruised and blood dripped down his bare toes onto the stone bricks.

  Tears welled up as I rushed to him, my eyes stinging. Ares was already lowering him from the ceiling onto the floor.

  ‚Wake him,' he implored to Hecate. ‚Wake him and leave here. Don’t awaken anyone else until you have passed the palace gates.'

  She nodded. ‚That’s the plan, war god. I can only keep time still for so long, but a few more minutes shouldn’t be a problem.'

  I knelt next to my husband, stroking his battered face.

  ‚Why did they do this?' I whispered. ‚Why did they beat him? He’s a valued knight. Arthur loves him.'

  ‚Arthur loved him,' Guinevere corrected. ‚He doesn’t love anything anymore.

  Everything has changed, daughter.'

  Cold fingers curled around my belly. ‚I can’t leave you here, then,' I murmured to her while I stroked Lucan’s bloody hand. ‚What will he do to you?'

  ‚Nothing,' she replied, meeting my gaze calmly. ‚He will do nothing to me. You were the one who healed the boy. He has no reason to suspect that I am anything other than his wife.'

  ‚But you said that he doesn’t love anything now. What about you? He loved you more than life.'

  She shook her head sadly. ‚He’s empty, dear one. He loves nothing. He has been hardened to the world. But he won’t harm me- I’ve given him no reason. Just find the sword and return so that we can fix this atrocity. No one here deserves this.'

  I nodded, listening to Hecate mumbling her incantations as she hovered over my husband.

  ‚There is one detail,' Hecate muttered, looking up at me, ‚That I haven’t told you.'

  ‚And that is?'

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  With My Last Breath, Book Three

  ‚He cannot remember you. If I bring him back just as he is, he would never leave here. He would stay to try and clear his name. I will take his memories and return them to him later.'

  Dejection filled the pit of my stomach, heavy and cold. I was sick of being in positions where my husband didn’t remember me. He was mine and he should know that he was mine. But I understood the need for it now and nodded silently. Hecate returned her attention to Lucan.

  ‚Awake,' she whispered finally. ‚Awake, awake, awake.'

  His eyes opened, his beautiful warm, dark eyes. He focused on me since I was directly in front of him. There was not an ounce of recognition in his gaze and I steeled myself, feeling overwhelmed by déjà vu. I had been in this situation once before in Eris’

  house in the Spiritlands.

  He stared at all of us in turn, remaining still and silent on the cold, stone floor as he studied his surroundings. Finally, he spoke.

  ‚What are we doing here?'

  Hecate answered him calmly with a question. ‚Do you know who you are?'

  He shook his head. ‚And I do not know you, either. Should I?'

  She smiled gently, patting his hand. ‚Not right now, but you will later. For now, we need to move. Can you walk?'

  He gingerly stretched his injured limbs, flinching just a little from the pain before he quickly masked it. His warrior’s heart had not changed. He was not going to allow us to see how much he hurt. I wanted to smile, but didn’t. Nothing about this situation was funny. My soul mate had been beaten within an inch of his life and he didn’t remember me. It wasn’t funny at all.

  I rushed forward to offer my assistance while he stood, but he shrugged me off. I should have expected that- he would never lean on a woman, even when he didn’t remember who he was. He picked himself off of the floor and stood quietly, assessing each of us with clear eyes.

  ‚Let us go,' Hecate suggested. ‚We need to hurry.'

  Lucan didn’t ask any questions, he simply accompanied us up and out of the dungeon and through the palace until we stood outside in the darkened courtyard. As we passed a commons area, we found soldiers frozen in mid-movement- armor
dangling in midair, horses halted mid-step. Lucan turned to us in amazement and confusion.

  ‚What is going on here? What is this?' he asked, gesturing with his arm. ‚What trickery is this?'

  ‚It’s no trickery,' I replied quietly. ‚But there is no time to explain. We’ll explain it from the safety of the road.'

  He studied me for a moment before offering me a curt nod.

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  ‚Very well.'

  We hurried into the stables and saddled three horses. Aphrodite and Ares lingered inside the stable doors, watching us prepare. Reagan was frozen mid-stroke as he wiped down a damp horse. Beads of sweat ran down its great head and dripped onto the floor, several drops frozen in the air.

  As we mounted, Ares spoke.

  ‚Hurry, daughter. Return as soon as you can.'

  I gave him a droll look. ‚Obviously.'

  As we passed my parents, my mother grabbed Celine’s bridle and leaned up toward me. ‚Be careful, sweetling,' she murmured. ‚Hurry back.'

  I nodded, bending to brush a kiss across her cheek.

  Hecate looked back at me.

  ‚Are you ready? We must hurry. I cannot hold it back any longer.'

  ‚Yes. Let us ride.'

  We nudged our horses into a run and we galloped through the commons and out the palace doors. I felt Celine’s strength welling in her thick muscles beneath me as she surged forward, her ears flicking from time to time. Even the horses sensed that something was amiss.

  When we were halfway down the mountain, I heard the castle above us erupt into noise. The spell had been broken- time was unfrozen and everyone was awake. It was a jarring comparison, showing just how quiet it really had been while everyone was silent.

  Lucan glanced sideways at me, giving me a long look as we rode hard to escape the palace.

  ‚Can you explain now, my lady?' he called.

  ‚Yes,' I called back. ‚Just as soon as I think of something to say.'

  He threw his head back and laughed, a sound that warmed my soul. No matter what we had to go through or how many times he didn’t remember me, he was the same and so was I. That was all that mattered.

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  With My Last Breath, Book Three

  Chapter Fifteen

  We sat around a flickering campfire, the orange and red flames licking upwards toward the night and I stared at Lucan’s face through them. Without his knowledge, Hecate had bewitched our horses’ legs, enabling them to carry us farther than humanly possible away from the castle grounds. He didn’t even notice, engrossed in my feeble attempts to explain our predicament away.

  In the darkness, Hecate nudged me.

  ‚Here,' she pushed something toward me. ‚Drink this. We’ll need you at full strength.'

  I glanced down at a gleaming nickel flask. She had brought nectar from the Spiritlands. Drinking it would maintain my immortal strength… and oh, how I wished I could share it with Lucan. But glancing at him, I knew that I could not. His face was pensive as he reflected across the campfire. He wasn’t ready to hear the truth.

  ‚When should we tell him?' I whispered, confident that the crackles and pops of the fire would hide my question from him.

  ‚Not yet,' she replied thoughtfully. ‚Not yet.'

  I nodded as I lifted the flask to my lips, taking a sip of the sumptuous liquid.

  Spiritlands nectar was the most delicious substance in the world, even if it was created from the blood of the unborn. I closed my eyes and enjoyed the overwhelming sensations as my strength returned to my limbs. I felt it flowing in my blood, warm and fierce.

  ‚So where are we going?' Lucan asked. I opened my eyes to find him watching me, his dark eyes sharp and perceptive. I should have known. He never missed anything.

  I rose from the blanket that I was seated on and crossed to his side, perching in the sand next to him. The wind gently blew, wafting his scent in my direction, and it was all I could do not to launch myself into his arms.

  ‚We must travel to Brittany,' I explained. ‚There is something there that we feel the King needs.'

  ‚And how would you know what the king needs?' Lucan asked me with a raised eyebrow.

  ‚I just do,' I murmured. ‚Can you trust me?'

  He stared down at me, the bronzed angles of his face catching the firelight. His eyes were so deep that I felt I could fall into them.

  ‚Possibly,' he answered. ‚I feel as though I should, but I have nothing to base that feeling on.'

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  ‚Knights must often trust their instincts, correct?' He had told me as much many times.

  ‚But alas, you have told me that I am no longer a knight,' he answered dejectedly.

  ‚And I cannot remember why.'

  ‚It is through no fault of your own,' I assured him. ‚And we will work hard to put things to rights. Your assistance will be of utmost help.'

  He nodded. ‚And you will have it. I shall do what I can.'

  My heart ached at the pain on his face. My soul mate was loyalty and honor at its finest. It must be crushing him now to believe that the king had dismissed him from duty. I longed to reach out and stroke the pain away, to hold him close, but I swallowed hard instead, gripping my own hands in my lap. I must not.

  ‚I think I will turn in,' I said as I rose. ‚We will have a long ride in the morning.'

  Hecate and Lucan also rose and made preparations to sleep. We encircled our campground in a ring of fire in order to keep wolves away while we slept and laid our thick saddle blankets on the ground to sleep on.

  ‚I’ll take first watch,' Lucan offered. ‚I am not tired yet, anyway.'

  From the weary lines on his face, I knew he was lying. But it would do no good to argue. He would never let a woman take first watch.

  ‚Very well,' I answered. ‚Thank you. I’ll take it second.'

  I snuggled down into my saddle blanket and tried to sleep, ignoring the horse smell that emanated from it. Pulling my cloak around me, I discreetly watched Lucan. He stared into the night with alert eyes, studying any small noise with the utmost care. He held a sword on his lap. No matter where we were, he made me feel safe.

  I meant to stay awake as well, but the warmth of the fire lulled me to sleep. My eyelids became so heavy that I simply couldn’t hold them open. But no sooner had I closed them, then I was standing in the Wastelands.

  The harsh wind shrieked around me and the whiteness was startling… swirling with shades of black and gray. It was the strangest place I’d ever been. The cold penetrated me from the outside in and I stood shivering as I watched for Cadmus.

  ‚Where are you?' I called into the vast empty space. ‚You’ve called me here…

  where are you?'

  There was no answer but for the howl of the wind. I pulled my cloak more tightly around my face.

  ‚Cadmus!' I called. ‚Please answer me! I don’t like it here.'

  ‚No one does,' a voice replied. I turned and found Ahmose standing behind me.

  His black eyes glittered as he perused me.

  ‚Cadmus is no longer here,' he told me, staring at me as though I should have already known.

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  ‚Where is he?' I asked, my heart leaping into my throat. ‚Where did he go? And if he’s not here, who brought me here? You?'

  Ahmose nodded. ‚Yes, I brought you here, Harmonia. Everything has been changed. Have I taught you nothing over the years?'

  ‚I don’t understand,' I whimpered. ‚What do you mean?'

  ‚You changed everything,' Ahmose repeated sternly. ‚Everything that has happened is because of your carelessness. How could you let Lachesis know that you were in Camelot, that you knew everything? How could you be so careless?'