The Opal Witch: Prophecy (Book Two)

Chapter Thirty-Five

Kitty

Snowflakes drifted from the slate gray sky. So light and fluffy, they appeared to hover above the ground, always pushed along by a breeze and never sticking to any surface. Kitty, having seen very little snow in her life, found the effect enchanting, but Calum warned them it was just a precursor for a larger winter storm pushing in over the mountains. Travis grumbled and huddled in the furs that had been provided with each horse, and she smothered a laugh as his owlish eyes peeped out from the shadows of his hood.

She'd been doing her best not to poke fun at Travis, and to be fair, besides his initial proclamation that Lux owed him big time, he had kept his complaining to a minimum. A feat teenage Travis would never have been able to accomplish, and it was yet another reminder of how many changes had happened in her absence.

A shadow fell over her, and she looked over to find Percy had dropped back to ride alongside her. When she first met him, she immediately found him attractive, but here in the wilds of Camelot, red stubble dotting his chin, and a cloak of gray billowing around his shoulders, he was breathtaking. It was obvious he belonged here.

"Can I help you?" she asked when the man didn't speak after several minutes. The words were harsher than she intended, but he put her on edge in a way she couldn't quite figure out.

"You and Travis," he began, cleared his throat, and continued, "You were close once?"

How much had Lux and Declan told Calum and Percy about her? She hadn't asked, but they had to have been told enough to know they were supposed to monitor her.

"We were best friends. Sometimes, I felt like I was closer to him than I was to Lux." Kitty chewed her lip and glanced at Travis. He had given her hope that what they shared wasn't completely lost.

"My grandson is a good man." It wasn't a question.

She nodded. "One of the best. He might bitch and moan the entire way, but he would go to the ends of the earth for the people he loves."

Percy cracked a grin. "I can't say that's not a family trait. I'm not exactly known for being the quiet sort when I have a strong feeling about something."

"No! No one would ever guess that about you." She put her hand to her chest and widened her eyes dramatically. Then rolled them. "And please, don't call him your grandson. It's just weird."

"Why?"

"Why?" Kitty opened and closed her mouth. For starters, that would mean she would have to admit she had the hots for her friend's grandfather... great, great, great grandfather, to be precise, and while she'd always been a sucker for an age gap romance, this was not what she had in mind.

"My grandfather was four hundred twenty-seven before he got his first gray hair, and I don't think it had anything to do with age. That was the year he married my grandmother."

"Holy crap." She knew the Guardians were long lived, but seeing Calum and Percy and...the ghost of a name formed and dissipated. She tried to chase it, but it made her head hurt. Seeing the two of them looking so young made her forget they could be ancient. "How old are you?"

"A few centuries," he answered.

"How long can you live?"

Percy shrugged, the edges of his lips turning down. "We don't know. Guardians don't exactly get a chance to die in their beds. The first Guardians would be nearing fifteen hundred years. Tristan was the last of the originals to be seen, and that was a century before I was born. They say he didn't look a day older than he had the day he drank from the Grail."

"Should you be giving all these secrets away to someone like me?" she half teased, half warned. But she held her breath and watched his eyes, waiting to see him pull away from her.

"My grandson is a good man," Percy repeated. Tears burned behind Kitty's eyes. "I've seen you two together for all of a few hours, and he loves you. He makes sure you stay in his line of sight. He slows down if you fall behind, and I heard him tell Sara Elizabeth to take it easy on you before we left. He's a good man, and if you're worthy of his affection, I don't need to know anything else."

"You can't know all that about him or me in just a few hours," she sniffled.

"You learn a thing or two about people when you've lived as long as I have."

A warm weight settled on her thigh, and she hesitated for only a second before putting her gloved hand on top of his. When she curled her fingers under his palm, he squeezed tight. His touch was comforting, but there was something else. Something that made the hairs on her arm stand straight and heat rush to her cheeks.

"What is that?" she asked to distract him from her red face.

Reluctantly, she withdrew her hand and pointed to a towering tree in the distance. Until now, thick, emerald needled pines had shaded the road they traveled. This tree sat alone in a large clearing, the road swinging wide as if to avoid it. No leaves grew on its knotted brown branches, and the trunk was twisted and grew several feet to the left before turning back toward the sky.

"Merlin's Tree."

"I didn't think anyone knew where that was," Kitty gasped.

"You've done your research, then." The Guardian sounded impressed.

"I was a spy for Morgan le Fay. Of course I've done my research, and I have to admit, I was a little fascinated with this part because Vivian was a witch. How on earth did she trap a man as powerful as Merlin?"

"If we knew that, we might have been able to free him. Lord knows we've tried over the years. He's the only one Morgan ever truly feared. Well, her and–"

Declan's shout cut him off, and everyone turned their mounts to face the sorcerer, who was smiling for the first time in days. Kitty winced. There was no doubt there was a bit of an edge to the smile, and his dark eyes were almost manic as he swung them from face to face.

"She's alive. I can feel her again. Lux is alive."