“Or perhaps just good old-fashioned black magic,” said the Snake, his eyes pausing on Agatha and Sophie’s cloud.
“I thought you’d say that,” the boy replied, hopping smoothly from cloud to cloud until he reached the one across from Japeth’s. “That’s why I veiled our meeting from the others. They can’t see us and we can’t see them.”
“Right. As if in addition to rising from the dead, you also acquired the power to enter a wizard’s thinking place without wizard blood,” Japeth mocked. His scims peeled off his suit and circled the boy menacingly. “No, I’d say you’re purely the figment of my enemies’ creation. Enemies who think I’ll engage a fake ghost.”
“Well, I am a ghost. That is true. Thoroughly as dead as I was yesterday,” the boy acknowledged, petting the eels with no fear. “Which means I have the power to haunt where and how I choose, including a wizard’s thinking place. To be honest, I thought you’d be happy to see me.”
Finally, Japeth looked at him. “Even sounds just like you.” His eels probed the boys’ muscles. “Feels like you too. Any idiot can fake a ghost. But to fake a dead boy in a real body . . . I have to say I’m impressed, Merlin. If it’s indeed you hiding under there. Or is it one of your friends who took on the task? Knew we should have killed the wizard when we could, precisely to put an end to his games. But Rhian thought if he could regress Merlin to a child, then he could remake his loyalties . . .” Scims pried the boys’ eyes open, assessing his purple irises. “Amazing work, really. Too bad I have to kill you to see who you really are. Maybe Sophie, now that I think about it. She does like to get too close to the fire.” His eels dropped to the boy’s throat, about to tear him apart—
“Go ahead. I won’t feel a thing. I’m dead, remember?” said the boy, unruffled. “The moment you kill me—poof!—I’ll be gone forever and your enemies will be right where you left them, ready to fight. I hid them so I could help you, Japeth. So I could warn you what Tedros is about to do.”
“I see,” Japeth said, suddenly amused. “And what secret plan have you managed to catch wind of? What is it that the idiot prince plans to do, hmm?”
“Disguise himself as me,” the purple-eyed boy replied. “He went into the Cave of Wishes. The genie granted Tedros the power to turn into whoever he wants. The genie’s magic lives inside his blood long enough for Tedros to take on my body and warp your mind. To fool you and make you believe he’s the real thing. See, that’s him over there, waiting for his moment.” A spotlight appeared, on a second clone of the boy, posed atop a distant cloud, looking fidgety and anxious, before the spotlight abruptly went dark. The boy turned back to Japeth. “I wanted to be with you before Tedros tries. So you can remember what’s true.”
Japeth’s grin lost its shape. “Let me get this straight: you will disappear and be replaced by a new you, who is Tedros in disguise. And that’s who I should kill.” He snorted, but it was half-hearted, the Snake increasingly wary of the boy. “Well, whatever magic he’s using, it can’t be better than what is in front of me.”
“This isn’t magic,” the boy replied. “It’s me, Japeth. As me as a ghost can be.”
The Snake inspected him closer, trying and failing to see through him.
“It isn’t you if you’re not flesh and blood,” Japeth taunted.
“Try me,” said the boy.
Japeth stared hard at him. Slowly, one of his scims moved from the boy’s throat up to his mouth . . . and pricked it with its tip. Blood seeped from the boy’s lips. He didn’t flinch.
Agatha’s eyes bulged.
So did the Snake’s. “You’re . . . you’re . . . real?”
“More real than the real thing,” said the boy.
Japeth’s face warmed with color. He leapt onto the boy’s cloud. “Aric?” He put his nose to Aric’s neck, inhaling his skin, touching his nose, his cheeks, before his arms clasped hard around the boy’s chest. “It’s you. Exactly you.” Tears flooded Japeth’s eyes.
From her hiding place, Agatha watched a murderous Snake embraced with a murderous savage, the two of them so close and bonded, their love almost . . . human. Emotion tickled her throat, which she instantly shoved down. She couldn’t let herself feel. Not for these two. Even her, with a heart so stubbornly Good.
“What’s happened to you?” Aric whispered, holding the Snake tight. “Changing yourself to look like Rhian. Pretending to be your own brother. The Japeth I know wouldn’t have done that. Kill Rhian, maybe. But not become him,” he smiled wryly. “Not lose wild, beautiful Japeth along the way.”
“I did it for you,” Japeth said tensely. “Everything I’ve done is for you. To get you back.”
“And then what? I have to be with ‘Rhian’ in my new life? And his terrible haircut and fake tan? I have to join your charade?” said Aric.
“I’ll tell the people the truth. About who I am. You’ll be my new liege—”
“Ah yes. Japeth the Snake, who attacked their kingdoms, murdered his brother, and pretended to be his brother, now forgiven and welcomed as Camelot’s new king. More than that: the One True King, who controls all their lives with his new Pen. And oh, he’s bringing his love back from the dead with him, who just happens to be a boy.”
“Then I’ll give up my crown—”
“They’ll kill you, Japeth. They’ll kill us both. I don’t want to be brought back to life, just to die a more ignoble death than I suffered the first time.”
Japeth was shivering now. Utterly overwhelmed. “You don’t know what I’ve done for you. Are you really turning down the chance to come back to life? To have a second chance with me? It can’t end this way. With you just . . . leaving?”
“This isn’t The End,” Aric promised. “But I’m at peace now. If you love me, Japeth, you’ll let me go. The time will come when we’ll be together again. But not like this. First you have to be who you are. Who you really are, not some Snake out to get revenge on my behalf. Surrender the crown that isn’t yours. Admit your deception to the people. Even if you’re punished for it. Even if Excalibur takes your head. Tell the truth and it will set both our souls free. We’ll be together forever, then . . . But fight too hard against fate and your spirit will never find mine. Because you can’t escape your fate, no matter what you want to believe. I learned that the hard way.”
Japeth nestled into him. “Where was this Aric when you were alive? Who is thoughtful and loving? Who speaks so tenderly to me?”
“Do what I tell you, dear Japeth,” Aric pressed. “Give us a second chance beyond this world. I’ll be waiting for you.”
Japeth gripped his shirt. “No. Not yet. Please . . . stay with me.”
“I don’t have that power, friend.”
“Then let me ask for one thing. Before you go.” Gently Japeth reached a hand to Aric’s gashed mouth, wiping away blood with his fingers. “The one thing I need from you to have peace.”