The Darkest Knight (Guardians of Camelot #3) - Victoria Sue Page 0,2

and Merlin had thought the same of the witch.

He’d been wrong. Morgan le Fay loved Mordred.

And for his death, England would suffer.

The whole world would.

Chapter 1

“Nothing?”

Kay shook his head as Lance sat down next to him in the office while he was watching Gawain’s fingers fly over the keyboard. He knew what Lance was asking, and he didn’t attempt to hide his confusion or his desolation. It had been six months and seemed at least as many lifetimes since he had seen Charles. He would never have run out of the room if he had known Charles was going to leave without him.

He knew—absolutely knew—Charles was his Tresor. The constant ache in his gut, the feeling of despair, the feeling that part of you was missing. He just didn’t understand how it was possible. Tresors were mortal. They all knew that, and especially in Charles’s case, his life wasn’t his own. He had made that abundantly clear, even if Kay didn’t understand it. Had it all been a cruel dream? Finally, to have someone to ease his loneliness, warm the chill of despair that sometimes seeped so far in his bones he felt as if his life were some frozen masquerade, playing out for Morgan’s entertainment? It could be argued that Kay’s life—all their lives—weren’t their own, but Kay made that choice every day. Every day when he strapped on his sword and went out to fight, it was still his decision. Charles had insisted he had no choice.

Maybe I’m just not enough temptation to look for one.

“Have you found anything new?” Lance addressed Gawain.

“Nothing much other than what Charles already told us,” Gawain said in frustration. “The Hospitallers were not founded until the early eleventh century some six hundred years after the events at Camlaan. They were founded to give aid to pilgrims visiting the Holy Land.”

“I thought they were a military order?” Lance asked.

“They became military during the Crusades, spent a few hundred years moving all over the Americas and then Europe before settling in Malta. They varied between policing much of Europe and behaving like pirates.”

“I’ve certainly never come across any that seemed to have unnatural abilities,” Lance confirmed and glanced at Kay.

“I’ve met them a few times over the years but none that ever seemed to have the abilities Charles has, and certainly none that ever gave me the impression they had lived more than one lifetime. The ones I met were in the various hospitals I have given aid to.” Because at one time Kay had dreamed of being a doctor. But that dream had been taken from him as well.

“You spent some time in Jerusalem.” Lance nudged Gawain. “While I was in France.”

“I missed you by a few weeks,” Gawain said. “The monks spoke of a healer who never forgot anything. They said he had been sent by God, but the devil sent unseen monsters to drive him out. I guessed—hoped—they meant you.”

He had been there months and was just beginning to hope he could find somewhere to use his knowledge, but the Ursus had come one night and nearly destroyed the building in trying to kill him. Kay had to leave without the chance to say goodbye to his patients.

It seemed he always had to say goodbye.

Kay knew he had to move, to do something, just as Mel came in and flopped down. “I’m starving,” he said dramatically. Lance chuckled and in one move plucked him bodily from his chair and onto his lap. Mel nuzzled his neck, and Kay had to look away as a flare of jealousy ripped through him. Gawain huffed and pushed himself away from the screen.

“It’s my turn. Pizza?”

Kay wrinkled his nose. Charles had been a good cook as well.

“Or I can make spaghetti,” Gawain offered with even less enthusiasm.

He studied the other knights as one by one they all trooped despondently into the large kitchen. They hadn’t had a break on any night for the last six months either, even though they hadn’t seen large numbers. The Ursus had just kept coming, and it seemed no matter how many they killed, they would always be back the next night.

“Have you thought any more about leaving the city?” Gawain asked Lance as they walked into the kitchen.

Lance looked bleakly at him. “Mel thinks it wouldn’t make any difference.”

Gawain glanced over at Mel as he thumbed through the menus they kept in a drawer. “You sense something?”

Mel tossed the menus aside and looked at Gawain with troubled eyes. “We