Guinevere's Grail | ✓ [BOOK 2]

~ 40 ~

MORGANA RESTED HIS METAL hand against his stomach to catch his breath, and he turned to face Kit when the prince collapsed at his side. The prince may have been tired, but he was beaming, and if Morgana was none the wiser, he would've thought the faint yellow glow around his skin was real and not just a figment of the high.

"How's that for the end of the world?" Kit said, raking his fingers through his hair.

Morgana propped himself up onto his side, littering his face with gentle kisses. It had been far too long since his smile reached his eyes. "If we both died right now, I'd probably be fine with it."

"What about Giselle? Won't she miss you?"

"She's got Selene," he hummed.

"I've never seen you like this," Kit said, cupping his face and pushing him back so he could look at him. Morgana's hair fell around them like a curtain, still dripping wet from the water. "I hope this is a good thing."

He had nothing to say to that, nothing honest, at least, so he stayed quiet. Truthfully, he didn't know if it was good. He didn't care, either, maybe that was what made it so dangerous. He felt intoxicated, and he had to sober up. Maybe another day, he could let himself feel like this.

With a wince, Morgana sat up, dipping back into the water to clean his mess and splash his face, shocking himself back into reality. He was still more relaxed than he was used to, but the longer he was there, the less fuzzy his head felt.

There wasn't much of a conversation after that, the two silently dressed themselves and left to find the others. Morgana was relieved there would be no suspicion regarding his limp, and he was more grateful than ever for his cane. They found their companions in a small meeting room, Mab at the end of a table with sunken eyes, Chalice leaning against the wall chatting with Lionel, and Eurion lying on the floor nursing an old bottle of whiskey.

"Where's Giselle?" Morgana asked. He didn't have a good feeling about this.

Eurion shrugged. "We haven't seen her or Selene. We looked everywhere." Her speech was slurred and her face was pale. She was drunk.

Morgana still didn't know everything that happened back at the palace, but he didn't think he had to. He already had an idea. He gulped. "Titania declared war... didn't she?" It was phrased as a statement rather than a question, because he was sure he knew the answer.

No one looked him in the eye.

"Didn't she?" he repeated.

It was Kit who finally spoke up.  "Yes," he said, voice broken. "Oh Gods, and Giselle is a--"

"She's a Seelie," Morgana cut in. "If her people are against mine, then she's gone. And she's not coming back."

His vision blurred and the whole world was shifting beneath his feet. He missed fifteen minutes ago when he was feeling the best euphoria of his life. When he wasn't coming to the realization that he'd never see his best friend again, and he didn't even get to say goodbye.

"And Selene went with her," Kit said. "Because of course she would. So we're never gonna see her, either."

"That's not true," Mab replied grimly. "We'll see them again. On the other side of the battlefield, fighting on Titania's side, because their only other choice is Giselle being stripped of everything she is."

Morgana didn't want this anymore. He wanted to be back in the pool, pretending the only thing he had to worry about was the end of the world. "Where'd you find that whiskey, Eurion?" The thief gestured vaguely, and he didn't think he'd get an answer out of her. "Fine. I'll find it myself."