My Boyfriend Merlin (Book 1, My Merlin Series) Read online

  My Boyfriend Merlin

  Priya Ardis

  Table Of Contents

  CHAPTER 1 THE WORLD CHANGES

  CHAPTER 2 ATTACK

  CHAPTER 3 BETRAYED

  CHAPTER 4 A NEW ROAD

  CHAPTER 5 ENEMY MINE

  CHAPTER 6 THE COUNCIL

  CHAPTER 7 AVALON PREPARATORY

  CHAPTER 8 THE MOST FAMOUS WIZARD

  CHAPTER 9 BASIC ELEMENTS

  CHAPTER 10 TRAINING

  CHAPTER 11 ROUND TABLE

  CHAPTER 12 GARGOYLES

  CHAPTER 13 THE TRAP

  CHAPTER 14 A SURPRISE

  CHAPTER 15 THE DECOY

  CHAPTER 16 A CHRISTMAS PARTY TO REMEMBER

  CHAPTER 17 THE TEST

  CHAPTER 18 THE SHOT HEARD AROUND THE WORLD

  CHAPTER 19 MERLIN

  My Merlin Awakening

  About the Author

  Author's Note

  My Boyfriend Merlin. Copyright 2011 by Priyanka Ardis.

  Cover illustrations by Claudia McKinney, Phatpuppy Art. Cover design by Kat Baldwin, Ink Lion Books.

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical without the author's express written permission. The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book via the Internet or via any other means without permission is prohibited.

  This novel is a work of fiction. Any references to real people or real locations are used fictitiously. Any references to historical events are used fictitiously. Characters, names, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual incidents or persons is coincidental.

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of various products referenced in this work of fiction, which have been used without permission. The publication/use of these trademarks is not authorized, associated with, or sponsored by the trademark owners.

  Ardis, Priya (2011). My Boyfriend Merlin. Young Adult Fantasy Romance. Ink Lion Books.

  http://inklionbooks.com

  Visit the author website:

  http://www.priyaardis.com

  ISBN: 978-0-9848339-0-0

  Version 2012.04.02

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  I would like to thank my family and friends. This book has been truly a community effort and I am grateful for all their support, encouragement, and numerous—not to mention often repetitious—“first reads” over the years. I would like to thank the writing organizations that do their best to encourage every writer to climb out of the basement once in awhile. I dedicate this book to them and a great English teacher, Mrs. P., who let me know when something sparkled or it was only so-so.

  In addition, I would like to thank my editors, ER and WM. Thank you to CM at Phatpuppy Art for giving me such a gorgeous cover picture. Thank you to KB, a real life fairy godmother, for pulling the cover, book, everything else together.

  CHAPTER 1

  THE WORLD CHANGES

  I remember exactly what I was doing when I heard the news…

  I’d always heard the phrase from older people. They remembered they’d just ordered a cup of coffee when JFK died. They remembered they’d been folding their leg warmers when the Challenger shuttle blew up on take-off on national TV or that it was a Tuesday when terrorists crashed a plane into the twin towers…

  I’d heard about such life changing events, but like anyone I didn’t really believe it would happen to me.

  I was sitting in school when the story broke. A text message made my phone vibrate in my pocket. Making sure the teacher’s back was turned, I snuck out the phone.

  RYAN, WE NEED TO TALK. It blinked with a number I recognized even though I’d deleted the name from my contact list. Matt. I felt his eyes boring into the back of my head. I refused to look.

  I drew my sweater around me. A line of windows across the top of the basement classroom did nothing to retain warmth. Our school district may have been well funded but you couldn’t tell from the bland grey floor, whitewash walls and standard-issue combination desk-chairs.

  My name is Arriane Morganne Brittany DuLac—you can imagine why I went by Ryan instead. I doodled on my notepad and tried to concentrate as our Advanced European History teacher droned on about Queen Elizabeth. It was hard to be interested when I knew more about the subject than she did.

  “With one decision, she changed the course of history. Her ships defeated the Spanish armada—Ryan, what year did the Spanish armada try to invade England?”

  I blinked at her. Switching off the phone without replying, I snuck it back into my pocket but I was pretty sure Ms. Bedevere saw me. I said quickly, “August 8th, 1588. The fleet was stopped in the English Channel near a place called Gravelines.”

  Ms. Bedevere slowly nodded. “Near northern France—”

  “Actually, it was part of the Netherlands—”

  The door to the adjoining classroom flung open. We all snapped to attention.

  “You’ve got to see this.” Mr. Hainey, our bald munchkin-sized Physics 2 teacher, burst inside with a wild look behind his round glasses. “They’re showing it on every channel.”

  Hainey housed a permanent TV in a closet in his classroom that he called the “lab.” He grabbed Ms. Bedevere by the hand. “You have to see. You’ll never believe it.”

  “Peter, I can’t leave the classroom. What’s happened?”

  Everyone knew Hainey had a crush on the petite redhead, ever since he’d convinced the Principal that the empty biology room down the hall from his classroom would be the best spot for our history class after an unfortunate pipe leak orphaned us.

  “This is a once in a lifetime chance. You’re a history teacher. History is happening now.” He hurried her to the door. “If you don’t see it, you’ll never forgive yourself.”

  Ms. Bedevere’s eyes fixed on me. “Ryan?”

  Feeling the other kids’ eyes on me, I squirmed, but nodded.

  Someone coughed. “Kiss-ass.”

  “Class, stay put until I get back. No matter what.” She tossed the words over her shoulder as she left. A sudden gust of wind slammed the classroom door shut.

  Grey Ragnar stretched, drawing attention to the broad shoulders under his football letter jacket. He sauntered over and sat on my flimsy student desk making it sink. Model-like brown hair emphasized a chiseled jaw. “Hey, DuLac, I have two words for you—casino prom.”

  Grey’s buddies hollered enthusiastically.

  I resisted a groan. “I’ll bring the idea to the committee.”

  Grey smiled broadly. “I knew you and I would be on the same page, Ry.”

  I was saved from answering as a muted vibration made the windows shake. A boy stood up to go to them.

  His name was Matt. Matt Emrys. He’d started school just this fall, a month ago… long enough for every girl in the class to fall in love with him—not that I knew why. Okay, I knew why. He was hot. Six foot, lean muscles, pretty face, and he rode a shiny new yellow-black Ducati motorcycle that had more curves than I did. He was a little eerie, a little dangerous, and a lot irresistible.

  Who wouldn’t be in love with him? I thought his dark amber eyes were his best feature. The rest of him looked seventeen, but his eyes looked grown-up… as if they’d seen lifetimes.

  I sighed. I’d been enthralled as soon as I’d laid eyes on him. I’d moved not too long ago too. After my mother had died, I’d been brought from sun-soaked Texas to the cold Bos
ton suburb of Concord. In my life of dull grey, Matt Emrys stood illuminated in full color.

  Matt flung open the window. A screeching sound filled the room. He slammed the window shut. In a clipped British accent that could make ordinary words gold, he said calmly, “It appears to be the city siren.”

  One of Grey’s football buddies shouted, “Let’s get out of here.”

  Beside me, our soon-to-be valedictorian, a quiet girl, wheezed and pushed aside the thick brown hair that usually veiled her face. You had to be really nerdy to be valedictorian at Acton-Concord High School. Five out of the top ten kids had gone to Harvard last year. “Ms. Bedevere said to stay in class.”

  “I’m not going to stay here just because she said so. Learn to make up your own mind, Bennett.” Grey scowled at her.

  His buddies nodded along with him. Bennett blushed under the male scrutiny.

  I rose up. “Leave her alone, Grey. It’s what Ms. Bedevere said.”

  Grey gave me an irritated look. “And what do you suggest, Madam President?”

  “Ragnar is right. This once. We should go.” Matt’s deep voice washed over me from the back of the room.

  Grey looked at Matt in surprise. I could see in Grey’s face he wanted to take back his words just to spite Matt agreed. Since the first day Matt had started school, he and Grey had been going at each other. Grey could be overbearing. He pretty much ruled our class. Then Matt had transferred in and the battle royale had begun. I hadn’t seen it at first—I became a blubbering idiot at the sight of Matt—but the antagonism between them was mostly Matt’s fault. He needled Grey, and only Grey, purposefully. I didn’t know why.

  The other students’ heads looked back and forth between the three of us.

  “Emergency procedures state that we should go to the nearest safe room." I straightened to the full length of my five-foot-two-inch frame. “Ms. Bedevere will be in Hainey’s room. We’ll all go there.”

  Like horses released from the gate, the classroom scrambled to close up their backpacks and rush to the door.

  We went down the hall into the long physics room. It turned out we weren’t the only ones Hainey had alerted. Kids from the Chem-2 class next door had already beaten us there. Even though the class sizes for advanced placement classes were fairly small, fifty or so students were crowded in the room.

  Ms. Bedevere smiled at me winningly. “Good work, Ryan. I knew I could depend on you to handle anything.”

  “Right, as if you would have remembered to come get us,” Grey muttered behind me.

  High tables and bench seats made up the physics room. Hainey pointed under them. His class was already huddled beneath. “Get down. They say it will be here any minute.”

  Grey asked, “What’s going on?”

  A rumble shook the building. I lost my footing and stumbled.

  A pair of male arms wrapped around my waist and stopped my fall. A smooth voice spoke into my ear, “Don’t panic. I have you.”

  I took a breath. Matt. I should have pushed him away but I couldn’t. A sense of calm encased me. The building trembled, but it seemed far away. Lights flickered off and on. He pulled us to the side of the room behind a tall bookshelf filled with Hainey’s science knick-knacks.

  The building gave a slight shudder. A few glass beakers tumbled off the lab tables and broke. The knick-knack shelf wobbled. Instinctively, my body moved to get away from it.

  Matt’s arms around me tightened and held me in place. “Stay still.”

  My heart raced. I wanted to stay with him. Pathetic.

  I tried to pull away from him. He held me in place.

  “Are you crazy?” I pointed behind us where everyone else was huddled. “We need to get under—”

  But it was too late. The building gave a violent shake. A model of the galaxy crashed to the ground. I heard a few gasps. Most of the knick-knacks flew off the shelf. I braced myself for the hit.

  None of the knick-knacks hit us. A microscope, a floating ball as heavy as twenty-pound weights, and numerous other models tumbled down… and over us. I watched as they fell all around Matt and me. It was as if an invisible bubble was keeping us safe.

  I glanced at Matt flabbergasted. Half-a-minute after it started, the tremor stopped. No one moved for what seemed like another ten minutes. Although with Matt holding me, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to move… ever.

  There was loud shuffling as the kids under the tables started to come out. Matt let go of me. I grabbed his arm and pointed to the fallen knick-knacks. They made a neat circle around us. “Why didn’t they hit us?”

  Dark eyes fixed on me, but then let go. Matt shrugged. “Guess we were lucky.”

  “Ryan?” Grey said from the other side of the shelf.

  I could hear the worry in Grey’s voice. My soon-to-be brother’s voice. The Ragnars had taken me in when I had no one left. Now they wanted to adopt me to make it official. I wasn’t entirely sure how I felt about it. It had always been my mom and me against the world and I’d lost her too. Being part of a family was as thrilling as it was scary. It also came with responsibility. As much as I didn’t want to let Matt off the hook, I stepped back around the shelf into the open part of the room. “I’m here.”

  A few kids stared when Matt walked out behind me. One snickered, “Hope the earthquake didn’t distract you two.”

  Grey looked at Matt with an unhappy expression.

  “Was that it?” someone murmured. “I thought an earthquake would be bigger.”

  “Joey’s car shakes worse than that,” one of Grey’s buddies said and made an old jalopy glug-glug sound. His friends laughed.

  “But we don’t have earthquakes,” another kid said.

  “Boston had a 3-pointer not too long ago,” our valedictorian intoned. “But I don’t know if one’s ever come all the way out to Concord.”

  Hainey waved his cellphone in the air. “It’s not an earthquake. They’re calling it the Total Tremor. And it wasn’t just us. It went around the whole world.”

  We crowded around the “lab.” Hainey had managed to cram a TV, floor-standing speakers, two video-game consoles, and a mini-fridge into a closet at the back of his classroom. I stood on my tiptoes. With my height I could only make out a corner of the TV through the crowd. Hainey flipped on the news.

  Ms. Bedevere squealed like a five-year-old on a sugar-high. “I don’t believe it!”

  “I knew you’d love this.” Hainey grabbed a potato-chip bag and started stuffing chip after chip systematically into his mouth. “It came down in a big explosion. Everyone thought it was a bomb. But then... poof. The giant stone just appeared. That’s when the Total Tremor started.”

  “What appeared? What stone?” Grey muscled his way through the crowd to the front. I squeezed in beside him. His buddies followed close behind us, edging everyone else out.

  “It can’t be?” I looked at Ms. Bedevere. “Is that what I think it is?”

  One of Grey’s buddies exclaimed in a thick Bostonian accent, “It’s a metal cross.”

  Another teammate guffawed. “It’s a sword, doofus.”

  On Hainey’s flat screen, the tagline read ‘Trafalgar Square’. Smoke and broken concrete littered the scene. A few pigeons persisted in hanging around the destruction. British policemen had closed off the square and stood on guard around the perimeter. Crowds of people gathered around them. They all looked wide-eyed at the spectacle in the middle.

  A sword sat buried inside an obsidian-black rock at the center of the square. Half of it was on a fountain dedicated to Lord Nelson, the hero of the Battle of Trafalgar. Water sluiced off the broken fountain, flooding the square. Droplets fell on the hilt of the sword. It sat embedded halfway into the stone. Mammoth lion statues perched on the edges of Trafalgar Square stared impassively at the wreckage.

  “It's a sword,” Ms. Bedevere repeated, not taking her eyes off the television.

  “Not just any sword,” I murmured.

  “It’s not a meteor, folks,” a che
ery blonde reporter in a fitted suit says, “but it has caused a sensation. It has been confirmed that the epicenter of the Total Tremor began at the giant stone. Wait—” She touched the microphone piece in her ear. “I have a breaking update. We have an amateur video… a tourist in the Square today filmed the entire thing.” Anders waved to a crewperson on the screen. “Let’s roll this clip.”

  A grainy video clip showed the giant rock appearing out of nowhere a few feet above the big fountain. It seemed to poof into existence. Gravity realized around it and it fell to the ground. A big boom and flying dust went everywhere. People screamed—no doubt thinking “TERROR ATTACK”. But the whole square shook. The video jostled at this point. People rushed past the tourist who was filming. The video righted again, this time on the surrounding buildings. Like a wave radiating out from the square, the buildings shook in sequence. Once the wave had traveled through, the tourist turned back to the center of the square.

  A giant black stone sat directly atop the right half of the fountain. If I hadn’t known the King Arthur legend, the stone would have looked like something dropped by aliens—or some other higher power. The camera zeroed in on one side of the rock. On its otherwise smooth surface, the stone had one jagged side extending from the bottom to the top, almost like steps.

  “Certainly the Total Tremor is no laughing matter. More reports are coming in as the tremor spreads.” The reporter gave an overbright smile. “Thankfully a minimal number of lives have been lost—mostly due to panic. Still the globe is abuzz. There hasn’t been an event this widespread since the meteor that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.”

  Images from around the world flashed across the TV. Paris, Madrid, Berlin, Times Square… They all had one thing in common—they had all trembled under the force of the tremor.

  “But is it some sort of elaborate hoax? We have set up a panel to ask just that. Dr. Latimer, an eminent physicist from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dr. Northe, a noted King Arthur historian and lecturer at Essex University in the United Kingdom, is a man in very high demand today. They are both here to share their expertise.”