The Revealed (The Lakewood Series Book 2) Read online

  ALSO BY SARAH KLECK

  The Concealed

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  Text copyright © 2016 Sarah Kleck

  Translation copyright © 2016 Michael Osmann and Audrey Deyman (AAD Abies)

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

  Previously published as Die Macht der Verborgenen by dotbooks Verlag in 2016 in Germany. Translated from German by Michael Osmann and Audrey Deyman. First published in English by AmazonCrossing in 2016.

  Published by AmazonCrossing, Seattle

  www.apub.com

  Amazon, the Amazon logo, and AmazonCrossing are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates.

  ISBN-13: 9781503954847

  ISBN-10: 1503954846

  Cover design by Laura Klynstra

  For Sarah, Anna, and the Little Dot

  CONTENTS

  Start Reading

  PROLOGUE

  CHAPTER 1

  CHAPTER 2

  CHAPTER 3

  CHAPTER 4

  CHAPTER 5

  CHAPTER 6

  CHAPTER 7

  CHAPTER 8

  CHAPTER 9

  CHAPTER 10

  CHAPTER 11

  CHAPTER 12

  CHAPTER 13

  CHAPTER 14

  CHAPTER 15

  CHAPTER 16

  CHAPTER 17

  CHAPTER 18

  CHAPTER 19

  CHAPTER 20

  CHAPTER 21

  CHAPTER 22

  CHAPTER 23

  CHAPTER 24

  CHAPTER 25

  CHAPTER 26

  CHAPTER 27

  EPILOGUE

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  ABOUT THE TRANSLATORS

  Doubt thou the stars are fire,

  Doubt that the sun doth move,

  Doubt truth to be a liar,

  But never doubt I love.

  —Hamlet, William Shakespeare

  PROLOGUE

  “Evelyn,” Enid said, gently shaking my shoulder from where she sat next to me in the backseat. “Evelyn, wake up.”

  I blinked and barely held on as the Jeep turned off the paved road onto bumpy gravel.

  “We’re almost there,” Enid explained.

  “How far is it?” I asked numbly, rubbing my tired eyes.

  “About five miles,” Colin said, glancing at me in the rearview mirror.

  “We have to walk the last three miles,” Irvin added from the front passenger seat, while looking at the yellowish map. The lights of our group’s second car briefly flashed behind us.

  Still half asleep, I tried to sort through my thoughts and, for a fleeting, drowsy moment, felt a glimmer of hope. Was I dreaming it all? Maybe the black witch was just a nightmare, the product of my overactive imagination. When I opened my eyes, surely Jared would be lying beside me sleeping peacefully, his arms crossed behind his head, his mouth open a tiny gap. I could almost see that satisfied, relaxed expression he would have on his face when he felt me lying close to him in our room at the headquarters of Legatum Merlini. I would be sheltered and protected in the place that had become my home.

  I breathed in deeply as reality started to sink in. It was true. All those horrible things had actually happened. I gulped and nearly broke out in tears. There those feelings were again: despair and helplessness, the familiar companions of my youth. They bound me mercilessly and threatened to crush me. I gasped for air. I remembered the day I’d seen Jared for the first time. Those incredible blue eyes. Everything around me had ceased to exist when I looked into his eyes for the first time. Gravity had shifted, and from that moment nothing else mattered to me . . . only he did. I had lost my bearings after my sister Zara’s death and drifted through life without direction. But suddenly there he was, captivating me. Only he existed . . . from that moment to this.

  No! I thought, clenching my fists and breathing deeply. No! I would not drown in this despair. Not so long as a ghost of a chance remained that Jared was still alive. That I could save him. Determined, I opened my eyes and dug my fingernails into my palms. We’d be there any minute, and I’d go into the fog alone. Then I’d get Jared out of Avalon—no matter what.

  CHAPTER 1

  “Ruth Hayman?” Irvin repeated in disbelief. He sat up in his chair, bracing his hands against the huge table in the headquarters’ council chamber, where we’d all gathered.

  “Yes,” I confirmed. “I don’t know anyone who knows more about Merlin, Nimue, and probably even Morgana.”

  “Mary Hayman’s daughter?” Irvin sounded astonished—to put it mildly.

  “I don’t know her first name, but Ruth told me her mother devoted her entire life to searching for the truth about Merlin and Nimue.”

  Thinking of the loving way Ruth had spoken of her deceased mother made me a little sentimental.

  Irvin looked across the room to where Enid stood by the window. She seemed torn for a moment but finally nodded, giving Irvin permission to speak. He took a deep breath, stood, and turned toward me.

  “Twelve years ago, we became aware of a certain elderly lady by the name of Mary Hayman who was conducting some . . . research.” Irvin paced up and down the spacious council chamber. He paused for a long while, frowning in thought, before continuing. “As we later found out, she had collected everything related to the legend of Arthur, especially regarding Merlin and Nimue, since she was a child. She read every tale, visited every site, and followed even the slightest lead. Somehow, she pieced the puzzle together bit by bit.”

  “Ruth told me her mother was pretty obsessed with it,” I said.

  Irvin nodded. He stopped in front of one of the tall windows, clasped his arms behind his back, and stared out, lost in thought. “Mary spent almost her entire life on it . . . and finally uncovered the Order’s secret.”

  His words carried hints of appreciation and accusation.

  “We didn’t know if we should trust her and run the risk of having the secret of Legatum Merlini exposed.” Irvin paused. When he spoke again, he seemed strangely affected. “Karen classified Mary Hayman as a danger to the Order and the Calmburry family. She constituted a risk the high priestess was not willing to accept. That’s why she had Mary . . . disappear.”

  Embarrassed silence filled the room. I didn’t miss Enid giving Gareth a meaningful glance. He looked at the floor.

  My hair stood on end. How many people had the Order made disappear over the years at Karen’s behest?

  Irvin continued. “It’s a puzzle to this day. We knew Morgana had become aware of Mary, just as we had, because she constantly appeared at significant places—Glastonbury, Stonehenge, Dozmary Pool, Caerleon . . . Morgana could under no circumstances be allowed to get her hands on Mary. That’s why it had to happen so fast.” Irvin clenched his fists. “Morgana must have found Mary’s notes. She knew everything Mary knew. The Calmburrys were no longer safe in Oxford. That’s why the Order decided to take the entire family to a secret place, a safe house in Boston.”

  Irvin took a moment to calm down. Anger and grief were written on his face. He shut his eyes and continued. “The plane was supposed to take them to America . . .” His voice cracked.

  I recalled the horrible images of the wreck.

  “Morgana killed all the members of the Calmburry family,” Enid continued i
n Irvin’s place, her voice breaking. “All—except for one,” she added with a whisper of pride.

  “Jared,” I said.

  She nodded. “He’s the last Calmburry, the last of Merlin’s bloodline.”

  Irvin stepped beside me and put his hand on my shoulder. “After Morgana killed the family—except Jared—Karen became very paranoid. Anyone who constituted a threat to Jared, or who might reveal his existence and draw Morgana’s attention to him, was killed. Karen knew Jared would be drawn to Nimue’s descendants. There’s a centuries-old magical connection between your families—you are two parts of a whole. She knew you would find each other sooner or later.” Irvin looked at the ceiling. “Karen set everything in motion to find Nimue’s heiresses,” he said, his voice trembling.

  “She killed my parents. And my sister!”

  Enid gave me an empathetic look. “First Karen found your mother and arranged for the car accident that killed your parents. But she couldn’t find you or your sister. The amulet was powerful enough to hide the two of you because you were so close.”

  She lowered her eyes. “Three months before you arrived in Oxford, Karen succeeded in finding Zara, and”—she swallowed—“she assigned a member of the Order to murder your sister.”

  There was silence in the room.

  “The past can’t be changed,” Enid continued, almost whispering. “I don’t want to shirk my responsibility, but you must know that Karen ordered these actions on her own, despite the resolutions of the High Council.”

  Burning hatred spread inside me. Struggling against it was difficult. Karen Mayflower was nothing less than a ruthless murderess. For a second I wished Morgana had killed her, but in the next instant I regretted that thought. Morgana would have killed me, too, without giving it another thought, had she not needed me. She had used me. I clenched my teeth, enraged.

  “We can’t sit around here doing nothing. We must do something. Now!”

  “Evelyn,” Enid admonished me gently, “we will. But first, you must tell us everything you know. Anything you saw or heard could help us. Perhaps Morgana overlooked something. Some trivial detail . . . perhaps . . .”

  While Enid struggled for words, I closed my eyes for a moment, breathed in, and tried to focus. The sooner we got this out of the way, the sooner we could start searching for Jared.

  Then it bubbled out of me. I told them everything—about Frank Tempton, whose name I had discovered in the book in the relic room that listed all the members of Legatum Merlini since the Order’s foundation in the fifth century; about the argument between Jared and Karen when he confronted her with his discovery that she was guilty of killing my family; my flight, followed by my encounter with Morgana in the forest clearing. How she had stood there in the midst of her army of damnati. I wanted to drive that memory from my thoughts.

  “Had you ever seen Morgana before?” Irvin asked after I reached the end of my tale.

  “No.” I shook my head but suddenly stopped, frozen, as the image of an amazingly beautiful, dark-haired woman in a flowing white dress appeared in my mind.

  “No, wait—that’s not right. I did see her once before. In my dreams, the night I came across the Calmburry family chronicle in the library.” I hesitated. “But the woman I saw in my dream was not Morgana but . . . Eowyn. Myrddin’s mother—Merlin’s mother.” Uncertain, I looked at Irvin, who to my surprise was nodding in agreement.

  “It’s astounding how deeply Nimue’s magic remains rooted in you after so many generations,” he said. “How your subconscious intuitively grasps and correctly interprets.” He laughed, then noticed the irritated expression on my face. “Morgana is Eowyn’s twin sister, making her Merlin’s aunt and, if you wish—twenty-nine generations later—Jared’s great-great aunt.”

  My jaw dropped. “What?”

  “Yes, they’re all descended from the same magical bloodline. Their magic works the same way.” His voice suddenly took on a dark tone. “Only matters are a bit different with Morgana. She violated the most fundamental of all laws of nature when she killed her sister in cold blood to bind her power and magic to herself.” He shook his head.

  “She killed her twin sister?”

  He nodded.

  “But . . . I read in the Calmburry book that Eowyn died while giving birth to her youngest daughter.”

  “That’s the official, censored version of the story. The truth is, she suffered a cruel ritual death at the hand of her own sister when Morgana attempted to yoke her magic to herself.”

  “Tried?”

  “She didn’t succeed; in the end, she simply killed her.” Irvin smiled darkly. “The fair lady overlooked a detail! Magic can only be transferred with the consent of the donor—and that requires a certain . . . voluntarism.”

  “Jared . . .” I was barely able to say it. “She will . . .”

  Irvin nodded. “He consented. To save you. He entered a magical pact with that witch. Breaking it means he’ll die.”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “If Jared doesn’t keep his word and tries to double-cross Morgana, his own magic will turn against him. That’s how the pact works. Breaking the oath would kill Jared.”

  No! No! No! That couldn’t be! Jared was not yet lost. I wasn’t willing to give up. There must be a way. Any way. I would do anything, no matter what, to save him. But first I needed Irvin and everyone here to tell me everything they knew. There had to be a way!

  “What’s this about the laws of nature?” I asked. “You said Morgana violated them?”

  Irvin cast me a harsh look. “All magical beings originate from the harmonious order of nature and draw their strength from the all-embracing energy that is the source of the four elements: earth, water, fire, and air.”

  He paused to see if I had followed so far. When I nodded, he continued. “Some, like Nimue, and also you, are bound to the energy of a particular element. Water, in your case. Others, including Eowyn, Merlin, and Jared, master the energy of all elements. The magic of each creature is one with nature and its energy. It acts in harmony with nature. This means energy in its natural context and natural flow can be directed and affected by magic.” He looked at me skeptically. “Do you understand?” His manner of explaining things reminded me of his lectures. He was an excellent teacher.

  “Yes . . . I think so. I saw Jared make crocuses bloom over an entire glade.”

  “Exactly!” he confirmed, clearly relieved that I had understood what he was driving at. “He just accelerated the natural course of things with his magic.”

  “And how does Morgana’s magic work?” I asked, eager with anticipation.

  Irvin opened his mouth, but it was Enid who answered my question.

  “By ending a life violently or casting a creature into darkness by binding its soul to herself.” She halted and looked at me with pity as I shuddered. “Such a cruel, unnatural deed will not be without consequences.” She shook her head.

  “What consequences are we talking about?” I tried to push aside the terrible memories of my encounter with Morgana.

  “She crossed a line with the murder of her sister and the countless others she committed over time. The moment Morgana raised her hand against Eowyn, she set her magic against the natural order and unbalanced her own bond with nature. She was no longer part of the greater whole. With the murder of her sister, Morgana excluded herself for all time from the natural, harmonious order of the world.”

  “Does this mean Morgana’s magic embodies the . . . opposite of everything natural?” I asked, hoping I had understood correctly.

  “Exactly,” Irvin answered. “She brings death to all living beings. Where love reigns, she fans hatred. She lays waste to anything pure, and everything beautiful she turns ugly.”

  “The damnati . . . ,” I mumbled as I thought of those creatures covered in repulsive scars and sores.

  “Yes.” He turned up his nose in disgust.

  “There were so many of them in the clearing.” I found it
difficult to picture how much suffering had to be in the world to create those legions of scarfaced monsters. I shook my head to drive away the thought and concentrated on what mattered most now. I had to find a weakness.

  “Why did Morgana want to kill Jared’s entire family? If it’s true she wants to bind his magic to her, why didn’t she try it with any of the other family members?” I asked anxiously.

  Irvin took a step in my direction. “The failed attempt to bind Eowyn’s magic to herself not only cost her sister’s life but almost killed Morgana as well. She realized magic was not simply for the taking.”

  He paused to find the right words.

  “The plane crash twelve years ago was supposed to wipe out the entire Calmburry family. I presume Morgana felt that if she was not able to have this magic, then at least no one would be able to challenge her. Until very recently, she believed they had all died, because the protective magic grew stronger when it no longer had to protect an entire family but instead only a single person.” Irvin again stepped toward me. “Even newspaper articles and newscasts about the accident, which always mentioned there was a single survivor, were obscured by the spell. The Order set everything else in motion: falsified reports, doctored photos, disappeared evidence, bribed witnesses . . . Karen did everything humanly possible to protect Jared. This lulled Morgana into believing she had gotten rid of all the Calmburrys.” Irvin smiled for a moment, but then his face hardened. “Morgana didn’t have the slightest notion until . . .” He swallowed.

  “Until Madison went to her and asked her to kill me so she could have Jared for herself,” I completed the sentence.

  “Exactly,” Irvin rasped.

  “Madison not only betrayed Jared to Morgana,” Enid continued, “but she also provided her with suitable leverage.” A weary smile spread across her face. “Never forget that magic must be given freely!” She looked into my eyes. “Morgana used you from the start.”

  The torment I felt at the thought must have shown on my face. I stood up, clenching my fists. “No, that’s not how it will end. It must not end that way!” I burst out, looking at them one after the other. “I must speak with Ruth. I’m sure she knows what needs to be done.”