2 Chapter 1

Maddie

Beca and I were sunbathing on my back deck. We had been in Dallas since the beginning of April. That was almost five months ago. Finals had come and gone, and school was out of session. Throughout the summer we had been making plans and converting the house I had received in my late father's will into a safe haven for all of the other Knights once we found them.

Wait. Let me backtrack so you are all up to speed.

My name is Maddie Bates and apparently I am the reincarnation of Camelot. When I found this out I didn't know what to think. I had always thought that Camelot was only the name of a realm King Arthur had built for his people when he became king. The story I had been told when crazy crap started happening to me was that Camelot had been a woman Arthur had been raised with and she was the inspiration for the city and the qualities the Knights took to heart.

Thirteen centuries ago, Camelot had been seriously wounded. By the power of Merlin, her soul was sent away to be reincarnated over and over. From what I understood, all the Knights were also reincarnated to aid Camelot in defeating Morgan le Fay. The myths all said Merlin defeated Morgan le Fay and no one else. Now we are in the last cycle. If Morgan wasn't defeated this time around, something bad was going to happen. I didn't know what and I didn't want to find out.

Normally I would spend the rest of the school year at, well, school, but this year I had been yanked out of school about four weeks before school was over and whisked off to my hometown. It was something I never would have done but my friends/protectors thought it would be a good idea. Since I was unconscious when they made the decision, I had no say in the matter.

"Maddie. Beca. Mr. Drew says you need to come inside," my housekeeper said. She stood at the double doors to the deck shielding her eyes from the hot Texas sun.

Beca, my best friend, sighed and rolled onto her belly. Her blond hair which she had curled this morning fell over her shoulder. She was a cheerleader back at school and one of my most trusted confidants. It also helped that she was one of the Knights I was supposed to find. She had been beside me since I started going to school at Union.

"I figured we'd be off the hook once we came here. I guess I was completely wrong," she said.

Six months ago she had been in a happy relationship with her brother's best friend Drew Smith. Drew was also Merlin, the one who had been bringing everyone

back to life every hundred years or so. I wasn't sure how he had been doing it but I was certain he was going to tell me once I cornered him. I was certain he had been doing it for a good reason. At least I hoped he did.

Anyway, it was five months ago when Drew suddenly broke up with Beca without much of a reason to her. I knew he had done it because he knew there was a chance he could die. Not many knew that, but somehow I did. Call it intuition. His power was waning and quickly. This was the last cycle and if I didn't stop Morgan le Fay, something very bad could very well happen. He could feel it coming and had decided -on his own I might add- to end his relationship with Beca. He hadn't even talked to his best friend.

I rolled onto my back and stared at the sky briefly before sitting up. "We might as well get inside. The boys will come after us if we don't."

She sighed and got up. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

It irritated me that she was so comfortable around Drew even though they weren't together. Most girls got mad and stayed mad once they got over the shock and hurt of a breakup. Not Beca. The girl's nerves were made of steel. She and Drew would never fight in front of people. It just wasn't who they were, but my gut said there was something else going on that no one else was seeing.

We walked in the house, through the living room and to the kitchen. Anita was at the stove cooking dinner. My friends were seated around the island drinking glasses of lemonade with pieces of lemon floating in them. I wrinkled my nose and went to get my own glass.

"Miss Maddie, your grandfather called. He wants you to call him back," Anita said.

"Ok. He rarely calls this early," I mused. I fixed the towel around my waist, not too concerned.

"He said it was important."

"It must be." I leaned a hip against the island.

Drew cleared his throat. Standing just less than six foot two, the Merlin of this time was a redhead with big brown eyes. One was scarred and closed after an attack on his home one night. He tried to blend in as much as possible and was an excellent swimmer, but he didn't talk too much. We all looked at him in expectation.

"We need to make plans," he said.

Parker furrowed his brow, his green eyes narrowed in annoyance at his friend. "What is it this time, Drew? You've been so hush hush about all this. Why can't you give us any straight answers?"

He was right. Since we had come to Dallas, Drew had pulled away from all of us. He had locked himself in my father's study for hours on end. None of us had wanted to intrude on his silence, but we needed answers and he wasn't providing any. I understood what he was doing but if he continued shutting us out, we weren't going to listen to him

any longer.

"What have you found?" Beca asked. She was the only one with any semblance of patience with him and I figured that stemmed from having dated Drew for the better part of a year.

Drew looked at her with his good eye, his scarred one covered by his mop of red hair. "I can't tell you yet."

Parker slammed his hand down on the island and stood. "That's it! I'm tired of you being so damn vague. Unless you have some information you're willing to share with all of us, don't bother talking to me." He stormed out.

Anita sighed and looked down at where Stryker was at her feet. "They are not a pack, Stryker. Until they learn that, they are not at their strongest."

Sam shook his head as Drew left the kitchen, obviously going to take refuge in the library. "When I was pulling Maddie from the lake, the Lady of the Lake said we would need help from metal, emotions, and nature."

"We've got nature covered," Max said as he looked down at the other wolves that were scattered throughout the house. "When Maddie went on the Spirit Quest, that was part of nature bit."

"What about the emotion bit?" Beca asked.

I bit my lip as I thought. Ever since I had agreed to take on this role to help my friends, I had been learning that we all needed to be united. So far it seemed like we were, but something in the undercurrents of the relationship told me we weren't, that we were far from it.

"Unity," I muttered. They all looked at me. "We have to be united physically, mentally, and emotionally. It has to be bone deep. We have to be a united front if we are going to defeat Casey and Nathan. If we don't have that, we don't have anything."

Max shrugged. "It makes sense. So we have two thirds of the puzzle figured out, but what about the metal? Where does that come in?"

"Maybe it means we should use the metal that we have?" Sam threw out.

Beca brightened instantly. "That's it!" We all looked at her like she had lost her mind. "That's the metal. The Knights of the Round Table. Twenty-four Knights with twenty-four swords. Metal. That's what it means. We have to get the Knights together."

"Well, that I knew," I replied. "Is this going to be a live by sword, die by the sword kind of thing?"

"It might very well turn into that kind of circumstance. That means I'm going to have to train you two even more than I normally will." Max looked at the schedule he put

on the refrigerator. "I can add an extra training session after dinner."

Anita whipped him with the spatula she was sautéing mushrooms with. "No, no. Miss Maddie will not train after dinner. It messes with digestion. You will have to make your training sessions earlier."

"I already have the girls training in the garage during the day. The only other option is to work out in the mornings before breakfast."

The housekeeper, the woman who raised me after my mother died when I was six, mulled it over then nodded. "I agree with that. Miss Maddie didn't work out before you showed up."

I let my mouth drop. "Anita, that wasn't very nice."

She swung that spatula on me and I took it for what it was; a utensil used to make a point. "You only ran when you felt like it. The rest of your time was spent in your room reading or writing. It's good for you to have friends who force you to do things. Now, dinner's ready. Go change into something else. You will not eat dinner in your swimsuit."

I smiled. "Yes, Ma'am."

I rounded the island as I walked out of the kitchen, took a left for the stairs, and went up. My room was the last door on the left. After we had come back to Dallas, I moved all of my stuff into my dad's room. It was the only thing that would bring me comfort at night. The others had taken the other four rooms, Beca and Drew got their own while Sam and Parker shared.

As I opened the door, my father's cologne hit me. Giorgio Armani, his favorite. He had always kept it low key when he wore it but it was all over his clothes. When I moved in, I made the hard decision to get rid of his suits and jeans. I kept his old t-shirts and dress shirts because I would sleep in them so I would feel like he was holding me while I slept.

"Hey, Daddy," I said as I walked by his picture on my dresser. I went to the bathroom and washed up in the sink. With a towel wrapped around me, I went to my closet to pull on fresh clothes. "Daddy, please watch out for all of us. I know what your secret was and I know why you were always trying to protect me. I need the strength you used to tell me I possess. I need that strength to protect my friends."

As I stood in my room, I felt peace. It was as if my dad was in the room with me with his arms wrapped securely around me. This was my home and I would always come back to it when I needed a safe haven.

After a few moments, I walked back down the stairs to have dinner.