“You collapsed in the ogof, but not before driving Excalibur back into the stone. Sel carried you back through the tunnels. It was all very dramatic, or so I’ve heard. I hooked you up to an IV for fluids,”

Once, I heard her humming down the hall from my bedroom. Something so mundane and simple, so regular and small, that for a moment, the prior weeks were just a nightmare, and I was awake now and she was alive.

I take a step forward, and Sel’s arm shoots across my chest. “Tor!” he booms. “Bree is your king!”

Even covered in paint, even ten feet away, his face sends a wave of relief through me. If Nick’s here, I’ll be all right. The thought rings in my mind, clear and bright as a bell.

“In this infirmary,” William hisses, advancing on him, “I am your king.”

Briana Matthews who held Excalibur had been broken apart—and forged into something new.

“I’m five-eight—tall enough that I might pass for a college student—and Black. Blessed with my mother’s cheekbones and curves and my father’s full mouth. I’d pulled on old jeans and a tee. Shy isn’t really my thing.”

“Sel clears his throat and turns us again. He admires my hair, taking in the size and shape of it; then his eyes follow the line of my temple to my borrowed earrings, down my neck and shoulders. “You look stunning this evening, Briana.”

“I won’t claim to be some sort of demon hunter, but I am your best friend, Matty. I loved your mother. I love you.” She meets me in the middle of the room, close enough that I can see the steel in her eyes. “So if this is your fight, then it’s my fight too.”

“I am a Medium, born from the earth. I am Bloodcrafted, born from resilience. I am Arthur, Awakened!”

“Every year after that we gain power and our connection to aether deepens, and every year we lose a bit more of our humanity. We call it ‘succumbing to the blood.’ ”

“Time for King Bree.”

“I wonder what they see. Arthur’s Onceborn-raised Scion or the sixteen-year-old Black girl whom they never expected to pull the sword from the stone. Whatever they see, I need them to understand one thing: after tonight, I am their king.”

“Mae hi’n brydferth.”

“The service here is lacking. If I had my phone, I’d leave this establishment a horrible review for this horrible service.”

“The only way to honor my mother and her sacrifices, and the sacrifices of the women before us, is to face every challenge head-on. They ran so I would not have to- not from the order, this responsibility, this title, or these powers.”

“And there’s nothing wrong with that, Bree, nothing at all, because the most important thing you can do in this world, the most necessary thing, is to survive it. You can’t do anything for anyone else if you don’t take care of yourself first.”

“Even covered in paint, even ten feet away, his face sends a wave of relief through me. If Nick’s here, I’ll be all right. ”

“You should be happy. You’ve spent every waking second here trying to get me to leave.” He holds my gaze for a long moment. “Not every second.”

“After a beat, his arms encircle my waist. This time he’s the one who tucks his face into my neck and shoulder, mumbling, “Happy birthday, Bree.”