Chapter 22: Something Wicked

 

 

SAM.

I’m here.

Sam.

See me.

See me for what I am.

I opened my eyes.

It was dark.

Ryan slept deeply next to me, arm hung heavily over my waist, legs tangled with mine. My skin felt slick with sweat. My heart was in my throat. Magic raced along my skin, and I was electrified because of it.

Something was pulling me. That hook in my brain. I thought maybe Zero had come to Mashallaha, but that didn’t feel quite right. Maybe it was Kevin. Maybe it was Ruv. I thought about ignoring it. I thought about curling back into the warmth of the man I loved and drifting away. It would be easy.

I didn’t.

I didn’t because—

 

 

“—WE LOVED him, Sam,” Morgan told me the day we left for the desert. He sat across from me in our labs in Castle Lockes. I was angry with him. With Randall. With Vadoma. But I was going to hear him out. I owed him that much, at least. “That’s something I need you to understand above all else. Regardless of what I tell you, regardless of what you hear, you must know that we loved him.” He sighed and looked down at his hands. “And I think it’s safe to say we love him still. I can’t speak for Randall, but… I’ve known him for a very long time.”

I said nothing. Not because I didn’t want to. No, of course not. I had never seen my mentor look so… defeated before. Broken down. I said nothing because I couldn’t think of a single thing to say.

“He was kind, but then that’s how we were raised. Our parents were powerful. Our father was a wizard. Our mother was… well. I don’t know exactly what our mother was. She was magic, yes, but it wasn’t like being a wizard. She wasn’t a seer. She wasn’t a fortune-teller. She was not a mage or a witch or any other form of magical being that I’ve ever come across. She defied description. I don’t know that there has ever been one quite like her before or since. The things she was capable of, Sam. Such beautiful things. You remind me of her, in that way. Magic is stringent. It’s governed by a specific set of rules. Those rules didn’t seem to apply to her.” He looked up at me with a quiet smile on his face. “Or to you. You’re alike that way. There is a power in you that I don’t know that I will ever understand. Like her. I’ve often wondered if she knew. If she knew what would become of us. Of what I, as her son, would have to do to Myrin, her other son. If she loved him even though his heart would become corrupted. If she did her all to correct the path he was set upon before she followed my father through the veil. By the time I’d thought to ask her, it was far too late. For all of us.”

Gods, how my heart hurt already. I almost opened my mouth to stop him. To keep him from speaking further about deceit and betrayal. I—

 

 

—MOVED QUIETLY, trying not to wake Ryan. It was probably nothing, this feeling I had. I was tired. We’d been through a lot. My mind was probably just playing tricks on me. It was nothing.

It was nothing.

The hairs on my arms stood on end. My skin was covered in gooseflesh. My eyes were wide.

Sam.

Sam.

Sam.

“What the hell,” I muttered.

I rose from the bed. Ryan mumbled something in his sleep, moving over to the spot I’d vacated, face pressed into my pillow. Firelight from the lamps around Mashallaha filtered in through the slats of the wall, illuminating his naked back, the blanket pooled at his waist. My heart tripped all over itself at the sight, and I reached down, trailing my fingers along his skin. He hummed quietly, leaning into the touch, eyes remaining closed.

“I’ll be right back,” I whispered.

And still he slept.

Sam.

I jerked up and whirled around, because that voice sounded like it’d come from right behind me.

There was nothing there.

The hook pulled.

I told myself to crawl back into bed.

Instead, I moved toward the door and—

 

 

“—HE TREATED me as if I was the greatest thing in the world,” Morgan said, a far-off look in his eyes. “He was older than me, far older, but he didn’t treat me as if I was a burden. Didn’t think I was a nuisance. He cared for me, maybe more than our parents did. For all intents and purposes, he raised me. Our parents were… distant, for lack of a better term. Oh, they loved us, and they made sure we had anything we could ever want, but they had other things to focus on. Stretching the boundaries of magic. Defining what it meant to be a wizard. Speaking out against the rejecting of a cornerstone. I never begrudged them for what they did. And I thought Myrin didn’t either. I would be wrong about that.”

He laughed, but it was a bitter sound. “Randall was everything to him. I was told that even before they were actually… them, you could tell Myrin thought Randall had hung the sun and the moon. Had placed all of the stars in the sky. I told you that Randall was a builder. An architect. That it took him decades to construct his magic, to create the outline for who he would become. He had long since passed the Trials, but it was… different. For him. His magic was theory before it was anything else. By the time he was ready for a cornerstone, by the time he opened his eyes, he was able to see what had been right in front of him the entire time. What Myrin had known all along. That they belonged to each other. That they loved each other. That they were each other’s cornerstones. My brother had been a patient man. He knew that one day Randall would see him for what he was. And he did.” Morgan wiped his eyes. “Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.”

“Morgan, you don’t have to—”

“But I do, Sam. Because you have to know what lies ahead. You have to know what may come down upon us. This is your history as much as it is mine. This is the legacy I will leave to you, and I would have you know it. Will you listen?”

I was helpless, so all I could say was “Yes.”

He took a breath, held it for a count, and then let it out slowly, something I knew he did when he was attempting to calm himself. I didn’t want to hear how this story ended, even though I thought I knew.

“They… completed each other,” he continued. “Unlike anything I’d ever seen before. A wizard’s cornerstone isn’t usually another wizard. We’re taught that there’s too much instability, too much of a chance for whatever has been built to come crumbling down. That it’s not safe. But it happens. It’s rare, but it happens. And even though there were people trying to convince them that they should find another, that they shouldn’t depend on each other as they did, they laughed and scoffed and went on as they were. And it was wonderful. I didn’t see them as others did. I saw them as something to aspire to be. Something that I would one day want for myself. Randall was old, far older than a wizard should have been before finding their cornerstone. But the power that they had negated any argument against them.

“Randall became the King’s Wizard. They worked here, in the labs, together, every day. They taught me. They taught each other. They laughed and loved and made promises that we all thought would always be kept.

“And then things began to change. I noticed it first, when I—”

 

 

—STEPPED OUT into the warm night air. The stars were bright above. I immediately sought out David’s Dragon, but it said nothing to me, just blinking in the sky as it always had. I wondered if maybe I was dreaming, but it didn’t feel like a dream. I did feel awake, but I also felt… more. Like my eyes were open for the very first time in my life. Everything around me felt like it’d come into sharper focus. The crystal clarity of the water around Mashallaha in the starlight. The grain of the wood beneath my feet. The colors of the flags that hung above me.

It was quiet, this late. I heard not a single soul.

Sam.

I took a stumbling step forward as a burst of magic crawled through me. Green and gold and an infected yellow swirled just along the edges of my vision.

I took a breath.

“What is this?” I said. “Who are you?”

There was no one there. Not in front of me. Not behind me.

“I’m losing my mind,” I muttered. “That’s it. That’s all.”

The hook pulled and—

 

 

“—I THOUGHT I could handle it,” Morgan said. “I thought I could talk to him, and that he would hear me. I didn’t know what he was trying to accomplish with the magic he was performing. The boundaries he was pushing. He said that if our parents had done it, then he could too. But that he would stretch it further than they ever had. He didn’t want to just push, he told me. No. He wanted to break.” He ran a hand over his face, looking more tired than I’d ever seen him before. “I told him that was the path of the Darks. That they had no regard for the rules that bound us to our magic. That anyone who attempted what he was attempting could find their souls cracked, their hearts shattered. Their minds diseased with temptations that should never be considered.”

“What did he want to do?” I asked, not sure I wanted the answer.

Morgan looked up at me. “He thought it was possible to bend the will of the people. Verania was… turbulent then. Not everyone agreed with the King in power. There were talks of uprisings. Of coups against the throne. The threat of civil war had hung over the country for years. Myrin wanted to take away their free will. To make the people docile. He said it would prevent death. That it would prevent conflict. That everyone would fall in line, and Verania would not descend into madness.

“I couldn’t fault him for thinking that way. I doubt anyone could. Who wouldn’t want to avoid war? Who wouldn’t want to stop bloodshed? It’s seductive, that line of thinking. I truly believe he came to it from the right place, but that before long, it soured within him and began to rot. And that’s where he was wrong. That’s where the idea as a whole became fetid. Because even if it would have prevented Verania from descending into chaos, even if it would have stopped the deaths of our people, it would still have been wrong. You cannot tamper with free will. You cannot take the choices away from people. They have the right to choose for themselves. Many of them disagreed with their King. They were not wrong. He was a weak man. A coward. Randall had done his very best in trying to counsel him, but he could only do so much. I could see his frustrations, the helplessness that he sometimes showed. And Myrin saw it too. And I think that only fueled him. By the time Randall figured out what was happening, it was too late. For all of us. I—”

 

 

—FOUND THEM sleeping, all curled around each other. It was an old barn of sorts that had lofts that held wheat and oats, rice, sorghum, corn, and barley. It was the only place big enough for Kevin to curl up and sleep at night. Gary had objected (quite loudly and fiercely) at being offered a barn to stay in, of all things. Didn’t they know how racist that was? When Vadoma had told him that it was just for Kevin, Gary had, of course, become even more irate, saying that he wouldn’t allow Kevin to stay by himself in an unfamiliar bed. Didn’t they know he had troubles sleeping in places that weren’t his home? The audacity behind it, the sheer audacity, and yes, they were separated (not that anyone had asked), but that didn’t mean he didn’t care for Kevin’s well-being. Why, anything else would just be rude.

Vadoma had looked like she didn’t know what hit her. Which, to be fair, most people looked like after having dealt with Gary.

But I remembered the look on Kevin’s face as he stared down at Gary, that expression of wonder, like he couldn’t believe someone would speak up for him like that. If Gary hadn’t, I would have, but I knew he’d do the right thing. Gary always did. He just had to be loud about it. I knew those two crazy kids would make it, once they stopped being idiots.

Kevin lay on his stomach, wings at his sides, head on his hands, taking in low, rumbling breaths and huffing them out in little snores. Gary was sprawled out obnoxiously, tongue lolling out of his mouth, legs and hooves pointed out in all different directions, head on Tiggy’s lap. The half-giant was propped up against Kevin’s side, rising and falling with the dragon’s breathing.

Tiggy opened his eyes as I stood in the doorway. He smiled when he saw me, nodding when I brought a finger to my lips.

“All right?” he whispered.

“All right. Just… checking on you.”

“Good. We good.”

“I can see that.”

“You good?” he said, brow furrowing.

I pulled a smile out of nowhere and said, “Sure, dude. I’m good. I’m gonna head back, okay?”

“I walk with you?”

“Nah. Get back to sleep. We gotta long trip ahead of us.”

He blinked sleepily at me. “Castle Freeze Your Ass Off?”

“Castle Freeze Your Ass Off,” I agreed.

He yawned, jaw cracking. “Okay. G’night, Sam. Love you.”

“I love you too, buddy. Night.”

And I closed the door behind me as he fell back asleep. I thought about going back in, letting Ryan hold me close, of being surrounded by those I loved, but the hook was pulling me harder now. It was pulling me away from them.

I left them behind and moved deeper into Mashallaha.

It felt like a ghost town. Like everyone had disappeared and I was all that was left.

I thought about using the summoning crystal to call Morgan, but I’d left it in the room with Ryan.

Besides, I told myself. Morgan would be asleep right now. Like a normal person.

Sam.

My hands shook at my sides. I balled them into fists.

“Who are you?” I said through gritted teeth.

Oh, Sam. I’ll show you.

Come to me, and I will show you everything.

And I did the only thing I could.

I went.

I didn’t have—

 

 

“—A CHANCE against it,” Morgan said. “The King was weak, and Myrin had begun whispering poison in his ear, although we hadn’t known it. Or at least that’s what I tell myself. Because if I allow myself to ruminate upon it, if I allow myself to give it any more thought than I already have, I’ll look back and see that I, like Randall, turned a blind eye to what was happening. I would see that I refused to believe in what was happening right in front of me. That the Myrin we’d known, the Myrin we’d loved, had become lost to us. He had chosen to turn in a direction that we could not follow, no matter how much we wanted to be with him.”

He looked up at me. “Do you know what that’s like, Sam? To feel the sting and burn of such duplicity? I know you think you might, that you think that I, and Randall, have betrayed your trust in us. I understand that. I don’t repudiate your right to feel that way. I don’t. But I ask that you see it from our perspective. To feel what we did. You may not understand why we did what we did, but the choices we made came from a place born of betrayal.”

I said nothing, because there was nothing to say that wouldn’t make me sound petty.

“The King went mad,” Morgan said flatly. “His mind was taken from him because of Myrin. He was nothing but a shadow puppet, a falsity that danced in the firelight. Through Myrin, the King gave orders that led to war. Wizards began to rise from the Dark Woods in numbers that we did not expect, and they looked to Myrin as their leader. Many people died without understanding what they were dying for. Randall and I… we did everything we could think of. But I was an apprentice who didn’t yet have a cornerstone, and Randall was a wizard in the process of losing his. Sam, it—nothing can prepare you for that. Nothing can prepare you for how it’s going to feel when your other half, the person on which you’ve built your life, your magic, is tearing themselves away from you while they break themselves apart. Losing a cornerstone to death is always a difficult time for a wizard. But losing your cornerstone to the Dark, it… changes you, Sam. It makes you angry and bitter, it feels like burning oil is in your veins. At least, that’s what Randall told me many decades later.”

“How did you stop him?” I asked hoarsely. “How did you end it?”

He closed his eyes and said—

 

 

SAM.

Come to me.

Come and see what they have made.

I opened my eyes.

I stood at the edge of the dock. The water lapped underneath me. The dock itself swayed gently. Every part of me was electrified.

I looked down into the lake. The water was clear and smooth and echoed the night sky above. It looked as if I was trapped between two mirrors, and I didn’t know which cast the true reflection. I was barefoot. I didn’t know why that stuck out to me.

A ripple came toward me, spreading wider and wider as it rolled through the water. There came another. And another. And another. The stars were shaking.

I looked up.

A man walked toward me. Each step was deliberate, measuredly paced. He wore a pair of tight-fitting trousers and a jerkin with rows of buttons down the front. It curved up into a collar around his neck.

And he was walking on water.

It shouldn’t have been possible.

This had to be a dream.

He was familiar. I could see it in his face. He had the same eyes as the man who’d found me in the alley after I’d turned a group of teenage douchebags to stone. The same beard that curled down the front of him, long and luxuriant. It was such a discordant image that I expected to see pink shoes that curled at the tips on his feet. There weren’t. He was barefoot. Each step he took, his feet barely sank below the surface of the water. He even almost looked to be the same age as my mentor, though I knew him to be far older.

I knew this man, though I’d never seen his face before in my life.

He stopped some distance away, a smile playing on his lips. Now that he was closer, I could see the similarities between him and his brother were an illusion. Yes, he had the eyes and the beard, yes, they were from the same blood, but that’s where it ended. Morgan’s eyes were kind and strong. He held himself high because it was what was expected of him. The power that emanated from him was there because of the sum of the parts that made up his life, both the good and the bad. Morgan was my friend. He was my mentor. I trusted him with my life.

This man couldn’t be further from Morgan had he tried. Morgan’s magic had always meshed well with mine. It came from our years together. This man’s magic tried to do the same, but it felt slick and oily and wrong, and I could only think of how my magic had felt around Ruv, how there was a recognition there since he could have been a cornerstone. But it hadn’t been right, because I already had Ryan.

This wasn’t right, because I already had Morgan.

There were shadows curling around him like liquid smoke. I wondered if that was his magic. I saw the green and the gold. The colors of the world I’d been brought into.

It looked as if all he saw was black.

“Sam of Wilds,” he said, his voice softer than I’d been expecting. It had a lilt to it, almost musically so. It was… calm. Soothing. And oh so wrong. “How lovely it is to look upon your face free from the confines of a dream. I shall remember this moment for an eternity.”

“Myrin,” I breathed.

 

 

ONCE UPON a time, there was a wizard who was loved deeply by two different men.

One was the love of a brother.

The other was the love fated by the stars.

It was a bright and fierce thing, their love. Capable of such wondrous things.

But in the end, it mattered not.

The wizard lost himself on a path that those who loved him could never understand. He descended into the Dark, consumed by the temptation of a magic that should not have existed. But boundaries had been broken; barriers had been shattered. There was poison in his words, poison that was dripped into the ears of the weak of heart. Follow me, he whispered. Follow me and I will show you the way.

And the weak of heart had followed.

The brother begged him when they met in a clearing in the Dark Woods. The brother pleaded with him. Think of Randall! Think of our parents! Think of me! Gods, please, Myrin, I beg you. Think of me.

But the wizard known as Myrin did not.

The love fated by the stars was a great wizard in his own right, and did not beg. He did not plead. Instead, Randall gave an ultimatum, though it broke his heart: Turn away. Turn away and renounce your magic. End this nonsense, Myrin, and I will see to it that you are brought home.

And for a moment, it looked as if Myrin would consider it. There was a flash in his eyes, a crack of the mask. The brother saw the man that had once been before all of this. He saw his brother before him, and he thought it’d be enough. That this would end here as the Dark Woods burned around them and they wouldn’t have to go through with what they had planned.

Stone crumbled. It always did.

But Myrin did not.

I cannot do that, he said. I am too far gone to ever return.

Then so be it, Randall said. Morgan.

And Morgan said, I can’t.

The air stilled around them.

Myrin cocked his head. Second thoughts, little brother?

But Morgan only had eyes for Randall. Please. There has to be another way.

There isn’t, Randall said. You knew it would come to this.

But—

Morgan. As my pupil, I am commanding you.

Morgan hung his head.

Myrin laughed. What’s all this, then? You think you can defeat me? Oh, Randall. Love. You have no idea what I’m capable of.

And Randall looked into the eyes of his cornerstone and said, I know. I know what you’re capable of. That isn’t the problem. The problem is that you underestimated what I am capable of.

There was a crack in the sky.

A crack in the air.

A crack in the earth.

Randall’s hands were raised before him, palms toward Myrin.

And with a song of sorrow in his heart, Morgan did the same.

At first, Myrin laughed.

He said, This is nothing. You both are nothing. You won’t kill me. You don’t have it in you.

And in that, he was right: they did not have it in their hearts to kill him. They couldn’t find it in themselves to destroy the one thing they both loved most in the world. Call it a weakness. Call it their undoing, but they could not kill Myrin.

Myrin, for all that he’d become, underestimated the one thing he should not have: Randall’s and Morgan’s love for the man he once had been.

It was this love that tore a hole between the worlds. That opened the gateway to a realm steeped in shadows. Magic such as this hadn’t been seen in the real world before. And it took a piece of their soul to do it. But as the gateway widened, as the shadows whipped out and curled themselves around Myrin’s legs, knocking him to the ground, they knew in their soul-struck hearts that they had made their choice, just as Myrin had made his.

He screamed at them to save him. He told them he could change. Don’t do this, he begged them. And when he saw they were not coming to his aid, he stopped his pleadings and snarled at them both. I will return. I will have my revenge. And this time, you won’t see me coming. I will take everything precious from you. Everything you hold dear will be torn away. This I promise you.

And then shadows enveloped his body and pulled him from this world to the next.

The gateway closed with a furious crash.

The clearing in the Dark Woods fell quiet, the only sound being the great heaving sobs of the younger brother.

Eventually, they left.

Eventually, Randall pulled the King of Sorrows from madness by the sheer force of his will alone.

Eventually, the name Myrin was wiped from the memory of Verania.

As if he had never been at all.

 

 

“YES,” MYRIN said, sounding amused. “Quite the sad story, I know. It’s just so… melodramatic, isn’t it? If it hadn’t actually happened to me, it would be one of those things that’s hard to believe. Alas, I don’t have problems with belief. Do you, Sam? Do you have problems believing?”

“You’re standing on water after having broken your way out of the shadow realm,” I said. “I’m really not having a problem believing right now.”

He tossed his head back and laughed. It sounded so much like Morgan, and the dissonance caused blood to rush in my ears. “Oh, Sam,” he said, chuckling. “I know now what he sees in you. Honestly, it took me a while. I mean, hearing from a god that a child would rise against me? Can you imagine what that must have felt like?”

“Um. No? Wait. Yes. Because a god told me that another villain would come here and blah, blah, blah and then I would have to kick his ass and then all would be right with the world. So I guess I could imagine that after all.”

He cocked his head at me. “That easy, is it?”

“Yes.”

“Really. Well. I hate to break it to you, kiddo, but that couldn’t be further from the truth. Would you like me to tell you why?”

I rolled my eyes. “Oh gods. This is it, isn’t it?”

“What?”

“This is where you monologue. For fuck’s sake. We already had that moment. I thought we were past this. What the fuck, man? Don’t you remember? You were all like, hey, you, I’m your opposite, and, oh, look at me, gods and partiality and death and destruction and what the fuck ever. I am so sick of villains like you. What the fuck is your deal?”

He looked taken aback, but he covered it up quickly. “Sam,” he said. “Believe me when I say you have never faced someone like me. It will be an education like you’ve never before experienced. But first, a chance for you. To end this all now.”

“Let me guess,” I said, trying to sift through the green and the gold. My magic was running through me, thrumming just underneath my skin. They had to feel it. Ryan. Gary. Tiggy. Kevin. Maybe even Zero. They had to. And if they did, we could end this now. We could. “You’re gonna give me the chance to join you—again, by the way—to be by your side, to learn how to be a Dark douchebag. Sound about right?”

“Yes,” he said slowly. “That sounds about right.”

“Because—oh, whaddya know—there’s never been someone like you, but oh look, there’s never been someone like me either. Sound about right?”

“Quite.”

“And if I don’t join you, you’re going to kill everyone and everything I love. And if I do join you, you’ll spare the others and you and me will live happily ever after in some cave in the Dark Woods while you continue my wizard training to make me into a fucking dickbag who monologues with the best of them.”

“I wouldn’t say it’s a cave. I mean, there’s a house and everything. And you’re sort of monologuing right now. I don’t know how much more training in that you would need.”

“Okay, let me stop you right there. No.”

“No?”

“No. I will not. I won’t ever. You can just cut that shit out of your diabolical scheme right now.”

“My diabolical scheme,” he repeated.

I squinted at him. “You do have a diabolical scheme, don’t you? I mean, you’re a villain, right? The big bad? It’s kind of in the job description, dude.”

“Oh,” he said. “Is it now?”

“Wow, you sort of suck at the whole villain thing. Am I going to have to tell you how to do this too? Yikes. I think the star dragon might have seriously overestimated your abilities. That’s… slightly depressing. Oh! Don’t get me wrong. I’m super glad that you’re… like that. I just thought there would be more of a challenge.” And why the hell could I not feel any of the others? Why couldn’t I at least get through to Kevin?

“I think there may have been a bit of a misunderstanding,” he said.

I snorted. “You’re telling me. Are you going to need a moment to shift your worldview back to being a bottom feeder?”

“You talk too much.”

“Eh. I’ve been told that before. Still my thing. Dude, just listen, okay? Can you do that? Okay. So. You won’t get the dragons. I already have two of them. I know the star dragon had to come to you and whatever—which, let’s be honest, as far as prophecies go, that’s really sort of lame—but you won’t get what I have. Kevin is mine. Zero is mine. The other three will be mine. You won’t have them.”

“You’re a bit of the cocky sort, aren’t you?”

I shrugged. “Prophecies from the gods will do that to you.”

“You forget,” he said, taking another step forward, and this time I felt it. The water didn’t ripple, it fucking cracked under his feet, like it was something solid. It reverberated through me, like it was a physical thing, rattling my bones and causing my skin to vibrate. “The prophecy wasn’t just about you.”

I took a step back. I didn’t mean to. It showed weakness. It would lend credence to the idea that I was afraid. I couldn’t show him that.

Even if it was true.

Because I was alone and facing Myrin, the dark man in shadows.

“The dragons—”

“Here’s a hint, Sam,” Myrin said, smile dropping from his face. “It’s never been about the dragons. I don’t want the dragons. Those are all yours, kiddo. Gather them. Don’t. I don’t give a fuck what you do with them. In the end, it won’t matter. For them. For you.”

“What? Then what hell is your plan?”

“I thought you said you hated it when villains monologue?”

“Wow, way to throw my words right back in my face—”

He took another step, and it was like I was getting assaulted by his magic. It wasn’t the morganhomesafe melding that happened with my mentor. This felt like it was forcing itself on me, like it was trying to take me over. The hook in my head pulled sharply, causing me to groan as I was enveloped by him. By everything about him. I’d never had this before. Never felt strength like this before. Not even when Randall had given me his all that day in the field when he’d brought the lightning down upon me.

This was more.

“You have no idea what it’s been like,” he said, eyes blazing. “What I’ve learned in the shadow realm. It was hell, it was pain and torture, but it was an experience, Sam. It changed me in ways I never expected. It made me more than I ever thought I could be. And when the star dragon came to me? When he told me my destiny? That was the day I knew, the day I transformed. The seal was cracked, and I began to slip through. They didn’t even notice. Randall and Morgan didn’t notice. It took a long time, but I did it, Sam. I slipped through.”

“Monologuing,” I said through gritted teeth. “You’re… still… monologuing.”

“They can’t feel you,” he said. “If that’s what you’re wondering. The others. Your little cabal. Your cornerstone. None of them can feel you. I’ve cut you off from them so that we could have this little… chat.”

“Gods, shut up,” I snarled at him as I was forced to my knees. The weight of his everything bore down upon me, and it was rust and shadow, harsh and biting. I pushed through it, searching for the gold and the green. Searching for my way back home.

The smile on his face was a nasty thing. “Don’t you want to know why? Don’t you want to know what this is all about?”

“Fuck… you.”

“Sam. Sam, Sam, Sam. Don’t you see? No. I am your father.”

“What?”

The smile widened. “Just kidding. I’ve always wanted to say that.”

I’d had enough. Of him. Of this. Of a history that I didn’t want but that I was mired in. He was no different than the others that had come before him. And I had bested them.

I would do the same to him.

I pulled my hands back at my sides, then thrust them forward, crying out at the pain it caused to burst through the layers of shadows wrapped around me. Lake water snapped frozen in a split second as it rose into a wave of razor-sharp spikes of ice. They hurtled toward him, and I felt no regret at the thought of him being pierced from head to toe. Death would mean an end to all of this. I could go home.

He didn’t die.

Instead, before he was run through, he held up a hand and the ice shattered into thousands of pieces, glittering in the starlight. He snapped his fist closed, and the ice swirled around him, gathering into a single large piece, sharpened to a point.

“Well fuck me sideways,” I muttered as I turned to run.

And then the fucking dickbag threw it at me.

My feet pounded against the wooden dock. I felt the burst of magic behind me, that infection and shadow, and I swung my arm up in an arc over my head without thinking complete thoughts about what I was doing. I glanced over my shoulder in time to see the end of the dock snap upward, bursting into flames so hot that the skin of my back felt flash burned. The large bolt of ice smashed into the burning dock, crashing through it, breaking apart as the fire melted it away. The dock swayed sharply under my feet at the impact, and I almost lost my footing and fell into the lake.

I jumped the remaining distance and landed on solid ground just as the dock broke apart completely. I hit the ground roughly, smashing my knee. A bright flare of pain shot through me, but I pushed it away as best I could as I picked myself up and turned around, chest heaving.

The dock burned on the water, smoke and steam rising into the air.

And Myrin still stood atop the water, as if he hadn’t a care in the world.

“You’re good,” he called out. “I’ll give you that. But, Sam. You must know how much better I am than you. You may have power, but it’s untamed. And I have years of experience.”

“Oh, would you just stop already? I’m getting sick of your—what the fucking balls of shit!”

The last came out as a squeak because he began running toward me, each step making a large splash on the surface of the lake. He moved faster than any man should have been able to, but since he’d been walking on water, I figured he could be the exception. He ran at me, and so I did the natural thing that anyone would do when being charged at by a formerly good wizard who had been banished to a shadow realm and then escaped: I took the fuck off in the opposite direction.

I could hear him laughing behind me as I ran along the water’s edge, trying to get away from the center of Mashallaha where it was more populated. I couldn’t take the chance of there being any collateral damage from this asshole’s vendetta against me.

Of course, any thoughts of outrunning him faded when I felt the ground beneath my feet begin to bend and crack. I glanced over my shoulder to see him running just behind me in the water, and I put on a burst of speed, lungs screaming as I jumped over pieces of the wooden walkways that began to snap up around me.

I thought I was going to make it.

I really did.

I was the good guy.

The good guys always won.

That’s what I’d been taught.

That’s always how these stories ended.

The good guys won.

And I knew I was the good guy.

But even before I could reach the end of the walkway, even before I could have any hope of escape or, at the least, getting as far away from Mashallaha as possible, I was knocked off my feet when the ground exploded underneath me. I went end over end into the lake. As my feet hit the water, my head rapped against something solid, and stars shot across my vision as I went under, the breath knocked from my chest.

I was dazed. Confused. Unsure of what had happened or where I was. I choked before I stopped trying to breathe, a small amount of awareness flooding back. I didn’t know which way was up. My head was throbbing. Everything felt sluggish. Slow. I tried to gather as much strength as I could, and there was green and gold, and it—

A hand closed around my throat, and I was pulled up and out of the water.

I sputtered as I was held high, toes skimming along the surface of the lake. I tried grabbing at the hand on my neck, but the grip was strong. I kicked out, but the impacts were weak. I opened my eyes, blinking away the water.

Myrin stood on the surface of the lake, water dripping down off me and onto his arm. His face. His body.

He was smiling.

“Sam,” he said, clucking his tongue. He sounded disappointed in me as I struggled to get a breath in. “That was… underwhelming. This is supposed to be the great Sam of Wilds? This is who the Dark wizards are supposed to fear? That was nothing. You are a child playing at a man’s game.”

“Wait till I get my second wind,” I managed to choke out. “We can go again. Next week work for you? Just leave your information with my secretary and—” His grip tightened, cutting me off.

“You still make jokes,” he said. “Even in the face of death. It would be admirable if it wasn’t so pathetic.”

“Hey, man, jokes are what I’ve got. You’ve kind of got me by the balls here.”

He chuckled. “Indeed I do. And I think a lesson in humility is in order.” He lowered his arm, bringing my face closer to his. I was able to grip his forearm with my wet hands. “Even now, the Darks march toward Meridian City where the people sleep unaware of the fate that awaits them. At my word, the city will be razed. It is truly a sinful place, so I doubt it would be missed too much. And they will have my word, Sam. As an example to you.” His teeth were bared, his eyes narrowed. “This will be to show you that you are on the wrong side. That you cannot win. Morgan and Randall were weak. They still are. There will be a new order, one that will begin with you and end with me. You can either join me or watch as I tear your whole world apart.” And then I felt another pull, like he was sucking my magic from me, and I thought I was going to split right down the middle.

“You wouldn’t,” I managed to grit out.

“Oh I would, Sam. You’re playing with the big boys now. The stakes are a little higher than what you’re normally used to. Their deaths will be on your head, every man, woman, and child in Meridian City. I told you once that I would rip the lightning-struck heart from your chest. Trust me when I say I will do just that.”

I began to laugh.

Because it was so godsdamned obvious.

He frowned. “What’s so funny?”

“You,” I wheezed, lake water still dripping down onto him. “Gods, you think you’re so different. You think you’re better than all the others that have come before you. I’ve got news for you, dude. You’re a fucking idiot, just like the rest. It’s incredible.”

He brought me close to his face, his nose almost touching mine. I could see the fury in his eyes. “An idiot? If I’m such an idiot, what does that make you, seeing as I have the upper hand?”

I grabbed the front of his jerkin, completing the connection between us. “Oh, man. You have no idea what I’m capable of.” I leaned forward, straining against his grip. It must have looked like I was going in for a kiss. Instead I said, “You want to see just how lightning-struck my heart is? You’ve got it. By the way, water conducts electricity.”

His eyes widened.

And because I’d probably never have a more perfect moment, I grinned and said, “I think you’re going to find the results quite… shocking.” Catchphrase for the motherfucking win, asshole.

And then I screamed in his face as my magic exploded out of me. From the very first day that I’d been lightning-struck, from the moment it had curled around my heart, I’d known that nothing would ever be the same. That things would change. That I could become something more than what I already was. And I’d given that heart away to the ones I knew could keep it safe. Tiggy. Kevin. Gary. Ryan.

I would do anything to keep them safe.

The lightning didn’t come from above.

It came from within me.

The snarl of lightning burst from my chest. From my mouth. My eyes and fingertips and toes. It was white hot and almost sentient, following along the path I’d set for it. It rolled from inside me with an electrical snap, pouring out and crawling over Myrin. It jumped along the water covering his skin, his wet clothes, striking down into the surface of the lake through his feet.

The entire lake became electrified beneath us. The world took on a bluish hue as the lightning spread through the water, arcing off in different directions. It glowed so brightly, it was almost as if the sun had risen.

Myrin’s jaw was clenched as his body seized. The grip around my throat tightened, but it was a flexion of the joints more than anything else. His eyes were beginning to roll back into his head, and I pushed as hard as I could, filling his body with everything I had. My own skin felt like it was on fire.

“You… won’t… win,” he stuttered out, jaw clenched. “This is the beginning… of the end.”

I smiled at him, knowing my eyes were glowing brightly. “Dude, go fuck yourself.”

And then I went boom.

The grip around my neck was torn as we were thrown away from each other, the shock waves rippling the air around us. I had a moment to think how much this was going to fucking hurt before I slammed into the side of a building, the wood cracking behind me before giving way and sending me through the wall.

It got dark real quick after that.

 

 

“SAM? SAM!”

“Whazzit.”

“I need you to open your eyes. Sam, listen to me.”

“Whodat.”

“What?”

“I think he just asked who dat?”

“Thank you, Gary. That helped me with absolutely nothing.”

“Yikes, someone woke up bitchy today. And that someone is named Ryan Foxheart.”

“He sad ’cause Sam go boom?”

“Yes, kitten.”

“I sad ’cause Sam go boom?”

“We’ll be sad if he dies. And after an acceptable period of mourning—say, three and a half days?—we’ll start to divide up his stuff. I get mostly everything, and the things I don’t want will be thrown away. Or donated to charity. Most likely thrown away.”

“I get his brooms.”

“I don’t know where this broom fetish came from. I had absolutely nothing to do with that. You are a strange, wonderful half-giant who I love dearly.”

“It’s because he stole them from my keep. Everyone knows that brooms are part of any good hoard. It’s just common sense is what it is. I mean, why wouldn’t you have brooms?”

“Shuddap,” I said. “Tryna leep.”

“What the hell is he saying?”

“Shut up. Trying to sleep. Oooo, I’m like the Sam whisperer. My thighs are tingling. That’s a good thing, especially since he seems to get knocked out a lot lately.”

“I am going to slap the shit out of him if he doesn’t open his eyes.”

And since that voice sounded serious (and slightly frantic), I did just that.

I blinked blearily at the faces staring down at me.

They all looked immediately relieved.

And because I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to be an asshole, I said, “Where am I? Who are all of you? Why can’t I remember anything, such as my own name or country of origin or the people in my life who I am supposed to love?”

Gary burst into tears and started wailing. “Oh my gods, he’s lost his memories. Why, gods, whyyyyy would you do that to us? How can he remember how splendid I am if he doesn’t know who I am? Do you know much work I put into him? Why? Whyyyyyyy!”

“Oh no, Sam!” Tiggy said, bottom lip quivering. “’Member me? Old pal, Tiggy?”

Yeah. You try having a half-giant on the verge of tears staring at you and saying something like that. “Just kidding! Oh my gods, I’m kidding. Sweet molasses, that face. Gaaah, I want to hug it and kiss it, what are you even?”

Gary immediately stopped shrieking, eyes dry. “You fucking motherfucker fuck,” he snarled, sounding rather impressed. “You should go live under a bridge, that was such good trolling. I am going to murder you.”

“Not if I get to it first,” Ryan said, grinding his teeth together.

“Uh-oh,” Kevin said, face stuck through the large window. “Either Sam’s about to get kissed or punched in the butt, I don’t know which—oh, he’s getting kissed. Personally, I would have gone for the butt punch, but what do I know?”

I couldn’t respond that Kevin knew absolutely nothing because I had a mouthful of knight. Not that I was complaining.

Okay, I was a little bit, because that hurt. Everything hurt. “Ow,” I said against his mouth before I shoved him away. “Dude, your face on my face does not feel good right now.”

“You fucking asshole,” he snarled at me, eyes wide and frightened. “Do you have any idea how scared I was?”

“You know we’ve talked about cursing, Ryan. You can’t fucking talk like—okay, you’re right. Now’s not the time. Stop looking at me like that.” I sat up, groaning as I did so. I put my hand to my head, which was pounding something fierce. Somehow I was back in the room Ryan and I were sharing, wearing only a pair of what looked like Ryan’s trousers. My body felt like it was covered in bruises. I looked down at my bare chest, expecting to see mottled blues and purples, but was surprised instead to see a raised red scar that looked like tree roots stretching along my skin, curling down toward my stomach and over to my right arm.

“Uh,” I said. “Did I get drunk and make the unfortunate decision to get tattooed? I told you guys to never let me get shattered and make decisions involving needles. You know how I get.”

“Unfortunately,” Gary said, rolling his eyes.

“It’s a mulani,” another voice said. “A ghost scar.”

I looked up to see Vadoma standing in a corner, Ruv at her side. She was watching me with a look of what I could have sworn was fear on her face, but it was gone before I could pin it down. That didn’t bode well for what was to come.

“Come again?”

“The lightning,” Ruv said for her. “It came from you. From your heart. It scarred your skin.”

“Suuuuck,” I said, wincing as I pressed against it. It looked odd on my darker skin. I thought it would eventually fade white, but I didn’t know.

“I dunno,” Gary said, sounding chipper. “I think it looks really badass. And look at it this way: if you ever think of scaring us like that again, a chest scar will be the least of your worries because I’ll be bathing in your blood.”

I gulped, because when a unicorn sounded that happy while threatening you, you had to take it seriously. Unicorns were bloodthirsty creatures who would bring the pain. “Got it. What the hell happened?”

“We found you inside a collapsed building,” Ruv said. “Along the edge of the water.”

“I didn’t do it this time,” Kevin said, head stuck through an open window. “It would have felt a little repetitious. Lord knows people hate repetition.” He frowned. “But then they’ll also complain when something wasn’t exactly the same as it was before. I really don’t get humans.”

“Shit,” I groaned, wincing as I tried to swing my legs off the bed. “Myrin.”

And that pretty much sucked the air out of the room. “Myrin,” Ryan said. “Are you trying to tell me that the bad guy—the main bad guy, the one who wants to kill you—was here?”

“Um, yes?”

“And you faced him alone.”

“Hey! It’s not like I went looking for him. Mostly. He was sort of… in my head? Maybe?”

“Gary! Get me my sword.”

“Do I look like a little servant girl? Wait. Don’t answer that. I don’t think my ego can take—”

“You didn’t find anyone else out there?” I asked, grabbing Ryan by the arm to keep him from going off half-cocked. If Myrin was still out there, I didn’t want Ryan anywhere near him. He was dangerous, and he needed to be dealt with as soon as possible. I felt a pang in my chest that had nothing to do with the scar. I didn’t know what it said about me that I could think of killing someone without hesitation.

“No,” Ruv said. “The night guards said there was a great storm within the lake. They’d never seen such a thing before and thought that the gods had been angered. That they were bringing down the heavens in penance. They came to me, but by the time I got outside, the lightning was fading. And it was only then we heard the building collapse on the water’s edge.” He looked away. “We found you in the rubble. You weren’t breathing.”

That… wasn’t something I expected to hear. “Oh.”

“Oh,” Ryan said mockingly. “Oh.” He stood and started pacing, something he only did when he was really angry.

Yeah. I felt like shit.

Even though I didn’t think I’d technically done anything wrong.

“Ruv got you breathing again,” Gary said quietly. “Chest compressions.”

“How long?”

“Since we found you?”

“Yes.”

“Six hours,” Gary said.

“Shit,” I muttered. That explained the daylight filtering in through the windows. It didn’t help either that I felt like I was forgetting something, something important, but it was lost in the fog of pain in my head.

“He was here?” Vadoma said, voice trembling.

I looked up at her. She was pale. Shaking. “Yeah. He said… he didn’t need the dragons for what he had planned. That he—” I shook my head. “I don’t know. It’s all a blur.”

“If he doesn’t need the dragons, then what does he want?” Gary asked.

“I am okay with this turn of events,” Kevin said. “I would prefer not to be the bitch of some evil wizard. He might make me do things I don’t want to do. Sexual things.”

“Kevin, there is nothing sexually you don’t want to do,” Gary said. “Remember that time we tried docking?”

Kevin smiled down at Gary. “I’ll never look at that church the same way again. Hey. So. I was thinking. Um. Maybe after all of this is over, we could—”

“Everybody out,” Ryan growled.

“Yeah,” I said. “Let’s all just go out and—”

“Not you,” Ryan said, hand on my elbow holding me back.

“Save me,” I hissed as Gary walked past me.

“Oh, girl,” Gary simpered. “You gonna need to save yourself on this one. Go easy on him. He had a scare, and you know he doesn’t deal well with that.”

“Yeah,” I said to Ryan. “Go easy on me. I had a scare.”

“I was talking to you,” Gary said as he walked out the door.

“You bitch!”

“Love you, kitten!” And the door closed behind them.

I was doomed.

“So,” I said nervously. “What are the chances we can just forget all about this and—”

Ryan kissed me, gripping the sides of my face tightly. His teeth clacked against mine, and he swallowed my gasp down. His tongue was warm and slick, and I groaned, forgetting about the pain for at least a moment.

We were both panting as he broke the kiss, pressing his forehead against mine. My hands were on his waist. He still cupped my face, brushing his thumbs over my cheeks, arms folded between us.

“You can’t do that to me,” he said, sounding angry and broken. “You just can’t.”

“I didn’t mean—”

“I don’t care. Sam. Promise me. You can’t do that. You can’t die.”

I gave him a trembling smile. “I can’t promise that. None of us can. You know that, Ryan.”

His eyes were wide and a little manic. “Promise me.”

I meant to say You don’t have to worry about that. I meant to say I love you so, so much. I meant to say We’re gonna do this together. I meant to say so many things.

But I was young and foolish. I’d just met Myrin face-to-face and I’d survived. I’d tamed the desert dragon. So much was up in the air, but I knew I could do this. I could end this. I could beat back the dark.

I said, “I promise. Ryan, I promise. Nothing’s going to happen. To either of us. Any of us.”

He kissed me again, desperately so.

All of you will not survive until the end. There will be loss, Sam. And it will burn like nothing has ever burned before.

Fuck the star dragon. Fuck the gods.

I wouldn’t let anything take him away from me.

And just when I was about to lead him back to the bed, to take what he was offering to me so freely, I remembered what it was I’d forgotten.

Indeed I do. And I think a lesson in humility is in order. Even now, the Darks march toward Meridian City where the people sleep unaware of the fate that awaits them. At my word, the city will be razed. It is truly a sinful place, so I doubt it would be missed too much. And they will have my word, Sam. As an example to you.

“No,” I breathed against Ryan’s lips.

I felt Ryan frown. “What?”

I pushed him away. “We have to get to Meridian City. We have to—”

In the corner, where our packs lay on the ground, something rattled sharply.

Ryan took a step back. “Is that the—”

“Summoning crystal,” I said, brushing past him. “It’s gotta be Morgan.” I groaned as I crouched, my back screaming at me, the lightning-struck scars on my chest on fire. I dug through my pack until my hand closed around the crystal. I pulled it out and saw the little burst of light shoot off deep inside it.

There was that little tug in my head, that old familiar pull, and the crystal lit up in my hand.

“Morgan?”

“Sam,” he said. “Thank the gods. Where are you?”

“We’re in Mashallaha still. The dragon is ours. He’s—”

“Sam.”

“No,” I said. “No. No.”

But I knew. I already knew.

He said, “You must listen to me.”

He said, “For we don’t have much time.”

He said, “The Darks are heading toward Meridian City.”

He said, “The defenses will hold, but we don’t have much time.”

He said, “Randall is coming for me.”

He said, “We’ll do everything that we can.”

He said, “Sam. It’s begun.”

“I understand,” I said, swallowing thickly. “We can—”

“No,” Morgan said firmly. “I want you to go north.”

“What?”

“Listen to me. There’s nothing you can do. You can’t make it on foot. Your magic cannot transport you there.”

“But Randall can take you? I’m getting real sick of your godsdamned rules, Morgan. I can help—”

“Don’t you think that’s what he wants?” Morgan demanded. “Don’t you think you’ll play right into his hands?”

“He was already here. Myrin was already here.”

Silence. Then, in a whisper, “What?”

“He came for me. I held him off.”

“You what? How in the name of the gods—”

“And he almost died doing it,” Ryan growled down at the crystal. He stared at me defiantly, as if daring me to speak against him. “Myrin almost killed him.”

“North, Sam,” Morgan said. “Don’t make me tell you again. You have a job to do.”

“Morgan—”

“Sam.”

“What about the King? The Prince? My parents?”

“They’ll be safe here. The Castle Guard is on it. There is no stronger hold than Castle Lockes. We’ll—”

“Blast it, Morgan, are you still blathering on to that thing? We have to go.”

“It’s Sam,” Morgan said to Randall. “Myrin’s already found him. They escaped.”

“Hey!” I barked. “We didn’t escape. I kicked his motherfucking ass.”

“Aren’t you just a special snowflake,” Randall said, and I could picture the constipated look on his stupid face. I was going to turn so many things of his into dicks the next time I saw him. “You have your orders. North, Sam. Don’t tarry. Mind me now. We’ll meet you at Castle Freesias.”

And then the crystal went dark.

“That motherfucker hung up on me,” I snapped. “That… that… I can’t even think of an awesome insult because I’m so pissed off!”

“You heard them,” Ryan said. “We should head north.”

“Damn right we should. But we’re not going to.”

Ryan sighed. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

“Dude. You know me. There’s trouble. And I need to be smack dab in the middle of it. Mama’s there. I have to help her.”

Ryan was already throwing our clothes into the packs. “I’m sure she’s probably already leading an army of whores as we speak.”

“Dude,” I breathed. “That is the best army ever.”

Ryan grinned wildly at me. It really was a breathtaking thing.

“We’re gonna kick so much ass,” I said.

“Damn right.”

“Kiss my face,” I demanded.

He did just that.

Then, “Wait.”

I frowned, because I was feeling badass and was having a great mack sesh with my man. “For what?”

“Meridian City is on the other side of Verania.”

“I know. Do you think we have time for blow jobs?”

“Sam.”

“Right. Let’s just jack each other—aw, crap, Meridian City is on the other side of the country. How in the fuck are we going to get there in time?”

And then I had the most awesome idea in the history of ideas.