Chapter 18: The Great White

 

 

“SURE,” GARY muttered to himself. “Let’s keep going into the Dark Woods. Nothing creepy here. Oh, no worries about anything. So what if there’s no path left? And so what if we’re following someone who gets their point across by bad-touching? Nope! This sure wasn’t a bad idea at all. I mean, we’re only where pretty unicorns such as myself don’t go for very good reasons. Because of the dying.”

“There, there,” Tiggy said, and I looked back behind us in time to see him brushing his fingers over Gary’s mane. “Pretty Gary. My pretty Gary.”

“Damn right I’m pretty,” Gary snapped. “Even in the middle of a forest adventure that I want no part of, I am godsdamn gorgeous. It’s how I do. Give me more compliments so I feel better about everything.”

“I like your tail,” Kevin said. “Especially when it’s up in the air.”

“Dude,” I scolded the dragon. “Now is so not the time.”

“Just because you’re not getting compliments,” Gary said with a glare, “doesn’t mean you get to take away mine.”

“I like it when your tail is up in the air,” Ryan told me.

“Aww, babe.”

“I want to go home,” Justin mumbled.

“Chin up, dude!” I told him, trying to sound cheerful. “If you’re into that sort of thing, I’m pretty sure Dimitri’s been eyeing you a little bit. Or you can just wait till we get back to the castle and I’ll totally find you a boyfriend.”

“Because that worked so well last time,” Justin said.

“Oh,” I said with a frown. “Right. My bad. No more personal ads because of people who want you to be their meat puppet.”

It had been five days since Dimitri and his fairies found us in the Dark Woods and dumped a few more revelations in my lap. Most of that time had been spent trekking deeper into the Dark Woods than I’d ever traveled. The canopy above wasn’t so thick that we couldn’t see the sky, but it was still eerie being this far in. The Dark Woods were the heart of Verania, and I didn’t know that anyone had actually been to their center and made it out alive. It was a wilderness that would most likely remain untamed for generations. There was no incentive for men to spread into the Dark Woods; in fact, all the stories of monsters and Darks were enough to keep even the bravest from going too far.

Except for us.

Because we were a special kind of stupid.

Kevin had had a difficult time at first, knocking down trees left and right, much to the horror of the fairies. They way they’d screamed, you would have thought he was murdering their families. We had all stared at them when, after Kevin crunched a particularly large tree, they started wailing and hovering above the tree, shrieking in a language I’d never heard before that reminded me of birds.

Dimitri had not been impressed.

He told Kevin to fly.

Kevin refused, saying he was not going to leave his beloved to the wild machinations of the forest.

Gary had rolled his eyes at the dragon’s protectiveness, but unfortunately, his erection had given him away.

Which was not something I cared to remember.

Boundaries. We really needed new boundaries.

So instead of Kevin flying or killing more trees, the fairies had flown ahead and coaxed them to lean away, creating a winding path through the forest where the trees bent at odd angles, all to avoid Kevin’s feet. The control they had over the forest was impressive, which made me wonder why they allowed the Darks to stay there to begin with. I asked Dimitri, but he started spouting off a long speech about the balance between good and evil, and literally four seconds later, I was bored out of my mind and started collecting pinecones. I had picked up about thirteen before one of the fairies saw me and starting screaming that I was picking up forest babies and taking them away from their homes. That, of course, had set off all the other fairies, and if you’ve never had a hundred naked men flying around your head while they scream at you for stealing forest babies, then I absolutely recommend avoiding it at all costs.

Nights were spent around a fire while the fairies blinked in and out as they whispered to the trees.

So to say that by the fifth day we were all cranky would be an understatement. The trees were getting thicker, and it was getting harder and harder for Kevin to make his way through without crushing anything. Gary was wet and miserable. Tiggy’s nose was leaking like a faucet. Justin didn’t want me to find him a boyfriend. Ryan liked when I lifted up my tail. Dimitri was still naked.

All in all, not one of our best adventures.

(Except for the Ryan thing. That was pretty okay. We had tried to sneak away one night to get a little alone time while everyone was sleeping, only to be interrupted by Gary opening his eyes and shouting, “WHERE ARE YOU GUYS GOING? CAN I GO? WHAT ARE YOU DOING? WHAT IS HAPPENING? CAN I GO?”

I didn’t get laid.

Gary got punched in the throat.

Fair is fair.)

It also didn’t help that we’d been steadily climbing all day, heading toward what felt like a more mountainous region of the Dark Woods. I didn’t remember a mountain range on any map of the Dark Woods, and the peaks weren’t anything in comparison with the Northern Mountains, but we were much higher than I’d ever been in the Dark Woods.

I just wanted this whole thing to be over with so we could go back to Castle Lockes and sleep in our own beds. I missed my parents. I missed the King. I missed Pete and the City of Lockes. I missed the labs. And I missed Morgan so, so much. I needed to apologize more than I’d already done. I wanted everything to be set right between us. Then I could do the same with Ryan, promising him that I would never keep anything from him again for as long as we both lived (the length of which I didn’t much like focusing on). After that, we’d kick Myrin’s ass and have our happily ever after.

That was what kept me going.

It was enough.

“How much farther do we have to go?” Gary asked behind me.

“I don’t know.”

Two minutes later: “How much farther now?”

I ground my teeth together. “Still don’t know, Gary.”

Three minutes later: “So, question.”

“Gary.”

“How much farther?”

I almost choked him to death. I only stopped because his neck was larger than the grip of my hands. I told him as much. After he shrieked at me for the next half hour for apparently calling him Fat Neck, he said, “It’s just a question. Ask Dimitri.”

“You ask Dimitri.”

“This is your quest, asshole.”

“You’re on this quest with me, asshole.”

“I’ll show you an asshole!”

“Yesssss,” Kevin hissed as he stepped over a tree that had bent itself almost horizontal.

“Dimitri,” Justin said loudly.

“Prince,” Dimitri said, fluttering back toward us.

“Would you tell these bitches how much further we have to go?”

“Of course, my lord. Bitches, we’ll arrive when we arrive.”

“Ooh,” Tiggy said. “Tiny man’s got words. Tiggy smash?”

I sighed. “No, Tiggy. No smash.”

“You lucky,” Tiggy told Dimitri. “I smash. I smash gooood.”

Dimitri didn’t look impressed. Which made me impressed, because Tiggy was scary as all fuck. It was about then that I realized I was an extraordinarily complex person, because my logic typically made no sense.

It was a rather disconcerting revelation to be had in the middle of a forest.

“I need to go talk to Dimitri,” I said to Ryan, pitching my voice low so no one could overhear.

Ryan glanced at me, reaching up and wiping water from his beard, which was just unfair, as I wanted to rub my face against it. His lips quirked at my obvious interest. “You sure about that? We could probably just sneak off for a little bit. Try to put this thing to some use.”

“Whoa,” I breathed. Then I shook my head. “Stop trying to distract me with your evil sorcery! You know my one true weakness is to ride your face. And now you have the beard? My gods, the power you wield could destroy the world!”

I realized then that everyone had gone quiet around us.

I looked at the others.

They had stopped and were staring at me with varying looks of lust and disgust.

“I said that loudly, didn’t I?”

Ryan was bright red. “You practically shouted it.”

“Oh. Wow. My bad, dude. Sometimes I don’t know my own volume, especially when it comes to your face.”

“Or when you come on his face,” Gary said.

“Boom,” Tiggy said, fist/hoof-bumping Gary.

“This is your fault,” I hissed at Ryan.

“My fault? How is this my—”

“You grew that beard, knowing full well that it would make you hotter and that I would find you irresistible to the point where I am starting not to care if we have an audience. You did it on purpose.”

“I had no idea that you would be like this,” Ryan said.

“You liar.”

“And you’ll never prove it.”

I gaped at him. “Sass. My gods, the sass.” I turned and glared at everyone else. “Why are you all still staring? The fate of Verania is in our hands! Do none of you take that seriously?”

The fairies turned away, fluttering off into the trees. Dimitri moved to follow them but stopped when I called his name. He turned, a disturbing smirk on his face, as if he expected it to be an invitation to actually watch me try out Ryan’s beard by riding his face. I felt just terrible at having to disappoint him. Instead I shooed the others ahead of us, telling them we’d bring up the rear, and promptly cut Kevin off before he could make a disgusting remark about that.

Ryan eyed me warily. “What’s this about? What do you need from him?”

And it stung more than I cared to admit that I couldn’t just come out and tell him to trust me, because I didn’t know if he did anymore.

So I smiled weakly at him and said, “I just had some questions about the Great White.”

He nodded stiffly. I thought he was going to lean in and kiss me, but then he seemed to think better of it, and any remnants of the good humor we’d had moments before was gone. I sighed as I watched him trail the others. He didn’t look back, not even once.

“Trouble in paradise?” Dimitri asked me.

“Shut up,” I mumbled.

“It happens. The fire that once burned bright is now in danger of snuffing out completely, no matter how much you feed it. It’s a tragic truth. How sad. I will mourn for the both of you. On a completely unrelated topic, how long is it considered proper before throwing one’s hat into the ring to court another after the demise of their previous relationship? I’m asking for a friend.”

“Oh. I don’t know. I guess it depends on the situation. Is your friend—wait a godsdamn minute.”

“It was worth a shot.”

“I resent everything about you.”

“Spoken like a true ex-boyfriend.”

“We’re not exes—you know what? I’m not even going to get into this with you right now. I’m on a quest, and I am going to save Verania, and I have questions.” I began stomping after the others, sure that Dimitri would follow.

I wasn’t disappointed. He flew at my side, wings flapping furiously. “I’ve told you all I can.”

“Bullshit. You’ve told me nothing.”

“Fairies are an enigmatic bunch.”

“No, fairies are assholes. There’s a major difference.”

“Insulting my entire species probably isn’t the best way to get me to do what you want.”

I bit my tongue at the retort before it spilled forth. He was right, of course. If Morgan and the King could see my diplomacy, they’d be shaking their heads in disappointment in that way that only parental figures could.

I considered trying to flirt with him again, but I couldn’t muster up the strength for such an impossible task, so I said, “Did you know? About Randall.”

“What about Randall?” Dimitri asked, because he was a fucknut.

But I’d played these types of games before, with him and others. If this was how he wanted to go about it, then I would. For now. “That the Great White was his mentor.”

Dimitri was good at many, many things. Even I could admit that. But he wasn’t capable of getting the surprise off his face before I caught it. “He told you?”

“He did.”

“That… was unexpected.”

“Why?”

“Randall forsook his name. Which meant he forsook the one who’d taught him.”

“Randall of Dragons.”

“Yes.”

“Can you blame him?”

Dimitri flew under a low-hanging branch, the leaves on the trees stretching toward him as he passed. “It’s not my job to blame him.”

“He gave up his name because he felt as if he didn’t deserve it anymore.”

“He told you this?”

“No,” I admitted. “But it’s pretty obvious, if you think about it. He felt… guilt. Over Myrin. That he didn’t see what was happening before it was too late. Or if he did see it, he ignored it. I don’t know which it was. I don’t know that it matters. It was too late, regardless. And when all was said and done, after everything he’d sacrificed, what was a name?”

“A name is an identity,” Dimitri said. “It defines you. Mine is the name of my father, and his father before him. I carry the line of my people. You are Sam of Wilds. Without it, you would not be as you are.”

“I haven’t always been Sam of Wilds.”

“And you were not as you are now.”

He was starting to talk in circles, and if I let it continue on much longer, I’d get lost. I didn’t have time for that. Not if we were getting close. “Randall wasn’t insulting his mentor. If anything, he was honoring him by giving back what he felt he hadn’t earned. Even if they weren’t on speaking terms, he must have thought he’d failed him.”

Dimitri snorted. “You speak of honor as if you know what it means. Your cornerstone acts as one who knows the taste of betrayal.”

I refused to rise to the bait. “We’re not talking about him.”

“We’re not?” Dimitri asked. “I thought we were discussing many things.”

“The Great White.”

“That too.”

“When was the last time you saw him?”

“Why?”

“Because I asked.”

“I don’t know what concern that is of yours.”

“How do you know where we’re going?”

“We’re in the Dark Woods. This is my domain. I know all that happens here.”

“Like the bird.”

“Like the bird,” Dimitri agreed. “I almost took you then. It was a close thing. You would have been mine, and I would never have let you go.”

“Why didn’t you?”

He shrugged. “I thought that I’d give you time to come to me. Sometimes I wonder if I made a mistake that day.”

“I dreamed of it. The dragon.”

He made a low humming noise. “He is the oldest living thing in the world. Of course you did. What did he say to you?”

“What makes you think it said anything?”

“Curious,” Dimitri said.

“What is?”

“You. You always have been. From the very first day, you have been this thorn, but not buried in my side. More like you were scraping my skin. Not wholly unpleasant.”

“Did you know him?”

“You’re not speaking of the dragon.”

“No. But how did you know?”

“You call the Great White it, like he’s a thing, this unnamed thing that you haven’t begun to accept.”

“It’s not my god.”

“He never asked to be. He just is. But yes, to answer your question, I knew Myrin.”

“Did you know that all of this would happen?”

Dimitri laughed. “I didn’t have all the pieces. I warned Randall the day he and Morgan set the seal. I told him that all things came full circle. That the mistakes of the past have a tendency to become the problems of the future, especially if they aren’t corrected as they should have been. No, Sam. I didn’t know that all of this would happen exactly as it has. I didn’t know about you, though I could understand your importance. The gods do not speak to me. I am but the caretaker of the forest.”

“You told him to kill Myrin?”

He looked at me sharply. “I never said that.”

“You said corrected.”

“That’s not the same thing.”

“Isn’t it?”

“I do not advocate death. I breathe life.”

“If he’d killed him, we wouldn’t be here.”

“The path would have gone in a different direction,” Dimitri agreed. “But here we are, and I think this is where we’re meant to be. The actions that have led to this moment are as much yours as they are theirs. This is your history, Sam of Wilds. You carry the weight of their past because it has been placed upon you. Their mistakes have become your future.”

“That… sucks.”

“Indeed it does,” Dimitri said, and he sounded far too happy at the prospect. “The last time I saw the Great White was the day the seal was locked.”

I stopped. Dimitri turned to look back at me, eyebrow arched. “It was there?” I asked dumbly. “Randall never—”

“Randall didn’t know.”

“But you did.”

“It is my forest. I know all that happens here.”

“Then why do you allow the Darks to—”

“We’re not speaking about them,” Dimitri snapped. “We’re speaking about the dragon. My patience is being tested, Sam of Wilds. Ask your question before I decide this conversation is no longer necessary.”

“I stood in front of him,” I said slowly, choosing each word carefully. “At first I thought he was a mountain.”

Dimitri waited.

“With the other dragons, I felt them. In my head. Like they were little pieces of me. With him it was… different. Like he was everything.”

The forest was loud around us, the birds calling, the trees swaying.

“He did speak,” I admitted. “He told me that he had awoken.”

“There was more.”

You are not ready.

“There was,” I said. “But it doesn’t matter. What matters is that I’ve gotten four of Verania’s dragons behind me. He is just one more. My question to you, Dimitri: Will he listen?”

Dimitri smiled a terrible smile, like he knew I was full of shit. “He will test you. Like you’ve never been tested before. He will judge your worthiness. And if he finds it lacking, you will fail. I don’t think I need to explain what would happen then.”

And I was cocky, sure of myself. I’d gotten four dragons. I’d been tested. I could do it again. I had to do it again. There was no other option. “I won’t fail.”

Dimitri watched me for a moment. I struggled not to squirm. Then, “He will listen. But the real question is, will you?”

“What the hell is that supposed to—”

“We’re here.”

I blinked. “What?”

That terrible smile widened. “We’re here.”

 

 

THE OTHERS had stopped ahead in a clearing. I burst through the tree line and almost tripped over Kevin’s tail into Tiggy’s back but was able to catch myself before I stumbled. “What’s going on?” I asked, walking around Gary to stand next to Ryan. His sword was drawn, his face pinched.

“They just stopped here,” Justin said, pointing at the fairies. “Wouldn’t let us go any further. We thought they were waiting for you.”

The fairies had formed a wall of sorts in the middle of the clearing. They were hovering in midair like a cloud of buzzing bees. They faced away from us, staring off to the other side of the clearing into the deep woods. The trees were bigger on the other side, and thicker. The forest behind us was bright and cheery. The forest ahead looked dark and ominous. The difference was startling to see.

It didn’t help that there was a wide creek running in front of us that led toward the edge of the clearing to our left, which ended in a cliff that the water fell over. I didn’t know how high it was, but by the sound of the waterfall, it seemed to be a long drop.

Dimitri flew past us and joined the cloud of fairies in the middle of the clearing. I heard him speak in a low voice, but I couldn’t make out his words over the sound of the water.

“He tell you anything?” Ryan asked me.

I shook my head. “Not really. Nothing I didn’t know already. Vague bullshit. The usual. I really hate fairies. And gods. And grandmas. For once I would like it if someone came to me and said, Hey, Sam. This is exactly what you need to do, step by step. You’re welcome.”

“Where’s the fun in that?” Ryan said with a tight smile.

“Um, we’re not having fun,” Gary said. “In case you couldn’t tell, my mane is wet and flat, no one has picked my hooves out in at least a full day, and I’m pretty sure if I have to shit in the woods one more time, I’m going to massacre everyone without caring how much I might love them. Except for Tiggy, of course, because he is my most favorite thing ever.”

“Holla, bitches,” Tiggy said.

No one could argue with Gary, because Tiggy was pretty much everyone’s favorite.

“He said we’re here,” I told them. “But I don’t see anything.”

“Your eyes aren’t glowing,” Gary said. “Not like with Zero. Maybe we’re in the wrong spot. Or he’s on the other side of the river. Which, you know, is just great, because how are we going to get across?”

“Do you hear him?” Ryan asked. “You know, in your head?”

I frowned at him. “That makes me sound like I’m crazy.”

He rolled his eyes at me. “You’re the one who hears dragon voices when none of the rest of us can.”

“Fair point. No voices in my head. Kevin?”

The dragon shook his head. “I got nothing. Maybe he’s not here.”

“Great!” Gary said, stomping his hooves in the grass. “We should probably just go home, then. Everyone? Everyone! It looks as if today’s event has been canceled. If you could please direct us to the nearest tavern so that I may have a wine or six and sit in front of a fire while someone rubs my thighs—”

“Not it,” Ryan said immediately. “Ha! I got one! I don’t have to rub Gary’s—”

A loud boom echoed throughout the forest.

“Huh,” Gary said, looking down at his hooves as if the answers could be found in the ground under his feet. “That’s not a good sign.”

I took a stumbling step toward the fairies. They immediately scattered and began to spin like a tornado, their wings glistening from the rain. Dimitri was at their center, and he looked back toward me.

“What is it?” I asked him as Ryan gripped my elbow.

“In the end,” Dimitri said, voice soft and hard to hear, “it is about the choices you make. Never forget that.”

“I don’t understand.”

Another boom burst from the trees. Birds took flight, crying out as they flew away.

“He’s coming,” Dimitri said. “He’s calling for you, Sam of Wilds. This is what your choices have led to. This moment.”

“Sam?” Ryan asked. “What’s going—”

But before he could finish, I was hit by the strongest wave of magic I’d ever felt in my life. I’d felt something similar with Kevin. With Zero. With the feathered dragons. It was wild and strong and threatened to crack me right down the middle, but those times had been nothing compared to this. It was pure magic. There were no voices in my head. No threats, no promises. There was only magic, and I couldn’t breathe.

My back arched as my head tilted back. My skin was crawling with it, gold and green and white. There was so much white that I thought it was going to consume everything. My heart thundered in my chest, and my blood was singing, feeling like it was going to burst out from underneath my skin and fall to the earth, getting soaked up into the ground like an offering.

“His eyes,” I heard Justin say. “Do you see his eyes? They’re—”

“Sam,” a voice whispered fiercely in my ear. Arms came around my chest and clutched me tightly. “Sam, I need you to listen to me. Whatever it is, you need to fight it. You’ve done it before and you can do it again. I’m here, okay? I’m here with you, and I need you to fight this.”

I could. I could push against it, force it back. I could fight it so easily.

But I could also let it consume me, and wouldn’t that be the easiest thing of all? To let whatever coursed through me take over completely? I wanted to give in because of the way it made me feel. It promised me things without words. I could have it, if I let it have me. I could make it my own if I just gave it myself. If I just took that last and final step into nothingness, it would give me everything I could ever wish for.

It was a choice.

And for a moment, I considered giving in.

Ryan Foxheart said, “Sam.”

I began to push it away.

Curious, a voice whispered in my head. How curious you are.

The magic slipped from me.

I gasped as I collapsed against Ryan.

“What the hell was that?” he demanded. “Your eyes were—”

“The Great White,” I panted. “It’s coming.”

“I don’t see it,” Kevin said, sounding worried. “If it’s as big as you said it was, shouldn’t we be able to see it?”

The ground began to shift beneath our feet as it was cracked apart by a great roar.

“Well that just fucks up my day,” Gary said as we all looked down in horror. “Like, really fucks up my day.”

“Oh shit,” I breathed.

“He’s coming,” Dimitri singsonged, and I was convinced that I would never hate anything more than I hated Dimitri at that very moment.

“Tiggy!” I snapped as I pushed myself up. “Princely sack of potatoes!”

Tiggy moved without question, taking three lumbering steps before reaching out and grabbing Justin, throwing the Prince over his shoulder. Justin squawked in anger as Tiggy turned back toward me.

Trees began to fall in the forest as I turned toward Ryan. “Babe,” I said, “you gotta ride my best friend.”

His eyes bulged. “Now is hardly the time for that, Sam. Or ever! What the hell are you even—”

“Gary,” I said quickly, “remember that time you allowed Ryan on your back because you were riding in all badass to save me at Kevin’s keep?”

“I did look amazing, didn’t I?” Gary said, stumbling forward as the ground split along the edges of the clearing. “Granted, I only allowed it because you were in danger. Everyone knows that’s normally racist as all hell to allow—”

“Gary, I have something to tell you.”

“Yes, Sam?”

“It’s not racist.”

“What? Of course it is.”

“Do we really have time to be talking about this now?” Ryan snapped.

“Do you trust me?” I asked Gary.

“Yes,” Gary said immediately.

“I need you to let Ryan ride you.”

His eyes narrowed. “Are you propositioning me? Because that’s not—”

“Why does everyone think that?” I growled. “No. I’m not propositioning you. I need you to get him the hell out of here. You and Tiggy don’t stop running until you can’t run anymore. Do you hear me? You run.”

“But—”

“Please,” I begged him. “You have to go.”

“What about me?” Kevin asked.

“You’re with me,” I said, looking up at him. “It may be big, but you’re gonna be faster. And if we take this to the sky, then we’ll have a chance. I need you to help me, Kevin. Can you do that?”

Kevin nodded without hesitating.

“What the hell are you planning?” Ryan growled at me, grabbing me by the shoulders and shaking me a little. My scars felt like they were on fire. “You’re going to do something stupid, aren’t you?”

“Hey! I resent that. I never do anything stupid.”

But his eyes were wide and wild, and his grip was biting. “Sam,” he said, voice hoarse. “I’m going with you.”

I leaned forward and kissed him fiercely. “That’s not how this works,” I mumbled against his lips as another roar echoed through the forest. “You gotta trust me, okay?”

“I trust you with my life,” he said, pressing his forehead against mine. “But I don’t trust you with your own.”

I ignored how much that hurt. I could deal with it later if I wasn’t being slowly digested in a large stomach. “Well, you gotta try,” I said, “because that’s what I need you to do. I need you to go.” I shoved my pack into his hands.

He took it but didn’t step back. “You don’t have to do this!”

I grinned rakishly at him. “Of course I do. I’m Sam of Wilds.”

“Don’t,” he begged. “Please, just wait. We’ll figure this—”

The forest floor lurched, knocking us apart. I landed on my back, staring up at the gray sky, rain falling on my face. It took a moment for my head to clear before I pushed myself up. I was near the edge of the creek, water splashing up and onto my hands. Ryan had fallen back toward the others. He was on his knees next to Gary and Tiggy. He started to rise, and I could see the determined set of his jaw. Once he was on his feet, he was going to come for me, like he always would.

Would he? the voice whispered. Would he always come for you? Humanity is such a strange thing to be afflicted with.

I looked toward the cliff edge.

Then back at Ryan.

Then toward the cliff again.

And decided to do the stupidest thing I’d ever done, regardless of what I’d just said to Ryan.

The problem with me having stupid ideas was that I tended to broadcast them on my face even before I spoke them aloud. Gary had said it was a manic expression, like I’d gone suddenly and unequivocally mad, and that it wasn’t very attractive on me. I’d glared at him. He’d licked my face.

So that must have been the look on my face when the idea hit me, and I could see Gary’s eyes widen, and Ryan shouted my name, but this was the only way. I had to get them to leave before it came.

“Kevin!” I bellowed. “Catch me!”

And without looking to make sure he’d heard, I ran along the creek as it started to break apart, toward the edge of the cliff. I had the forethought to send up a quick prayer to the gods that the drop was as far as I hoped it would be; otherwise Kevin wouldn’t be able to get to me in time. Either the fall would be short and I would die as soon as I hit the ground, or it’d be too short, and I’d land face-first in the mud and be really pissed off at myself.

I didn’t hesitate as I reached the edge of the cliff.

I jumped.

There was a brief moment when I hung suspended in the air, arms and legs cartwheeling, throat squeezing tightly as a scream rose through me, that I realized there was a reason people tried to plan ahead. It was to avoid moments exactly like this.

The drop was much, much bigger than I thought it would be.

In fact, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was the biggest waterfall in all of Verania.

Birds flew below me.

Birds.

“Oh fuck,” I said weakly.

Then I started to fall.

Water splashed against my face as the wind roared in my ears. I started to gather my magic, sure I was going to die, trying to think of something, anything I could do to stop the inevitable death, all the while cursing myself for actually jumping off a fucking cliff to make sure my brave idiot of a boyfriend didn’t try to stand in front of me, all dashing and immaculate, while the biggest dragon in the world bore down upon us.

Ryan was right. I had stupid ideas.

It was not the best revelation to have while falling.

I had time for life to begin to flash before my eyes (and wasn’t that a disappointing thing to see, that I hadn’t done at least half of the sexual things I’d wanted to do to Ryan—why, oh why had I not thought to get one of those sex swings like Mama had at the Tilted Cross? It would have been glorious), and I thought lightning was beginning to arc from my fingertips to do what, I didn’t know, when there was a flash beside me, and claws circled around me, jerking me up upward, cutting off my manly screaming and knocking the breath from my chest.

“You idiot,” a voice snarled in my ear. “Ryan is going to murder you!”

I opened one eye first to make sure I hadn’t actually died. Instead I was being held in a gigantic fist, black wings spread wide and catching an updraft, dark eyes glittering dangerously at me.

“Dude,” I breathed. “That was awesome. I am a motherfucking genius. Hurray for not dying!”

“Yet,” Kevin snarked at me. “I’m pretty sure Ryan will take care of that for you once this is all over. I don’t think I’ve ever heard him make a noise like that before when you jumped. You’re lucky I was already coming after you.”

The adrenaline was still coursing through my veins, and I felt light-headed. “Yeah, but did you see how badass that was?” I demanded.

“So badass that you’ll probably not get laid for a year,” Kevin agreed. “Let me know if you’ll need some help with that.”

“They get out?” I asked, looking down, trying to see what I could. But we were stuck in some clouds, and they were wet against my face.

“Last I saw.”

“Good, now we just have to—”

There came a thunderous roar behind us.

“—not die,” I finished weakly. “Definitely not die.”

“That’s your plan?” Kevin screeched at me.

“It seemed like a good plan at the time!”

“We’re gonna die!

“Shut up and let me—”

We broke through the cloud that surrounded us, and the Dark Woods appeared below. I jerked around in Kevin’s grip, trying to look in all directions at once. At first there was nothing but trees and rain and more trees, and I bent forward, trying to look behind us. There was nothing there, absolutely nothing, but it couldn’t be hidden. It was too big. It had to be somewhere and I—

Something caught my eye behind us.

I squinted at it.

There was Kevin’s underbelly, his back legs, his tail, the clouds, and it looked as if they were starting to glow strangely. It was soft at first, like a lantern in the dark. But then it grew brighter until it was bright and furious orange, and my eyes widened as I began to beat Kevin’s claws with my fist.

“Oh my gods,” I squeaked. “Up, up, go up. He’s right behind us, and he’s breathing fire!”

“Hold on!” Kevin shouted, spreading his wings as far as they could go. We hit an updraft and rocketed skyward, but not before the clouds behind us broke apart with a burst of flames that hurtled toward us. I lifted my legs as high as they could go, muscles burning as I pressed my feet to Kevin’s underside.

The fire missed us by a good distance, but the heat from it was excruciating, and I thought my clothes were going to catch and burn. Kevin’s tail got caught in the fire, and he cried out before whipping it up and away.

“You good?”

“Yeah,” he said through gritted teeth as we rose through the clouds. “It’ll be fine. Just remind me to scratch his fucking face off when I get the chance.”

“Yeah, I don’t know if that’s a good idea. It seems like it would just piss him off. And if he’s not mad now, I don’t want to see what would happen when he was. Can you set me on your back? I’d rather be on top.”

“Baby, you can top me anytime.”

“Not gonna happen,” I muttered as he lowered his head and lifted his arm above his neck. I clambered on top of him, sliding between the spikes along his neck until I found the sweet spot on his back that allowed him to move as he needed to without the threat of knocking me off. I settled down between the boney spikes, grabbing one and pulling myself forward. With Ryan and Tiggy behind me, it’d been a snug fit, the half-giant holding us both so we wouldn’t slip off. Since I was alone now, I wrapped both arms around the spike and held on tightly.

I craned my neck to look behind us, half-convinced he would be right there, jaws stretched wide, fire blooming, but there was nothing. I didn’t know if that was better or worse.

“Do you see him?” I shouted down at Kevin, blinking against the rain.

“No. And I’m completely fine with that.”

“Get as high as you can! We need to stay above him.”

“We’ll lose the clouds if we go too high!” he snapped back.

“Just do it.”

“Then you better hold on to something.”

“What? Why are you—oh my fucking gods, you dick!”

Instead of being like a normal fucking dragon and rising gradually, Kevin turned his face upward, his body shifting until it was almost perpendicular to the ground. I held on as tightly as I could, pressing my face against the back spike, trying not to slide off. I started to lift off Kevin, my legs sliding back, and I squeezed my eyes shut, almost biting my tongue clean in half as we rose through the rainstorm. If it went on much longer, my arms were going to be the only thing on Kevin, and they were already tiring.

And then we broke through into sweet, warm sunlight.

I gasped as Kevin leveled out.

I opened my eyes.

The sun was bright. The sky was blue above us. There was a curve to the horizon, and it felt like I could see forever.

“Holy shit,” I said, my voice carried by the wind. “This is—”

It was calm. It was peaceful. It was one of the most beautiful things I’d ever seen.

Below us was a storm that stretched out across Verania.

Everything felt still. Like we’d crossed from one world into another.

“Have you ever been this high before?” I called down to Kevin, breathless.

“Once or twice,” he said. “But not in a very long time.”

“It’s… amazing. I can see why you fly.”

“Usually it’s without the threat of death. Well, that was before I met you. Now it seems like the only reason I’m in the air is if something wants to eat me or if I’m getting wizards blowing their whizbangs and their sparklies at me.”

“Dude. That sucks. My bad.”

“Eh, worth it.”

I took a deep breath and leaned over as far as I dared, trying to see if I could find the dragon before he found us.

I had a dizzying sense of vertigo as I stared down below us. The cloud cover belied how high we were, but what I was seeing wasn’t exactly what my brain was telling me. I saw the clouds below. But in my head, I could see straight through them all the way to the ground below.

“Oh man.” I swallowed thickly. “If I throw up on you, I am so sorry.”

“If you do, I’m going to eat you myself,” he said, glaring back at me.

“Bullshit. You love me too much.”

“Try and see, wizard. Remember the truth corn lady? I left her feet behind. I’ll leave nothing of you behind but the memories.”

“That…. Okay, that was actually quite impressive. Well played. Any vomit I might have had is now firmly back in my stomach where it belongs.”

“Thank you for sharing.”

There was nothing below us. I was starting to get uneasy. I would have thought the Great White would follow us much more closely. Granted, if he was as big as I thought he was, he couldn’t move as fast as Kevin. He would be a lumbering thing, something we needed to use to our advantage.

First I had to find him. I didn’t like the idea of going back down into the clouds, but if we didn’t see him soon, we’d have to. I couldn’t run the risk of him ignoring us and going after the others.

For the next minute, I scanned the clouds below us.

And it was the longest minute of my life.

I heard no voices in my head.

Felt no pulse of something like I had with the others.

And I thought that it was because he was shielding himself. That when I’d felt him before, it was because he let me.

I was about to tell Kevin that we had to go back down when I saw it.

I didn’t know what it was at first. There was something poking up above the clouds, thick and white, offset from the gray storm. It looked to be as wide as Kevin’s neck, which Tiggy couldn’t wrap his arms all the way around, even at the thinnest part, much to the dragon’s glee.

I narrowed my eyes, trying to make sure I wasn’t seeing an illusion. But I saw the way it split the clouds, like a fin below the surface of the water. Or below a sea of sand, and I shuddered at the reminder of the horrors that had hidden below the desert. I was about to point it out to Kevin when the thick white something rose even higher.

It was a boney protrusion.

Attached to the end of a wing.

A wing that made even Kevin’s impressive span pale in comparison.

“Oh my gods,” I whispered.

The wing split the clouds as it rose through them. It took me a moment to figure out that the dragon below us was flying sideways, one wing pointed up toward the sky, the other hidden below us toward the ground. The wing continued to rise through the clouds, getting bigger and bigger, until I was sure it was the biggest thing in the world.

Kevin tensed as he caught sight of the wing below us, the spikes on his back rattling together until he twitched and straightened them out, body rigid, wings spread and coasting on the wind to avoid making any sound. He turned his body until we were heading the same direction as the Great White, trailing behind him enough that we could dive into the clouds if needed.

There was a shadow of a body now, through the clouds. If it wasn’t an illusion, then we were most likely fucked. Kevin had grown in the last year until he was the size of the largest house in the City of Lockes, something that he was quite proud of.

The dragon below us appeared to be bigger than the castle itself.

The wing began to fall toward the clouds as the dragon straightened himself out. For a moment I was sure he was going to dip back below the clouds, but then he seemed to level out, large white spikes rising up from the cloud surface, much larger than the ones on Kevin’s back. I saw the quick flash of a long tail, the tip of which broke through the clouds before disappearing underneath.

But what was most magnificent and utterly terrifying was the hard ridge that rose on the top of his head as he moved above the clouds, fanning out in a half-spherical protrusion. Sharp, pointed juts of bone stuck out from the top of the crown, gleaming brightly in the sunlight.

It was exactly as I’d seen in the vision, down to the last detail.

It’d been real.

All of it.

What Vadoma had shown me was real.

“That,” I breathed unnecessarily, “is a big motherfucking dragon.”

Kevin turned toward me, eyes wide. “Do you think we could just leave it alone and go home now? I mean, honestly. Does it really matter if the bad guys win? We could always just move. I’ve heard living in exile is all the rage right now. Also, I don’t like how inadequate I feel. I liked being the biggest thing in the world before this. Do you know what this does to my self-esteem? You know Gary has a size kink. What if he sees this fucker and we don’t get back together because I don’t measure up?”

“I really don’t think that’s something we should be worrying about right now,” I hissed at him. “In case you didn’t know, there is a fucking dragon five times your size right below you.”

“And it begins. Oh look, Kevin, that dragon is bigger than you. Oh look, Kevin, he’s so charming. Oh Kevin, I’m so sorry, but I have to stay late at the office tonight and don’t know when I’m going to be home!”

“He’s going to hear you!”

He rolled his eyes. “You know our hearing isn’t that good. I’d be worried about him smelling us before he hears us. And his nose is still down in the storm, so that’ll fuck with his sense of smell. Watch. Hey! Hey, you! Unicorn-husband-stealing motherfucker! Up here!”

“Oh my gods shut the fuck up!” I snarled at him, sure that we were about to die.

“Ah, see? Didn’t even hear us.”

And he hadn’t. He moved slowly, his wings taking almost a full minute for each movement up and down. I thought he could probably move fast if he wanted to, but the boney crown was moving side to side, as if he were searching for us. The area behind the crown looked free of protrusions and spikes, but I didn’t know how to use that to our advantage. If only I could get down to it and try to talk to him. I could talk my way through almost anything. If that didn’t work, I could at least try to hit him in the eye as I’d done with all the others. That seemed to work too. Granted, the idea of punching a dragon’s eye that was probably twice the size of me wasn’t too appealing.

We coasted above the Great White for a time, the dragon below us moving almost lazily as he flew over a specific area. There were breaks in the clouds below as the rainstorm started rolling on, and I could see the tiny trees of the Dark Woods so very far away. My stomach felt oily at the sight of it, and more and more of the Great White came into view as the clouds cleared. It was the biggest creature I’d ever seen, all scale and spikes and muscle. Even my vision of him hadn’t truly impressed upon me the sheer scope of him.

“He’s not doing anything,” I said, frustrated.

“And we can’t take him head-on,” Kevin pointed out. “I may be faster, but I don’t know that I can outrun him forever. And I can’t feel him. Not like I could with the others.”

He was right about that. Aside from the initial wave of magic and the voice momentarily in my head, I couldn’t feel anything about the Great White. But it wasn’t as if he wasn’t there at all. Instead, there was a void in my mind where he should be.

Like he was shielding himself from me.

“We can’t keep this up,” I said. “Eventually he’s going to either look up or go back down. And we don’t know how far the others got. We can’t take the chance of him finding them before we do anything.”

“Dimitri will protect them,” Kevin said. “And now that I’ve said that aloud, I realize how ridiculous that is. We gotta do something. Now.”

I closed my eyes and raised my face toward the sun, trying to think of something, anything I could do to get the dragon’s attention that wouldn’t result in the immediate and most likely painful death of Kevin and myself. If only we could get closer somehow and just get him to listen to me. But I didn’t know how amenable he would be to Kevin being near him, and it wasn’t like I could get to him by myself to—

I opened my eyes.

“Oh no,” I whispered fervently. “I’ve just had the worst idea ever.”

My skin felt cold as I peered back down at the dragon below us. Either this would work or I would die, and the chances were greater for the latter than the former. But we were running out of time, the forest below us revealed as the clouds disappeared. I thought maybe that’s what the dragon had been moving in circles for, that his massive size had been enough to shift the clouds away.

Smoke streamed from his nostrils, leaving trails behind him that rippled along the massive spikes on his back. His tail moved back and forth almost lazily. The crown of his head turned from side to side as he scanned for something, most likely me.

“I’m gonna do this,” I said, trying to psych myself up. “I’m gonna do this.”

“What?” Kevin asked, starting to sound slightly hysterical. “What are you gonna do?”

“I need you to get above him,” I said, never taking my eyes off the Great White. “Don’t let him see you. The sun is low enough that your shadow should stay behind him if we move quick enough. Get as close to his front as possible, but don’t go any lower.”

He looked back at me with narrowed eyes. “Why do I have a feeling you’re planning something that Gary’s going to yell at me for?”

“Least of my worries right now,” I said through gritted teeth, mouth flooding with saliva in that way that signaled I was about to be sick. “Oh my gods, I am so fucking stupid. Oh gods.”

But I didn’t have a choice.

Kevin moved carefully, making sure to approach the Great White from the rear. It was only moments before we were above him, Kevin’s shadow encompassed by the Great White’s on the earth below. We couldn’t stay right here forever. If I was going to do this, I had to do it soon.

My hands were sweating.

My heart was about to beat out of my chest.

My breaths were light and quick.

Everything was in sharp clarity, the colors bright.

I said, “Listen to me. Whatever you do, you don’t come after me. You get the hell out of here. Find the others. You tell—you tell them this was my choice. That I did this because it was the right thing to do.”

“What the hell are you doing?” he demanded.

“I need you to trust me.”

“Trust you? I barely even know you!”

I grinned at him. “Love you too, dude.”

And then I pulled myself up until I was standing on Kevin’s back, the wind whipping around me.

“No,” Kevin said, shaking his head furiously. “Don’t you do it. You hear me? Don’t you—”

I ignored him as I turned away, facing his tail, my arms behind me as I held on to the spike on his back.

“Sam! You sit your ass back down right now!”

I took in a deep breath and let it out slow.

“Who the fuck do you think you are!”

I glanced over my shoulder, winking at him. “I’m Sam of Wilds. See you soon.”

And then I turned and started running.

Kevin’s back was wide enough that I was able to move left or right to dodge the spikes. The muscles beneath my feet shifted as he tensed. The wind at my back pushed me along, my strides swift and sure. My eyes watered. I heard him shout my name as I reached his midback. I heard him scream for me as I neared his tail, but it was muted now. The blood was roaring in my ears, the scars on my chest felt as if they were electrified, and I saw green and gold darting around the edges of my vision. There was magic here. It carried me past the moment of no return, my mind whiting out at the last possible second.

I took a breath.

I balled my hands into fists.

And then I leaped from Kevin’s back into nothing, narrowly avoiding his tail as it whipped by me.

It wasn’t like jumping from the cliff.

I wasn’t suspended in midair.

I saw the sun, and then I saw the dragon and the clouds below as I began to fall.

Kevin roared above me.

I folded my hands against my sides as I fell face-first toward the Great White.

BAD IDEA, my brain supplied helpfully. THIS WAS A VERY BAD IDEA.

It took only seconds, but they passed by in an age.

I didn’t even have the wherewithal to scream as I plummeted toward the Great White.

I narrowed my eyes against the wind.

There was the green-black of the forest, but then all I could see was white, white, white, and the moment before I landed, the moment before I crashed into it, I thought, no, and the green and gold were as bright as I’d ever seen them. The air around me liquefied, the moisture being sucked out of the sky and gathering below me, water swirling in a swift eddy until it was bigger than I was. I hit the surface of the water, feeling it close up and over my head, slowing my descent, bubbles trailing from my nose and mouth. I slid through the depths of it, burst through the other side in a shower of droplets that caught the sunlight around me, glittering brightly.

I landed on the back of the Great White’s neck, water raining down around me, in the shadow of the dragon’s crown.

“That,” I wheezed, rolling onto my back, “was so fucking awesome. Stupid, but fucking awesome.”

And the dragon known as the Great White said, “Wizard.”