Chapter 5: Getting Sucked Through a Hole

 

 

MOISHE RAN past us up the stairs, heading toward Mama’s office. I knew he’d keep her safe.

Tiggy and Gary had already burst through the doors of the brothel. Ryan and I followed behind them, skidding to a halt over the cobblestones, almost crashing into Tiggy’s back. The sunshine was warm and blinding after the low candlelight of the brothel. The people of Meridian City stood stock still, eyes trained toward the sky.

“What the fuck—” I started but was interrupted by another loud roar coming from somewhere above us.

I looked up in time to see Kevin flying over the walls of Meridian City, facing toward the Dark Woods. Bright lights burst around him, as if spells were being shot up from the ground below. They glanced off his scales, exploding like fireworks. He reared back in midair, his gigantic wings flapping, and I heard him take a deep, guttural breath.

“Uh-oh,” Tiggy said succinctly as people around us began to whimper.

A great blast of fire shot from Kevin’s gaping maw. It hurtled toward the ground on the other side of the wall, where it exploded in a fireball quickly chased by a black plume of smoke that began to rise toward the sky.

“I forget sometimes that he can do that,” Gary said faintly. “Do me a favor and please ignore my erection.”

“Gross,” I said. “And it’s hard to ignore when it’s right there.”

“Don’t look at it! You know I’m shy.”

“Bullshit.”

“Yeah, okay. That was a lie. Look at it all you want. Jealously, of course.”

“Maybe not the time,” Ryan pointed out.

“…he said jealously,” Gary muttered under his breath.

I took a deep breath and pulled my magic toward me, the green and gold skirting along the edges of my vision.

“Ungh,” Ryan said, eyes slightly glassy as he watched me. “I forget sometimes that you can do that. Do me a favor and please ignore my—”

“What the hell,” Gary snapped. “We’re obviously in the middle of a crisis, and you’re popping boners? Good gods, Ryan. Sam! Control your bitch!”

“I like all of you,” Tiggy said.

“Aww,” Gary and I said.

And then from above came an angry scream of pain. I looked in time to see arcs of blood falling from a ragged hole in Kevin’s left wing. I didn’t know how it’d happened, as dragons were impervious to most kinds of magic, but Kevin was struggling to stay in the air, his left wing folded against his side, his right one flapping strenuously. He was sinking lower and lower in the air, and I was pissed. I remembered his story about how men had come to try to take his blood, how a tattooed man had come for one of his hearts. He had been scared then, because he didn’t have anyone. He’d been alone.

But here he was, fighting for us, and he’d gotten hurt because of it.

That wasn’t okay. At all.

And apparently not for his ex-husband either, as Gary shrieked his name and took off down the streets of Meridian City, heading toward the front gates. Tiggy chased after him in wide strides, the cobblestones cracking beneath his feet.

Ryan had his sword drawn before Kevin sank out of sight on the other side of the wall. I was about to lead the way when Morgan and Randall came out of the Tilted Cross behind us.

“Kevin’s been hurt,” I told them. “Outside Meridian City. Gary and Tiggy are already headed that way. We have to—”

“Take Ryan,” Randall said to Morgan. “Make for the gate. Sam and I will flank them. Don’t tarry.”

“What?” I snapped. “We don’t have time to reach the back gates. It’ll take too long!”

“We won’t be going to the back gates,” Randall said.

“But we—”

“Sam.”

I shook my head, biting my tongue.

Ryan looked hesitant, but Morgan was already dragging him away before he could say anything. I waved him off before he could try to come back. He nodded at me, then turned and began to run through the city with Morgan. I liked seeing him go almost as much as I liked watching him come.

Randall was staring at me as I turned back toward him. “What?” I asked him, suddenly feeling defensive.

“We’re going to have a long talk, you and I,” he said ominously.

That… wasn’t good. “I didn’t do it, whatever it is.”

He cocked a massive eyebrow at me. “You don’t even know what I’m talking about.”

“And I’d rather not, if I’m being honest.”

“Sometimes we have to do the things we don’t want to do. I am going to hold your hand.”

“Um. Excuse me?”

Randall sighed and rolled his eyes toward the heavens. He said something under his breath that I couldn’t make out, but I told myself he was giving me the best of compliments and just didn’t want me to know. “I’m going to hold your hand.”

“Oh. Uh. Okay? Are you… scared?”

“And we’re going to run.”

“I can keep up! You don’t need to hold my hand. I’m pretty sure I can outrun you. They probably hadn’t even invented running yet when you were born.”

“I regret the day you turned those boys to stone.”

“Lie,” I said. “You like me. Somewhat.”

He glared at me.

“Don’t even. Morgan told me you think I’m super awesome.”

“Really. Morgan told you that I thought you were super awesome.”

“Okay, he didn’t exactly say it like that, but he might as well have! There was intent behind being damned with faint praise.”

“Gods help us all.” Randall grabbed my hand and pulled me until we were running at a good pace. He moved fast for an old fucker.

“I have a boyfriend,” I said quickly. “So no funny business.”

“I don’t think you have to worry about that.”

“Oh, please. I’m a catch. If I ever tried to woo you, you’d be swept off your feeeeeeAAAAAAAHHHH—”

I had never been teleported anywhere before.

I would be okay if I never had to repeat that process in my entire lifetime.

Because it sucked.

One moment we were running away from the Tilted Cross and I was randomly holding the dry, wrinkled hand of the oldest person in the world while—for some reason—trying to convince him that I could totally bone him if I wanted to.

And then the next, everything was swirling around us like it had been caught in some kind of vortex. It felt like I was being compacted, my entire body being shoved into the tiniest of spaces as I was yanked off my feet. The wind was rushing in my ears and Randall’s grip was biting into my hand, but I couldn’t be bothered with it, given that I was screaming at the sucking sensation, like we were being pulled under or through the surface of Meridian City.

It only lasted a couple of seconds before the feeling reversed, like I was beginning to expand. I was unfolding, the sounds around us as loud as they’d ever been. Then my feet hit solid ground, and I took a stumbling step forward, Randall’s hand still in my own, even though I was sweating profusely, my palm slick in his.

We were outside the walls of Meridian City, the trees of the Dark Woods swaying in the distance.

“There,” Randall said, dropping my hand, wiping his own down the front of his robes. “As usual, you made a big deal out of nothing.”

I promptly threw up on his shoes.

“Oops,” I said, a string of bile hanging from my lips as my stomach clenched. “Sorry, dude.”

“Must everything about you be so vexing?” he growled at me.

“You just sucked me through a hole.” I paused, considering. Then, “Okay, I really need to work on my phrasing. But you get what I mean. Also, what the fuck was that? You could have warned me of the suckage!” I frowned. “That still didn’t come out right.”

“Funny,” Randall said, grimacing down as he tried to shake the vomit off his shoes. “Justin didn’t seem to have a problem with it. I guess that’s yet another thing he can do better than you.”

“Hey! Low blow, bro!”

“Yes, yes. How hard your life must be. Now, do you want to continue with your inane prattling, or do you want to help that dragon of yours?”

In the end, though, there really wasn’t much to be done. We rounded a corner toward where Kevin had fallen in time to see him bite the head off a Dark wizard, a gout of blood shooting up into the air. His injured wing was held gently against his side. Kevin’s lips pulled back in disgust before he spat out the head in a lick of fire.

Gary, for his part, was shimmering with copious amounts of glitter that swirled around him. A Dark wizard was running toward him, but Gary spun around quickly and kicked his back legs out just as the Dark reached him. Unicorn hooves collided with Dark wizard ribs, and in the end, it really wasn’t a contest, as the idiot flew back, skidding against the ground before coming to a stop, unmoving.

Tiggy was, of course, doing as a Tiggy did: smashing the ever-living daylights out of anything and everything that was threatening those around him. His fists were red, and he had a bit of gore on his face. He made a rather frightening figure. I was damn proud of him. And maybe a little jealous.

By the time Morgan and Ryan came running from the other side, the couple dozen or so Dark wizards that had apparently been waiting for Feng to bring me to them were burned to a crisp, smashed into a pulp, had met dragon’s teeth, or were running screaming into the Dark Woods. I made to go after them, but Randall gripped my shoulder tightly, shaking his head.

And as much as I disagreed with him, I knew he had a point. It was better to have stragglers tell others what had happened. It might incite them, but it also could instill them with fear. And scared Darks were Darks who made mistakes.

And as a bonus, it would most likely piss off Myrin, who had now been essentially bested twice in the span of a few days.

“Wow,” I said so everyone could hear me. “I just came to the realization that we might be the most badass group of badasses that has ever badassed. I don’t know what to do with this information. I feel like there should be confetti. And medals. Can I have a medal?”

“You threw up on my feet,” Randall said.

“Oh. Right. Well, karma sucks, and all that. Still think I’d be okay if someone gave me a medal.”

Ryan gingerly stepped over what remained of the Darks (and almost put his foot on a liver) and made his way over to me. “You’ve got something gross on your chin,” he said. “How the hell did you get out here before us?”

I scowled as I used my arm to wipe the remains of my first time teleporting off me. “Randall’s fault.”

“Sam can’t handle my magic,” Randall said. “More’s the pity, I suppose.”

Before I could make his nose a dick, Ryan cupped my face, making me look away from Randall and at him instead. “You okay?”

I sighed. “I’m fine. Just… didn’t expect it.”

“I would kiss you, but you smell bad.”

“Thanks.”

“Yeah. Thought you should know.”

“No, really. Thanks.”

“I do want to kiss you, though. I’m just not going to. Maybe for a long time.”

I laughed and shoved him away. “Bastard,” I said, sounding disgustingly fond.

“You love me.”

“Don’t even know why.”

“Gods, you guys are literally standing on top of the bodies of your enemies and have still found a way to make the situation worse with your flirting. There is a time and place for that, and it’s behind closed doors so none of us have to witness the travesty that is your relationship.”

I shoved Ryan out of the way and hopped through Dark remains to stand in front of Justin, who was glaring at me. City guards were making their way toward us, and if there were any Darks left alive, I was sure they’d be taken to the city jail. Morgan or Randall would need to make sure their cells were warded so the Darks couldn’t use magic to break out.

“Why are you so pale?” Justin asked as I stepped over a finger in the grass. Then his nose wrinkled as he took a step back. “And why do you smell like that? Sam, you stay away. If you even think of touching me, I will find a way to make your life a living hell for the rest of my days. You do not get to put your sick on me.”

I stopped just in front of him, smiling as widely as possible. I hoped there was no vomit in my teeth. “You came to Meridian City because you were worried about me.”

“Go fuck yourself,” he said coolly.

“Nah,” I said, ready to take our friendship to the next level. “I’ve got your ex-boyfriend for that.”

He gaped at me.

I waggled my eyebrows at him.

He snorted and shook his head begrudgingly. “Okay, Haversford. That was… good. I mean, I really want to stab you with a sword, but I’ll give you that one.”

“Best friends 5eva!”

“Oh for fuck’s sake.”

“This must be awkward for you,” Randall said to Ryan.

“You have no idea,” Ryan muttered, trying to scrape Dark wizard off the bottom of his boot.

“How do you survive?” Randall said dryly. Then, “Morgan, a word, if you please.”

That couldn’t possibly be good, especially since both of them glanced at me before walking far enough away that I couldn’t hear them, no matter how hard I tried.

But before I could devise a way to listen in on whatever they were saying (because I just knew they were whispering about me, the jerks), my name was bellowed in such a way that said that if I didn’t respond, I was going to have one pissed-off unicorn on my hands.

And nobody wanted that.

Gary looked furious as he stood beside Kevin, glitter still sloughing off him in small bursts. Tiggy was standing next to him, running a finger up and down Gary’s snout, one of the few things that could get Gary to calm down.

Kevin was staring mournfully at the ragged hole through his wing, which was a lot bigger than I’d initially thought. The edges were bloody and frayed, but it looked as if the bleeding had slowed.

“Look at this,” Gary snapped as I came up next to them. “Would you just look at this. He’s got a hole in him, Sam. A hole.”

“I can see that,” I said lightly as I made my way toward them. “Kevin, all right?”

“I’m hideous,” Kevin said sadly. “Who is going to want to climb all over my junk now? I can’t even fly when it’s like this. What good am I if I can’t fly? Do you know what that makes me, Sam? I’m a lizard now. I’m just a gigantic lizard who can’t fly because of the hole in his wing.”

“Oh, you,” I said, trying my best to be empathetic. “Oh, just… you. You’ll be all right, friend. Okay, my guy? It’s… not even that noticeable. You’ll be totes fine.” I added, “Buddy,” for good measure.

Gary and Tiggy both turned slowly to look at me.

“What?” I asked.

“You are the worst at trying to make people feel better,” Gary hissed.

“I do suppose it’s another hole to put something into,” I said. Then, “Wait. I really shouldn’t have said that.”

Kevin’s lip curled. “I like the way you think. Though I don’t know if I’m into wound play.”

That made me a little queasy. “That’s a thing?”

He shrugged. “Anything’s a thing if you want it to be. You just have to have an active imagination.”

“Gross,” I muttered. “Also, let’s not talk about this ever again.”

“You started it.”

“For once, you’re right about that. And I wish I hadn’t. So. Moving on. Oh no, my pal! It’s not even noticeable!”

“Don’t listen to him,” Gary said, looking up at Kevin. “He doesn’t know what he’s talking about. It’s totally noticeable. But if you’re lucky, it’ll scar and be sexy and—”

“You think I’m sexy?” Kevin asked.

Gary coughed. “I mean… sure. Um. If you like that kind of thing, I guess.”

“Huh,” Kevin said. “And do you like that kind of thing?”

“Maybe? I mean, I don’t not like it.”

“They love each other,” Tiggy whispered to me.

“I know, big guy,” I said, patting his arm.

“Where did they come from?” Ryan asked, coming to stand at my side. “And how did they hurt you? I thought dragons were impervious to magic?”

“The woods,” Kevin rumbled. “I heard them with their whizbangs and their sparklies and decided it was probably best if I ended their lives before they could do any damage to the city.” He puffed his chest out. “If you ask me, I must say that I was really rather brave.”

Gary was about to swoon. “The bravest,” he said breathlessly, eyeing Kevin like he was a piece of meat he wanted to choke down. “Tell me of your conquest. Leave no details out.”

Kevin must have heard the come fuck me in Gary’s voice, because he leered down at him in a way that made me intensely uncomfortable. “They came out of the trees,” he purred, eyes flashing. “And I told them that if they didn’t turn and march themselves right back to where they’d come from, that they would draw their last breath upon the field in which they stood.”

“Oh my,” Gary whispered.

“You should just ignore his erection,” I told Ryan.

Ryan looked scandalized. “I was until you said that.”

“And then I pulled myself to my full height, my muscles rippling and glistening in the sunlight—”

“Why were your muscles glistening?” I asked. “That doesn’t even make any sense.”

Gary glared at me. “It makes perfect sense. Just because you lack an imagination doesn’t mean the rest of us have to suffer along with you.”

“I’m just saying. Why was he glistening? Did he rub oil on himself—I shouldn’t have said that.”

“That’s exactly what I did,” Kevin said. “I was glistening because of the oil that I spurted on myself in anticipation of battle. I was hot and hard and moist and shiny—”

“I can’t stop staring at it,” Ryan said.

“We were good while we lasted,” I said to him. “I understand if you don’t think I can satisfy you anymore after seeing it. I know you’re a bit of a size queen.”

“Ick on my face,” Tiggy said as he frowned.

“That’s because you smashed. Come here.”

Tiggy bent over as I ripped part of a robe that hadn’t been sullied from a Dark wizard. I figured it was okay because the Dark wasn’t going to use it anymore, given that he looked like he’d been left roasting over a fire pit too long. I reached up and wiped off Tiggy’s face.

“There’s my handsome guy,” I said, getting most of the blood off him.

“Hi,” he said, grinning at me. “Hi, Sam.”

“Hey, dude. You okay?”

He nodded. “I smashed.”

“You did. You’re the best smasher.”

He preened at that.

“—and then I let out a great gout of fire, and I know I looked majestic as fuck, because how can one not look majestic when they can breathe fire? Oh, that’s right. They can’t. Wait. They can’t not. Okay, is that a double negative? I feel like I’m not making the point I want to make.”

“How did they tear a hole in his wing?” Justin asked, watching the Meridian City Guards start to poke through the bodies that were still intact. In the distance, I could see townsfolk beginning to exit through the front gates and head toward us.

“I don’t know,” I admitted. “Contrary to popular belief, I don’t know everything.”

“No one believes you know everything,” Justin said. “In fact, most people believe you don’t know much at all.”

“Thanks for understanding,” I said, feeling relieved.

He rolled his eyes at me.

“Well?” I asked, looking up at Kevin. “How’d it happen?”

“Hmm?” he said. “Oh, this old thing?” He stretched out his wing again, wincing as he did so. The hole looked rough. “Don’t rightly know. One moment I was winning, and the next, I was still winning but was wounded in the heat of battle. Granted, it didn’t do much to slow me down because I still kicked ass, but it certainly hurts. I suppose that maybe if I was given a reward of shinies, I’d feel much better about it.”

“I’m sure you would,” I said, eyeing the approaching crowd, an uneasy feeling in the pit of my stomach. “And I’ll get right on that, I really will, but I have a question. Why are people coming out here to look at the dead bodies? And a follow-up question. Why are they bringing their children?”

They all looked toward the people coming to stand along the edges of the field of battle. There were men and women, hookers and drug dealers. Many of them looked as if they hadn’t bathed in a long time. Some wore the smallest stitches of clothing that I was sure would probably be considered extraordinarily indecent in any place other than Meridian City. A few looked as if they were strung out on some kind of drug.

But most of them were staring at me with such derision that I looked over my shoulder, sure that I would see the most evil of men standing behind me. Because that was the only thing that made sense for those expressions.

Of course, there was no one behind me.

I looked back toward the crowd.

“Me?” I asked, pointing at myself.

The crowd nodded.

“Huh,” I said. “That’s… unexpected. I didn’t do anything.”

“You’re standing on the blood of your enemies,” someone called out.

I looked down. Sure enough, I was standing in a large pool of blood. “That’s unfortunate.”

“He’s so bloodthirsty,” another voice said. “He probably wants to bathe in it.”

“Well I never,” I said, putting my hand to my throat.

“They were just people,” someone else said. “And he murdered them.”

“What the hell,” Justin said. “They were Dark wizards. They would have attacked Meridian City!”

“The Prince is defending me,” I whispered to Ryan excitedly. “Are you hearing this?”

“Should I be worried about this you and Justin thing?” Ryan asked with a frown. “Because I think I might need to be worried about it.”

“Babe,” I said. “Of course not. You know you’re my one and only. But I can’t help it if he falls in love with me. It’s not my fault I’m so irresistible.”

Ryan crowded in close to me while he glared at Justin. “You can’t have him.”

“I feel like you’ve gotten stupider since our wedding day,” Justin said. “Given the company you keep, I’m not surprised.”

“Hey!”

“Sam’s thirst for blood knows no bounds!” a woman cried out. “Soon he’ll come for us and feast upon our flesh!”

The crowd gasped and took a step back, eyeing me in fear.

“Sam don’t eat flesh,” Tiggy said.

“Thank you, Tiggy.”

“Except for chicken.”

“Okay, Tiggy.”

“And cows.”

“That might be enough, Tiggy.”

“And—”

“Not helping, Tiggy.”

“Hear me, good people of Meridian City,” Justin said, sounding more regal than I’d ever heard him before. “Sam of Wilds might be… a lot to take in. I get that. Trust me. I really get that. In fact, I might get that more than any of you. In fact, I can almost guarantee that I get that more than you all do. You think you’ve got it bad? I have to see him almost every day.”

“Yeah,” I said. “And he doesn’t mean that the way it sounds, either.”

“But he came here with the sole purpose of making sure that you and your city are protected from the Dark wizards,” Justin continued. “You had a betrayer in your midst, a villain who acted with the sole purpose of attempting to bring darkness to Verania.”

The crowd gasped yet again. The fact that they did it in unison was really quite impressive. I wondered if they got together regularly and practiced it for moments such as this. “Who?” a man cried. “Who has betrayed us?”

“Someone you would not expect,” I said, taking a step forward to stand beside my Prince. Unfortunately, I accidentally stepped onto a recently deceased Dark wizard and crunched what sounded like a large bone. The crowd looked a little queasy at the sharp crack that echoed across the field. Justin’s face was in his hand as I tried to avoid more bones. I laughed weakly. “Oops. That was an accident.” I took another step forward, only to step on someone’s dead face and break their nose and cheeks. I stumbled a little bit on that one. “Ha ha, that… good gods, how many of them are there?”

It took another awkward minute or two before I was standing next to Justin. Thankfully, I’d only managed to step on (and in) three more Darks before I made it to his side. “Made it,” I announced.

No one seemed happy for me.

I coughed. “Anyway. It was Feng.”

I don’t know what I expected. Shock, maybe. Or possibly outrage that he could have fooled them as he had the rest of us.

What I didn’t expect was the immediate anger directed toward my person.

“Feng? Is he serious?”

“Feng was a good man!”

“He wouldn’t betray us!”

“Feng helped save my family from the streets.”

“Sam of Wilds is full of it! Feng would never work with the Darks.”

“Maybe it was Sam that betrayed us!”

“Yeah! We were fine until Sam of Wilds came here!”

“Just look at him! He’s basking on top of the dead bodies of those poor, defenseless wizards who probably wanted nothing more than to be friends with all of us!”

“Are they being for real right now?” I whispered to Justin. “Because if they are, I severely underestimated my self-worth, and I’ll be honest: that’s a really terrible feeling.”

Justin was tense next to me, warily eyeing the crowd. Tiggy began to growl behind me, and then came the unmistakable sound of Ryan drawing his sword, as if he thought the mob before us planned on attacking. And maybe they were. There was anger on their faces, and fear, and I promised myself that one day, I would have my revenge against Lady Tina DeSilva, because this was obviously her fault. Somehow she’d poisoned people against me, and I would see her pooping in a bucket in the dungeons for the rest of her life. I figured the King owed me a solid.

But whatever the crowd had planned was put on hold when another voice broke through the rest, fierce and angry. “What is the meaning of all of this?”

The crowd parted as Mama walked through them in all her glory, Letnia trailing behind her, eye patch glittering in the sunlight.

Mama made her way to the front of the crowd, cool and graceful as always. She barely had a reaction to the dead Darks that lay before her, and my respect for her grew exponentially. I wanted to be her when I grew up.

“Sam of Wilds said Feng betrayed us,” a brave man said. “He’s trying to justify the slaughter of these men by—”

“Feng did betray us,” Mama said. “And he has paid for his deception with his life.”

The crowd fell silent at that.

Mama glanced at me before looking back toward her people. “My eyes have been opened when I didn’t even know they’d been closed. I, like all of you, trusted Feng. And I know he has done much for Meridian City. But none of the good will ever make up for the decisions he’s made against all of us. If it hadn’t been for Sam of Wilds, or Randall and Morgan, Feng would have succeeded in his attempts at assassinating Letnia and myself.”

Maybe. If Feng were to be believed, his sole intention was to bring me to Myrin, but the office had been filled with explosives. And it was Morgan who had stopped him rather than myself. I opened my mouth to say just that but a hand dropped on my shoulder and squeezed tightly. I looked back to see Morgan behind me. He shook his head as if he’d known exactly what I’d been about to say. And most likely he had.

But I couldn’t help but notice how pale he looked, more so than usual. Beyond him stood Randall, who was watching me with that same eerie look on his face. He hadn’t forgotten whatever he’d wanted to discuss with me. And most likely he’d told Morgan.

Godsdamn him.

The crowd was murmuring amongst themselves, taking in Mama’s declaration, but I could see that it wasn’t helping much. They were still staring at me with derision and distrust. I didn’t know most of them. It shouldn’t have hurt as much as it did.

“Feng was working with the Darks,” Mama said. “He had been given a great task, to protect something precious. He chose to follow the path into the darkness. His father, Lui Wei, would be turning in his grave if he knew of Feng’s duplicity.” She shook her head, hands fisted at her sides. “Hear me now. Sam of Wilds is a hero. And anyone that speaks against him will answer to me.”

“And to me,” Letnia said, head held high. “Villains will rise. That much is given. And there may come a time when choices will need to be made. You are either with us, or you are against us. And if you are against us, then you should be prepared for the consequences of your decision. The Crown has faith in Sam of Wilds. That alone should be enough. But in case it’s not, then know I throw my lot in with him.”

They both glared at the mob as if daring anyone to speak against them or me.

No one did, though most of them didn’t look convinced.

They dispersed soon after.

 

 

THE GUARDS were left to clean up the fields.

Letnia stayed to oversee the effort, a steely look on her face.

Mama headed back into the city, muttering about how she needed to see how the Feng cleanup in her office was going. She told Kevin to see the healers in the city to, at the very least, clean the hole in his wing. He tried to refuse, but Gary stopped that line of thought before it could get too far. Kevin stared at Gary for a long time before quietly agreeing. Tiggy trailed behind the both of them, glancing over his shoulder at me. I nodded at him, and he smiled at me.

Ryan and Justin stood together, muttering something back and forth, and even though it’d been a long time since they’d been anything, and even though I was sure about Ryan’s feelings for me, I couldn’t help but feel a weird little twisty thing at watching them together. Ryan was my cornerstone, sure, and I knew he understood what that meant, but I couldn’t help but think about how uncomplicated his life had been before… everything. They might not have been in love, but they had cared about each other, enough that they’d been intimate. It’d been an arrangement, beneficial for them both, but they worked well together. And it’d gone on for years. And here Ryan and I were, just over a year together, and how much shit had he gone through because of me?

He’d been chased and captured and injured. He’d killed and maimed and almost died because of me. With Justin, he’d been… safe. With me, he wasn’t.

And now. Well, now there was a prophecy, a destiny of dragons, and Vadoma had shown me one possible future (and in her eyes, it was an inevitable future). A snake dragon monster thing had told me once that nothing was set in stone, and that even if it was, stone crumbles, but Ryan wouldn’t even be in this position if it weren’t for me.

If I were a more selfless person, I might have made a stupid decision, tried to end things with Ryan for his own good, distanced myself to keep him safe. But I wasn’t selfless. In fact, I was selfish. He was mine and I was his, and I couldn’t imagine a life without him. I couldn’t imagine him not being at my side. I couldn’t imagine losing the way he sometimes looked at me like I was the best thing in all his world, that look that made my chest feel tight and my skin a little sweaty. I couldn’t imagine never hearing again the way he gasped as he writhed below me, moaning my name and telling me he needed more, godsdammit, Sam, more.

If I were a better person, I would push him away to save him from this life.

I wasn’t a better person.

So instead I tried not to feel oddly jealous as the Knight Commander spoke with the Prince about something I couldn’t hear. I trusted him. I trusted the Prince. But apparently I couldn’t trust my own feelings.

“You’re glaring,” Morgan said, suddenly appearing beside me.

“I’m not,” I said as I glared.

“Ah,” he said. “I must have been mistaken.”

“It’s okay. You’re getting older. Your eyesight had to fail sometime.”

“Cheeky little git,” he said, sounding unbearably fond.

I shrugged. “It’s kind of my thing.”

“I’ve noticed.” Then, “You know there’s nothing there.”

“Where?” I asked, playing dumb.

“Sam.”

I rolled my eyes. “I know.”

“Do you?”

“I’m just being stupid.”

“Every now and then, sure. You’re young yet. You’ll grow out of it. You have time.”

Right. Because apparently I’d be alive forever while everything around me died. And that was just swell, because I was beginning to sound like Zero Ravyn Moonfire. This day couldn’t possibly get any worse.

And that would have been true had I not decided to open my mouth again. “I don’t know about that.”

“How so?”

I felt a little mean. “You and Randall have plenty of years on me, yet you seem to make mistakes.”

Morgan hesitated. “Mistakes are a part of learning how to be human. There’s a difference between making a mistake and inviting in stupidity.”

“Really. So how would you classify all of this?”

“All of what?”

I laughed. “This, Morgan. The dead at our feet. The people of Verania who hate me. Feng. Myrin. I don’t know about you, but all of this seems to be nothing but an exercise in stupidity to me.”

“You’re angry still.”

I scrubbed a hand over my face. “Yes, Morgan. I’m angry still. I told you that. It’s not as if this is something I can get over quickly. I love you, dude, but sometimes you suck ass.”

“It’s been weeks since Vadoma came to the City of Lockes,” he pointed out.

“I need more time.”

Morgan sighed. “Of course you do. Sam, I’m not trying to make light of the situation. I have acknowledged my mistakes, however ill-advised they may be. I have apologized for them. I don’t know what else I can do for you.”

“I don’t know either,” I said. “Let me know when you figure it out.”

“You’re young.”

“So you’ve pointed out.”

“I forget that sometimes.”

I glanced at him. He was watching the cleanup. “Why?”

“Why do I forget? Because you’ve got an old soul, Sam. At many things, you are beyond your years. And at other things, you are exactly where you should be. I have to remind myself of that every now and then.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“You do not have the knowledge I do, Sam. And I’m not trying to minimize anything you’re going through. I’m not trying to take away from everything you’ve experienced. But the life you’ll lead will be a long one, and there will be consequences to the choices that you make.”

That didn’t sound good. “And what about the choices you made? What are the consequences?”

He smiled sadly. “I’m living them. Do you think I wanted this for you?”

“I don’t know,” I said honestly. “It doesn’t seem like you gave me the choice, does it?”

He shook his head. “Had I told you everything when you were a child, what do you think you would have done?”

And yeah, he had me there. “I would have done everything for you,” I muttered. “But at least then I would have known I was a pawn from the start.”

His hand fell upon my shoulder again. “You were never a pawn,” he said, sounding as angry as I’d ever heard him. “And I will not have you say such again. Do you understand me?”

I nodded dumbly.

“Sam,” he sighed. “Your fate may have been written in the stars, but you must believe me that even if it hadn’t been, even if I’d been a stronger man in my youth and had done what needed to be done, I will always believe that we would have found our way to each other. You may have a destiny of dragons, but my destiny has always been you.”

“Godsdammit,” I said with a large sniff. “You can’t just say stuff like that. You know how I have feelings about you being sappy as shit.”

He looked rather pleased. “That I do.”

“Manipulative.”

“A little, sure.”

“You’re buttering me up, aren’t you?”

He arched an eyebrow at me. “Pardon?”

“Whatever you and Randall were talking about. Before. I’m not going to like it, am I?”

He opened his mouth, then closed it just as quickly. He watched me for a moment before he tried again. “No. I don’t think you’ll like it very much.”

“Fuck.”

“My thoughts exactly.”

Ryan turned then, the conversation with Justin seemingly ending. He scanned the field until he found me, and the smile he gave was brilliant and bright. Even in a field of death and gore, my heart tripped all over itself at such a sight.

“We need to talk,” Morgan said quietly.

“You breaking up with me?”

He jostled me a little.

“Fine,” I said. “Let’s talk.”

Ryan’s smile began to fade.