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.