Justin stood off to the side, looking slightly disgusted as he watched Ryan and Ruv. Since I was convinced that all he needed was love to bring out his inner sunshine, I immediately started plotting ways that he and Ruv could be alone, fall in love, bone, and live happily ever after. Two birds with one stone. The planning was still in its earliest stages (seeing as how I’d just starting thinking of it six seconds before), and I didn’t want to get ahead of myself (they would get married and have babies and—), so I put it on the back burner to let it simmer. I would find Justin true love if it was the last thing I did.
Mom and Dad were there too, and Mom was fanning herself for reasons I didn’t understand while my father looked grumpy standing next to her. “I think Mom is getting a little too warm with all these people in here,” I said to Gary.
“Yes,” Gary said. “That’s exactly the reason.”
“Where’s Kevin? This seems like it’d be right up his alley. Shouldn’t he be here making everyone feel extremely uncomfortable?”
“Chasing sheep,” Gary said. “You know how it is.”
“He just likes to hear them scream in terror even though he’ll never eat them. He’s very strange.”
Gary sighed. “He says it helps him sleep better at night. You know. After getting unicorned.”
I grimaced, completely done with that conversation. I still wasn’t quite sure how things… fit… between them, but it was a topic of conversation I wasn’t prepared to have.
I didn’t see Vadoma, but that didn’t mean she wasn’t there. It just meant she was probably slinking around in the shadows trying to make my life even more miserable than she already had. It didn’t seem possible that I’d only known her for a few days and had actually only been face to face with her for an hour, and she’d been able to cause this much of a fuckup.
However, the display in front of me wasn’t too bad to look at.
And it really was only for Ryan. Ruv might be a cornerstone. And maybe my magic recognized him as one. But it didn’t matter to me. After everything we’d been through, nothing was going to take Ryan away from me.
And so I ogled.
I ogled hard.
“I am going to wreck him so bad,” I promised to everyone within hearing distance.
A lot of people heard me, apparently, if the way they took a few steps away from me meant anything. I rolled my eyes at them. “I didn’t mean right now.”
“I have earplugs,” Tiggy said. “And toast.”
“You’d better,” Gary said. “If he’s walking straight tomorrow, then you have failed at homosexuality and I will mock you mercilessly. You are being called upon for a great task. This is why you were made. It is your destiny.”
I scowled at him. “That’s not funny.”
“Kind of funny,” Tiggy said. “A lot funny.”
“Fuck dragons,” Gary said. “You’ve got a destiny of dick ahead of you.”
And, really. As much as I wanted to punch him in the eye, I couldn’t argue with that. I turned back toward them and watched as Ryan pulled himself up again. His arms were shaking and I knew he had to be getting tired, but I also knew he would push himself until he collapsed if it meant beating Ruv. I didn’t know what thoughts were going through his head, what he felt he needed to prove. Like this stranger could ever mean anything to me the way he did. As if anyone could.
He must have felt a change in the room, a little twist of something. It was unnerving really, how quickly we could find each other in a crowd. Morgan said it was because of the bond between us, those little threads that held us together. I didn’t know that I was certain I understood how a cornerstone worked exactly, but Morgan assured me that we were as we should be, and even I couldn’t deny the way I’d felt more settled into my own skin. It’d only built over the last year until it was something tangible, something strong. Sure, we had our moments when I’m sure he wanted to strangle me and I wanted to hex him to the ends of the known world, but we always found our way back to each other. And I thought maybe we always would.
Even in the middle of a crowd.
Ryan glanced over in our direction, eyes finding me almost instantly.
I rolled my eyes at him, because I knew what he was trying to do.
He winked at me. And immediately redoubled his efforts to kick Ruv’s ass. It really shouldn’t have been as endearing as it was, the bastard. But now that he knew I was there, he wouldn’t lose. Either that or he’d keep going until he passed out. “Men,” I huffed.
“We are pretty stupid,” Gary agreed.
Probably. But fuck a destiny of dragons. I had a destiny of dick ahead of me. I didn’t need anything else. Especially from—
you think this but you have no idea what’s coming
I stopped. Took a staggering step.
“Sam?” Gary asked. “Are you—”
i’ve seen what lies in the future
The crowd around me was cheering even as they began to slow down, like they were moving underwater. It was like we were in a painting, the colors dripping and wet, bleeding together as it melted. I took a great gasping breath and—
i’ve seen the darkness that burns at the heart of the world
—tried to focus, but my blood was rushing in my ears, and there was green and gold and it was mine (not mine), and I took another step toward the King, because I had to protect the King, I had to keep him safe, it’s what I’d been taught, it was my duty to make sure—
it calls for you sam of wilds it calls for you because it needs you
—he was protected in case we were under attack. There was a sharp burst in my head, colors exploding like a kaleidoscope, and I’d never felt this before. Never felt this out of control, that my magic could spill forth at any moment and destroy everyone and everything in this castle, in this city, and it—
i have come because the gods have shown me the truth of all things
—couldn’t be. It couldn’t be. I didn’t want this. I didn’t need this. Things were fine the way they were, and she had come here, into my home to try and take this all away from me like it’s—
Vadoma Tshilaba whispered in my ear. She said, “The stars will fall from the sky and chaos will consume this world unless you accept what it is you are being called on to do.”
I opened my eyes.
I stood in the gym in the bowels of Castle Lockes.
Gary and Tiggy were to my right.
Morgan, Randall, and the King were off to my left. My parents were too. And Justin.
Ryan and Ruv were on the chin-up bars.
The crowd still stood around me.
But they were all frozen, stuck with smiles on their faces, shouting and jeering silently. The women were swooning. The men were laughing. But not a sound was made. Not a single movement occurred.
I croaked out, “You’ve got my attention.”
“Do I?” Vadoma asked from somewhere behind me.
I whirled around. All I could see were the faces of the crowd behind me, twisted and unmoving. There were shadows encroaching along the edges of the gym, crawling along the stone walls.
“Because your attention is not what I need,” she said, and it was like she was above me. I jerked my head up, but there was nothing there. “I need your cooperation.”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked, gathering the green and the gold, discarding the old words from my thoughts because I didn’t need them. I’d shown that before. Magic didn’t have to be recitation. It could be will alone. Vadoma thought she knew me.