I was. A little. “No,” I said. “Or at least that’s not the main reason.”
“But it is a reason. That, and I believe it to be coupled with the protests that took place in the streets.”
I shrugged, because he wasn’t wrong. “Even if it hadn’t happened the way it did, even if he wasn’t who he is, I would still believe now. That he can do what he says he will. And I can’t let that happen.”
“Because you love Verania. Regardless of what it thinks about you.”
“No,” I said. “Because I love you.”
The King took in a great shuddering breath as he shook his head. “Do you want to know what I thought when I first saw you? I thought, here is this boy, loud and bright, and I believe he will change the world. I just didn’t expect you to change mine too. I am proud to know you and call you my own. Please, stop this formality. Come here and hug me.”
I did. Because I loved my King very much.
Later, after the King was gone with a kiss to my forehead, Justin and I remained. We didn’t say anything for a long time.
Surprisingly, he spoke first. “I didn’t feel the same way when you first came.”
I snorted. “I know.”
“I didn’t like you. In fact, I hated you. I still do sometimes.”
“I know that too.”
“You have to come back.”
I looked up, startled, only to find Justin looking more vulnerable, more determined than I’d ever seen him before. “What?”
“You have to come back. You have to be safe and come back and be my Wizard. I could do this without you. I know I could. I am smart. And I can be kind. Sometimes. My father has taught me well. I’ve learned a lot in the past year. I can do this without you. But I don’t want to. The King of Verania needs his Wizard. It’s how it’s always been. So come back, and in one piece, or I swear to the gods, I am going to put you in the dungeon where you’ll poop in buckets for the rest of your days. Do you hear me?”
KEVIN AND Ryan were scouting ahead while Gary, Tiggy, and I hung back. I held my summoning stone in my hand, running my thumb over it. It’d remained dark since we’d left the castle four weeks before. No one had called me. I hadn’t called anyone either. I didn’t want to, afraid of what I would say that I couldn’t ever take back. And I thought if I had to hear Morgan’s voice right now, I would have.
“So,” Gary said.
“So,” Tiggy said.
I sighed. “Say whatever it is you have planned.”
“Planned?” Tiggy asked, feigning surprise. “No plan. Tiggy no got time for plans.”
“Damn right,” Gary said. “We don’t need no plans. Everything we do is executed perfectly and without complaint and/or death.”
They were idiots. “I heard you practicing whatever you were going to say to me last night.”
“Told you,” Tiggy said to Gary.
Gary glared at me. “Spying, are we? How uncouth.”
“You do it to me all the time.”
“I do not.”
“Gary, one time you had your face pressed flat against a window watching Ryan and I have sex.”
“I wasn’t spying. I heard you making this awful banshee wailing noise and had somehow convinced myself that you were either passing a gallstone the size of a lemur, or you were getting murdered by an actual lemur. I was coming to save you.”
“And instead of saving me, you were being a creeper instead.”
“It’s not my fault Knight Delicious Face was choking on your dick. Honestly, Sam. I could see it bulging in his throat.”
“Good job,” Tiggy said, patting my shoulder.
I glared at both of them.
“Fine.” Gary rolled his eyes. “Maybe we talked about this behind your back and then practiced what we were going to say. But it’s only because we love you, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“A lot,” Tiggy added. “This much.” He held his arms out as wide as they could go.
“Damn you,” I said with a sniff. “You make me have feelings when I’m trying to be annoyed. It’s your face. It does things to me.”
“I got good face,” Tiggy said. And he was certainly right about that.
“I’ll start,” Gary said. “Randall and Morgan are both idiots. Vadoma can’t be trusted. Ruv is hot, and if you were single, I’d tell you to stick your dick in his butt, but you have Ryan, and he’s your cornerstone, and you love him and his asshole.”
“Preach,” Tiggy said. “Also, people be cray-cray.”
“Exactly,” Gary said. “People be cray-cray. This whole prophecy thing, which, do we even need to discuss why Tiggy and I weren’t mentioned? We’re not sidekicks.”
“Nope,” Tiggy said. “Tiggy no sidekick.”
“You’re my sidekick,” Gary said.
“Oh. Right. Okay.”
“Anyway,” Gary said. “This whole prophecy thing. Maybe it’s made up. Maybe it’s not. Maybe a star dragon did come out of the sky and tell your crazy grandma that you were going to be born and do some shit, or whatever it said.”
“Save the world from falling into darkness?” I said, trying not to be amused but failing miserably.
“Right,” Gary said dismissively. “Saving the world and stuff. Maybe it’s true and maybe it isn’t. But you know what is true?”
“What?”
He looked right at me, eyes impossibly wide and glistening. “You’ll always have us by your side,” he whispered.
And no, no I would not break—
He fluttered his eyelashes.
“Damn you!” I cried at him, breath hitching in my chest. “Why must you do that to me?”
“I’m sorry!” he wailed. “We just need you to know you mean something to us!”
“Yeah,” Tiggy said, great globular tears on his cheeks. “Mean something and stuff.”
“You’re so manipulative! The both of you.”
“Yes, well,” Gary said, suddenly dry-eyed. “It’s necessary for the next part.”
I groaned as I put my face in my hands. “I don’t even want to know, do I?”
“Knight Delicious Face,” Tiggy said.
I groaned even louder.
“We thought…,” Gary started before trailing off. And there was something in his voice that made me think he was being serious now. “We thought you already knew.”
I dropped my hands. “About what?” But I knew where this was going, and I didn’t like it one bit.
“Mortality,” Tiggy said. “Everyone’s mortal. Some more than others.”
“Can we not do this now?” I asked gruffly. “We don’t have time to—”
“Sam,” Gary said. “You need to talk about this.”
“I don’t,” I retorted. “I don’t need to think about it at all. Because nothing is going to happen to him. Not now. Not ever.”
“Sam,” Gary said. “That’s not how this works. You know that. Maybe nothing happens to him from the man in shadows. We’ll all be there together, and we’ll do our best to protect him, even if that’s going to piss him off. But what happens later?”
“Don’t.”
“He’s going to age, Sam. And you won’t. Your magic won’t let you. Not like a normal human.”
“I said don’t.”