“Kind of stupid. With your face.”
He held a hand out toward me, and I allowed myself to be pulled back up to a sitting position. I glared at him until he moved behind me, sinking down and pulling me between his legs until I lay against his chest, his chin near my shoulder.
“Is that better?” he asked quietly.
“No. You jerk.” It was a billion times better.
“Good,” he said, because he could see right through me. “What were you saying?”
“Huh?”
“You were talking when I was coming up here. What were you saying?”
I stiffened, and I knew he could feel it. “Wizarding… things?”
He chuckled near my ear. “Really. You don’t sound too sure about it.”
“I’m sure,” I insisted. “You don’t even know how sure I am.”
“Sam.”
“I hate it when you use that tone of voice.”
“Nah. You love it. Like you love everything else about me.”
“Wow. You really are sure of yourself.”
“Yeah, I guess I am.”
And if I laid my head back on his shoulder and relaxed into him, well. That was just between the two of us.
He waited for me, like I knew he would, giving me time to parse through everything. We hadn’t yet talked about this, and I didn’t know how much I wanted to. He, like the others both with us and back at the castle, knew the extent of what I’d seen. I couldn’t justify keeping it from them, like Morgan and Randall had kept things from me. I was a lot of things. But I wasn’t a hypocrite. Mostly.
Finally, I said, “I can’t lose you.”
“You won’t.”
“I could.”
“Everyone dies, Sam.”
“Some sooner than others.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” he said lightly. He kissed the skin behind my ear. “You know that. We’re together, okay? All of us. We can do this. You can do this. I know you can. I believe in you.”
“Sap,” I muttered, even though I thought I was blushing.
“Yeah,” he agreed. “Probably. Just don’t tell anyone, huh?”
“I think pretty much everyone knows.”
“There goes my street cred.”
“You never had any street cred,” I said and then shrieked with laughter as he knocked me over while tickling my sides. He came to rest atop me, hands on either side of my head, face hidden in shadow as he was backlit by a sea of stars. I don’t think I’d ever seen him look more handsome than he did at that moment, sand-swept and smiling like he didn’t have a care in the world.
I kissed him as hard as I could.
For as long as I could.
I didn’t think he realized I’d never answered his question about what I’d been saying as he approached. If anything, I was good at distracting.
And besides. Everyone knows you can’t tell others what you wish upon the stars for.
It won’t come true if you do.
“SO YOU’RE leaving,” Gary said, cocking his head at me. “To the desert. To the mountains. To the Dark Woods. To find these dragons.”
“Yes,” I said slowly.
“And you think we’re going to stay here,” Kevin said.
“Ye-es?” I said.
“Sweet Sam,” Tiggy said.
“Lovely Tiggy.”
“You an idiot.”
“Hey!”
“Well you are,” Gary said. “Did you really think we’re just going to sit here and let you go off on an adventure without us? Sam. Are you fucking high?”
“No,” I said. “Not since that one time.”
“Do I even want to know?” Ryan asked.
“Sam eat forest mushrooms,” Tiggy said. “That he found in forest.”
“Of course he did,” Ryan said.
“Way to generalize, Tiggy,” I said. “You know it was part of the ritual I needed to perform in order to escape the clutches of my captors who were convinced they could sacrifice me to an evil sprite in the Dark Woods.”
“Of course they did,” Ryan said.
“Riiiiight,” Gary said. “Which is why when Tiggy and I rescued you, you were sitting on the back of one of the bandits, singing about how you could taste colors and that the grass was alive and whispering grassy secrets.”
“Of course you—”
“Ryan! Not helping!”
“I took drugs once,” Kevin said. “At this orgy I went to. Crazy, crazy night. Long story short, it wasn’t actually drugs, and I’d somehow crushed and snorted sixteen sugar cubes and then eaten a lot of centaur ass—”
“Excuse me,” Gary trilled. “I could have sworn we were trying to stay on topic.”
“We never stay on topic,” Tiggy said, sounding confused.
“Well, yes,” Gary said. “But we don’t need to hear anything Kevin might say.”
“Oh, here we go.” Kevin rolled his eyes. “One moment we’re happy and jolly, and the next, oh look! Gary has an issue with something. Shocker.”
“I have issues? Oh, do we even need to go over the veritable laundry list that is the psychotic psychosis of the dragon named—”
“You’re not coming with me,” I said.
“Yes, we are,” they all said at the same time.
And that was that.
“HOLY BALLS,” Gary said as we crested the sand dune.
“That’s… not what I expected,” Kevin said.
“No more sand,” Tiggy said, sounding giddy.
“Is that…?” Ryan started, eyes wide as he took in what lay before us.
Rising out of an oasis in the middle of the desert, surrounded by a forest of palm trees, was a city built upon a desert lake that shimmered in the heat of the sun. It looked cool and inviting, but I couldn’t help but feel unease at the sight of it. I knew what waited for us there. I knew what waited just beyond the city in a cave that led underneath the desert.
“Mashallaha,” I said. “The gypsy city.”
“What does it mean?” Ryan asked. “The name.”
“As the gods will,” I said, trying not to focus on that part at all. “Come on. The sooner we get this done, the sooner we can go home.”
“DON’T FORGET your Grimoire,” a voice said behind me. I cursed under my breath, sure I’d come into the labs undetected. Which, in all honesty, was probably my first mistake. Undoubtedly, he had the entire castle warded so he knew who was where at any given time. He’d told me once that of course that was ridiculous, being such an invasion of privacy, but I wasn’t feeling very charitable toward Morgan of Shadows right then.
“Wouldn’t dream of it,” I said airily, wanting to get out of there as soon as possible. Mean and petty, sure, but I was more than a little annoyed.
I took my Grimoire down from its place next to his on the shelf. My fingers brushed against the binding on his book, and I felt his magic jolt through me, sweet and familiar. I realized he’d never told me what his Grimoire was bound with, telling me I’d know when the time was right. I wondered what else he’d kept from me. What other secrets he had. Where was Myrin’s Grimoire? Had he even had one?