“What were you thinking?” His gauntlets fell to the floor. He didn’t look away from me. “I woke up and you were gone. Do you know what that felt like? The last thing I remembered was Myrin and Morgan and you, and then I was waking in the healing ward of the castle to a letter from you saying you were leaving to do what you had to do, Morgan dead, Randall missing.”
I winced. “I didn’t want to leave! I just couldn’t—”
“Then you didn’t have to,” he retorted. I didn’t know if I’d ever seen him so angry. “I’m not magic like you, Sam. I don’t have the whole… whatever it is flowing through me like you, but do you know what it felt like to be cut off from you? I didn’t even know I could feel like that, as if part of my heart had been ripped away. I’m your cornerstone, and you left me behind like I didn’t matter.”
“It’s not like that! I wasn’t trying to—”
“We looked for you, okay? For weeks. And there was nothing. Gary was devastated, Tiggy inconsolable. The King was without an advisor, and Justin didn’t have his best friend—”
“I knew we were best friends!”
“And don’t even get me started on your parents. You ran away just like you did when we left for Mashallaha. When things got too tough, you ran.”
And even though I fought it, I couldn’t hold back my own irritation. “That’s what you think. You think I’m a coward.”
He was only wearing his wool undergarments now, looking flushed and ridiculous and terribly attractive, and I was pissed off. “I didn’t say that. You did.”
“You implied it.”
“Take from it what you will.”
I wanted to punch him in his perfect mouth. “You want to know why I left?”
“I know why.”
“Come away with me, O human child,” I spat at him. “In this forest deep, in the dark of the wild. Where in these woods, you’ll face your fear, as time doth stretch toward a year.”
Ryan’s face was stony.
“It’s the stupidest thing ever. GW is so old he thinks he can get away with it. News flash, he can’t. But does he listen to me about that? Noooo. Of course not. I’m the oldest thing in the world, Sam. I can do whatever I want, Sam. You have to do whatever I say, Sam, because I’m a fucking asshole.” I scowled. “You know, I’m really fucking sick of dragons. I wouldn’t be sad if they flew away and never returned. After we saved the day, of course. If they left now, that would kind of suck because of the whole supervillain destiny thing.”
“Because of course you call him GW,” he muttered, scrubbing his hand over his face. “It’s said he only essentially created the world, so why not give him a nickname.”
“Please. He liked it, even though he vehemently denied it and threatened me with a fiery death if I continued to call him that.”
“It’s good to see that your self-preservation is still remarkably intact.”
“Why thank you—hey!”
“The poem?” he asked, crossing his arms and leaning back against the door. I tried desperately not to stare at the outline of his junk through his undergarments, because we were being serious right now. But it was obvious he wasn’t wearing anything underneath them, and I didn’t think I could be blamed for cursing Ryan Foxheart in my head for posing so provocatively, especially since this was the closest I’d been to him in a long time.
I wiped the drool from my chin and said, “Blargh urgh do me.”
He arched an eyebrow. “Come again?”
“Yes, please. I mean, what?”
“The poem, Sam. The one the dragon told you? And then you decided he was full of crap and you could save the world without him and then for some reason changed your mind at the absolute worst possible moment?” Yeah, he was pissed, all right.
“Okay, so. Back up. Are you mad at me because I didn’t go with him the first time, or mad I went with him the second time? Because I can’t quite figure out what—”
“All of it! I’m angry because of everything.”
“Oh, well that’s… all-encompassing.”
“Sam,” he growled.
“Uh, yes?”
“You asshole.”
“Hey! Watch your mouth. You need to think of the children!”
“Fuck the children!” he bellowed.
“Whoa,” I whispered. “That escalated quickly.”
Ryan began to pace. “He told you to come with him. You told him no. And then everything went to hell and you went. What the fuck, Sam? What changed?”
“I didn’t want to leave you,” I said weakly. “Not with—”
“You sure as hell didn’t seem to have a problem with that after I’d been stabbed,” he retorted.
I flinched, taking a step back. “Yeah. Right. No problem whatsoever. That’s exactly right. It didn’t tear me in half at all. Good thing you know me so well.”
He laughed bitterly. “Know you? Sam, I haven’t seen you in almost a year. I don’t know who you are anymore. Before you left, I could always feel you, like there was this strange little thread that attached me to you. I thought that’s what it meant to be a cornerstone. But now? Now it’s like I’m consumed by you, and I don’t know why. Things have changed. You’ve changed. And I don’t know what that means. Or what happened to you while you—”
“I’m not an apprentice anymore,” I muttered, rubbing the back of my head. “It’s why you feel like that.”
He stopped pacing, jaw dropped. “What?”
I sighed. This wasn’t how I planned to tell him. I thought it’d come out better during pillow talk after the whole makeup sex fantasy I had going on in my head. “Uh. Yeah. Hi! I’m Sam of Dragons now. Wizard extraordinaire.” I wiggled my fingers at him, little trails of green and gold streaking around them.
“Ungh,” Ryan said, eyes slightly glazed as he watched my fingers. He shook his head as if trying to dispel whatever carnal thoughts he was having. I figured it was a good sign if he still had a magic kink. Maybe it was a little manipulative, but I would take what I could get. “What about the Trials?”
I shrugged. “I sort of… bypassed them? GW mentored Randall before the whole Myrin thing, and he did the same for me, only a little more… intensive. Randall used to be Randall of Dragons, and I guess that’s me now. GW gave me the name.”
“I don’t… holy shit.”
“Right? And I’ll let that one slide. Watch it, Foxheart. Your mouth is going to lead to such a spanking, just you wait.”
He rolled his eyes. “How did he mentor Randall? I thought the dragons could only speak when you were around?”
“Apparently some stupid mystical connection they had or something. I’m not too up on the details on that. It’s best to not try and focus on it too much. Makes less sense the more you think about it, so I just choose not to.”
“That’s pretty much the story of your life, isn’t it?”
“Was that a joke? Can I laugh, or are you still mad at me and we’re fighting and stuff?”
“And stuff,” he echoed. “Why would you—oh man. Does that mean you’re essentially Randall Part Two?”
I choked. “Oh my gods, you did not just say that. And you capitalized it. What the fuck is wrong with you!”
“Now it’s true!” he yelped, eyes wide. “You’re Randall Part Two!”
“Nope. Nope, nope, nope. I am not Randall Part Two. In fact, you know what? I am changing my name now. I’m no longer Sam of Dragons. I’m Sam of… okay, I can’t think of anything particularly awe-inspiring right now because I’m so outraged, but I will. And mark my words, when I do, it’s going to blow everyone away, and they’ll all say, ‘Ooh, that’s so cool! Look, everyone, look how cool he is with his new name that has nothing to do with Randall.’”
“Sam of Dragons,” Ryan said, sounding awed.
“Why do you keep saying it like that!”
“I can’t believe you’re—”
“I will melt your face off, Foxheart, mark my words!”
“Ungh.”
I groaned. “Stop finding my threats against your being attractive. We’re arguing right now. You can’t just be Knight Delicious Face when we’re arguing, you ass—”
“Oh, please. I’m Knight Delicious Face no matter what I do. Most everyone loves it.”
“Riiiight. Because most everyone has totally seen the way you drool on your pillow and wake up with crusty cheeks. You unbelievable douche.”