“He insulted the Great White!” Randall snapped. “Do you understand what that means?”
“Insulted?” I said. “If anyone here is insulted, it should be me! That guy was the world’s biggest asshole.”
“Oh dear,” Morgan said.
“Yes,” Randall said. “Oh dear indeed. Do you know what he’s done?”
“What I’ve done? Now you listen here, you old piece of—wait. How the hell do you know what I’ve done?”
Randall’s enormous eyebrows twitched dangerously. “I had a conversation with the king of fairies.”
I groaned. “Of course. Dimitri. You can’t believe a godsdamn word he says. He is the worst. Okay. Well. Maybe not the absolute worst. It goes Vadoma, then you, then him, then the Great White, then Myrin, then Lady Tina, because there is nothing in this world worse than her. She is my most mortal of enemies, and mark my words, there will come a day when I shall spill her blood upon the earth, and I will rejoice at the act of doing so—”
“Do you see what I mean?” Randall asked Morgan, nodding in my direction. “This is your doing. This reflects upon you.”
“Rude,” I said. “I’ll have you know that Morgan thinks I’m a joy to be around, even if I haven’t completely forgiven him for the whole lying-to-me-about-everything thing.” I looked at my mentor. “I’m getting there, though,” I reassured him.
“Lucky me,” Morgan said.
“What did Dimitri say about me?” I asked Randall. “Because I can tell you right now he’s full of shit!”
Randall glared at me. “He said that the Great White offered you his assistance by requesting something from you in return. And that you refused him. And then insulted him.”
“Oh. Okay. So maybe Dimitri isn’t exactly full of shit, because that’s mostly what happened.”
“I knew it—”
“But that’s not everything,” I said loudly. “And as a sidenote, I can totally see why he was your mentor. You guys are exactly the same.”
“You just said he was the world’s biggest asshole.”
“Oh, did I?” I asked innocently. “Huh. Imagine that.”
“Sam,” Morgan chided gently.
I sighed. “Fine. Yes, he offered to help, and yes, I told him to fuck off—don’t give me that look, I didn’t say it like that. But dude, he totally wanted up on my junk. But not like Kevin wants on my junk, but like, different on my junk. It was no less rapey, but—”
“Sam.”
“Right. Basically, he knew about the marks Myrin gave me without ever seeing them, essentially implied that Randall failed him by taking a cornerstone, said that the both of you were weak for not stopping Myrin when you had the chance, that cornerstones were a lie, and that if I wanted his help, I would have to agree to cut off all contact with everyone I know and go with him for a year to what I assume wouldn’t be a five-star hotel, and he would complete my training, make me a full-fledged wizard without having to pass the Trials, and only then would he agree to join the rest of us in fighting against the Dark wizards.”
Randall gaped at me.
“Did I cover everything?” I asked Morgan.
“I think you did.”
“He is the world’s biggest asshole,” Randall snarled.
“Told you,” I muttered.
“Who the hell does he think he is!”
“Oh, I don’t know. The Great White, your former mentor, the oldest living thing in the world, the final piece of the five-dragon puzzle—and speaking of that, do we really need five dragons? I mean, that just seems excessive. Doesn’t that seem excessive?”
Randall ignored me. “I am going to murder him. Mark my words, I will find him, and I will tear his wings off.”
“Wow,” I whispered. “That was dark. You’re dark.”
Randall whirled on me. “Don’t you dare go after Myrin. Not now. Not yet.”
“Uh. I’m. Not? I don’t even know where he is. And it’s not like I’d go looking for him. I don’t even have a plan yet. I don’t go into things without having a—okay, I totally do, but I’m not going to do that here.”
“What are you going to do?” Morgan asked, sounding alarmed for the first time since Randall had dragged me into the labs.
“I am going to find the Great White and give him a piece of my mind,” Randall snapped. “It’s high time he and I have a conversation.”
I frowned. “But you can’t actually talk to him like I can—right, right, now is not the time to bring that up, you can stop staring at me like that.”
“A cornerstone is everything, Sam of Wilds,” Randall said. “Above all else, you must remember that. Without it, you could fall into darkness.”
“But you and Morgan didn’t,” I said without meaning to.
“What was that?” Randall asked, taking a step toward me.
“Uh. Never mind.”
“Sam,” Morgan said. “Did… did the Great White tell you more than what you’ve already said?”
Have you ever been standing in a lab wearing only pink underwear and socks with bunnies on them while two of the most powerful wizards in all the world stared at you?
Me too.
“Shit,” I squeaked. “Look at the time. I think I’ll just head on back to bed—”
Morgan waved his hand, the door slamming shut before I could get through.
“Sweet molasses,” I sighed.
“Speak,” Randall said.
“I’m not a dog.”
“Sam.”
“Gods, you guys suck. Fine. He said—he said that cornerstones were a lie, that their importance was exaggerated, and that you two survived the loss of yours and didn’t become Dark, so why would I? I mean, there’s no way in hell that I’m going to give up Ryan. Ever. But… he had a point, right? I mean, Morgan, I get why you didn’t. From what you’ve told me, you lived a long and happy life with yours. But… Randall. You… spent so long constructing your magic only to have Myrin—” I shook my head. “I just don’t understand how you didn’t turn Dark.”
“I did.”
I took a step back. “What?”
Morgan sighed and looked away.
Randall bowed his head, shoulders drooping, hair hanging around his face. His liver-spotted hands curled into gnarled fists. He looked ancient. “After Myrin was—after he made the decisions that he did, I was… adrift. There were forces at work upon me that I couldn’t control.” He smiled ruefully, a sharp and brittle thing. “And then I took it upon myself to bring the King of Sorrows back from his madness and… well. It— I shouldn’t have.”
“At least not on your own,” Morgan said sharply.
“Yes. At least not on my own. But I was angry. So very angry, and I thought that I could control it. I was wrong.” He shook his head. “I felt the darkness within me, and I knew that I was on a dangerous path. It took years, and I did my best to mentor Morgan. He succeeded in passing the Trials, though it was more his doing than anything I did. Even still, it became too much, and I banished myself to the North and Castle Freesias to regain control. Those were dark days in which I was convinced I could do the most terrible things with the greatest of ease.”